VA’EIRA. 6:2-9:35
In this week’s Parshah, Pharaoh refuses to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt. The first seven plagues strike Egypt: Blood, Frogs, Lice, Wild Beasts, Pestilence, Boils, and Fiery Hail.
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In Parshat Va’eira at 6:3, Hashem speaks to Moshe:
אֲנִי יְהוָה
וָאֵרָא, אֶל-אַבְרָהָם אֶל-יִצְחָק וְאֶל-יַעֲקֹב--בְּאֵל שַׁדָּי; וּשְׁמִי יְהוָה, לֹא נוֹדַעְתִּי לָהֶם
“…I am Hashem. And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as El Shadai, and I did not make my name Hashem known to them”.
As we learned last week from Rav Kook through Reb Yitz that a name reveals a being’s potential. When El Shadai speaks to our Patriarchs or when a Patriarch uses the name “El Shadai” it is to speak of a future promise or of a latent quality that may be developed. For example when at 24:3 Isaac blesses Jacob, he says: “And may El Shadai bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and you shall become an community of peoples”.
Moshe’s task was to fashion a nation out of an enslaved people, and bring them to the Land of Israel. In this instance our Creator, Hashem, has to fulfill the promise of El Shadai made hundreds of years in the past.
For all of us who have made Aliyah, Hashem's promise has come true.
In the Land of Israel we Jews are a community of peoples.
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More from Rav Kook:
With the formation of Israel as a nation the special providence of the Land of Israel became the Jewish people’s permanent inheritance. The generation of Moses was granted a higher revelation of God’s providence, as reflected in the name Y-H-V-H. This Divine name comes from the word lehavot, “to cause to exist.” Their world and ours was no longer a universe ruled by the forces of nature. We have merited a constant, direct connection to the One Who continually creates and sustains all existence.
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In the Parsha at 7:17 we learn about the first plague, turning the water of the Nile into blood. Khnum was one of the earliest-known Egyptian deities, originally the god of the source of the Nile. Since the annual flooding of the Nile brought with it silt and clay, and its water brought life to its surroundings, he was thought to be the creator of the bodies of human children, which he made at a potter's wheel, from clay, and placed in their mothers' uteruses.
Do you think there may be a speculative connection between Khnum and the first plague? Also is there a Khnum connection to Hebrew babies being drowned in the Nile? Any chance of the charoset that we ritually eat on Passover and which represents the sand and mortar we were forced to make, has a Khnum connection?
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Hitler, may his name be blotted out, said something like this:
If the Jew is victorious over the other peoples of the world, his crown will be a funeral wreath for all humanity…
This is fear mongering and demagoguery. And we all know that it continues today. Antisemitism is a Jewish reality.
However lest you be demoralized, there is a greater reality, a much greater reality. One in which the stage has been set by Hashem, but enacted by us Olim. This greater reality is found in this week’s Parshah. It is first found in Chapter 6, Verse 6 where Hashem speaks to Moses and promises him וְגָאַלְתִּי- I will redeem you. It is this promise of redemption that trumps Antisemitism.
Admittedly for me the word redemption or redeem is somewhat problematic. I know how the term “redeem” is used in the ordinary sense of the word. For example:
· A corporation may redeem some of its shares of stock. You turn in the stock certificate to your broker, and in exchange you get money.
· You need some cash. You take an item of personal property. You bring it to a pawnbroker. He lends you some money; gives you a pawn ticket, and he retains the item of your personal property. Later, when you have some money to repay the loan plus some interest, you give the pawnbroker the money and the pawn ticket and you get your property back…you have redeemed your property.
Visually for me these examples do not relate well to the redemption as presented in the Parshah. I have difficulty imagining Hashem in the context of a pawnshop redemption. The image just doesn’t cut it. However, seeing Olim, in the context of a pawnshop redemption is a different matter.
By definition, to redeem something is to gain or regain possession of something that belongs to you, however for a price. In the first chapter of the Book of Joshua, verse 13, when Joshua and the people of Israel are setting out to reclaim our Land, Hashem says to Joshua: "Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you”.
That self same promise was also given to Moses. And the reality is that Hashem has indeed given us this Land. We possess this special Land because the soles of our feet have tread upon it. And yes that requires paying a price. All of us here have done that. We have all given up some physical and emotional comfort in order to make Aliyah. And so have many of our brothers and sisters given of their lives in order to reclaim this Land.
When viewed in this context, the thirty five hundred years of Antisemitism pales if not diminished; it hides in a corner and loses its impact. When you make Aliyah you are uplifted, not only are you living a miracle, but you are part of that miracle. I find that to be heady stuff. Being an Oleh in Israel today is heady stuff, and I am thankful and humbled to be part of this miracle of redemption. Shabbat shalom.
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In the Parshat Va’eira at 6:9 Hashem tells Moshe to speak to us, that Hashem will take us out of Egypt, remove us from slavery and deliver us to the Land promised to the Patriarchs.
