בִּמקוֹם שֶׁאֵין אֲנָשִׁים, הִשְׁתַּדֵּל לִהְיוֹת אִיש Adina Broder

בִּמקוֹם in a place שֶׁאֵין אֲנָשִׁים, men, הִשְׁתַּדֵּל try לִהְיוֹת אִיש in a place where there are no men, try to be a man

What does it mean It means “In a place where there are no men”? It means In a situation where no one is ACTING like a man, Meaning no one is BEHAVING CORRECTLY

This applies to men and women, boys and girls In such a situation, Chazal tell us: “Try to be a man” Meaning: YOU should try to BEHAVE CORRECTLY This applies to men and women, boys and girls

Here is an example:

In Shemot, when Moshe saw a Mitzri man hitting a Jewish man… וירא איש מצרי מכה איש עברי מאחיו (שמות ב:יא)

The pasuk says that Moshe looked here and there… ויפן כה וכה(שמות ב:יב)

And he saw that no man was there וירא כי אין איש (ב:יב) There is no one to see me kill the Mitzri in order to protect this Jew This could mean that literally there was no one else there.

Or (according to הכתב והקבלה) that there were people there, but… No one was ACTING like a man – No one was willing to protect the Jew from getting beaten

I’m not going to help him I’m not going to help him

So Moshe had to act like a man – ********************* He protected the Jew: ויך את המצרי (ב:יב) ויטמנהו בחול(ב:יב) ********************* (= special name of Hashem)

It’s easy to follow everybody and do the wrong thing

Chazal are reminding us to do the right thing Even if you are the only one doing it!

בִּמקוֹם שֶׁאֵין אֲנָשִׁים, הִשְׁתַּדֵּל לִהְיוֹת אִיש In a place where there are no men, try to be a man