The seventh
day of Passover is a festival day and this year it falls on Shabbat. While we
would normally read the Shemini Torah portion from the Book of Leviticus, this
year we go back to the Book of Exodus starting at 13:17 and ending at 15:26.
Among
other things we learn in the Torah portion:
1. Pharaoh chases after us, and we are
trapped at the Sea of Reeds.
2. The sea is split for us, and we pass
through on to dry land.
3. The pursuing Egyptians are drowned.
4. The "Song at the Sea" and "Miriam’s Song" are sung by the people upon their deliverance
5. We are thirsty and the only water that
Moshe is able to find is bitter, but Hashem helps him to sweeten the bitter waters
6. We are given some Torah laws and are tested on them.
Hashem says (14:4): "And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and
he will pursue them".
Instead of "harden" substitute the word "strengthen"
because the root of ְחִזַּקְתִּ֣י is חַזֵקwhich means strengthen.
And if "heart" means the intellect, then Hashem is causing
Pharaoh to mentally focus on losing million of his slaves, who for 100's of
years have supported the Egyptian economy and are now leaving with the wealth
of Egypt.
Slaves are property; they are things, not human beings. And Pharaoh wants to take back his “property” which he believes belongs to him. It could be
that this system of national servitude started 100’s of years before, during
the famine years. This was the time when starving Egyptians sold
everything they had in order to buy grain from Pharaoh. Perhaps, some
sold themselves into slavery.
We are entering into a new phase for the Jewish people.We are on our way to becoming a tribal
nation. We are becoming conscious of our autonomy, unity, and our exclusive
attachment to Hashem, the one God.I
think Rav Kook would say that as individuals and as a nation we are
acquiring a spiritual national soul.We
are already in possession of a rich legacy of memories and hopefully the desire
to live together.
But in order to be truly free, there becomes a time to stand up and take a first step:
Trapped at the Sea of Reeds, with the Egyptian Calvary breathing down our
necks, Hashem orders us to stand up for ourselves, and go forward.This is a lesson for Jews for all time and
all places.
“Hashem says to Moshe:Why do you cry out to Me? Speak to the
children of Israel and let them journey”.
And so we took the plunge!
Anyone living outside the Land of Israel, you too should consider taking the plunge. Come on home.
It is all part of your journey.
וְיִסָּעוּ is
translated as “journey”, meaning traveling from one place to another.But since the journey turned out to be a long
arduous one, and largely on foot, “trek” would have been a better choice.
"And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbral in her
hand; and all the women went out following her with timbrals and with
dances."
Is there some significance to the verse “and all the women went out
following her…” in the sense of emphasizing that all the Jewish women went out
from Egypt...that is leaving idolatry behind.
At 15:22
the Israelites have traveled on in the wilderness for three days without
encountering water. We are thirsty.We
complain. Then we arrive at Marah, where
there is water—but bitter water. With Hashem's help Moses miraculously sweetens the bitter
water.
Then
directly after, the Torah as part of verse 25 says:
שָׂ֥ם ל֛וֹ חֹ֥ק וּמִשְׁפָּ֖ט וְשָׁ֥ם
נִסָּֽהוּ
“There He gave them a statute and an ordinance, and there He
tested them.”
It
would appear that prior to the revelation at Mt. Sinai we were give some
Torah laws and that we were tested on them.
What
laws do you think were given?
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The Haftorah
portion for the 7th day of Passover is from 2 Samuel 22:1-51.The wording is almost identical to Psalm 18.
It is
called the “Song of David”. It is a song of gratitude and praise. Its major theme is David's unwavering belief that Hashem is his protector, savior, and source of comfort. Whatever successes David may have achieved is all due to Hashem's help.
The Leviathan and the
Behemoth are primeval monstrous animals that Hashem created when He created the
universe and everything in it.
The Leviathan and the
Behemoth are spoken about in Book of Job, Prophet Isaiah and Psalms.
The Leviathan is an enormously
large and powerful sea creature.Likewise
the Behemoth is an enormously large and powerful land creature, and is the
land-based counterpart of the Leviathan.
