We're all men (except God)

In memory of Gavriel ben David Blum z"l, killed in Gaza last week.

Yesterday I paid a shiva call to the Blum family whose son Gavriel, whom I knew in high school, was sadly killed last week in Gaza. They recounted a story that I think his friends told them when they visited the night before. It's the sort of story that makes me uncomfortable (and his father did hesitate for a moment before telling it to the crowd, but his mother okayed it). Today I thought about it again and found a kernel of connection to Torah, with an emphasis on the story of the Exodus, now being read in shuls around the world, so I think it's worth getting over the uncomfortable bit. As our sages taught: תורה היא, וללמוד אני צריך! (This is Torah, and I must learn!)

One day, a group of higher-ups visited the area in Gaza where Gavriel's unit was staying. The soldiers were tending to various military assignments, and the higher-ups, including several very high-ranking officers and a member of the so-called War Cabinet, walked around, surveying things and talking among themselves, completely ignoring the lower-level soldiers. Gavriel did not like this, and cracked jokes about  this group being so full of themselves and completely looking down at the soldiers. Then Gavriel and some other soldiers mounted an armored vehicle, to drive off to another area. As they began driving, they noticed that the higher-ups had split: Most of the group was walking in one direction, but the member of the War Cabinet had gone off to the side to urinate.

Gavriel told the driver to stop, and they all sat there and watched. At some point this minister noticed he was being watched, and motioned to them with a wave to keep on driving. But Gavriel told the driver to stay there. And so for a short while, they simply watched. Later, Gavriel went on to say that that was what it took for that minister to pay them some attention and remember for a split second that they were all equally men.

In Shemot 7:15 it says:

"Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is coming out to the water, and station yourself before him at the edge of the Nile, taking with you the rod that turned into a snake."

Rashi on the verse paraphrases a couple of midrashim:

"As he is coming out to the water" - to ease himself. For he claimed to be a god and asserted that because of his divine power he did not need to ease himself; and therefore he used to rise early and go to the Nile and there eased himself in secret (Midrash Tanchuma, Vaera 14; Exodus Rabbah 9:8)."

While God forbid I'm not comparing this member of the War Cabinet to the evil Pharaoh, I am seeing a certain similar idea: Pharaoh was acting all high and mighty and completely ignoring Moshe and Aharon's demand to free Bnei Yisrael. Hashem tells Moshe to try a different tactic: Catch Pharaoh with "his pants down", quite literally, thereby reminding him for a moment that he is not a god. He is a man, and so are his slaves, the Israelites. They are all equally men, and it's high time he paid some attention. The only non-man in this equation is God, and to prove that, Pharaoh should be aware that he will be seeing a full-blown demonstration of God's might.

I suppose the lesson here is that at the end of the day, only God is God. The rest of us, we're all human. Nothing more and nothing less. And we should be sure to remember that more often, particularly in interpersonal interactions.

May his memory be a blessing.

תנצב"ה