Rabbi David Etengoff

ה' יעזור וירחם על אחינו כל בני ישראל בארץ ישראל ובכל חלקי הארץ
 
The Eser Makkot (10 Plagues) are the highlight of both our parasha and Parashat Bo. Their miraculous Nature-changing power stirs our religious imagination and demonstrates Hashem’s omnipotence writ large. The Torah teaches us that the overarching purpose of the makkot was in order that “… the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth My hand over Egypt, and I will take the children of Israel out of their midst…” (Sefer Shemot 7:5, this and all Tanach translations, The Judaica Press Complete Tanach)
 
While each plague profoundly affected every aspect of Egyptian society, barad (hail) alone elicited such an admission from Pharaoh: “I have sinned this time (chatati hapa’am). The Lord is the righteous One (Hashem HaTzaddik), and I and my people are the guilty ones.’” (9:27) Pharoah’s words contain three separate ideas: recognition of his personal sin, acknowledgment of Hashem’s righteousness, and assertion of his and the Egyptian people’s guilt for acting cruelly toward our nascent nation.
 
Why did Pharaoh make this proclamation regarding this particular plague? Midrash Tanchuma Buber provides us with an intriguing insight:

[Let us learn the reason for Pharaoh’s behavior based upon the manner in which most people would act:] If someone desires to go to war against his fellow man, and be victorious against him, he attacks him in an unexpected [and stealthy manner]. He then kills him and takes every possession his enemy has. Yet, the Holy One blessed be He acted in an entirely different fashion toward Pharaoh and proclaimed to him: “And now, send, gather in your livestock and all that you have in the field; any man or beast that is found in the field and not brought into the house the hail shall fall on them, and they will die.” (9:19) [It was precisely as a result of Hashem’s warning that Pharaoh,] following his experience of the [forewarned] barad, exclaimed, “The Lord is the righteous One.” (Parashat Va’era 20, translation and brackets my own)
 
According to this passage, Pharaoh was completely overwhelmed by Hashem’s merciful warning regarding the mortal danger barad would entail. Nonetheless, because of his arrogance, Pharaoh ignored Hashem’s adjuration, and his people suffered untold death and destruction. When he ultimately recognized the dire consequences of his behavior, however, Pharaoh had little choice but to proclaim, “The Lord is the righteous One.”
 
The Kli Yakar (Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz, 1550-1619) takes a different approach regarding barad. In response to the question, “Why was this plague so pivotal to Hashem’s plan?” he emphasizes that the hail was accompanied by thunder: “… the Lord gave forth thunder and hail…” (9:23). For the Kli Yakar, thunder played an essential role in Pharaoh’s recognition of the Master of the Universe:
​
The Plague of Hail and the thunder that accompanied it, came upon Pharaoh as a result of his refusal to listen to Hashem’s voice with the proper majesty (“b’hadar”) to which it was due. Therefore, Hashem forced him to hear thunder that was at once awe-inspiring and frightening. As a result, here, and here alone, he confessed to his sin and declared, “the Lord is the righteous One, and I and my people are the guilty ones,” since [until this point,] he had denied Hashem’s existence and verbally proclaimed His non-existence… Consequently, he was punished through the sound of thunder… [Once, however, Pharaoh confessed his sin, Moshe declared,] “The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, in order that you know that the earth is the Lord’s.” (9:29, Kli Yakar translation, brackets and underlining my own)
 
The concluding Hebrew phrase in 9:29, “l’ma’an taida ki l’Hashem ha’aretz—in order that you know that the earth is the Lord’s,” finds its parallel in Dovid HaMelech’s celebrated pasuk in Sefer Tehillim: “L’Dovid mizmor l’Hashem ha’aretz u’mloah, tavel v’yoshvei vah—Of David, a song. The earth and the fulness thereof are the Lord’s; the world and those who dwell therein.” (24:1)  In his Commentary on Sefer Tehillim on this pasuk, Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888) zatzal opines that, since “the earth and the fulness thereof are God’s, the world of men and its inhabitants are also His.” (This and the following quotation, The Hirsch Tehillim, second printing, 2016, page 207)  What does this mean? Rav Hirsch maintains that: “The earth and the fulness thereof belong to God Himself, Who is also Hashem, the God of the Torah, the God of history. The earth must serve His sovereignty which trains men how to fulfill His moral Law…”
 