Regarding the Leviathan:
The Leviathan לִוְיָתָן is mentioned five times in the Tanakh, in
Job 3:8, Job 40:25–41:26, Psalm 74:14, Psalm 104:26 and Isaiah 27:1.It comes across as an enormously powerful
creature that no one, certainly not a human being, can control except for God
who created it.
There the ships go; You
formed this Leviathan with which to play with.
Isaiah has a different
take on the Leviathan.He considers it
to be two enormous serpent-like sea monsters, the Taninnim from the Book of
Genesis that were created by God on the 5th day of Creation.In the eyes of the Prophet they are metaphors
for Assyria and Babylonia.
On that day, the Lord shall visit with His hard and great and strong
sword on Leviathan the barlike serpent, and upon Leviathan the crooked serpent,
and He shall slay the Tannin that is in the se
If you are looking for
an animal that embodies the Leviathan, consider the whale, specifically the
blue whale:
The blue whale is the
largest species of whale, and the largest species of animal known to have
existed.The blue whale reaches a
maximum length of 98 feet and weight of 190 tons. It is the largest animal
known to have ever existed. The blue whale’s diet consists almost exclusively
of krill, a small crustacean.
However, if you are
looking for a whale with more of a bite then there is an extinct whale genus
called the Livyatan.It to around 5 million
years ago, and was present throughout the Southern Hemisphere.Livyatan's total length has been estimated to
be about 44–57 feet making it one of the largest predators to have ever existed.
The teeth of Livyatan measured 1.2 feet and are the largest biting teeth of any
known animal. It follows that the Livyatan is called an Alpha Predator.
Regarding the Behemoth:
The Behemoth is found only once in TANACH, but appears
in Apocrypha literature. In TANACH it is
described in a speech from the mouth of Hashem to Job in chapter 40 of the Book
of Job, verses 15-24. The Behemoth is a
primeval creature created by Hashem and so powerful that only God can overcome
him:
Shall any take him by his eyes, or pierce through his nose with a
snare?
This description describes a powerful animal similar to a Hippopotamus.
The hippopotamus is
large, very large; males weigh more than 4000 lb. up to 7000 lb. The
hippopotamus spends much of its time in lakes, swamps and rivers. The eyes, ears, and nostrils of hippos are
placed high on the roof of their skulls. This allows these organs to remain
above the surface while the rest of the body is submerged.
Hippos measure 10 to 17
feet in length, including a tail of about 1 to 2 feet in length. Their diet consists almost
entirely of grass. The hippo is among the most dangerous animals in the world
due to its highly aggressive and unpredictable nature.
A hippo
can open its mouth at almost 180° making it a terrifying
creature. If that is not enough, Hippo
teeth sharpen themselves as they grind together. The lower canines and lower
incisors are enlarged, especially in males, and grow continuously. The incisors
can reach 1 ft 4 in, while the canines reach up to 1 ft 8 in. Canines and incisors are used for combat. Hippos appear to communicate vocally, through
grunts and bellows.Imagine facing an
open-mothed bellowing monster with 20 inched teeth…oh Mama!
Job was probably familiar
with hippos. Before becoming locally
extinct they inhabited Egypt and the region known as the Levant, which includes
Israel. Think of the Hula Valley and the area south of
Tiveria. Archaeological evidence exists of its presence in the
Levant, dating to less than 3,000 years ago.
The Talmud (Bava Batra
74b) understands the Behemoth to be a creature unknown to man today, but one
which will play a role in the Messianic Era. It identifies the Behemoth as a
huge animal far too powerful for human interaction, At the End of Days, there will be a feast for the Righteous. As part of the feast, Hashem will serve up the
Behemoth and the Leviathan. Kashrut is not a problem.
In commemoration of this
Messianic feast there is a modern tradition where during the Passover Seder fish is added to the Seder
plate in memory of the Leviathan, and the shank bone already in place
symbolizes the Behemoth.
