One Hundred Words on the Parshah
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One Hundred Words on the Parshah
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The Rasha in the Haggada famously challenges his father with the question, מה העבודה הזאת לכם – “Why are you doing this service of ה'?”
The Rasha is uncomfortable with avodas Hashem, which takes hard work and perseverance. He doesn’t see the point of the self-sacrifice (mesiras nefesh) that avodas Hashem requires.
The Haggada continues, “And you shall answer him: Because of this Hashem took me out of Mitrzaim.” The Alter of Novardok associates this response to the famous pasuk in Yirmiyah (2:): כה אמר ה' זכרתי לך חסד נעוריך אהבת כלולתיך לכתך אחרי במדבר בארץ לא זרועה “So says Hashem: I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your bridehood; how you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.”
Out of their love for Hashem, the Jewish people willingly followed Him into a barren desert, an act that required great mesiras nefesh. The Alter from Novardok explains that this mesiras nefesh was the crucial factor that enabled them to be redeemed from Mitzrayim. Otherwise they would not have been redeemed.
“ and then he will come close to be מקריב (the קרבן פסח)”
The בעל הטורים compares the term “ואז” “and then” to the only other three places where it is used in תנ"ך: • "ואז ירצו את עונם" “and then they will be forgiven for their sins (ויקרא כ"ו מ"א) • "ואז תשכיל" “and then you will become wise”(יהושע א' ח') • "ואז חיל מלך בבל צרים על ירושלים" “and then the king of בבל was attacking ירושלים” (ירמיה ל"ב ב')
By bringing קרבנות, we will be forgiven for our sins, and then we will become wise so we will be able to defeat enemies that attack.
I would point out an interesting aspect: the קרבנות are offered in ירושלים! How appropriate that this is where we will be protected from attacks.
Today, each man should bring his hands full with a קרבן in front of ה' through slaughtering his relatives who bowed to the עגל (as understood by ספר זכרון מאיר ).
חז"ל teach that if a person simply raises his hand against his friend, he is already considered a רשע . This posuk teaches us that one must kill another person and it is considered as if he brought a קרבן. Why? The lesson is that there is nothing that should be too hard for a person to do in order to serve ה' ; even things that are counterintuitive and seem contrary to the תורה. A person should be prepared to serve through whatever circumstances he is placed.
If we are to be quarantined because of the coronavirus, our עבודת ה' will go on throughout those circumstances.
Hashem rewarded Shifra and Puah for their work by giving them “houses”.
My great uncle R’ Kasriel Shlomo Orbach זצ"ל asks a question regarding a well known רש"י in this week’s פרשה and gives an interesting answer.
רש"י comments on ויעש להם בתים “and He made for them houses”, that Hashem gave Shifra and Puah the gifts of kings and כהנים and לויים descending from them as a reward for the sacrifice they exhibited as midwives who disobeyed פרעה’s instructions to kill the Jewish newborns. According to רש"י, Shifra was Yocheved, the mother of אהרן (the firstכהן ) and of משה (the most prominent לוי). Puah was Miriam who was the ancestress of Kings (with her husband כלב from the שבט יהודה).
R’ Kasriel notes that the דעת זקנים explains (as opposed to רש"י) that Puah was Elisheva, Yocheved’s daughter-in-law. However, kings were not descended from her. In that case, posits R’ Kasriel, בתים is referring only to כהנים and לויים , not מלכות . Elisheva, the wife of אהרן was indeed the ancestress of all כהנים. . I was thinking that perhaps even according to the דעת זקנים who says Puah was Elisheva, that kingship can be included in the reward of “houses”, however not through Elisheva but through Yocheved. As the mother of משה רבנו who was considered to be a “king” of כלל ישראל.
“I’ve heard the davening of the Jews, about מצרים subjugating them.”
Simply understood, this means that מצרים was oppressing the Jews by making them work very hard. A different explanation could be as follows: Because of the subjugation of מצרים, the Jews were being עובד ה' crying out to him because of the tremendous burden.
אשר מצרים מעבידים אותם - causing them to be עובד ה'. The suffering brought them to תשובה and therefore, ה' accepted their תפילות. A פסוק in חומש דברים talks about the end of time: the צרות will cause the Jews to return to ה' with all our heart and ה' will have pity and redeem us. May it be soon in our time.
If a tree is growing partially in ארץ ישראל and partially in חוץ לארץ and the trunk is in ארץ ישראל, then there is a requirement to give תרומות ומעשרות, even if the majority of the branches are outside of ארץ ישראל. Interestingly, the הלכה is different for taking ביכורים. It is not enough for the tree to be primarily in ארץ ישראל, rather, it must be completely in ארץ ישראל in order to require ביכורים. The difference would seem to be because of the word אדמתך that the תורה uses when talking about the requirement of ביכורים. “אדמתך” would seem to indicate land that is entirely yours.
After Shimon and Levi killed out the city of Shechem, Yaakov rebuked them for making the locals angry at him. Many years ago, I read an article about Israeli politics where the author was refuting Yaakov’s attitude to argue that Jews shouldn’t be fearful. He pointed out that nothing happened to Yaakov as a result of what Shimon and Levi did. The fallacy of this argument is that the Torah tells us that the יושבי הארץ didn’t run after Yaakov because Hashem put a special fear in them. In other words, Yaakov was correct in his assessment.
Bonus – Halacha Words
The Yidden don’t eat the גיד הנשה
תפילין can only be made out of kosher animals. Part of תפילין is the strings made out of animal veins. Is it permitted to use the vein called גיד הנשה? On the one hand, it is from a kosher animal, however, it itself is not kosher. This is actually a dispute among the Poskim.
After Shimon and Levi killed out the city of Shechem, Yaakov rebuked them for making the locals angry at him. Many years ago, I read an article about Israeli politics where the author was refuting Yaakov’s attitude to argue that Jews shouldn’t be fearful. He pointed out that nothing happened to Yaakov as a result of what Shimon and Levi did. The fallacy of this argument is that the Torah tells us that the יושבי הארץ didn’t run after Yaakov because Hashem put a special fear in them. In other words, Yaakov was correct in his assessment.
Bonus – Halacha Words
The Yidden don’t eat the גיד הנשה
תפילין can only be made out of kosher animals. Part of תפילין is the strings made out of animal veins. Is it permitted to use the vein called גיד הנשה? On the one hand, it is from a kosher animal, however, it itself is not kosher. This is actually a dispute among the Poskim.
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All learning should be a zechus for a refuah shelaimah for Yosef Ezriel Ben Chaya Michal