Once the Rebbe Maharash found his sons the Rashab and the Razah learning the Gemara that discusses the laws of Jewish and non-Jewish maidservants. The Rebbe Maharash verbally reviewed the whole portion in detail. He concluded by saying that he had last learned these Gemara 20 years earlier. He added that it contains a very important lesson. “It is a wonder that a simple non-Jewish maid was able to debate Jewish law with the Jewish sages who constantly studied Torah. But when circumstances effect a person to the core, even a simple person can reveal deep wisdom.”
Concerning this story, our Rebbe quotes the Gemara Avoda Zorah, in which Moshe Rabbeinu criticized the Jews [in the plains of Moab]. He reminded them that 40 years earlier at the Giving of the Torah, Hashem asked “Who should teach it to you?” The Jews should have answered, “You, Hashem.” But instead, they answered they wanted to hear it from Moshe.
Moshe didn’t recognize the mistake they made until forty years later, but he still criticized them. Tosfos asks, “Why was Moshe upset with the Jews? At the time, even he didn’t recognize their mistake! Tosfos explains that Moshe didn’t need to ask Hashem for help fighting the evil inclination. The Torah had touched his essence. Moshe was one with it. Therefore, it did not occur to him that the People of Israel should have demanded that Hashem teach them the Torah. However, the sins of the Golden Calf and the Spies prove that Jews had not attained Moshe’s level.
Nevertheless, it took Moshe four decades of study to realize that when the Torah was given, Hashem wanted the Jews to pray for divine help in defeating the evil impulse and becoming one with the Torah. Had they done so, they would have avoided wandering for 40 years.
The lesson is that when something touches a person’s essence, he reaches the level of knowledge he would reach 40 years later if it had not touched his essence.
The proof is that Moshe complained that they had not asked for Divine help 40 years earlier. If they couldn’t have gained the knowledge immediately, why would Moshe bring it up 40 years later?
The take-away is that, like the non-Jewish maidservant whose predicament affected her so deeply that she was able to debate Jewish law with the Torah sages; so too, when a person is essentially and truly committed to serve Hashem, the essence of his intellect is revealed and he reaches the level of his Rebbe’s knowledge immediately. [5727 yud base tamuz]
