Shalom Friends;
This week, our Parshat HaShavua — Parshat Va’eira is being sponsored anonymously dedicated Lilui Nishmas the sponsor’s grandparents Moshe ben Yaakov Hirsch and Chana bat Beryl as well as for the safe return of all Chayalim — physically, mentally and spiritually and for the Liberation of the remaining deceased hostage and his return home for Jewish ritual burial and for Kol Klal Yisrael.
To our anonymous sponsor, many thanks for your sponsorship and your kindnesses through the years.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShavua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShavua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
Subscribe to the Israel and the Sin of Expulsion blog, to ask questions or to sponsor a Parsha Vort at: olehchadash@yahoo.com
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Before we segue into our Parshat Va’eira, it seems important to introduce our Parshat in this way. Rabbi Goldin concludes his Parshat Summary of Parshat Shemos in his Sefer “Unlocking the Torah Text,” on Sefer Shemot (pages 1 – 2) :
Moshe arrives in Egypt and, together with Aaron, gathers the elders of B’nei Yisrael and informs them of their people’s impending redemption. Moshe and Aaron appear before Pharaoh and, as Hashem instructed at the Burning Bush, ask the Egyptian king to allow the B’nei Yisrael to leave Egypt for a three-day period to worship their G’d. Pharaoh refuses and increases the burden of labor upon the B’nei Yisrael.
As Parshat Shemos concludes, Rabbi Aryeh Levin’s Chumash, “The Living Torah” renders to English Sefer Shemos, Perek 5, posukim 18 – 21) :
“[Pharaoh ordered the foremen] ‘Now go! Get to work! You will not be given any straw, but you must deliver your quota of bricks.'”
The Jewish foremen realized that they were in serious trouble. They had been clearly told that they could not reduce their daily brick quota. When they were leaving Pharaoh, [the foremen] encountered Moshe and Aaron waiting to meet them. ‘Let G’d look at you and be your Judge,’ they said. ‘You have destroyed our reputation with Pharaoh and his advisors. You have placed a sword to kill us in their hands.'”
We now pick up Rabbi Goldin’s Parshat Summary again (“Unlocking the Torah Text,” on Sefer Shemos, page 2) :
Moshe turns to Hashem in frustration and questions his own mission to Egypt. Hashem responds by promising that Moshe will now see the Yetziyot Mitzrayim begin to unfold. (Rabbi Goldin summarizing Sefer Shemos, Perek 5, posukim 22 through Perek 6, posuk 1).
Our Parshat Va’eira now opens with Torah relating:
“G’d spoke to Moshe and said to him; ‘I am Hashem. I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov as El Shaddai, but with my name Hashem I did not make Myself known to them. Moreover, I established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojourning [noun: a temporary stay, verb — used without object: to stay for a time in a place; live temporarily], in which they sojourned. Moreover, I have heard the groan of the B’nei Yisrael whom Egypt enslaves and I have remembered [vaw’ezkor] My covenant.'” (Sefer Shemos. Perek 6, posukim 2 -5 as rendered to English in the Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash)
Rabbi Hershel Reichman provides commentary explaining Moshe’s frustration and his questioning of his mission in his Sefer, “Living the Chassidic Legacy — Lessons Based on Shem Mishmuel, Volume 1” (pages 200 – 203, 206 – 207) ;
The Midrash on Parshat Va’eira cites a posuk: “I see that with wisdom comes foolishness, because who is man to question what the King has already decreed and done?” (Rabbi Reichman citing Shem Mishmuel citing Koheles 2:12)
Hashem told Moshe that Pharaoh would not let the people go. Hashem added that he would harden Pharaoh’s heart.
Nonetheless, Moshe was upset after his initial meeting with Pharaoh worsened the Jews situation as slaves — Pharaoh… made the new decree that the Jews would have to gather their own straw to make bricks.Upset, Moshe complained to Hashem and posed a challenging question: “Why did You send me?” It seems that Hashem was criticizing Moshe for responding inappropriately. Moshe felt guilty that he caused [the increased work load and lack of rest]. This aspect of Pharaoh’s response was not predicted.