Rav Hirsch’s analysis and the commentary of the Kli Yakar provide valuable insight into why Pharoah abruptly declared: “the Lord is the righteous One, and I and my people are the guilty ones.” For one bright shining moment, Pharoah and his nation realized that when “the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail,” it will be because Hashem was, is, and always will be the Adon Olam—Master of the Universe. Perhaps no greater lesson could ever be taught to humankind.
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
Past drashot may be found at my blog-website: http://reparashathashavuah.org
 
The email list, b’chasdei Hashem, has expanded to hundreds of people. I am always happy to add more members to the list. If you would like to be added, please contact me via email: mailto:[email protected].
 
*** My audio shiurim on the topics of Tefilah and Tanach may be found at: Tefilah and Tanach
 
*** I have posted 164 of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s English language audio shiurim (MP3 format) spanning the years 1958-1984. Please click on the highlighted link.
 

 
Rabbi David Etengoff
 
ה' יעזור וירחם על אחינו כל בני ישראל, בארץ ישראל ובכל חלקי הארץ
 
 
Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman zatzal (1874–1941) was one of the greatest disciples of the saintly Chafetz Chaim zatzal (Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan, 1838-1933). In his eulogy for his beloved rebbe, he explained that the Chafetz Chaim at first wanted to change the world, then lowered his expectations to his community. After then directing his efforts toward his family, he finally settled upon changing himself. According to Rav Wasserman, the Chafetz Chaim was so humble, he failed to realize that his self-transformation ultimately did change his family, community and the entire world.
 
Our parasha contains a similar narrative of change regarding Moshe Rabbeinu. As the Torah attests, his youth was spent as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter and, according to Rashi, the head of Pharaoh’s household. (2:1) Most people in this situation would have embraced their opulent conditions and rejected their enslaved family of origin. Moshe, however, acted very differently. Although the Torah remains completely silent regarding the inner workings of his mind during this period, it is clear Moshe maintained a strong connection to his Jewish origins:

Now it came to pass in those days that Moshe grew up and went out to his brothers and looked at their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man of his brothers. He turned this way and that way, and he saw that there was no man; so he struck the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. (Sefer Shemot 2:11-12, this and all Bible translations, The Judaica Press Complete Tanach)
 
Why did Moshe rescue his fellow Jew? Like any nobleman of his time, he could easily have ignored this all-too-common violence. Then, too, the very next day he again left the palace to continue to look after the welfare of his fellow Jews. When he discovered Datan and Aviram (Rashi 2:13) in the midst of a heated argument that threatened physical violence, Moshe immediately asked them to refrain from striking one another. Unfortunately, they rejected his intervention, and their harsh rebuke revealed to Moshe that his actions against the Egyptian taskmaster had become public knowledge:

He [Moshe] went out on the second day, and behold, two Hebrew men were quarreling, and he said to the wicked one, “Why are you going to strike your friend?” And he retorted, “Who made you a man, a prince, and a judge over us? Do you plan to slay me as you have slain the Egyptian?” Moshe became frightened and said, “Indeed, the matter has become known!” (2:13-14)
 
Moshe immediately fled Egypt and sought asylum in Midian, a wise plan, since when “Pharaoh heard of this inciden,t he sought to slay Moshe.” (2:15)  In sum, Moshe risked everything by identifying with, and defending his brethren.
 
Once in Midian, Moshe’s focus on justice and righteousness expanded to include the needs of non-Jews:
​
… so Moshe fled from before Pharaoh. He stayed in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well. Now the chief of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew [water], and they filled the troughs to water their father's flocks. But the shepherds came and drove them away; so Moshe arose and rescued them and watered their flocks. (2:15-16)
 
At this point in in the narrative of Moshe’s life, we see him undertaking several crucial steps toward becoming a consummate leader. First, he refused to be corrupted by the life he had led as a palace prince. Next, he grew in his love of his fellow Jews to the extent that he placed his own life in danger. Lastly, in a true test of moral rectitude, he actualized his desire for universal justice and fought to protect the non-Jewish daughters of the chief of Midian. With righteousness, conviction of purpose, and singular bravery, Moshe became a true representative of the Master of the Universe. Little wonder, then, that the Almighty chose him to be the leader of our nascent nation.
 
