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5771 פרשת בא
In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us the last three plagues that God brought against the Egyptians before the Egyptians let Bnei Yisroel out of Egypt. Before God brought the plague of the locust against the Egyptians, the Torah describes to us the conversation that Moshe had with Pharaoh.
Before Moshe went to speak to Pharaoh God spoke to him and explained that even though it does not seem to him that the warnings that he kept giving him were doing anything, nevertheless it was worthwhile for Bnei Yisroel to see my greatness and my good.
However, when God was talking to Moshe before he brought the tenth plague of makas bechoros, He said that the reason that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened was that enabled God to bring these wonders against Egypt so through them the Egyptians and Bnei Yisroel would appreciate God’s greatness and His good.
If we look at this Siforno a little more closely, we can ask the following question. The Siforno seems to say that God wanted both Bnei Yisroel and the Egyptians to appreciate His greatness and His good. Regarding the greatness of God and his miracles there is no question that both the Egyptians and Bnei Yisroel could and should recognize it. However, regarding the goodness of God, Bnei Yisroel would certainly recognize the good of God as the Egyptians were getting punished for torturing Bnei Yisroel but how would the Egyptians recognize the goodness of God as they were going through an incredible amount of suffering?
The answer could be that even the Egyptians who were in the middle of receiving punishments for their actions had it in them to be able to recognize that the punishments they were receiving were actually because God was good and the punishments were deserved. This recognition would also have the ability to cause them to do Teshuva.
From this Siforno we can learn a very important lesson. Many times in our lives we go through difficult times where we can sometimes lose sight of the fact that everything that God does is good. However, we have to always concentrate and remind ourselves that no matter what is going on in the world or in our lives we must recognize that it is all good as it is from God.
If the Egyptians who were steeped in idol worship and had no belief in God before the 10 plagues were able to recognize that there is a God in the world and that all his actions were good, we, who believe in God surely have the ability to recognize that everything that happens is from God and it is good.
5770 פרשת בא
In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us the discussion God has with Moshe regarding the reasons He is continuing to harden the heart of Pharaoh and not yet allowing Pharaoh to send Bnei Yisroel out of Mitzrayim. The Pasukim seem to give two separate and distinct reasons. The first being that God wanted to bring more signs (in the form of additional plagues) to Pharaoh and Mitzrayim. The second one is in order for Bnei Yisroel to tell over the miracles that occurred in Mitzrayim (again in the form of the plagues) to their descendents throughout the generations.
The Ohr Hachayim explains that these two ideas are not distinct but rather are two things that make up one goal. The first idea is that God brought the plagues so that Bnei Yisroel of that generation would realize that everything in the world is run by God. In order for this to occur God has to show Bnei Yisroel his control over every aspect of nature through the plagues. This is why God required the last three plagues. However, there is another aspect to this which is that for the first generation just seeing God’s mastery over every aspect of nature would have been enough to instill in them a deep sense of faith. However, in order for this faith to be instilled in all the future generations they needed something else also and that was the fact that God also destroyed a nation (one of the most powerful of the time) for afflicting Bnei Yisroel. It was the awesomeness of both aspects combined that would allow for Bnei Yisroel to have this great faith in God for all the generations.
If we look at this Ohr Hachayim a little bit more closely we can ask the following question. Bnei Yisroel had already seen seven plagues which had already shown God’s power over most of nature, was it really necessary to show God’s mastery over every aspect of nature in order for Bnei Yisroel to believe that God controlled the world? Would it not have been obvious from what they had already seen?
The answer is that we underestimate the power of the Yetzer Hara. If there is even a small even unlikely position for the Yetzer Hara to use to weaken a person’s faith in God, he will use it against us. It is for this reason that God told Moshe that it was imperative that Bnei Yisroel see God’s mastery over all of nature so there would be no room for them to fall into the Yetzer Hara’s traps.
