Yevamot 7

In its pursuit of finding proof that a positive commandment (מצות עשה) can override a negative commandment (מצות לא תעשה) carrying the punishment of karet (i.e. proof for the halachic mechanics of the mitzvah of yibum), today’s daf (Yevamot 7a) invokes one of the thirteen principles taught by R’ Yishmael that, כל דבר שהיה בכלל ויצא מן הכלל ללמד לא ללמד על עצמו יצא אלא ללמד על הכלל כלו יצא – ‘anything that was included in a general statement, but was then singled out from the general statement in order to teach something, was not singled out to teach only about itself, but rather to apply its teaching to the entire generality.’

For most of us, this rule is just a technical principle of Biblical exegesis. However, some years ago I read a lovely story in R’ Pesach Krohn’s ‘In the Footsteps of the Maggid’ (pp. 255-256) offering a very different and very powerful explanation of these words:
‘In the city of Ashdod stands a yeshiva elementary school for boys. It is housed in a beautiful building which, in large part, was donated by a baal tzedakah (philanthropist) from Mexico R’ Henoch Abramczyk (nb. this is not his real name).

It took quite a while to complete this building, and when it was finally finished a chanukat habayit (dedication ceremony) was held on a grand scale.

At the chanukat habayit, numerous speeches were given by prominent Roshei Yeshiva, mechanchim (Torah educators) and local political figures. However, it was the words of R’ Henoch, the Mexican baal tzedakah, that everyone was eager to hear. People wondered why did he donate such an astronomical sum? What even in his life inspired him to sponsor the building for this yeshivah?

What R’ Henoch said not only conveyed his humility and love for Klal Yisrael, but also portrayed his ingenuity in the way he understood a maamar Chazal, a Talmudic teaching.

After delivering some introductory remarks, R’ Henoch related how he, along with his parents, brothers and sisters, were taken by the Nazis from their home in Poland to concentration camps. Over the next few years, under the ruthless and bestial rule of the Nazis, everyone in his family was murdered – except him.

After the war he came to the United States and then went on to Mexico to rebuild his shattered life.

R’ Henoch explained that it always plagued him that he, of all his family members, was the sole survivor. The faces of his parents and siblings were always in his mind. They were gone and he was alive. He had been spared – but why?

R’ Henoch revealed that gradually a thought dawned on him and then crystallized in his mind, inspired by a Talmudic phrase that we recite every day at the conclusion of the Korbanot during the Shacharit service.

The eighth rule in the beraita of R’ Yishmael is כל דבר שהיה בכלל ויצא מן הכלל ללמד לא ללמד על עצמו יצא אלא ללמד על הכלל כלו יצא – ‘anything that was included in a general statement, but was then singled out from the general statement in order to teach something, was not singled out to teach only about itself, but rather to apply its teaching to the entire generality.’

“If I was a member of the group,” said R’ Henoch, “but then the Ribbono Shel Olam singled me out from among the group, He didn’t do it only for my benefit. He did it for the sake of the larger entity. That entity is the entire Klal Yisrael, and there can be no more beneficial institution for Klal Yisrael than a yeshivah for children, because teaching the children ensures our continuity. It is for this reason that I sponsored the building of this yeshivah in the Holy Land of Israel.”’

Reflecting on R’ Henoch’s explanation of this principle, though many of us in this generation have not had to contend with the kind of trauma he experienced, there are times when each of us are given unique opportunities – which then lead us to consider why we have been given that particular chance or opportunity. And the answer that we learn from R’ Henoch is that when we find ourselves singled out, we should recognise that we’ve been put in that place not only for us, but for others too.