Jan 22, 2015 | Torat Devorah
It is appropriate and necessary to shed light on the plague of darkness. Its place in the order of the plagues as next to last is indicative of its having been a very harsh plague. This is surprising since, as opposed to the rest of the plagues, the plague of darkness did not cause anyone any physical harm. Moreover, this plague did not cause any damage to infrastructure (such as the plague of blood), did not harm any animals (murrain, dever), did not destroy any crops (locusts), did not cause sickness (boils), and was not even itchy or bothersome (lice). What, then, was so terrible about the darkness? It appears that precisely this question was what brought to Sages to identify certain tasks in connection with the preparation for the exodus from Egypt that were to be completed during the time of darkness. One Rabbi explained that the darkness provided cover for the death and burial of all of the Jews who did not merit redemption from Egypt. Another explanation is that the darkness afforded the Jews the opportunity to discover where their Egyptian neighbors hid their gold and silver vessels so that they could not deny their existence when the Jews came to ask to borrow them in anticipation of their exodus from Egypt. Rabbi Ronen Lubitz suggesst another explanation for the purpose and meaning of the plague of darkness. This explanation is rooted it the fact that darkness creates loneliness. Man is a social creature. “Diplomatic by nature,” in the words of Maimonides, and in those of our Sages: “Either a partner to study with or death.” A stirring example of this appears in a passage in the Talmud that tells of Rabbi Yochanan, who, after hearing of the death of Reish Lakish, his friend and student, was not able to continue to exist in solitude and ultimately lost his mind and passed away. The plague of darkness in Egypt created complete social quarantine and isolated every man from his neighbor. The darkness forced the Egyptians into immobility and stripped them of their freedom, just as they had done to the Jews, and caused each and every one of them to contemplate his own conduct and past deeds. According to the Sages, a two phased process took place during the darkness: during the first three days “they did not see each other,” while during the subsequent three days there was “thick darkness,” the darkness intensified and “and no one rose from his place,” so that, in Rashi’s words, “if he was sitting, he was unable to stand, and if he was standing, he was unable to sit.” The rabbis of the mussar movement (Jewish ethics) explained the connection between the two phases and added that when a person does not see his neighbor, no one is capable of rising from his place. In other words, when a person cannot see anyone else, no person or project can get off the ground. A healthy society requires that each of its members pay attention to those around them, to take note of their problems and troubles, and only then can people rise and cause their society to be vigorous and uplifted. Lubitz suggests that the Egyptians’ suffering during the darkness was of a similar nature to that which they had imposed on the Jews. In the initial phase they sinned by “not seeing each other,” as they did not take heed of the suffering and pain that the slavery caused the Jews, and as an extension they reached the subsequent state of “no one rose from his place,” resulting in the downfall of Egyptian society in its entirety.
Jan 15, 2015 | Torat Devorah
The Torah states, “Hashem said to Moshe, “…I shall harden the heart of Pharaoh so that I may multiply My signs and My wonders upon Egypt…Pharaoh will not heed you, and I shall put My hand upon Egypt.” Rashi cites Chazal who explain that G’d hardened the heart of Pharaoh in order to bring about a situation in which He could increase the miracles and wonders to bring about the redemption.
Egypt was not only the “breadbasket” of the world, it was the height of civilization. As a global power, the Egyptian culture/civilization influenced all existence. The plagues brought upon Egypt served a dual purpose. Firstly, they were intended to be a punishment for the Egyptians and secondly, so that as a result of witnessing these revealed miracles, the Egyptians should come to the realization “that I am G’d.” They would become monotheists by understanding that there is nothing in existence that occurs without G’d’s direct involvement. Reb Meir Simcha of Dvinsk Z”L explains that G’d hardened the heart of Pharaoh in order to create a setting in which the world would come to the realization that G’d is the Omnipotent Being. Since Egypt was a global power with far-reaching influence, when they were to be affected by the miracles/plagues then their newfound belief would have a ripple effect throughout the world.
It is interesting to note that the reason the Egyptians chose to kill the newborn Jewish males by drowning them in the Nile was that they believed that G’d could not destroy them through water. Since G’d metes out justice measure for measure, the means through which the Egyptians would be punished. However G’d had made a covenant with existence after the Great Flood that He would never again destroy the world through water, the Egyptians believed that G’d had no recourse against them. Why would the Egyptians believe that they were immune to retribution through water? The covenant that was made by G’d was that He would not destroy the world through water. Egypt was not the entire world. Since G’d in fact did not destroy Egypt through water because of the covenant that He had made with existence, it is eviden that Egypt was considered the equivalent of the entire world. This demonstrates further that if G’d impacted upon Egypt it would ultimately affect all existence. It is true that the Egyptian army was destroyed through water/the Sea, but in that circumstance G’d did not bring the water upon them, but rather, they were lured to the water and thus destroyed.
