Two Doctors and a Rabbi: A Jewish Mother's Dream

Last week, my family and I enjoyed a wonderful Pesach. The Matza was cracking, the wine bubbling, and the roast melting as it hit my tongue. The singing was so special that our neighbors were enjoying it and the words of Torah flowed like a Tiberian spring.

One of my personal highlights was hosting two charming young men for several of the scrumptious Yom Tov meals. One was a Tiferes and on an Earlier Chesed, that was clear to me. But, I soon discovered, both of them were studying to become physicians, a job that seems to be a very Netzach profession. How could that be? Doesn’t it say that on the side of the Bailey Blog that Doctors are Netzachs? Did Rabbi Bailey forget his whole system over Passover? Were the four cups just one to many for him? The answer lies in their Secondary and Tertiary personalities.

A person’s complete Seven Ways personality has three layers. Someone can be a Chesed-Chesed-Tiferes by fitting the description on the Blog of and Earlier Chesed and have a bit of Tiferes music or writing in him hidden somewhere deep inside. Someone can also be Chesed-Chesed-Netzach and get some of the Netzach memory and care in his personality. That was the first guest at my Yom Tov table. He was a sweet person who enjoyed the 9-5 life but he had a great memory and used it for his med school studies (and he shared some nice words of Torah from memory as well!). The other guest was, yes, a Tiferes but his secondary personality was also Netzach. They both excelled in a Netzach-style endeavor using Netzach, but had room for their own flair.

So this means that not every doctor (or rabbi for that matter) is a Netzach (that’s why I wrote “many of them” on the side of the Blog J ), but if you want to be a doctor you have to act like a Netzach. You have to remember lots of stuff and have some sort of care for other people. And not every Netzach is a doctor, either. They may become rabbis, accountants, nurses (a male nurse?!) or teachers. But in order to stay happy they need to make sure that they are utilizing each part of their personality.

These two young men will make outstanding doctors, I have no doubt. I give you a blessing that you will find the right way for yourself and your personality in these days leading up to the holiday of Shavuos, where each day is another combination of the seven ways.

Rabbi Bailey

Paroh: King Over Nothing

I promised you a blog about Paroh and Malchus so here it goes.



We know that Paroh was in charge of Egypt at the time of the Exodus, but it’s important to know that he was a very particular type of ruler.



The Gemara in Moed Katan (18a) describes Paroh as being about a cubit tall (about a foot and a half--*Right*, what’s a cubit?) and he had a beard that was also a cubit and a *parmishask*--which we are going to translate as a sword (email me for why) -- that was a cubit and a half long.



If Paroh was so short, why didn’t someone just step on him and get rid of the evil man? And can people really survive living that small?



I think that perhaps this description of Paroh is not description of his body but a description of his character. Lemme explain.

Psychologically speaking, when someone is small (whether it be physically or emotionally) they can end up compensating for their challenge by asserting themselves over other people. Was Paroh really that short? It could be, but that’s not the point. The point is that the Sages wrote this Gemara in order to tell us that even though Paroh was a powerful leader, he was just a little man inside. And his beard? In ancient Egypt, the kings wore a beard as a sign of dominance* and Paroh’s sword is a clear symbol of militaristic dominance. He was a very, very unhealthy Malchus.

Malchus people are strong-willed, determined leaders who can’t imagine how anyone could possibly think differently than they do. While a Gevurah will get upset with you for not obeying the rules, a Malchus will be unable to comprehend how you could deviate from *his* rules. A healthy Malchus will come along and use his determination and leadership skills for serving the public, just as King David (who is the prototype for Malchus) did. But an unhealthy Malchus will be selfish and cruel; paranoid and sadistic.


Look at the way Paroh speaks about the Jewish people. When Moshe comes to Paroh and tells him the famous ‘Let My people go!’ because they are crying out from the pain, Paroh cuts off the grain supply to help build the brick and says

They are weaklings! That’s why they cry out…weaklings, you are weaklings that’s why you say ‘Let us go and offer to the Lord’

Sadistic, totally using his mind to not understand the emotional plight of the Jews. And the whole enslavement started with him doing what paranoid rulers tend to do. As the Jewish people grew in number he said

to his nation, “Behold! The Nation of The Children of Israel is massive and very fortified. Let us come and outsmart [the Nation] lest they increase and call for war and be added onto our enemies and war with us and kick us out of the land.


I believe that Hitlr essentially began his sick plan with similar speeches. He condemned the Jews and other groups of ruining his country and damaging the economy.

Ultimately, it was because Paroh bit off more than he could chew that he lost. Though his beard was commensurate with his size, his sword wasn’t. It was too big. He got to full of himself. “Anyone who is high with arrogance in the end will be lowered down…Any person who is inflated with arrogance in the end will be made small” (Sotah, from Rav Avira and Rav Ashi). Paroh fell and he fell hard. Within a year the 10 plagues had pummeled him and his nation. He went from being on top of the world to running around like a fool in the middle of the night begging Moshe to take the Jewish people out of Egypt.



He was so wicked that G-d took away his free will in order to teach mankind a lesson (see Rambam Hilchos Teshuvah 6:3). We don’t have to go far to see the murder and destruction that unhealthy Malchuses have done in just the past 100 years.



I bless you that you will get a taste of some Malchus during Pesach holiday and that the Moshach should come and, as a manifestation of Malchus on this Earth, restore peace in this world. Then, and only then, will we see the true Malchus from above.



* I must also mention another interpretation that I had. In the Torah (see Gemara Kiddushin), the beard symbolizes wisdom. Perhaps the Gemara is saying that he was very, very wise in his dominance over Egypt. He did fool them into thinking he was a god and the very next Gemara in Moed Katan says that Paroh was a Magician so perhaps the two go hand in hand.