We find in this week’s Parsha, that Moshe Rabbeinu, residing in the palace of Pharoah, “...went out to his brothers and saw their burdens.” (Shemos 2:11)
The Seforno explains the words of the verse in the following manner: “And he saw their burdens - He set his eyes and his heart to be distressed over them."
Within the words of the Seforno lies a deep and powerful lesson.
However, before we explore that lesson let us discuss two different levels of Emes. The first level, is to make sure to always speak the truth. Then there is a deeper level of Emes called, “Dover Emes Bilvavo” – speaking truth in one’s heart. Many of us are familiar with the understanding of this level of truth as someone who keeps the commitments that were made in his thoughts, even if his commitments were not verbalized. However, some Mefarshim (commentators) go beyond this interpretation and explain the following. A Dover Emes Bilvavo, is someone that is able to evaluate a situation and if he senses injustice, it bothers him in his heart, and he feels compelled to take action.
In order to attain this level, one cannot just observe a situation from afar, but must fully engage with it emotionally and intellectually. And that is what Moshe did, as the the Seforno says, “He set his eyes and his heart...” He became deeply engaged and invested with the plight of his brothers and attained this level of Emes. Having attained this level, he felt compelled to take action and the very next verse tells us that he killed an Egyptian who was hitting a Jew.
It should be noted that for Moshe to achieve this level, he needed to leave the comforts of the palace of Pharoah to see, experience and feel how his brothers were being treated. This helps us understand why the Torah specifically mentions that Moshe "went out to his brothers" before seeing their burdens. Moshe had to leave the comforts of the palace and deliberately put himself in a position where he was going to be able to see and feel the injustices that his brothers were enduring.
The emphasis on "going out" also carries another contemporary message for us. Many of us may need to deliberately "go out" from our comfortable spaces - both physically and psychologically - to truly see and engage with others around us in order to perceive injustice and take action.
