Chart Your Own Course | Rabbi Elchonon Jacobovitz

Did you ever wonder how the entire Egypt was stupid enough to just walk right into the Red Sea, to their death? Didn't they realize they were headed into the abyss? In 1916, a French scientist by the name of Jean-Henri Fabre conducted an experiment with an insect known as the Processionary Caterpillar. As you may have guessed, the Processionary Caterpillar is a caterpillar that's known to walk in single-file motion, one following the other. And so, this scientist took about ten of them, lined them up around the edge of a large plate and started the circle going, putting caterpillar food right in the middle of the plate, and then he waited to see what would happen. Lo and behold, for five days straight, the caterpillars followed each other around the edge of the plate in a mindless, endless circle, until on Day 5, they literally died of starvation, with wonderful caterpillar food a mere two inches away, simply because they couldn't fathom doing anything else other than following the caterpillar directly in front of them. So how were the Egyptians stupid enough to all go into the Red Sea, you ask? It's simple. The Egyptian in the back, he says, Well, I'm following the generals up front and they for sure know what they're doing. The generals in front, they're thinking, Well, we're following Pharaoh and he for sure knows what he's doing. But what was Pharaoh thinking? Say Chazal, Pharaoh didn't go into the Red Sea. Pharaoh’s horse went into the Red Sea. The Pasuk says, ‘When Pharaoh's horse came...’ But what was Pharaoh’s horse thinking? Why was he going into the Red Sea? Say Chazal in Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer something fascinating. And the horse that Pharaoh was riding saw a female horse and ran after it and entered the sea after it. The horse was following its basis desire. That is exactly how ערוות הארץ gets us. Nobody's stupid enough to walk right into the abyss, but we follow the crowd. We follow the one in front of us, who's following the one in front of us, who's following the one in front of us. We look at what they look at, we follow what they follow, we click on what they click on, we buy what they buy, without ever stopping to think that at the front of it all are a bunch of human horses simply following their basis desires. If we want to escape ערוות הארץ, it's time to wake up. It's time to realize that there's healthy, good Neshama food just a few no's away. No, I won't follow. No, I won't look. No, I won't go along. All it takes to get there is to stop being caterpillars and to grow our own butterfly wings. So don't be led by a horse. Instead, chart your own course.