From this Ohr Hachayim we see two very important things. Firstly, how the Yetzer Hara can use even the slightest vulnerability to convince us to sin and how vigilant we must be to constantly fight against the Yetzer Hara. Secondly, we must realize that God performed the miracles of Yetzias Mitzrayim in order that all the generations of Bnei Yisroel will be able to use those miracles to constantly remind ourselves that God runs the world which will help us fight the Yetzer Hara.
This could be why so many of the Mitzvos are done as a remembrance to the miracles of the exodus. When we say Shema twice daily and we mention the fact that God took us out of Mitzrayim we should focus on God’s mastery over the world and the fact that He and only He is in control. This should help us grow in our service of God and enable us to fight the Yetzer Hara on a daily basis.
פרשת בא 5769
In this week’s Parsha, the Torah discusses the final three plagues including the concluding plague of the death of the firstborn. When God was going to bring the last plague, he told Moshe to tell Pharaoh that at midnight all the firstborns in Egypt would die. However, when Moshe repeated the warning to Pharaoh he said around midnight all the firstborns in Egypt would die.
All the commentaries are puzzled by why Moshe would change the wording of what God told him to tell Pharaoh. The answer given by most commentaries.
In order to prevent a mistake made by the Egyptian magicians whose clocks were inherently not exact. They would think that if the death of the firstborn happened a little before or after midnight on ther clocks that Moshe was a false prophet.
The Rabbeinu Bechai asks that this doesn’t seem to make sense. The Egyptian magicians starting from the third plague recognized that the plagues were all from God. They themselves said after they could not create the lice that they are from the finger of God. Furthermore, they saw six other plagues that came when Moshe said they would come and left when Moshe said they would leave. Why would the Egyptians assume that the mistake was with Moshe and not their clocks?
The Rabbeinu Bechai answers that in truth up until the third plague the magicians were convinced the Moshe did the plagues through magic and trickery. It was only after the third plague that they began to realize that it was all the hand of God. From that time on the Egyptian magicians believed more and more that there was a God who runs the world. This was building and becoming clearer after each plague. This was creating a big Kiddush Hashem. However, Moshe was afraid that if the last plague would come and the Egyptians could make a mistake and come to not believe that it occurred through God, it could have caused them to deny the hand of God in all the prior plagues which would have lead to a tremendous Chilul Hashem.
If we look at this Rabbeinu Bechai we can ask the following question:
How does the answer really answer the question? Why would the final plague cause the Egyptian magicians to refute what was absolutely clear to them beforehand which was that all the plagues were done through the Hand of God especially since there was a very simple explanation by the tenth plague which was that their clocks aren’t exact.
The answer can be seen from the last line of the Rabbeinu Bechai when he said if the Egyptian magicians would make a mistake and use that error to disregard their newfound understanding of God that would cause a great Chilul Hashem. Moshe knew that it was very unlikely that the Magicians would make the mistake, however it was possible and since the potential ramification of that mistake would be a Chilul HaShem Moshe had to act to prevent it from occurring.
From this Rabbeinu Bechai we can learn a very important lesson. We must go to great extents to prevent Chilul Hashem. We certainly should not actively do anything that would cause a Chilul Hashem but we must even be sure that we don’t inadvertently create a Chilul Hashem.
פרשת בא 5768
In this week’s Parsha the Torah tells us the first Mitzvah that was given to Bnei Yisroel was the Korban Pesach. When describing the Mitzvah of the Korban Pesach, the Torah tells us that there will be a time that our descendents will ask the following question about the Mitzvah of the Korban Pesach:
What is this service to you?
The Sipurno explains what the question they are asking is really about the following way:
The question of the son is why does each individual need to bring their own Korban? Why is it not enough to bring one Korban for all of Bnei Yisroel like all other Korbanos?
The Sipurno explains the answer the following way:
Since God passed over the houses of Bnei Yisroel when he killed the Egyptians it is required that each person bring his own Korban since the miracle occurred to each person and not to the entire nation as a whole.
