Like those of you who do shnayim mikrah, I got to a point in this parsha where I couldn't help but feeling overwhelmed. As you approach Az Yashir it begins to hit you that there is going to be a lot of Rashi to get through since he tends to write at length when explaining poetry.
On a similar note, in my English Lit class we have a lot of reading to do each week and a similar feeling of despair sets in at some point as I begin to count down the pages until I'm done with the assignments. It's kind of like that feeling that I'm sure most people feel when they enter YU and see all of the requirements they will have to take in the coming years.
So how to cope?
When I was in Yeshivat Sha'alvim I had the zchus of being in the rosh yeshiva's shiur. At one point in the year Rav Yaakovson shlit"a spoke to our shiur about a sefer he had received for his bar mitzvah called Chosen Yehoshua. This is basically a sefer that tries to address the standard concerns of a yeshiva bachur as he enters yeshiva. This issue of despair is one of the topics Rav Yaakovson spoke to us about. When a bachur enters into yeshiva and notices the vast number of seforim he is meant to conquer in his lifetime it is quite normal for him to be overwhelmed at the shear volume. The Rashis on Az Yashir are only a part of that huge mountain of literature. It towers high above the simple books assigned in Lit class and even above the monstrous course load of YU.
The Chosen Yehoshua gives a mashal of someone who is supposed to move a huge pile of dirt. He looks up at this great mountain in front of him and he immediately gives up. How does he finally conquer it? He realizes that if he just moves one bucket a day the mountain will slowly decrease and he will eventually be successful. One daf at a time, one siman at a time, one posuk at a time,...
Eventually the job will get done if you stop complaining about how unconquerable the territory is and instead just put your head down and tackle it one step at a time.
On a similar note, in my English Lit class we have a lot of reading to do each week and a similar feeling of despair sets in at some point as I begin to count down the pages until I'm done with the assignments. It's kind of like that feeling that I'm sure most people feel when they enter YU and see all of the requirements they will have to take in the coming years.
So how to cope?
When I was in Yeshivat Sha'alvim I had the zchus of being in the rosh yeshiva's shiur. At one point in the year Rav Yaakovson shlit"a spoke to our shiur about a sefer he had received for his bar mitzvah called Chosen Yehoshua. This is basically a sefer that tries to address the standard concerns of a yeshiva bachur as he enters yeshiva. This issue of despair is one of the topics Rav Yaakovson spoke to us about. When a bachur enters into yeshiva and notices the vast number of seforim he is meant to conquer in his lifetime it is quite normal for him to be overwhelmed at the shear volume. The Rashis on Az Yashir are only a part of that huge mountain of literature. It towers high above the simple books assigned in Lit class and even above the monstrous course load of YU.
The Chosen Yehoshua gives a mashal of someone who is supposed to move a huge pile of dirt. He looks up at this great mountain in front of him and he immediately gives up. How does he finally conquer it? He realizes that if he just moves one bucket a day the mountain will slowly decrease and he will eventually be successful. One daf at a time, one siman at a time, one posuk at a time,...
Eventually the job will get done if you stop complaining about how unconquerable the territory is and instead just put your head down and tackle it one step at a time.
I'm sure the Jews had a similar feeling when suddenly faced by the Yam Suf in this weeks Parasha. They complained to Moshe for taking them out of Egypt only to die in the desert. Just imagining- fleeing from a country who you had been enslaved by for over 200 years only to find yourself trapped between the ocean and your persecuter - is extremely overwhelming. Until one man decided that he wasn't going to dwell in the shock that had just befallen the nation and instead he would take a small steps into the Yam Suf. He saw that their was still room for him to go a little further than the shore. Nachshon ben Aminadav recognized that when faced with an overwhelming task the only way to get through it is to do the little you know you can do,and that will eventually lead into the completion of the overwhelming task.
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