Reb Yonasan Eibschitz Z”L explains why G’d elevates the nations that afflict the Jewish people. As the Master of the Universe, G’d’ is interested in interacting with existence in a manner that will have the greatest level of impact/impression and so the world should come to the realization that He is the Omnipotent Being. Thus, in order to bring this about, He first elevates the person or nation to a level of prominence and power only to ultimately destroy them. These individuals or nations are seen by the world as invincible and only then does G’d destroy them to demonstrate His power.
Prepared by Devorah Abenhaim
Jan 8, 2015 | Torat Devorah
Why, out of all places, did God reveal himself to Moshe (Moses) through the burning bush – sneh (Exodus 3:2)? One possibility is that the experience seems to be a microcosm of God’s ultimate revelation to the entire Jewish people. Note the similarity in sound between sneh and Sinai, the mountain where God speaks to the Jewish people. Indeed, the revelation at the sneh and Sinai occurred in the same place – the desert of Horev. Both unfolded through the medium of fire. At the sneh, it was a fire that was not consumed. (Exodus 3:2) At Sinai, it was a smoke that engulfed the entire mountain. (Exodus 19:18)
There are other approaches that understand the sneh as symbolic either of Egypt or the Jewish people. On the one hand it was akin to Egypt. Just as it is difficult to remove the hand from a thorn bush without lacerating the skin, so was it impossible to escape the “thorn bush” known as Egypt without some amount of pain and suffering. (Mekhilta, beginning of Shemot)
On the other hand, the sneh can be viewed as representative of the Jewish people. In Egypt, the Jews were stripped of all goods, feeling lowly, so low it was as if they were driven into the ground. The sneh is also simple without any fine branches or leaves and is so close to the ground.
Rabbi Avi Weiss explains: “But the meaning of sneh that resonates most powerfully sees the sneh as symbolic, not of Sinai or of Egypt or of Israel, but of God. As long as Jews were enslaved, God could only reveal Himself in the lowly burning bush in the spirit of “I am with my people in their pain.” God cannot be in comfort as long as His people are in distress. (Rashi quoting Tanhuma 14) . And we, created in God’s image, must emulate His ways. At times of suffering for our people, we must empathize with them. Empathy differs from sympathy. In sympathy I remain who I am and you remain who you are. The one feels for the other. Empathy means a merger of the two into one. Your pain is my pain, your suffering is my suffering and your joy is my joy. As we frequently hear of tragedies around the world, we dare not become desensitized to the horror which unfolds. For many it is business as usual. The sneh teaches it shouldn’t be this way. If God feels our anguish, so too should we feel the anguish of others. Only when feeling the pain will we, as God did here in the Book of Exodus, be impelled to act and do our share to bring relief and redemption to the suffering of our people. ”
Prepared by Devorah Abenhaim
Dec 30, 2014 | Torat Devorah
In this week’s parshah, Jacob, realizing he is about to die, wishes to reveal to the his sons the date of the final redemption. Hashem wanted Israel’s exile to be difficult, so he closed Jacob’s vision, because exile is easier to bear when one know’s in advance when it will end. He then gathers his 12 sons to receive a blessing. But first, Jacob calls upon two of his grandchildren – Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Menashe – to receive blessings. Why would Jacob place priority on blessing grandchildren over children? The commentators explain that even more than the joy of having children is the joy of having grandchildren. Why is this so? Most creatures in the world have parent-child relationships – whether it is a mother lion protecting her cubs or a mother bird feeding her young. But only the human being has a concept of grandchildren, of perpetuation beyond a single generation.. Being a grandparent therefore connects us deeply to our uniqueness as human beings.