If we look at this Sipurno a little more closely, we can ask the following question:
We know that God promised Avraham Avinu that Bnei Yisroel would be slaves in Egypt and then would go out free from Egypt. This was a promise made to all of Bnei Yisroel as an entity and not to each person as an individual. This being the case, the fact that none of Bnei Yisroel died during the plague of the first born is part of a national miracle, so how could the Sipurno describe it as an individual miracle?
The answer could be that in truth every miracle that occurs to a nation always also occurs to an individual. It is just that most times if something occurs to a group of people, we as individuals; do not look at it as something that happened to us. This is the message that the Torah is teaching us with the Korban Pesach. There are many times that miracles occur to us as a group (for example when a terrorist attack is foiled), we just look at it that God saved Bnei Yisroel from suffering. However, in truth this was a miracle for each individual person who could have been potentially hurt in the terrorist attack. In our lives, many things occur that we have the ability to look at as personal miracles if we only look at what occurs in the world and the community we live in and see how it can relate to us we can use it to grow closer to God.
פרשת בא 5767
There is a very interesting Sipurno on the first Pasuk of this week’s Parsha. At the beginning of the Parsha we see God telling Moshe Rabbeinu to go to Pharoh to warn him about the upcoming plague of locust. However, for the first time, when telling Moshe to warn Pharoh we see that the Pasuk adds the following eight words: ” because I hardened his heart and the heart of his servants.”
All the commentaries ask on these words, why did God have to give this introduction specifically regarding the plague of locust?
The Sipurno answers the question as follows:
Moshe Rabbeinu thought that even though Pharoh would not subjugate himself to God from the fear of the greatness of God but nevertheless he thought that the difficulty of the plagues would cause Pharoh to repent. When Moshe Rabbeinu saw that Pharoh still did not listen even after seeing Egypt almost destroyed by 7 plagues, he thought that warning Pharoh would be for naught since he won’t listen anyway. To this God answered that even though Pharoh had already hardened his heart it is still worthwhile to warn Pharoh for 2 reasons:
1. To increase the plagues in order that some of the Egyptians would repent.
2. In order that Bnei Yisroel should discuss this for generations and they will recognize my greatness and my good, therefore it was worth it to warn Pharoh even if he won’t listen.
When we look at these two reasons we can learn a very important lesson:
- Let us first examine the first reason. The Egyptians had already gone through 7 debilitating plagues which should have caused any person to already give in and do Teshuvah. We see that just a few Pesukim later, when the servants of Pharoh said to him do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed. For those people who even after all these plagues didn’t come to the realization that God ruled the world and that they were doing the wrong thing, was it worth it to continue the warnings?
The answer is that God so desires for people to do Teshuvah that even in the most unlikely cases, he will go out of his way to enable people to do Teshuvah.
- Now let us look at the second reason. The reason that God warned Pharoh was that Bnei Yisroel should discuss it for generations and recognize the tremendous good that God does. What is the good that Bnei Yisroel was supposed to see? If it was all the miracles and the plagues that God sent against the Egyptians because they afflicted the Jews, just send the plagues and forget the warnings. This being the case, we must say that the good that Bnei Yisroel will discuss relates directly to the warning. The question is how does the warning to Pharoh show the tremendous good that God does?
The answer is the same idea we brought to understand the first reason which is the fact that God will do his utmost to enable a person to do Teshuvah, even the biggest Reshaim. This is the greatest good that we can see in God, his trait of mercy.
This idea should give us some tremendous inspiration. We all know that we are not perfect. We have good days and bad days in our service of God. Sometimes we may give up hope and say to ourselves look what I have done, how can I ever change all that? The answer is that God is the epitome of mercy and he only wants to do good for us, he is waiting and if we want to change he will help us no matter what. Chazal tell us ” the direction a person wants to go God will take him. All we have to do is show God that we want to improve and he will help us get there.
If we all try to just start the improvement process may God give us the strength to complete that process and merit the redemption in our days.