But we do not listen to Moshe, the reason given in 6:9 “מִקֹּצֶר רוּחַ, וּמֵעֲבֹדָה קָשָׁה” – lack of spirit and the hard work. Was this the only reason for us not listening?
In the Book of Ezekiel, Chapter 20 we gain additional insight. It is a sad commentary:
5. …and [I] made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up My hand to them, saying: I am the Lord your God.
7. And I said to them: Every man cast away the despicable idols from before his eyes, and pollute not yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.
8. But they rebelled against Me and would not consent to hearken to Me; they did not cast away, every man, the despicable idols from before their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt; and I said to pour out My wrath over them, to give My anger full rein over them, in the midst of the land of Egypt.
9. But I wrought for the sake of My Name so that it should not be desecrated before the eyes of the nations in whose midst they were, before whose eyes I made Myself known to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
Bottom Line: In spite of ourselves, Hashem brought us out of Egypt.
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In Chapter 7 of the Parshah there are three references to Pharaoh’s heart: It has been hardened, strengthened and made weighty:
7:3 – וַאֲנִי אַקְשֶׁה, אֶת-לֵב פַּרְעֹה
And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart.
7:13 – וַיֶּחֱזַק לֵב פַּרְעֹה, וְלֹא שָׁמַע אֲלֵהֶם
And Pharaoh’s heart was strengthened and he did not listen to them.
7:14 – כָּבֵד לֵב פַּרְעֹה; מֵאֵן, לְשַׁלַּח הָעָם
Pharaoh’s heart is weighty; he refuses to let the people go.
The heart when referred to in the Chumash is the organ in the body that is synonymous with our brain. It is what we learn with, and in our case, Pharaoh has been made more smart, more rationale, more reasoning. He has concluded that at whatever the cost the Jews are valuable and should not be let go.
It would be good if the government of Israel reached the same conclusion, and provided the wherewithal, spiritual and material, for us Israelis to remain in the Land.
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There is some confusion at 7:9: When Aaron through down his staff, what did it turn into? Was it a snake or something else?
At 7:9, Aaron was commanded by Hashem to appear before Pharaoh and throw down his staff which will be turned into a crocodile תַנִין or perhaps a sea monster, not a serpent נָחָשׁ.
"קַח אֶת-מַטְּךָ וְהַשְׁלֵךְ לִפְנֵי-פַרְעֹה--יְהִי לְתַנִּין..."
"...Take your rod, and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it become a sea monster.'
A few years ago, I saw this baby sea monster in a hotel wall in Acco. Notice the spinal column, dorsal fin or maybe a paddle, jaw and eye sockets. It is a plesiosaur and it swam in Israel perhaps 70 million years ago.
One of the first paleontologists to describe plesiosaurs was Mary Anning. She was born in England in 1799. Being a woman in 19th century England, Mary Anning was not permitted to join the Geological Society of London.
Shame on them.
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As part of a detailed genealogy of the House of Levi and the family of Amram, Moses’ father, at 6:23 we get some detail about Aaron’s family:
וַיִּקַּח אַהֲרֹן אֶת-אֱלִישֶׁבַע בַּת-עַמִּינָדָב, אֲחוֹת נַחְשׁוֹן--לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה; וַתֵּלֶד לוֹ, אֶת-נָדָב וְאֶת-אֲבִיהוּא, אֶת-אֶלְעָזָר, וְאֶת-אִיתָמָר
“And Aaron took Elisheva, the daughter of Amminadav, the sister of Nachshon, for a wife to him; and she bore to him Nadav and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.”
Noticeably absent in the genealogy is any mention of Moses’ family and that of Miriam…any suggestions why?
It would be super to be connected to Moses or to Miriam, but it is not really necessary: Greatness is not reserved for the privileged few with “good yichus”, but rather is available to anyone willing to make the effort necessary to attain it. (Rabbi Shlomo Riskin)
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The Haftorah portion for Parshas Va’eira is taken from the Prophet Ezekiel, 28:25 - 29:21. Sometimes payback to our enemies is a long time in the coming, but rest assured if it has not yet come, it is surely on its way.
Living today in Israel I know this to be true. However for Ezekiel who was exiled in 598 BCE, before the destruction of Jerusalem it may have been only wishful thinking:
At 29:19-21:
“Therefore says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon; and he shall carry off its abundance, and pillage its spoils, and plunder its booty; and that shall be the wages for his army.
I have given him the land of Egypt as his hire for which he served, because of what they [Egypt] did to Me, says the Lord GOD.
On that day will I cause the horn of the House of Israel to blossom out, and I will give you free speech in their midst, and they shall know that I am the Lord."
A major unanswered question for me, and most assuredly for Ezekiel, is that while Nebuchadnezzar did destroy Jerusalem, he was not able to conquer the city of Tyre. He tried very hard for 13 years, but did not succeed.
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