There is further significance to Jacob’s blessings. We are aware that one of the most beautiful customs in Jewish life is for parents to bless their children at the start of the Friday night Shabbat meal. Girls receive the blessing: “May God make you like the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.” Boys, meanwhile, are blessed “to be like Ephraim and Menashe. We can ask ourselves, what happened to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Why were Ephraim and Menashe chosen instead as the subjects of this important tradition? In actuality, Ephraim and Menashe were the first set of jewish brothers who did not fight. Abraham’s two sons – Isaac and Ishmael – could not get along, and their disagreement forms the basis of the Arab-Israeli conflict until today. The next generation of Isaac’s two sons – Jacob and Esav – was so contentious that Esav repeatedly. sought to kill Jacob and instructed his descendants to do the same. And even the next generation of Jacob’s sons sold Joseph into slavery in Egypt. Ephraim and Menashe represent a break from this pattern. This explains why Jacob purposely switched his hands, blessing the younger Ephraim before the older Menashe. Jacob wished to emphasize the point that with these siblings, there is no rivalry. (See Genesis 48:13-14). Even though Jacob had set Ephraim, the younger son, before Menashe, the first born, Ephraim did not become arrogant, and Menashe did not become jealous. It is with this thought that parents bless their children today. For there is no greater blessing than peace among brothers. The words of King David ring true: HENAY MA TOV 00 MA NAYIM, SHEVET ACHIM GAM YACHAD “How good and pleasant is it for brothers to sit peacefully together.” (Psalms 133:1)
A further question arises regarding the blessing that Jacob gave Joseph’s sons. Why is so much emphasis placed upon Ephraim and Menashe when so little is known about them? It would seemingly make more sense to say, “May Hashem make you like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”, parallel to the blessing given to girls, “May Hashem make you like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah.” Just like we bless our daughters to be like the Matriarchs, why don’t we bless our sons to be like the Patriarchs?
This can be explained as follows: Ephraim and Menashe grew up in the lap of Egyptian royalty. Their father, Joseph, was second in command of the greatest empire at that time. Their lives were drowned in Egyptian culture, making it very easy for them to assimilate. It is for this reason, that we bless our children to be like Ephraim and Menashe. Although they were raised in the foreign, hostile environment of Egypt, they did not assimilate. They remained true to their faith, even in a society filled with so many temptations. Jacob knew that in the future, his children, the Jewish people, would be spread around the world, often in difficult surroundings. Therefore, Jacob prayed that regardless of their situation, Jewish children should remain loyal to the Torah, just as Ephraim and Menashe did in Egypt. Prepared by Devorah Abenhaim
Dec 26, 2014 | Torat Devorah
The Torah states, “Yosef said to them (his brothers) on the third day, ‘….let one of your brothers be imprisoned in your place of confinement…Then bring your youngest brother to me so your words will be verified…” Yosef, the Viceroy of Egypt, imprisoned one of his brothers while the others went back to Canaan
and return with Binyamin. At that moment, they reflected upon their tenuous predicament and said, “Indeed we are guilty concerning our brother (Yosef) inasmuch as we saw his heartfelt anguish when he pleaded with us and
we paid no heed; that is why this anguish has come upon us.” Sforno in his commentary explains that Yosef’s brothers realized at that moment that their insensitivity towards their brother’s heartfelt supplications was in essence was cruelty. Although they believed that they had rendered a proper judgment concerning their brother, that he was a pursuer (rodeif) and deserved to be killed. He would ultimately cause their demise through his tale bearing to their father Yaakov. Nevertheless, they should have had mercy on him when he pleaded not to be sold into slavery. Because they had acted cruelly towards their brother Yosef, G’d (measure for measure) brought upon them in kind a heathen who was acting cruelly towards them by accusing them of being spies and demanding that they must bring before him Binyamin. If in fact their evaluation of their brother’s
behavior was correct and indeed he was a pursuer and consequently putting their lives in jeopardy, why are they considered to be cruel. They did not see sufficient reason to heed his supplications? Their understanding of Yosef as a “pursuer” was not that he would actually attempt to physically bring harm upon them. But rather, they were concerned that his negative tale bearing would discredit them to their father Yaakov, who would ultimately curse them, which is the equivalent of death. However, if they had shown mercy to their brother Yosef and had been sensitive to his pleads, they would have merited Divine Protection that their father should always see them for what they truly were.