In Parshat Terumah we read about the construction of the Mishkan,
the portable sanctuary from which Hashem spoke to us.In the Parshah we learned that the roof of
the Mishkan would be made up of skins of an animal identified as a “Tachash.”
Not Just Another Pretty Face
But what animal is the Tachash?My best guess is that the Tachash is a Hippopotamus.
For one thing, a hippopotamus is not what you
would call a thin-skinned creature.Its
skin is so thick that it is almost bullet proof, and at 1 ½ inches thick most
certainly arrow proof.
Tachash skins were used in the Mishkan where they served as
a form of protection and weather proofing. They formed the outermost layer of
the Mishkan’s roof.
"And you
shall make a covering for the tent of ram skins dyed red and a covering of Tachash
skins above”.
As in the Book of Numbers,
Chapter 4, Tachash skins were also utilized in the transport many of the
components of the Mishkan. These components were wrapped up in the skins prior
to their transport.
The Talmud, Shabbat 28a says that the Tachash was multicolored:
שיש בו גבוונין הרבה
“…in that it was multicolored…”
A hippopotamus’ upper parts are purplish-grey
to blue-black, while the under parts and areas around the eyes and ears can be
brownish-pink.When out of the water they
will secrete a red oily coating that protects its skin from drying out.
If you need a proof text, consider some verses from Chapter
40 of the Book of Job in which a monstrous primeval land animal who has
enormous strength and is called a “Behemoth” is described and this creature resembles
a hippopotamus:
40:15 - Behold now the Behemoth that I have made with
you; he eats grass like an ox.
40:17 - His tail hardens like a cedar; the sinews of
his testicles are knit together.
40:18 - His limbs are as strong as copper, his bones
as a load of iron.
40:21 - He lies under the shadows, hidden in the
reeds and the swamp.
The hippopotamus is large, very large; males weigh more
than 4000 lb. The hippopotamus spends much of its time in lakes, swamps and
rivers. Before becoming locally extinct they inhabited Egypt and the region
known as the Levant, which includes Canaan.Think of the Hula Valley and the area south of Tiveria.Archaeological evidence exists of its
presence in the Levant, dating to less than 3,000 years ago.
Hippos measure 10 to 17 feet in length, including a tail of
about 1 to 2 feet in length. The testes of the males descend only partially.Their
diet in nature consists almost entirely of grass. They are considered to be
extremely aggressive
On an interesting note the most powerful land animal on
Earth, the Behemoth/Hippopotamus is paired in the Book of Job with another primeval
monstrous animal, the Leviathan. It is the most powerful sea creature on Earth
and is thought by many to be a whale.Whales
and hippopotamus’ share a common origin. The most recent theory of the origins
of the Hippopotamus family suggests that hippos and whales shared a common
semiaquatic ancestor that branched off from their common ancestor around 60
million years ago. This ancestral group then split into two branches around 54
million years ago.
And in the World to Come, as many believe, just
as the skin of the Leviathan will serve as a tent for the righteous, perhaps it
is only fitting that the skin of the hippopotamus served as a tent for us when
we wandered in the Wilderness.
“Speak to the
children of Israel, and have them take for Me an offering; from every person
whose heart inspires him to generosity, you shall take My offering”.
Rabbi Wein has something to say about the aspect of voluntary giving
associated with the building of the Mishkan:
“The demand of
the Torah is not only to give from our heart but to give our heart itself to
the exalted cause and spiritual greatness of the tabernacle/mishkan. It is not
a donation that the Torah asks of us, rather it is a commitment of self that is
demanded. The tabernacle/mishkan has long ago disappeared from our physical
view but its lessons remain relevant and important to us today as when they
were taught millennia ago”.
There is a connection between Rosh Chodesh Adar which fell last Shabbos and the current Parshah. This connection is in regard to the construction of the Mishkan. According to the Talmud (Tractate Megillah 22b), women are forbidden to engage in work on Rosh Chodesh. Rashi comments: Women must refrain: spinning, weaving, and sewing—the skills that women contributed to the building of the Mishkan.
