A Broken Spirit

 In the Parsha of Va'era, there is a verse that I think provides an insight into the power of a strong spirit, one steeled by hope in the face of the possibility of despair. 

Moshe Rabbeinu has affirmed Hashem's promise to bring the Jewish people to their ancestral lands, the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Torah then shares the Jewish people's response: "But when Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to Moses, due to a broken spirit, and the backbreaking work." 

I allowed myself a little poetic license in translating the above; the JPS states: "...they would not listen to Moses, their spirits crushed by cruel bondage," and Artscroll, "...but they did not heed Moses, because of shortness of breath and hard work."

I think JPS got it wrong because they equate the two, they put the wagon before the horse. I think that the verse is telling us that as long as they were strong mentally, they could handle the hard work. As Victor Frankl wrote in "Man's Search for Meaning:" “Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'.” 

It would seem, thus, that initially there was a sense of purpose, but when the spirit broke, the work became unbearable. Artscroll, too, seems to not give enough weight to the causality implicit in the spirit having been stated textually before the hard work. 

One message we can take from this is that in our interpersonal encounters we can seek more spirituality, the deeper meaning of what others are seeking. More than any drive it's the sense of appreciation, purpose, and usefulness that motivates one more than anything else. When that falls by the wayside, there is little left before the body gives way.