We have always been taught that everything that was created and even invented or discovered is for Klal Yisroel (see, for instance, Vayikra Rabbah, Bechukosai 36). However, when the Chofetz Chaim (see end of his Sefer Sheim Olam) was told that a machine had been invented that showed a video of our actions, he began to cry. His “benefactors” were aghast. “But rebbe,” they protested, “now what the Mishnah (this week’s perek, Avos 2:1) declared has been proven and can be imagined more clearly: ‘Know what is above you — a watchful Eye, an attentive Ear and all your deeds are recorded in a Book.’” The great tzaddik answered, “I am crying because I am an old man. I can remember when every Yid who learned this Mishnah believed these words with a full heart. Today, we require a human invention to prove it to us. Look how low we have fallen.”
Although the Chofetz Chaim’s words ring painfully true, we must also marvel at how Hashem sends us new technology when we need it. We know that “Hashem has made the one as well as the other” (Koheles 7:14). This means, amongst other things, that whatever Hashem makes or allows to be discovered is a two-edged sword. It all depends upon how we choose to use something. Nuclear energy can be a boon to mankind or can be used to annihilate all that exists. We can download wonderful Torah on the internet, but it can also destroy families in an instant and lead formerly decent people far from where they should be.
Looking more deeply, the words “Know what is above you” are a poignant reminder of the Chofetz Chaim’s teachings about how low we have fallen from our earlier greatness. The Hafla’ah (introduction, Pischa Ze’ira 7) explains this as referring to “the days when the prophets were able to see all. At Sinai, we all heard the incredible sounds, and even in the times of the Gemara, they still heard sounds from heaven (bas kol). After that, everything was written down, even what was once limited to the spoken word (baal peh).” The Maggid of Kozhnitz (Keser Yehudah, page 48) delineated this even more specifically by historical era: “The ‘eye that sees’ refers to the era of the first Bais Hamikdosh, when the Urim Vetumim showed the truth clearly and irrefutably. This defined the moment of Kabbolas HaTorah too, with the bas kol, but eventually all was simply written down and available for study.”
Speaking of the Chofetz Chaim, he used to tell businessmen in the name of Rav Itzele of Volozhin that “the answer to any question in commerce could be found in the Torah, if one only has the right eyes to see” (Rav Y.Y. Yasher, HaChofetz Chaim Upe’olov, page 310). Perhaps this was the source for the Chofetz Chaim’s tears when shown his first video. He understood very well that this was another sign of the downsizing of mankind and even Klal Yisroel. To the eminent Mishnah Berurah, “there is nothing that is not hidden in the Torah” (Taanis 9a) was a statement about the practical and accessible Torah as a tool in daily life.
The Chasam Sofer (Drashos for Sukkos, page 52) adds that Dovid Hamelech reveals in Tehillim (119:24) that “Your testimonies are my preoccupation, they are my counselors.” He explains this to mean that throughout the ages, our “counselors,” meaning the sages of Klal Yisroel, were able to look into the Torah for answers to any question. He shows from Chazal (Chulin 95b) that this is what the Gemara means when the Amora Shmuel deduced an answer from a Sefer Torah. Furthermore, when the Torah (Devorim 17:19) says that the king must “study the Sefer Torah all the days of his life,” it actually means that “in it and from it he can discern and understand whatever happens in his life.”
The Chasam Sofer (Drashos for Sukkos, page 52) takes all this an important step further. Dovid Hamelech uses the term shaashu’ai, which actually refers to one who is learning Torah in depth, with great pleasure and absorption. Even if he is not searching for any answers or solutions to problems, he will discover them through his learning anyway. Such is the profound fount of wisdom that is the Torah that it automatically grants its followers the wisdom and sagacity they require. The Bnei Yissoschor (month of Sivan 5:11) sees this concept in the Medrash on Mishlei which promises, “If you wish, you may find advice on any subject in the teachings of the Torah.” Thus, although the generations have descended steadily downward over the millennia, we can still access the ultimate eternal wisdom of the Torah through our devotion to its study.
In case all of this seems somewhat esoteric and far from our spiritual levels, there is tremendous good news in Chazal and the Rishonim. Tosafos (Brachos 6a) quotes the Mishnah above and adds that, of course, it is not only our sins and mistakes that are divinely recorded, but “the measure of goodness (middah tovah) is always greater than that of punishment,” and therefore, every good thing we do is immediately recorded. Indeed, there is a well-known Medrash (Rus Rabbah 5:6) that enhances this statement many times over: “If Reuven had known that Hashem was going to write up his rescue of Yosef from the hands of his brothers, he would have brought him back on his shoulders to his father. If Aharon had known that Hashem was going to write up that he was going to greet Moshe (Shemos 4:14), he would have gone with a band and musical instruments. If Boaz had known that Hashem was going to write in the Torah that ‘he handed her parched grain and she ate and was satisfied’ (Rus 2:14), he would have fed her fattened calves.” The Medrash concludes that several Tannaim said in the name of Rav Levi, “In times long gone, when a person did a mitzvah, the novi would write it down. But today, who is writing down when a person performs a mitzvah? The answer is that Eliyahu Hanovi writes it down and the Melech HaMoshiach and Hashem Himself sign the document.”
The Chiddushei Harim (quoted in Sefer Ezer Shmuel, page 161) says that it cannot be that such giants as Reuven, Aharon and Boaz would have acted differently and better if they had known that their actions would have been publicized and advertised. It means that had they been aware that the actions that they thought of as being intuitive and simple were actually worthy of becoming part of the Torah, they would have each prepared themselves more assiduously to perform them with even more holiness and purity.
Thus, we see that although some of the venue has changed, everything is recorded. If I may inject a personal note, I have now been to the sites of the concentration camps several times. It is always moving, since between my parents, they suffered through at least nine of these purgatories on earth. However, each time I learn something new. On our last trip, for the first time, I explored large posters and billboards bearing the names of millions, although not all, of the victims of Churban Europa, the Holocaust. I read the names of my parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and other relatives. It was moving, shattering and strangely consoling. But it was suddenly clear to me that new abilities to travel, see and even touch my past had been miraculously made available to me. In fact, one of the Lelover Rebbes revealed that “just as the Torah records the travels of Klal Yisroel through the desert and beyond, so will be recorded all the travels and indeed travails of Klal Yisroel in her exiles, and this will become a sefer that will be studied in the World to Come” (Shmuos Yitzchok, Parshas Masei). Thank You, Hashem, for recording everything.
We now know that we are all authors. The book we are writing is our actions, for better or, G-d forbid, worse. When Rav Eliyahu Yehoshua Geldzahler told the Pnei Menachem that he was writing a sefer and was asking for a haskamah, the Gerrer Rebbe answered, “I, too, am writing a sefer. It is kol maasecha basefer nichtavim — the one mentioned in Pirkei Avos that we are all recording.”
I daresay that in an era when half of mankind seems to have a podcast or at least their fifteen minutes of fame, it has become all the more obvious that each member of Klal Yisroel has an opportunity and a mandate to write of great, wonderful and positive things in our lives. We don’t need a publisher. We have the best one of all. We don’t need an editor, for the Great Editor and Publisher sees all, hears everything and preserves every moment. Yes, it is frightening, but it is uplifting to know that we, too, can be in the company of Reuven, Aharon and Boaz, whose movements and actions were recorded for posterity.
May our personal videos be laden with mitzvos, good middos, sacrifice for others, and proudly shown for eternity on the most sublime screen of all.