There is a Midrash, (Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, Chapter 45), as paraphrased explores this further: Aaron argued with himself, saying: "If I say to Israel, 'Give me gold and silver,' the men will bring it immediately; but behold if I will say to them, 'Give me the earrings of your wives and your sons,' the matter will immediately fail,"
"And Aaron said to them, 'Break off the golden rings.'" The women heard this, but they were unwilling to give their earrings to their husbands. The women said to them: "You want to make a graven image, a molten image (the Golden Calf) without any power in it to deliver.
"The Holy One, blessed be He, gave the women their reward in this world and the world to come. What reward did He give them in this world? That they should observe the new moons more stringently (not work) than the men. What reward will He give them in the world to come? They are destined to be renewed like the new moons, as it is said: "Who satisfies the years with good things; their youth is renewed like the eagle."
There is a
message in this week’s Torah portion Terumah which applies to our children and grandchildren.
The Torah
portion concerns in part the building of the Mishkan,
the portable dwelling place for HaShem that we carried during our wandering in
the desert.
In the most
sacred part of the Mishkan there was the Ark of the Covenant in which was
contained the stone tablets, the Ten Commandments. This Ark was a wooden
box covered inside and out with gold. It had a golden cover on which stood two
winged angelic beings called Cherubs, Cheruvim in the Hebrew plural. The cover
and the Cherubs were fashioned out of one block of pure gold.
Because we Jews
do not believe in idols or religious statuary, the presence of Cherubs in this
holiest of places requires some explanation. In Hebrew, the word Cherub
is written כְּרוּב. The letter כְּis often translated “as” or “like”. In Aramaic, רוּבis understood to mean “child”, so we get “like a child”.
HaShem spoke to Moses from between the two Cheruvim. It is the Cheruvim that
stood watch over the Ten Commandments.
Rashi explains
that the Cherub or Cheruvim had the face of a child. Their function was
to guard or keep safe the most sacred of our religious objects. And that
means the Torah. HaShem has placed the care of our Torah in the hands of
our children and grandchildren.
“Let them make Me a sanctuary, and I will
dwell among them.”
I think we no longer need a structure or a building to house the presence of God. We have the Land of Israel which performs that sacred obligation. Israel is the
sanctuary that Hashem commanded us to build.Israel is the מִקְדָּשׁ , a safe haven for us Jews as well as a private place
for the presence of God.
This week we receive detailed
instructions regarding the construction of the משכן, the portable
sanctuary, a dwelling place for Hashem’s presence.Two of the major components of the משכןare the Ark and the
Menorah:
The Ark is
protected by two Cherubs.These are winged-liked
unearthly creatures that have the faces of children.It is thought just as the Cherubs protect the
Ark, it is our children who protect our Torah and our Jewish traditions.
The Menorah in
its abstract resembles a tree, perhaps the Tree of Life.And when it branches are lit by Aaron the
Kohen Gadol, the Menorah resembles Hashem’s Torah that gives light to us Jews
and to the world at large.
At 26:14 we are instructed
that the roof of the Mishkan is to be made up of animal skins, red dyed ram
skins and the uppermost layer is to be composed of “tachash” skins.
"And you
shall make a covering for the tent of ram skins dyed red and a covering of
tachash skins above”.
No one knows
what a tachash is. Since it forms the
uppermost layer of the Mishkan roof I think the animal hide must have tough,
sort of a weather proofing material. One Rabbi in the Talmud at tractate
Shabbat 28a speculates that it came from an animal with a single horn. The Prophet
Ezekiel at 16:10 has the tachash being made into shoes. I would guess that the tachash is an animal
with a very tough skin. I think the
tachash is a hippopotamus. They once
roamed about in Israel.
In the Book of Job (40:15 and 40:31) they are called the Behamot that were huge and lived in swamps. Their skin is two inches thick.
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The Haftorah portion of Parshas Terumah parallels the building of the Mishkan in the Wilderness with Solomon’s building of the Temple in Jerusalem. The portion is from 1 KINGS 5:26 - 6:13 and begins:
“and there was
peace between Hiram and Solomon; and the two of them entered into an agreement”.
