Zachary Truboff
This article originally appeared in Hebrew in Zerufim Hadashim and is published here with permission. English translation by the author.
I must admit that I am not interested in learning from most rabbis in times of crisis. Having been a synagogue rabbi for many years, I know from experience that cheap slogans are common in difficult times, but there is often little Torah of substance to be found. Because of this, I tend to want to learn from those willing to look at the world with open eyes, even when it feels as if the pain is greater than one can bear. For that reason, since the beginning of this war, I have turned repeatedly to the writings of the Piaseczner Rebbe, R. Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto, who refused to offer his followers cheap slogans even in the most difficult moments. Instead, he always strove to say something true, because he knew we have no Torah but a Torat Emet (a Torah of truth).
In his sermon for Parashat Noah in 1941, the Piaseczner makes some profound points about the nature of the Jewish people. He opens with a quote from Rashi about the difference between Noah and Abraham. The Torah describes that “Noah walked with God” (Bereishit 6:9), but when Abraham describes his relationship to God, he says “God, before whom I walk” (Bereishit 24:40). According to Rashi, Noah walks with God whereas Abraham walks on his own because “Noah required assistance and to be supported, but Abraham walked and was strengthened by his own righteousness.”[1]
Most of the time, when we discuss the difference between Noah and Abraham, we emphasize the framing that Abraham was more righteous in that, if Noah had been born in Abraham’s generation, he would not have been considered as upright by comparison.[2] Abraham argued with God to save even the sinful Sodom and Gomorrah, while Noah remained silent when God told him the entire world would be destroyed.[3] However, here, Rashi emphasizes something else that separates the two. While Noah needed help from God to survive the flood, Abraham walked on his own. God gave Noah precise instructions on how to build the ark to save his family, whereas Abraham received little guidance from God. God did not hold his hand, so to speak. Rather, Abraham walked on his own, by his own strength. He was independent. While the whole world did one thing, Abraham had the ability to do another – to act differently. Noah was righteous, and we are all his descendants. But as Jews, we only call Abraham “our father,” because we are required to be like Abraham and not Noah. We must be like the one “who walked and was strengthened by his own righteousness.”
How exactly does a Jew do this? For many, the answer is simple: if you want to go it alone, you must be strong, perhaps the strongest there is, so that no one dares to hurt you. But this was not the approach Jews took because, for most of their history, the Jews were not strong, certainly not like other nations. Strength alone does not make us like Abraham, and who understood this more than the Piaseczner Rebbe, who lived in the Warsaw Ghetto?
For the Rebbe, the greatness of the Jewish people, what makes us like our father Abraham–a people that walks and is strengthened by its own righteousness–is also the cause of our failures: we are a stiff-necked people.
The Piaseczner Rebbe explains that this expression is of profound importance in grasping the uniqueness of the Jewish people, and he explores its meaning by examining the debate between God and Moses after the sin of the Golden Calf. At the time, God wanted to destroy the Jews, but Moses managed to convince God to forego His anger. Even so, God tells Moses that there will be consequences and that in the aftermath of the Golden Calf, God’s presence will not dwell among the Jews. Instead, God will send an angel to be with them. The reason for this decision is clear. He says to Moses: “I will not come up among you because you are a stiff-necked people” (Shemot 33:3). In showing their stubborn attachment to idolatry, the Jews have shown that they are a stiff-necked people in the worst possible way, and are not ready to fully commit to God’s covenant. Therefore, they will only receive God’s emissary, rather than receive God.
In response, Moses attempts to defend the Jewish people in a surprising manner. He implores that God should forgive the Jews and dwell among them because they are a stiff-necked people. He says, “Please, God, go among us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and forgive our iniquity and sin and take us as Your own” (Shemot 34:9).
This, of course, makes no sense, for how can the cause of the sin also be the reason God should forgive them for it?
The Piaseczner Rebbe explains Moses’ reasoning as follows:
Being stiff-necked is one of the most positive of attributes. One who is not stiff-necked flips back and forth. One time, they hold like this, and another, they hold differently. It is not possible to come to a final decision with them. Now, they may want to serve God, but at a later time, they can be a different person. Especially when they are put to the test, they may not be able to endure, God forbid. This is not the case for one who is stiff-necked. This person is straight when you speak with and work on them. When they decide to serve God, you can trust they will do it. In fact, the more one is stiff-necked, the better one will be able to withstand difficulty. Being a stiff-necked people is [only a] terrible thing when the attribute is used for evil, and one becomes stubborn about evil matters.[4]
To be stiff-necked is to be stubborn, but it also means that one never fails to commit and dedicate oneself fully to something. Those who are stiff-necked fulfill their commitments even as it may seem impossible to others. When the pressure increases, you can trust a stiff-necked person to do what they are supposed to do.
According to the Rebbe, a person who is not stiff-necked is like a leaf blowing in the wind. They say they will do something today, but what will be the case tomorrow? Today, they say they will be there for you, but what will happen if it becomes inconvenient to them? Moses’ argument to God was as follows: ‘Yes, the Jews are a stiff-necked people. They stubbornly cling to idolatry. But Lord, You should know that when they fully commit to You, they will never abandon You. Their commitment to the berit will be absolute. No matter how much they suffer, their stubbornness means they will never give up their love for You.’
