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Parashat And Sidra Of Shemot

Parashat Shemot is the 13th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading.

Preview Of Parashat and Sidra

These are the names of the children of Israel who came into Egypt with Jacob; everyone came with their family. We are constantly following up on someone and something, we are not building on a green field. Sometimes we live from day to day, enslaved by a thousand and one obligations. But deliverance begins with the healing of memory – and our section is a short genealogical warm-up and review of the book of Genesis. The Israelites enslaved in Egypt will live for a long time only in present affliction. They don’t think about who they are. At the very beginning of this adventure, however, they are introduced as “you who are new to Israel”. The name Israel is given to us by the Bible as a confession of “G-d fights”. This name was given by G-d to the otherwise rather problematic Jacob; his name means “crooked”. The Bible knows of the levots of his sons, yet they are here unitedly included in the symbolic number of fullness through which the story continues. Jacob and all his descendants carry this duality: according to the flesh they are Jacobites, according to a special biblical view but the sons of Israel” As Traband sings in one song: It’s just a point of view…

There arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. He said to his people: ‘Look, the people of the children of Israel are more numerous and stronger than we. Let’s outsmart him, otherwise the joke will multiply. And if there was a war, he would join those who hate us. He will make war with us-and eventually leave this country!”

The first thing we learn about the new pharaoh is that he does not know anything (“who did not know Joseph” v. 8). Such a small biblical approval: the Egyptian culture, which for centuries tried to formulate the wisdom of life and which like few others she made it a point to perpetuate the name and mighty deeds of her pharaohs, she enters the scene with the sentence that the representative of her highest challenge does not know something. She does appeal to wisdom (“let’s outsmart him”, in that challenge the word chochma, wisdom is hidden”) , but in vain. Nobody knows his name today he is.

This Shabbat we begin the reading of the Second Book of Moses. This book takes us to Egypt reign of Ramses II. (1303-1213 BC), who ruled from 1279 until his death. Hebrew the slaves also participate in the construction of the pharaoh’s new capital, Ramses (verse 11). which, however, the new king ascended, he didn’t know about Joseph. If he knew anything about Josef, if he knew his story, he would be learned from him. He would find that all the means used against him by others, on the contrary they helped Joseph. Whether it was what his brothers did to him or what Potiphar did to him.
All these actions, which were intended to harm Joseph, ultimately helped him and led him to success and to the government. If the new Pharaoh had known all this, he would hardly have dared to oppress and torture the children of Israel slave labor because he would know it would lead them to freedom and greatness. (According to the work
( ירמא שא ההל ”ק ןיבמוגמ

Egypt enters the scene as a model of a great power before which the world trembles in fear. What it has achieved – militarily, constructionally and culturally – takes our breath away even today. The Torah has its ethically no edge of the story shows that the aesthetically perfect facade of this miracle alluring reverse: the brutal oppression of those on whose work this splendor stands.

We know the Israelites from yesterday according to their double ancestor, Jacob-Israel. But you will also know them according to their fruitful power (verses 7, 10 and 12) or perhaps more precisely: according to the fruitful obedience, because by being fruitful and multiplying, they fulfill the provisions Bozz It’s no accident that the Egyptians loathe it (this is literally how verse 12 ends). Front on one side a biophilic handful of slaves, against it a sophisticated, culturally advanced, but totally necrophilic power. Where do we stand?

But the midwives feared G-d and disobeyed the order of the king of Egypt. The whole narrative is reminiscent of the jokes that people living in unfreedom tell each other. “And you know the one where the pharaoh comes for the midwives to destroy every firstborn for him…?” As befits a joke, it’s a little rude, explicitly describing the birth, implicitly everything that precedes it. The midwives, summoned for sabotage Pharaoh’s order, they manage to explain to the Egyptian king what “dragons” Israeli women are compared to Egyptian women.

