The pasuk [verse] teaches, And G-d Blessed them and said to them Be fruitful and multiply, fill the world, and conquer it [Bereshis 1:28]. This is the Mitzvah to have children, to populate the world. I saw an interpretation, perhaps homiletic, of the word Kivshua - and conquer it - from Rav Yosef Salant in his Beer Yosef. Rav Yosef Salant points out that we find the root of this word, KiVSHua, in a different context. The Talmud says [Berochos 10a] that King Chizkiyah did not want to have more children. He grew very ill, and the prophet came and told him You will die in this world, and will not live in the world to come [Isaiah 38:1]. Isaiah chastised Chizkiyahu and asked why he did not want to have more children. The King responded that it was not because he felt that children are a burden; rather he saw prophetically that his descendants would be genuinely wicked. He wished to have no part in bringing such descendants into the world. That is why he stopped having children. The Talmud says that the prophet told King Chizkiyah, What business of yours is it to go into the Hidden matters (KaVSHi) of G-d? You must do what you are told. Stop making calculations based on the world of that which is hidden (KiVuSHim). The truth of the matter is that there is an historical precedent to this philosophy of not having children. It did not start with Chizkiyahu. Our Sages tell us that Amram the Levite left his wife, because he didnt want to bring children into the world to be thrown into the Nile by Pharaoh. His daughter Miriam had to tell him that this was not the proper practice and that he should return to his wife - who then gave birth to Moshe, who led the Jewish people out of Egypt. Amram again thought, Why bring children into the world? However, such issues are the Kavshi dRachmana (the Hidden Domain of G-d) which we have no right to enter. This, says the Beer Yosef, is the meaning of the words in our Parsha -- Be fruitful and multiply, fill the world, vKiVSHuha. Dont try to enter the secret world. You do what you have to do! The Medrash says in the name of Rav Berachya, that this issue also bothered G-d when He created Man. G-d knew that He was creating righteous people but that He was also creating people from whom wicked people would descend. G-d said, I will hide my face from them. It is as if G-d is saying, I will create man and I wont look (at the future) -- whatever will be, will be. Just as G-d created human beings and gave them the gift of free choice, knowing that it would not always turn out that people would be righteous, so too mankind has to emulate this practice as well. In the domain of being fruitful and multiplying, we can not always make calculations -- Is this the right time? Is this the right place? We have to do what we are told to do. We see people today, in our generation, who were born in Shanghai while their parents were running away from Hitler [May his name be blotted out]. They were trapped in China. They did not know where their next meal would come from. Their past was destroyed, their future uncertain. But a Jew goes on and brings the next generation into the world. Dont go into the world of the Hidden (Kivshu-ha); a person must do that which is incumbent upon him or her. The job of a Jew is to keep the commandments without calculations. G-d says, Do it! That makes it right
Posted on: Thu, 08 May 2014 18:00:02 +0000
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