I and He
Now, while this explanation of “This is my G-d and I will beautify Him” is true and it’s the poshut pshat, we’re going to listen now to what Abba Shaul says about this. Abba Shaul, you have to know, was an expert in explaining the words of the Torah and he comes along and gives a twist to these words.
Abba Shaul says, what does v’anveihu mean? And he explains like this: can be read – “I and He.” It’s like a play on words: “I and He”; it means, “I am going to be like Him.”
And he gives an example there just so we should understand what he’s saying: – Be similar to Him in His middos; Just as He is Gracious and Merciful, so you also should be gracious and merciful. Chanun comes from the word chein or chinam; both are the same word. Hakadosh Baruch Hu does for nothing. Even if you don't deserve it, Hakadosh Baruch Hu does things for you just because you have chein in His eyes; for chinam. So just as He does that, , I’m going to imitate Him. That’s the oath; Anveihu – Ani v’Hu.
When Drush is Pshat
Now, we have to explain what Abba Shaul is doing here because most people, when they learn this Gemara they take it to mean that it’s not the real pshat; it’s not the real meaning of the words. They think the pshat says one thing, that you have to glorify Hashem, and along comes Abba Shaul with a drash. He’s going away from the plain meaning and he’s forcing an entirely different idea into the words: Anveihu, Ani v’Hu – “I’ll make myself like Him.”
But you have to know a general principle about the words of Chazal. In most cases their drash is actually the omek hapshat, a deeper look into the poshut pshat. And so if you analyze the plain meaning more deeply, you’ll see that it includes what Abba Shaul is telling us. He’s not forsaking the first meaning of ‘aggrandizing Hashem’; only he’s giving an insight, a more delicate insight, into the original meaning.
Imitation is Flattery
Now, we have to understand how that is so and so we’ll explain it as follows. You know, it’s a fact of human nature that when you look up to somebody, when you admire somebody, you tend to imitate that person. Don’t we see in everyday society that the poor try to ape the rich? They do whatever they can to resemble the ones they admire.
If a movie star combs his hair one way, so on the street you’ll see a hundred boys with the same hairstyle. If he wears a certain pair of pants, a certain style, so all the boys become apes; they want those same pants.
What’s that about? The plain meaning of that is that anybody who looks up to a model, he emulates that model. And so people who are dumb enough to go to movies so they look up to these movie stars and try to imitate them. They’ll dress like them, comb their hair like them, speak like them. That’s the nature of man; he’ll imitate what he admires.
Jewish Shirleys
Sometimes they’ll even name their children after them. That’s why fifty years ago all Jewish girls in America were named Shirley. I’m sitting by my window and all day long I hear on the street, “Shirley”, “Shirley”, “Shirley”. It looks like everybody is named Shirley.
At that time there was an actress called Shirley – I don’t want to say her last name; it’s too much honor for her – and so, all over the country women came home from the theater and told their husbands that when they have their baby girl they’re going to take to themselves the great honor of giving their daughter the name of that actress. It doesn’t mean they particularly liked the name Shirley but they were so infatuated with Shirley, they wanted their children to be just like her. Mah she’s a Shirley, af ani want to have a Shirley in my home.
Even if you walk into some synagogues, you’re surprised because the rabbi looks like a film actor. Because that’s his ideal; he dresses and looks like an actor because that’s the rabbi’s ideal. Inwardly that rabbi has more sympathy with a boxer or a radio announcer or a movie star than he has for the gedolei Yisroel. This is not a joke because that’s where his soul is. His heart, his admiration, is in the gentile camp.
Lubavitcher Brims
Now, lehavdil, people who aren’t so dumb, so they emulate better people. You see all the Lubavitchers wear their brim turned down. You see that, no? Why is that so? Because the Rebbe has a brim turned down. Their rebbe wears a hat with the brim down in front so all the chassidim have the same fashion.
Not only Lubavitch. All chassidim try to look like their rebbe; everywhere. That’s one of the great things you find by the chassidim. Every chossid tries to look like a talmid chacham and a rebbe. That’s why when the movement of chassidus began, all the chassidim when they dressed up, they looked like their rebbes. It wasn’t merely a matter of pretending to be what they weren’t – it was because they looked up to the rebbe. It’s a compliment to their rebbe. If you love your rebbe, you want to look like him.