Separated from the pharaoh, the midwives have names that correspond to their roles: Sifra and Pua, “Beautiful” and “Bright”. The narrative leaves open whether they belonged to the Israelis and were commissioned to harm their own people, or whether they were sympathizers with Israel from the councils of Egypt tanks. The cry to their role, to their names, to their success, but above all to their breathtaking courage, lies in the fact that they feared G-d. Having been told about the exodus right from the beginning, we will go through a lesson with them, which the Israelites will repeat again and again in the desert: that the best medicine for fear of things and people around us is the fear of the Hashem. Although fear and awe are two different words in European languages, and some philosophers develop important theories about the difference between them, in Hebrew it does not matter. A person has received a certain amount of fear in his life, and it depends on whether he devotes it to G-d or to something else. Pharaoh announced a program to outwit Israel (v. 10). And the very next episode describes how he was tricked by two G-d-fearing women. The Bible tells us the secret of their success in several places: The beginning of wisdom is to fear the Hashem.

G-d, we’re always figuring out how to outsmart life, how to manage it, even if we can’t stand it. In addition, your stories sometimes give us a silent but important message: that it matters how we stand in front of you. It all depends on that.

A child grew up, she brought him [his mother to the pharaoh’s daughter and he became their son from She called him Moses (the puller). She said: “After all, I pulled him out of the waters.”

Jewish tradition worries Moses’ Egyptian youth. He therefore emphasizes the time when he was raised by his own mother. Even so, it is the pharaoh’s daughter who gives Moses a name. From a professional linguistic point of view, it is an Egyptian name, it means “go” (it is heard in the names of pharaohs such as Ramases or Tuthmoses). The princess explains the name, which sounds moshe in Hebrew, as a form of active verb: it will be called “extractor”. But that’s bad! Throughout the section, Moses is a passive recipient of someone else’s help, in Hebrew he should be called Mashuy, pulled out but it is called moses, and we can meditate on the fact that at the beginning of every human commitment to others, there is always a decent dose of G-d’s grace. And here I often mediate with surprising messengers. We can be pullers because we’ve been pullers before.

Moses and Aaron then came before Pharaoh and said: “This is what the Hashem, the G-d of Israel, says: Let my people go, and let them celebrate a festival for me in the desert.” But Pharaoh answered: Who is the Hashem, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I won’t let Israel go!”

We come to one of the highlights of the entire Torah, which is still relevant today. The short sentence “let my people go” became a symbol of the struggle for freedom – under this slogan demonstrations were held in Israel and in the United States for the release of Jews from the Soviet Union to Israel. In musical form, the plea became the basis of one of the most famous African-American spirituals of all time ” Go down Moses” — “And Moses goes”. Slave owners forbade their slaves to sing this spiritual precisely because of its second message, which speaks of the freedom of black slaves who escaped from the slave states of the USA. We can recall the popularity of spirituals in socialist Czechoslovakia, where under the guise of condemning human rights violations in the USA, a person could express his distaste for a life of unfreedom at home. At one time it also led to radicalism – I vividly remember the editing of the spiritual “Peter, Peter, put down your seat, take your sword and go fight, get the Czech land out of its shackles”. The fight for freedom, human ambition and rights, which began with the visit of Moses and Aaron at the pharaoh’s, however, none of our hero dictatorships don’t end, people have to gather the courage to start them again and again before the modern pharaohs. The first reaction is often the same as what they experienced deterioration of the situation of the enslaved. The fight for freedom that awaits at the end of the match requires a long breath. In the story, the “watchmen from among the Israelites” also emerge, who until now have lived quite well by ensuring the obedience of the oppressed community from within. I turn my anger against Moses and Aaron. We find the courage to stand up for those who are experiencing oppression and Humiliation today and correct that. We think of people who experience various forms of oppression – living in countries where they are no one. But let’s also think about TV, who experience various forms of discrimination in our society as well. Please for negative them the courage to speak up. And we also pray for ourselves, who do not experience oppression, but we do not care – teach us to show solidarity with others.

