We begin by listening to the language of a possuk in this week’s sedrah. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is speaking about the sanctification of the firstborn of the Bnei Yisroel and He says as follows: ִי לִי כָלּ כִיַּ שְׁתְּאֶרֶ ץ מִצְרַיִם הִקְדְּכוֹר בֹּתִי כָל בְּיוֹם הַכִּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל... בְּכוֹר בָּאֹתָם לִי – All the firstborn in the Am Yisroel belong to Me, on the day that I smote every firstborn in Egypt, I made them holy to Me (Numbers 8:17).
Now, we have to try and understand that because it seems a strange thing. What’s the connection? ‘On that day when He struck the firstborn of Egypt, the firstborn of the Jews were made holy to serve Hashem.’ What does one have to do with the other?
If it’s a sevara, a logical teaching, that the firstborn of our people should be servants of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, we understand that. The firstborn son inherits the responsibilities of the family and so we expect him to be the leader in the family. And what is the most important function of a family? To encourage each other in avodas Hashem. So the bechor belongs to Hashem in a certain sense. We understand that.
That Could Have Been Us
But here it says something else; it says that ‘because I struck the firstborn of Egypt, that’s why I expect your firstborn to be My servants.’ The bechor Yisroel who saw the trouble coming on the bechor Mitzri was expected to become better because of that. He couldn’t flippantly dismiss the catastrophe he saw; instead Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted him to use that sight to become full of gratitude that it didn’t happen to him and increase his service of Hashem just because of that.
The Torah is teaching us here that when trouble comes upon others, we shouldn’t imagine that the trouble couldn’t have come upon us. Those who were spared should always think, “If not for the kindness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that could have been me.” A wise man once said – he doesn’t deserve his name to be mentioned in this place but his words we could repeat: ‘But for the grace of G-d, there go I.’