…What was Hashem’s answer to Moshe: “Ata sireh asher e’eseh l’Pharaoh. Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh.” (Rabbi Reichman renders to English Sefer Sh’mos Perek 6, posuk 1)
To explain this passage, Shem Mishmuel focuses on a Midrash in Parshat Vayeishev. Torah says that Yaakov sent Yosef “from the valley of Chevron (emek Chevron)” to find his brothers. The city of Chevron is on a hill, not a valley. Why does Torah say that Yaakov sent Yosef from a valley? Shem Mishmuel interprets the word “emek” as to imply “eitza amuka” — the deepest idea of Avraham Avinu, who is buried in Chevron.
The Midrash explains the geographically in accurate statement of the Torah. Yaakov sent Yosef based on the deep idea (eitza amuka) of Avraham Avinu… Hashem had made a covenant with Avraham many years earlier — the bris bein habesarim — wherein Hashem foretold the exile, slavery and suffering of the Jews. This was a deep idea that Avraham Avinu suggested to Hashem…
The question that Avraham and Hashem were considering was that of continuity. This is the fundamental problem of Am Yisrael. Avraham was a great man, as was Yitzchak and Yaakov. How do we continue and perpetrate greatness from one generation to the next and to the nation in future generations?
Hashem was going to give B’nei Yisrael tremendous blessings: Eretz Yisrael, Torah and Olam HaBa. They are great and unique gifts that the Jews are privileged to have received from Hashem. Eretz Yisrael: So many nations continually want to take the land, but no nation has ever successfully done so. It always remains the exclusive gift of Am Yisrael. No other nation ever has been exiled from a land and returned.
We have the gift of Torah, the ultimate gift to the human race. We can know Hashem’s plans for the world and what he expects of human beings. It takes us from the lowest levels of this world to the highest level of Heaven. The gift of Olam HaBa is when the world will change completely and there will be only good, not evil.
But these gifts must be deserved. Otherwise, the whole world would have them; and these three gifts are unique to the Jews. They come with serious requirements…, Yisurim, suffering, is part of the price to earn these gifts.
How can the Avos guarantee that their children will live up to their [the Avos’] level? Avraham was having a serious discussion about this and Hashem asked him, “What do you prefer? You can pick gehinom with severe and terrible punishments so your offspring will be afraid to stray from the tradition. Or you can choose galut, exile, a sort of suffering in this world instead of suffering in the next world.”
…Avraham chose galut — subjugation and slavery to other nations — as the basic way to guarantee our continuity as a nation…. This is the eitza amuka. Galut and ge’ula, exile and redemption, are the fundamental cycle of our history.
Avraham realized a deep idea. If the Jews would have a guarantee of the suffering in gehinom, they would inevitably stray from the Torah throughout the generations…. Sometimes, people feel the desire to taste foreign waters. It is almost inevitable that a generation will drift away from the Torah. If they are brought back because of the punishments of gehinom, then their failings remain and are not redeemed. If, on the other hand, the people feel the physical punishment of exile in this world, and we are distant from our land, our G’d, and His blessings, we can be moved to return…. The silver lining in the galut is that it must result in a ge’ula, redemption in this world. When the ge’ula comes, it is a redemption of the galut itself. As bad as the galut is, that is how sweet the redemption will be.
Galut and ge’ula on a national level have a trmendous impact on us. The nature and essence of galut is chilul Hashem. We are the people of Hashem. If we are suffering in exile, then Hashem is suffering in exile, too…. Hashem made His choice of His people forever, and He does not change. …The saving grace of galut is that it must conclude with ge’ula. This was Avraham’s suggestion that Hashem accepted.