Moses turned to the Hashem and said: “Sovereign, why have you allowed evil on this people? Why did you send me anyway? From the moment I came before Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has treated these people even worse. And you still don’t free your people.” Moses and Aaron have enemies on two fronts, on one side is Pharaoh, whom Moses. with the obvious struggle of the “people of the earth”, who must not be indulged, lest they rebel and join the enemy.

Detail Parashat and Sidra:

1:12
Egyptians were afraid of the terror of the Israelites – וצקיו ינפמ ינב לארשי
The Egyptians suddenly began to feel hatred for the children of Israel, which was not theirsfree decision. It was due to the will of the Almighty, for He separated the children of Israel from the Egyptians not to assimilate. That is why the author of Psalms says:
ומע אונשל םבל ךפה – “whose hearts he changed so that they began to hate his people.” (Psalm 105:25).
(Based on the work תמא תפש Rabbi Yehuda Arie Leib Alter, 1847-1905 of Góra)
2.14
רבדה עדונ ןכא – surely the matter is already known.
At first, Moses did not understand why the children of Israel suffered more than others in the galut of Egypt nations. But now, when he saw that there were slanders, quarrels and slander between them, he began to understand what a difficult condition they are in that he even asked: “When I bring out the children of Israel, what merit do they have to be freed from slavery thanks to it? We learn from this that slander, strife, and slander nullify all merit. (According to Rabbi Yehuda Arie Leib Alter)
5:1
.my people Let go – חלק תא ימע This is the first time we encounter this utterance of the Lord, but we will encounter it again several times. Moses interprets these words of the Lord to Pharaoh. However, Pharaoh refuses to yield G-d’s will. Only the last of the ten plagues of Egypt will cause him to release the nation of the children of Israel from slavery.
Let us recall that these words of the Hashem were borrowed by many in the 70s and 80s of the last century Soviet Jews – otkazniki, whom the authorities did not allow to emigrate to Israel. These Jewish ones dissidents protested against such policies and stood, for example, on Red Square in Moscow and on the banners they had the Hashem’s words in Russian, with which Moses addressed himself to Pharaoh “Forgive my people”.

Chassidic Parashat

“And a new Pharaoh arose in Egypt who did not know of Yosef. And he said to his people, this nation of Israel is becoming greater and mightier than us. Let’s deal wisely with them, lest they multiply and side with our enemies in an attempt to make war, and wrest our land from us. And they appointed authorities who crushed their spirits with hard labor, by forcing them to build the storage cities of Pithom and Ramses. But the more they oppressed them, the more they certainly multiplied and spread out. The Egyptians dreaded the Israelites because of
this.” (Shemos 1:8-12)
“. . .lest they multiply (pen yirbeh). . .” “. . . they certainly multiplied (ken yirbeh) . . .”. Says Rashi, Pharoah said “pen yirbeh”, lest they multiply, but Hashem said “ken yirbeh”, they certainly will multiply. This gives us an insight into the verse in Psalms 2:8, “. . .and You broke the teeth of the wicked.”
The letters “Pay” and “Khof” are very similar. The difference between them is a
little tooth in the belly of the “Pay”. When you break off the tooth in the “Pay”, it becomes a “Khof”.
Pharaoh wanted to break the bodies and spirits of Bnei Yisrael in order to stop their population explosion. But Hashem “broke the teeth” of the nefarious ruler.
The harder he tried to oppress Bnei Yisrael, the more they multiplied. Pharaoh said, “pen yirbeh”, let’s keep them from multiplying. Hashem broke his teeth, and “pen yirbeh” became “ken yirbeh”, they certainly multiplied.

Sticking Together

“The Egyptians made the children of Israel do backbreaking labor.” (Shemos 1:13) It is difficult to understand how the Egyptians succeeded in gaining control over the Children of Israel and in subjugating them into slavery. The Israelites were numerous and powerful, and they inspired dread in the hearts of the Egyptians who witnessed their amazing population growth with sextuplet births.

Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, the Ramban, (on Shemos 1:10) in what is generally held to be the classic description of a society’s descent into anti-semitism, explains that the Egyptians tried to deceive the Israelites. It would have been crude and tasteless for the Egyptians to initiate a genocide against the Israelite residents. After all, the Egyptians’ current prosperity was due solely to the
wisdom and efforts of Yosef and the blessings which Yaacov returned to the land.
In addition, the Egyptians wouldn’t be amenable to unwarranted violent action
against their Israelite neighbors. Moreover, the Israelites, with their great numbers and might, could have easily begun a revolt against the Egyptians. Goshen was a relative fortress. So Pharaoh devised a plan to gradually subjugate the Israelites in such a way that they wouldn’t feel it until it was too late. They disguised their hatred towards the
Israelites with measures designed to set them apart from the Egyptian public. First the Egyptians imposed a tax; for a tax levied on foreign nationals living on their soil would certainly not be misconstrued as unfair. King Solomon himself did a similar thing. (Kings I, 9:21-22) Pharaoh’s next step was to command the midwives to throw the male infants into the Nile. (Shemos 1:15) The mothers themselves didn’t even realize what was happening.The midwives simply told them that the child was stillborn. Later, the whole nation was invited by Pharaoh to take any Israelite male infant and dispose of him in a similar manner. (Shemos 1:22) If a father complained to the Egyptian authorities, he was told to bring witnesses and that appropriate punishment would be exacted on the murderer. Obviously, nothing ever came of these “investigations”. Still, the Israelites didn’t realize that what was being
perpetrated against them was part of a master plan. They believed that these acts were being carried out by individual Egyptian anti-semites. Soon it became socially acceptable to display outright cruelty and violence towards the Israelites. Their status in society had deteriorated to such a level, that the Egyptians felt free to search Jewish homes for hidden male children in order to pitch them into the Nile. (see Shemos 2:3) (See Yalkut Meam Loez, The
Torah Anthology, Exodus I pages 30-35 for a detailed description of this period in
English.)
There was one exception in this scenario; the Tribe of Levi. The tribe of Levi was never subjugated at all. There are a number of possible explanations: They were destined to serve in the Beis HaMikdash and therefore it wasn’t fitting for them to be enslaved.
The Levi’im were the scholars and priests of the Israelites, and provided Pharaoh with a core of intellectuals and advisors. Therefore they were allowed to maintain their own academies/yeshivos.