Satmerer Truckdrivers
Here’s a man driving a big J&J truck and he’s delivering milk to the stores. He’s not a lamdan, he’s not a big tzaddik. He comes out of the truck and I see he looks like a chassidishe rebbe. You see that all the time. What’s that about? A chassidishe rebbe driving a truck? No; it’s not a rebbe who is a truck driver. It’s a truck driver who’s trying to be a rebbe because that’s his ideal; that’s who he looks up to.
And that’s the biggest compliment you can give someone. If you’ll find somebody who is emulating you; he’s dressing like you and adopting your mannerisms, you must realize that that’s a very big compliment. The fact that someone considers your ways worthy of imitation is a demonstration that he admires you. In fact, it’s the biggest compliment you can give someone. When people emulate you, it’s because they admire you. They’re making you great.
Nation of Copycats
And so, along comes Abba Shaul and he tells us, “You want to aggrandize Hashem? You want to fulfill your promise of v’anveihu, of making Him beautiful and great? The best way is ani v’Hu! I’m going to be like Him. If you want to glorify Hashem, if you want to make Him more beautiful, then demonstrate that you like His ways and practice them in your own lives; because there is no compliment as great as the compliment of imitating somebody.
That, says Abba Shaul, is the plain pshat of v’anveihu. It still means “I’m going to beautify Him.” But how will I do it? How am I going to glorify Him? I’ll sing His praises? Of course. I’ll come to shul on time and say pesukei dezimra? Absolutely. I’ll talk to my family about His greatness? No question about it.
But there’s one thing that is above and beyond. Ani v’Hu – I’ll try to be like Him. If you want to really glorify Hashem then you’ll demonstrate it by imitating His ways and practicing them in your own life. That’s worth more than all the words in the world. By trying to be like He is, by imitating Him in all of His middos, all the qualities of character which describe Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the Torah, that’s how I’ll make Him most great, most beautiful.
Emulating Baboons
And the Jewish nation did that! Josephus testifies to that. Josephus, you should know, was not a darshan – he wasn’t a very frum Jew either – but he had the good sense to understand this principle. “We have a G-d that’s perfect,” he writes, “and therefore our nation follows His attitudes.”
He’s speaking there about the nations of the world and he says that gods of the nations have all the vices and the worshippers adopted those vices. “The Egyptians worshiped the baboon,” he said, “and so all people in Egypt emulate the baboon. A baboon is jumping up and down in a cage and the people come and bow down; soon they begin acting like baboons.” You became like your god; it’s human nature.
He speaks there about the gods of the Greeks too. It’s a waste of time but I can tell you about Greek mythology. The gods were jealous of each other and took away each other’s wives. One of them had a male concubine, a harem of concubines. And so these gods that the Greeks worshiped, they became the model for Greek people. After all, they admired their gods and so it’s natural that they began adopting their mannerisms. So you understand already what happens when the gentiles imitate their gods.
Promises Made, Promises Kept
But the Am Yisroel, says Josephus, they have the perfect G-d, the G-d with all the exceptional qualities, the most perfect of qualities. And because they were a nation that wanted to fulfill the oath they made – even though it’s not easy; emulating perfection can’t be easy; it’s not as easy as being like a baboon or a god with a harem – but they were a nation that always tried emulate to Hashem in order to glorify Him. We’re going to make ourselves as perfect as possible because that’s how we’ll fulfill what we promised: You’re so elevated in our eyes that our biggest desire is to be like You!
Now, you have to understand what it means that Josephus made that statement. It’s a remarkable thing for a politician to say. But he said it because he’s saying what was well known and famous among the Jewish people. It was an ideal: He’s the most Perfect Being and I want as much as possible to be like Him.
Old Jews, Old News
Unfortunately, a lot of Jews today, even frum Jews, never heard of this. They know about good character, about tikkun hamiddos, but they don’t understand how important it is. But the old time Jew knew that it was an ideal to study the Ways of Hashem and try to imitate Him because that’s the best way to make Him great.