The moments when we most clearly recognize those who are stiff-necked is in a time of crisis, and to show this, the Piaseczner Rebbe brings a fascinating aggadah from the Talmud (Sanhedrin 104b). It is the story of two Jews kidnapped by a non-Jew on Mount Carmel. The kidnapper instructed his captives to walk in front of him on the road as they moved, and as one of the Jews looked ahead in the distance, he was able to discern a camel walking ahead of them. He then remarked to his fellow Jew:
One of the captives said to the other: The camel that is walking ahead of us is blind in one of its eyes and laden with two wineskins, one filled with wine and one filled with oil. And two people are driving the camel, one a Jew and one a gentile. The captor said to them: Stiff-necked people, from where do you know these matters that you cannot see?
They said to him: We know that the camel is blind from the grass that is before it, as from the grass on the side that it sees, it eats, and from the grass on the side that it does not see, it does not eat, i.e., it eats grass from only one side. And we know that it is laden with two wineskins, one filled with wine and one filled with oil, as wine drips and sinks into the ground and oil drips and floats on the surface, and we see the difference on the ground. And we know that two people are driving the camel, one a Jew and one a gentile, as the gentile defecates on the road and the Jew, in the interests of modesty, goes to the sides of the road to defecate.
The captor pursued the camel and its drivers to determine whether the statements of the captives were accurate, and found that the reality was in accordance with their statements. He came and respectfully kissed them on their head, and brought them to their house and prepared a great feast for them. And he was dancing before them and said: Blessed is He who chose the descendants of Abraham and granted of His wisdom to them, and in every place that they go they become princes to their lords. And he released them and they went to their houses in peace.[5]
There are many interesting details in this story, especially at a time when Jewish captives are constantly on our minds. What is significant for the Piaseczner Rebbe is that after the Jewish prisoners describe the camel far ahead of them, the kidnapper refers to them as a “stiff-necked people.” What could possibly be the meaning of this phrase in this particular context? The Piaseczner Rebbe explains that to be held captive is to experience unimaginable fear and suffering. In the Rebbe’s words, it “diminishes one’s wisdom.” In such a situation, it is nearly impossible to think clearly; the anxiety can completely overwhelm a person. So why does the kidnapper call the Jews stiff-necked? Because, despite being in an unimaginable situation, they insist on believing they can still be smart and discerning about the world around them. Pain, suffering, and fear take so much away from us that it can feel as if we have lost ourselves. To be stiff-necked is to be stubborn enough to remain who we are and to do what others think is impossible.
To be stiff-necked means running toward the terrorists when you hear that lives are in danger, even if it means risking your life. It means staying in a shelter for twelve hours with small children, doing everything you can to calm them down as murderers wait outside. It means visiting funeral after funeral and shivah after shivah because a Jew never mourns alone. We have heard many stories about how the Jews were a stiff-necked people on October 7 and the days that followed, and I am sure there are many more that have yet to be told.
For the Piaseczner Rebbe, the fact that the Jews are a stiff-necked people makes them even greater than the angels. Why is this? He explains that angels cannot immediately return to heaven after descending to the world. This is because the world affects them. It changes them. Before they return to heaven to worship and serve God, they must prepare and cleanse themselves of the impurities they encountered here. But the Jews are different. The world presses in on us and tests us, but even in times of pain and suffering, we continue to serve God, we continue to pray, and we continue to do mitzvot. Even in the Warsaw Ghetto, and even in Nahal Oz, Kefar Azah, Be’eri, and all the communities that were attacked on the terrible day of October 7.
As the Piaseczner Rebbe wrote:
[Jews] have the unique ability not to change due to the world. They withstand all the challenges that they face, and not only this but they are even able to make the divine presence dwell in this world. The attribute of being stiff-necked [is divine and] draws directly from the attribute of [God as expressed in the verse] “I, God, do not change” (Malachi 3:6), which is a level above the angels.[6]
If the Jews are in some way able to be God’s representatives in the world, it is because they do not change, and they do not submit, as God says about Himself, “I, God, do not change.” The world constantly changes, nothing ever remains the same, but somehow, after everything, the Jews are still here. The meaning of this holds great importance. Since the beginning of the war, I have frequently heard the slogan “Together We Will Be Victorious” (yahad ne-natzeah). Everyone knows that our enemies cannot be defeated if we are divided, but we have to understand that unity in a moment such as this is not something unique to the Jews. Every nation becomes unified in times of war, for when a nation is threatened, people always rally around the flag. What we must remember is that the Jews are not meant to be like all other nations, and therefore, our victory is different from theirs. It comes not from an impulse for unity, but rather from being a stiff-necked people.
We are a people chosen by the God who says, “I, God, do not change,” and as the verse concludes, “You, the children of Jacob, will not come to an end.” We call ourselves am ha-netzah, the everlasting people, not because we are stronger than other nations, for historically, we do not defeat our enemies with a gun or a fist or on the battlefield. We defeat them because we find a way to remain even when others think this cannot be done. The Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Romans are no longer here. The Jews remain. Why? Because we are a stiff-necked people, the children of Abraham. And even if the entire world stands on one side, Abraham and his children will find a way to remain on the other.[7]
As Rashi explained, “’Noah required assistance and to be supported, but Abraham walked and was strengthened by his own righteousness.”
[1] Rashi to Bereishit 6:9, s.v. “et ha-Elokim hithalekh Noah” (my translation).
[2] See Rashi to Bereishit 6:9, s.v. “be-dorotav.”
[3] See R. Yehuda Amital’s discussion of this distinction.
[4] Eish Kodesh 5701, Noah (my translation).
[5] Translation from Koren-Steinsaltz.
[7] See Bereishit Rabbah 42:8.
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