Levi never abandoned the rite of circumcision. The Egyptians abhorred circumcision and maintained that it impaired a man’s fertility. When the other
tribes became Egyptized and stopped circumcising their children, the Egyptians
looked at their subsequent population increase as a natural consequence. So the
Egyptians subjugated them in a natural way with harsh labor. Levi continued to circumcise, and nevertheless experienced a population increase. The Egyptians looked upon that as a supernatural occurrence and therefore decided that any attempts to subjugate them would be in vain. Before Jacob died he commanded the Levi’im to carry his bier, since they were destined in the future to bear the Holy Ark. Since the Egyptians saw that Jacob had conferred on Levi a special status, the Egyptians also treated them differently. When Levi didn’t respond to the first call for voluntary labor, (see below) the Egyptians decided to leave them alone. Furthermore, Hashem promised to Avraham that his descendants would inherit Eretz Yisrael and would also be enslaved in Egypt. (Bereishis14:12-16) Since Levi did not receive an inheritance of land like the rest of the tribes, they were exempted from subjugation. Pharaoh commenced the final stage of his plan against the Israelites by exhorting all of Egypt to come out in a show of patriotism to begin a mass Egyptian building program. Impassioned speeches throughout the country convinced one and all of the importance of a strong Egypt. The first day, every citizen came to participate (with the exception of the tribe of Levi). In order to dispel anyone’s claim that brick-making was below their dignity, Pharaoh himself took a brick-mold in hand that first day and began to make bricks. The Israelites, eager to show that they were better workers than their Egyptian counterparts, worked with tremendous motivation and produced twice as many bricks as the Egyptians. What they didn’t know, was that Pharaoh’s accountants were keeping track of the day’s production. When they came back the next day to work, they were alone with the Egyptian taskmasters; no Pharaoh, no Egyptians. Yesterday’s production became today’s quota. Thus the subjugation began in earnest. At first glance, the role of Levi seems to be exceptionally praiseworthy. They remembered all along that they were Israelites, and didn’t forget what it meant to
be a descendant of Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaacov. They held on to their identity even when the rest of the nation was losing theirs. Nevertheless, the role of the Tribe of Levi needs re-examination.
In Parashat Ba’aloscha, (Bamidbar 8) we find the account of the inauguration of the tribe of Levi into divine service.
“God spoke to Moshe saying, take the Levi’im from amongst the rest of the Israelites and purify them. In order to purify them, you must sprinkle on them the water of the sin offering after they have shaved their entire bodies with a razor. Then they should immerse their bodies and their clothing and they will be clean.” (Numbers 8:5-7)
The Levi’im had to have their bodies completely shaved. (Some commentators maintain that they kept the beard and sidelocks in accordance with the mitzvah in
Vayikra 19-27.) Rashi explains why such an unusual purification rite was needed to inaugurate them into service. The Levi’im took the place of the first-born who were originally supposed to officiate in the Tabernacle and later in the Beis HaMikdash. Since the first-born participated in the incident of the Golden Calf, they forfeited their special privilege.
The Levi’im, as heirs to the divine service, had to effect an appropriate atonement
for the first-born. The first-born served a false g-d (the Golden Calf), and the service of one who does so is called “the sacrifice of the dead”. A leper (metzorah) is equated by the Talmud as one who is dead, and a leper requires full body shaving as part of his purification. Therefore, the Levi’im also required full body shaving.
But what is the connection of the Levi to the leper? The Levi’im themselves didn’t do anything that deserved shaving. It is really the first-born, the ones who served false g-ds, who should have been shaved.
The Talmud (Nedarim 64b) says that there are four peopele who are considered as dead even while still alive; a poor person, a leper, a blind person, and one without children. A dead person is cut off from the Source of life. The body is there but the connection to the Source is not. A poor person has no source of
sustenance, and a blind person is cut off from society. One with no children is without continuation; without a link in the chain of Jewish life. The leper, suffering because he said slander, (Loshon Hara) voluntarily cuts himself off from society. His punishment includes banishment, a period of solitude in the desert giving him time to contemplate his actions. When the leprosy subsides, he must bring an offering and have his entire body shaved. The practice of Avodah Zara, serving false g-ds, is called the “sacrifice of the dead”. Turning one’s attention to false g-ds, is the ultimate severance of the connection with the Source of all life. This is the connection between the leper and the worshipper of false g-ds.
Yet, why did the tribe of Levi require such a purification? They didn’t participate in the incident of the Golden Calf. Quite the opposite. When Moshe Rabbenu returned from Mt. Sinai, only Levi rallied around him to exact vengeance on the perpetrators of the Golden Calf. (Shemos 32:26-29)
Was there nothing they could have done to prevent it? It was a mob run wild. They killed numerous people who tried to prevent them from making the Calf. Even Aaron knew that he couldn’t stop them, therefore he tried only to stall them. Nevertheless, the allegation against the Levi’im stands, and they needed the purification of a leper. Therefore there must be some blemish hidden in the past of the Tribe of Levi; a blemish which is a result of being cut off from Klal Yisrael. Somehow they didn’t do enough to try to prevent the Golden Calf from happening. They allowed their brothers to break their connection to Hashem.