Yaakov had been bereaved by the loss of Yoseffor many years. When his sons returned from Egypt andexplained that they needed to bring Binyamin before the Viceroy in order to prove that they were not spies, Yaakov had said to them, “May Almighty G’d grant you mercy…that he (the Viceroy) may release to you your
brother as well as Binyamin. As for me, as I have been bereaved so I am bereaved.” It was imperative that Yosef’s brothers return with Binyamin safely. However, after the goblet had been discovered in his sack, they had believed that they would not be able to bring about the safe return of Binyamin. The pain that was going to come upon their father Yaakov was something that he would not be
able to survive. When Yaakov’s children rent their garments because of Binyamin’s predicament, it was the first time that they had truly internalized the grief and
suffering of their father that he had endured during all the years of Yosef’s absence. Since Binyamin was the catalyst through which Yosef’s brothers were able to have a sense of their father’s pain, his descendant Mordechai would
have the sensitivity to internalize the calamity that had befallen the Jewish people. What was the value of being granted the ability to fully grasp and internalize the
predicament of the Jewish people? Mordechai was the leading Torah sage of the
generation who had galvanized the Jewish people and united them in repentance. It was because of the depth of his understanding of the events that he was able to
overturn the decree through his leadership and prevent the annihilation of his people and he brought about the destruction of their enemy, Amalek. Had Mordechai not been able to internalize the severity of their situation, he would have not been as effective to impact upon the masses as he had done. The verse in the Megillah of Esther tells us that he sat at the gate of the king wearing sackcloth and ash when he became aware of the decree to annihilate every Jewish man, woman, and child. Although it was inappropriate to present oneself in this state at the
gate of the palace, because Mordechai so consumed with the impending tragedy he was oblivious to this. His only focus at that moment was the future existence of the Jewish people. Just as Yosef’s brothers fully internalized the meaning of Binyamin not returning to their father Yaakov and thus experiencing their father’s all-consuming pain, Mordechai, the grandson of Binyamin, merited a similar capacity.
Dec 18, 2014 | Torat Devorah
And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it. Now I have heard it said of you that for you to hear a dream is to tell its meaning.” Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “Not I! God will see to Pharaoh’s welfare.”(Genesis 41:15-16) The Joseph that interprets Pharaoh’s dreams is very different than the one who interprets his own dreams as a youth. This Joseph is eager to deflect credit for his skill, and shows himself to be a God-fearing person even in the face of a foreign ruler who thinks of himself as a god. Joseph now clearly understands that the world does not revolve around him.
In Israel two famous dream interpreters served foreign rulers, Joseph and Daniel. Both offered their interpretations as having been given by God (Genesis 41:16; Daniel 2:27-48; 4:18). The difference between them is that Joseph’s ability is informal, whereas Daniel’s is most likely associated with his training (Daniel 1:4) … In Israel, dream interpretation is given acceptable status only when God’s direct involvement can be affirmed. … Israel agreed with the rest of the ancient Near East that deity could and did communicate through dreams. (John H. Walton, Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament)
Rabbi Adam Rosenbaum of South Carolina explains: “The power of imagination is one of the great powers God has given people; even prophecy itself has its root in this power. Nevertheless, it is not the same as the prophetic vision whose true source is ultimately in the mind of God. [Prophetic visions enter the mind of the prophet] in the same way that fantasies enter the heart of a human being [except that, instead of emanating from the mind of God, imaginative fantasies have] their foundation in fantasizing about things that a person’s soul loves. And whenever a person is purified from evil qualities, such as lust, anger, pride, and quarrelsomeness, so that all the person’s fantasies are disconnected from each one of those contaminations, the person ascends to the level of prophecy. (Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin, Tzidkat HaTzaddik) One sees how sober this whole process is in the fact that Joseph proceeds from the actual interpretation of the future immediately to quite practical suggestions. … What is theologically noteworthy is the way in which the strong predestination content of the speech is combined with a strong summons to action. The fact that God has determined the matter, that God hastens to bring it to pass, is precisely the reason for responsible leaders to take measures! (Gerhard von Rad, Genesis).”
Rabbi Ari Kahn comments: “The dreams that Yosef interprets teach him that it is there that he will rise to power, there that his family will become as numerous as the stars.The wine steward’s dream foretells his own redemption, and Paroh’s dreams show him the path to the future. Yosef sees God’s master plan unfold in the dreams of others; his own dreams speak of the time of their return to the land – not as a nomadic band of brothers but as a nation in possession of their Promised Land. His brothers never asked Yosef to explain his dreams; would they have understood the message had he revealed it to them? Did the brothers share Yosef’s ability to see beyond the present, to discern and understand hundreds of years of history in the visions he is granted? It seems not; they saw their own personal rivalries and jealousies, and took no responsibility for the future. Yosef was, in more than one sense, a visionary: He saw beyond the present, and taught others to do the same. For Yosef, all these dreams are of one piece; they are all connected to the glorious dream of Avraham. Yosef understands that his own personal life story is a vehicle for Jewish history.”