With Hashem’s help, may we strive to emulate Moshe Rabbeinu and bring forth positive changes in ourselves, our nation, and ultimately, our world. V’chane yihi ratzon.
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
Past drashot may be found at my blog-website: http://reparashathashavuah.org
 
The email list, b’chasdei Hashem, has expanded to hundreds of people. I am always happy to add more members to the list. If you would like to be added, please contact me via email: mailto:[email protected].
 
*** My audio shiurim on the topics of Tefilah and Tanach may be found at: Tefilah and Tanach
 
*** I have posted 164 of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s English language audio shiurim (MP3 format) spanning the years 1958-1984. Please click on the highlighted link.

Rabbi David Etengoff
 
ה' יעזור וירחם על אחינו כל בני ישראל, בארץ ישראל ובכל חלקי הארץ
 
 
Parashat Vayechi is the final sidrah in Sefer Bereishit and the bridge to Sefer Shemot. Until the time of this narrative, our forebears were a small family comprised of 12 tribes. Yet, within the first chapter of Sefer Shemot, Pharaoh utilizes fear-mongering and rabble-rousing rhetoric in his proclamation to his nation:

… “Behold, Am B’nai Yisrael — the people of the children of Israel are more numerous and stronger than we are. Get ready, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they increase, and a war befall us, and they join our enemies and wage war against us and depart from the land.” (1:9-10, this and all Tanach translations, The Judaica Press Complete Tanach)
 
Suddenly, we have become an am, a people and a recognized “nation within a nation” that, in Pharaoh’s twisted and hate-filled mind, threatens the very being of the Egyptian people.
 
I believe that Ya’akov Avinu was well aware that his family of 70 individuals was destined to become an am: “…Hayasfu—Gather and I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days. Hekabtzu—Join together and listen, sons of Ya’akov, and listen to Yisrael, your father.” (Sefer Bereishit 49:1-2, with my emendations)  While hayasfu and hekabtzu have slightly different meanings, both suggest the idea of banding together into a singular entity—in this case, the Jewish people.
 
What is the essence of Am Yisrael? What makes us a unique nation? How, against all the “laws of history,” have we managed to not only survive, but to thrive? These are questions to which my rebbe and mentor, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zatzal (1903-1993) returned time and time again. During some of the darkest days of the Holocaust, the Rav penned, “U’vikashtem Misham--And from There You Shall Seek,” his most personally beloved theological work. Therein, he identifies and analyzes the idea of Knesset Yisrael:
​
Knesset Yisrael—the Community of Israel—its definition: the inextricable connection between the first and last generations of prophet and listener, of Torah scholar and student, of the Revelation of G-d’s Divine Presence in the earliest lights of dawn, and the eschatological vision on that day to come. (Translation my own)
 
At first blush, one might imagine that Knesset Yisrael is a homogeneous entity that is linked together by like-minded people and universally agreed upon concepts and patterns of thought. Yet, in his analysis of the term, “hekabtzu—join together,” the Rav Soloveitchik presents an entirely different notion that helps account for the continuation and greatness of Knesset Yisrael: “Jacob here [in his blessings to his sons] expresses the essence of Knesses Yisrael. According to Nachmanides, Knesses Yisrael connotes a community of contradictory, mutually exclusive ideas and people. … [with] many traits of character.” (Public lecture, Boston, 1979, cited in, Chumash Mesoras HaRav, Sefer Bereishis, page 357)
 
I believe that Ya’akov Avinu profoundly understood this constitutive aspect of the Jewish people, as demonstrated by his differentiated brachot to each of his sons. In a very real sense, his brachot represented the key to the Jewish future in which our many differences would become a dynamic source of strength, enabling us to survive the seemingly endless trials and tribulations of our storied history.
 
May the Master of the Universe ever encourage us to embrace our myriad differences so that we may join together and proclaim as one, “Am Yisrael chai!” V’chane yihi ratzon.
Shabbat Shalom
 
Past drashot may be found at my blog-website: http://reparashathashavuah.org
 
The email list, b’chasdei Hashem, has expanded to hundreds of people. I am always happy to add more members to the list. If you would like to be added, please contact me via email: mailto:[email protected].
 
*** My audio shiurim on the topics of Tefilah and Tanach may be found at: Tefilah and Tanach
 
*** I have posted 164 of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s English language audio shiurim (MP3 format) spanning the years 1958-1984. Please click on the highlighted link.