When all is done
and said, I do not like Solomon. Despite
his wisdom Solomon was a fool from the beginning. Let’s return to the previous Parshah
at 23:32 where HaShem commands us not to enter into agreements with the
Canaanites.
לֹא-תִכְרֹת
לָהֶם וְלֵאלֹהֵיהֶם, בְּרִית
“You shall not
enter into an agreement with them, nor with their gods”.
So what does
Solomon do? He enters into a construction
agreement, a בְּרִית, with Hiram, who is king of
Phoenicia and a Canaanite. Some believe
that Solomon’s Temple is the best example of Phoenician temple architecture found
to date.
Solomon’s pervasion of
Jewish law does not end here. He
conscripts 30,000 Hebrew workmen to labor in Lebanon. They are not volunteers; they are forced
laborers. But it gets worse. In addition to the 30,000 Jews from birth
laborers, Solomon conscripts 150,000 Jewish converts to shlep stone and timber
from Lebanon to Jerusalem. It is all
laid out in 1 Kings 5:27-32 and according to 2 Chronicles 2: 16-17.
It gets even worse: the 30,000 forced laborers are divided into
three groups and work one month in Lebanon and rest two months at home. Not so for the 150,000 converts; the Tanakh
is silent regarding their rotation. Going back
to Parshas Mishpatim as per 22:19 we are enjoined not to oppress or mistreat
the foreigner, which has come to mean those who convert to Judaism. In fact we are to love the convert (Deuteronomy
10:19).
If you have a
problem with my disdain for Solomon, consider this
God gives Solomon wisdom, and in the Book of Kings 1 from Chapter 3 through 10 we learn of the supposed glory of Solomon’s rule. But then we come to Chapter 11 and a different picture of Solomon emergences. He is no longer wise, and it is not just Solomon’s excesses in terms of horses, wives and gold. Nor is it the negative influence of his Egyptian Queen, in terms of her idolatry.
At 11:1 – “King Solomon loved many foreign women and the daughter of Pharaoh; Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites.
At 11:3 - And he had seven hundred royal wives and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart.
At 11;5 - And Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
At 11:7 - Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab on the mountain that is before Jerusalem and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.
At 11:9 - And the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had digressed from the Lord, God of Israel, Who had appeared to him twice.
At 11:11 - And the Lord said to Solomon, "For as this has been with you, and you have not observed My covenant and My statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and I shall give it to your servant.
And that is exactly what happened: The Kingdom of Judah had been comprised of all 12 Tribes. Ten of these revolted and they became known as the Kingdom of Israel or the Northern Kingdom. Judah was left with only two Tribes that of Benjamin and Judah.
Solomon’s servant was none other than Jeroboam (11:26). He had an opportunity to succeed to all the blessings that were to be given to Solomon and Judah, but he too followed the path of idolatry.
This Shabbat is called Shabbat Zachor, the Sabbath of Remembrance,
שבת זכור. It
is the Shabbat immediately preceding Purim. On Shabbat Zachor we read from Deuteronomy
25:17-19 which describes the attack by Amalek:
“You shall remember what Amalek did to you on the way,
when you went out of Egypt, how he happened upon you on the way and cut off all
the stragglers at your rear, when you were faint and weary, and he did not fear
God.
Therefore, it will be, when the Lord your God grants you
respite from all your enemies around [you] in the land which the Lord, your
God, gives to you as an inheritance to possess, that you shall obliterate the
remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens”.
“You shall not forget!”
There is a tradition from the Talmud that Haman, the
antagonist of the Purim story, was descended from Amalek. The portion that is
read includes a commandment to remember the attack by Amalek, and therefore at
this public reading both men and women make a special effort to hear the
reading.
We were entering a “bad neighborhood”. It was bad then and it is still bad today.
And there is a lesson to be learned in connection with a “bad
neighborhood”:
Moshe should have known that there were stragglers who
were vulnerable, and needed rear-guard protection. A leader is responsible for
the well-being of his people.