Every galut leads towards a ge’ula. Being slaves in Egypt brought us to the Torah at Har Sinai. The knowledge of this secret makes it easier for us living in galut. The Shem Mishmuel [5616 (1855) – 5686 (1926)] lived… before the State of Israel, during the bitter years of the European exile. He said that the suffering of his galut would lead to a greater redemption. The sanctification would would be so much greater based on the problems of the difficult galut. This idea should give us hope while enduring our own troubles today;
We know that over the hundreds of generations and nearly two-thousand years that the Jews spent in Galut, wandering from nation to nation, finding temporary lodging and attempting to live as Jews, to whatever degree, while attempting to integrate and ingratiate themselves into society, they were always vulnerable as, in each nation, in each generation; the rulers of these nations, each nation’s religious leaders and populations inevitably turned on the Jews bringing them to expulsions, pogroms and genocide. Most recently, we have seen the mass anti-semitic pogrom in Australia at a large Chanukah event at Bondi Beach leaving 16 murdered and scores injured, according to most recent reports as of when this vort was compiled.
But with the return of nearly half of Jewry to our homeland — Eretz Yisrael, now a sovereign nation with a burgeoning hi-tech industry and a strong and technically superior military, we are still in galut, fractured by factions and divisiveness. Perhaps there is, in many Jews, an ingrained sense of assimilation into and ingratiation (noun: the act or process of establishing oneself in the favor or good graces of someone, especially by deliberate effort in order to influence) toward the nations which has led to loss of spiritually, loss of devotion to Judaism and Hashem and thus to loss of personal self-respect.
Can our current collective national and spiritual malaise be in keeping with Hashem’s and Avraham Avinu’s deep idea and concept? We are losing numbers of fringe Jews to inter-marriage, same-genderism and other forms of narishkiet, but we have seen a burgeoning (adjective: growing or developing quickly) Teshuvah movement which took shape in the months and years following the Six Day War and which has grown in subsequent decades. The Teshuvah movement gained great additional momentum over these past two-plus years of the War of Simchat Torah.
So we return to Rabbi Reichman’s poignant comment citing Shem Mishmuel on our Parsha in his sefer, “Living the Chassidic Legacy — Lessons Based on Shem Mishmuel” (page 204)
The Kiddush Hashem of the final Ge’ula will be directly proportionate to the pain of the galut.
May our government and military bring about the total and complete, Final and Decisive victory over Hamas, their 7 October so-called “civilians(sic)” collaborators and the entire terror cabal, B’Yad Hashem, and become Totally self-sufficient as to manufacture of military equipment and aircraft, weaponry, munitions — heavy munitions, as well as showing independence of actions responding to any threat, regardless of so-called “super powers.”
May we see, from here on, that border guard personnel at all points of possible danger are listened to and treated with respect and dignity. May we see our Chayalim totally eradicate Hamas, Islamic Jihad, those so-called “civilians(sic)” who collaborated on 7 October, as well as Hezbollah, the Houthies, the Mullahs of Iran and all their terror accomplices while liberating the remains of the remaining deceased hostage and his return home for Jewish ritual burial, B’Yad Hashem and mandated by a government secure in it’s foremost service of, and emunah in HaKadosh Borchu, B’Ezrat Hashem! And may we see the restoration of true unity within Am Yisrael. May these words come to fruition B’Esrat Hashem.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently re-settled in Gush Katif, once the IDF, by the Yad Hashem, destructs and eradicates the wild beasts of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, all other terror entities, and if necessary Iran, and that our brethren be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them, that the thrice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes and the oft-destroyed Yeshiva buildings in Homesh be rebuilt, as well as the buildings of Yishuv Elchanan, all at total government expense. May our Chayalim return from battle unharmed — physically, mentally and spiritually and may all of the remaining hostages brutally taken by the wild beasts of Hamas be liberated and brought home to their families. Baruch Hashem that our dear brother Jonathan Pollard is now in his sixth year at home in Eretz Yisrael and continues in a new chapter in his life. May Esther Yocheved bat Yechiel Avraham have an aliyah in Shemayim and may her spirit and memory continue to lift Jonathan to at least 120 years. May the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem — as with the return in April, 2019, via Russia, of the remains of Zachariah Baumel, the recent recovery of the remains of Tzvi Feldman as well as the recoveries of the remains of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin from the Gaza War of ten years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nei Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Good Shabbos and Chodesh Tov!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
Moshe is available for editing of English language documents, articles, manuscripts and more. Please be in contact with him at olehchadash@yahoo.com for your English language needs.
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