This relationship can be explained by a parable. Imagine a poster taped to the wall. It may be falling down and hanging only by one corner. But as long as that corner is still attached, then we say the poster is still attached to the wall. If the Children of Israel did participate in the incident of the Golden Calf, and Levi did not, then Klal Yisrael must still be united with Hashem, with Levi, like the corner of the poster, insuring the connection. If the people as a whole were still connected to Hashem, then how could the incident of the Golden Calf have occurred?
The tribe of Levi was always different from the rest of the Tribes. In Egypt, as explained above, they were exempted from the hardships and misery of slavery. With the exception of Moshe Rabbenu who was also a Levi (Shemos 2:11), we don’t find that they did anything to try to alleviate the suffering of their brothers. In seems as if they were aloof from the rest of Klal Yisrael. Levi, being the scholars and the Tzaddikim of those generations held themselves distant from the rest of the people. Therefore, even though Levi didn’t participate in the Golden Calf, by distancing themselves from the people, they allowed the last shreds of connection to Hashem to be severed, in essence paving the way to the Golden Calf. The Levi’im must share the responsibility since they didn’t get more involved by taking the risks necessary to help their brethren. This prevented the influence of their holiness to affect the Klal.
The innovation of Chassidus is the development of the close and direct relationship between the people and the Tzaddik. The people need to attach themselves to the Tzaddik, and the Tzaddik in turn assumes responsibility for the spiritual and physical well-being of his people. His actions and prayers can then elevate and purify those who bind their service of Hashem up with his. Notice the difference in the relationship of Moshe Rabbenu to Klal Yisrael. Even though he was reared in the royal palace of the Pharaoh, he didn’t forget who he was. He went out to see for himself what the situation of the Israelites was. (Shemos 2:11) As a result of his defense of his brothers, he was even forced to flee Egypt for his life.
After the incident of the Golden Calf, Hashem called Moshe Rabbenu and informed him that this People had transgressed unforgivably. He wanted to wipe them out and start all over again; with Moshe Rabbenu as the father of a new generation. Moshe Rabbenu didn’t accede. “If you are going to wipe them out”, he declared, “You must take me too. My fate is bound up with theirs.” Hashem accepted Moshe’s plea and revealed to him the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, a guaranteed formula for forgiveness. On account of his attachment to them, Klal Yisrael inherited the merit of Moshe Rabbenu and were spared any further the punishment for the Golden Calf. This relationship is spelled out in the continuation of the section which deals with the purification of the Levi’im. It is clear from the following, that the Levi’im learned an important lesson from the experience with the Golden Calf. After the
shaving, a burnt offering and sin offering were brought.
“And the Levi’im shall be brought to the front of the Tabernacle and assemble the
entire Israelite community. And the Levi’im shall be brought before Hashem and the Israelites shall lay their hands on the Levi’im. Then Aaron shall wave the Levi’im like a wave offering to Hashem from the Israelites, and thereby will the Levi’im be specially designated to perform Hashem’s service.” (Bamidbar 8:8-12) What is the reason for the repetition of the phrase, “And the Levi’im shall be brought . . .”? The Chasam Sofer (Bamidbar 8:8-12) answered the question in accordance with our idea. At first the Levi’im were brought only to the gate of the Tabernacle. Then the rest of the people were gathered. Once the rest of the people were there and the Levi’im bound themselves together with them in a common bond of service, the Levi’im got a spiritual boost. The next verse reveals that they were brought in front of Hashem! But it doesn’t
end there. The people then strengthened their connection to Levi, the Tzaddik. They laid their hands on them, and didn’t let go. With that unity, the Levi’im were to be elevated even higher. They became a wave offering to Hashem and were thus prepared for Divine Service.
The first-born did the Avoda Zara, but the tribe of Levi had to take upon themselves their purification. They had to shave like lepers who cut themselves off from the community. Shaving the entire body is the punishment for the one who relaxed his feeling of unity with his community. By healing this rift, the Tribe of Levi prepared themselves for the unique mission of representing Klal Yisrael in the Divine Service of the Tabernacle and Holy Temple, helping to bring all of Yisroel ever closer to Hashem and His service. (Based on a talk by Rabbi A. Ch. Carmell of Jerusalem)