Rabbi Frand on Parshas Bo

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Parshas Bo These divrei Torah were adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand's Commuter Chavrusah Tapes on the weekly portion: Tape # 710, Checking Teffillin by Computer. Good Shabbos! "Asking Their Egyptian Friends For Silver and Gold": Two Insights This week's parsha contains the following pasukim: "...Yet one more plague will I bring upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go from here...Speak now in the ears of the people, and let them ask every man of his friend and every woman of her friend, jewels of silver and jewels of gold." [Shmos 11:1-2]. The Gerer Rebbe focuses in on the use of the word "v'yishalu" [let them ask]. Usually, the word yishalu connotes borrowing. We all know that in this situation the Jews did not intend to return the items for which they were asking. Why then does the Torah use the word "v'yishalu"? The Gerer Rebbe explains that this is the first time that the Jewish people as a nation were "coming into money". Money, as we know, is a powerful force. On the occasion of the first time that they came into money, G-d instructed the people that it can make people or break them. Therefore, whenever one acquires wealth like this, it they should always consider it "borrow ed money". G-d may allow us to become rich, but we should view ourselves as merely the guardians of the money. We are only the trustees. It is not really ours. We cannot take it with us. It is not permanent. Thus, from the Egyptian perspective, "you shall ask" (v'yishalu) "for money" is not really asking. The Jews were clearly TAKING the money from the Egyptians. However, they were instructed to consider it BORROWED money in relationship to themselves! The Netziv (Rav Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin) focuses in on the words "from their friends" (m'es rei-ay-hu; me'es re-u-sah). The Netziv points out that we have a very similar pasuk in Parshas Shmos. However, there we read "Let every woman borrow from her neighbor (isha m'shechenta) ...jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and raiment..." [Shmos 3:22]. The Netziv asks why the Torah changes its language. Why is it that in Parshas Shmos, the Torah speaks of borrowing from a neighbor and here in Parshas Bo, the Torah s peaks of borrowing from a friend? The Netziv makes a startling comment. Parshas Shmos was before the plagues began. Who would the Jews go to ask "Could I have that silver tea set that I see in the breakfront?" One can only ask that from someone who is at best, an acquaintance. They did not have any "friends" to ask that from, because there was no friendship between the Egyptians and the Jews. However, in Parshas Bo, something profound happened. Suddenly, the Egyptians are indeed our friends. What happened? The answer is that the plague of Choshech [Darkness] had just occured. This plague lasted at least 3 days. This was more than just a "blackout" with the lights turned off. This was a tangible darkness (v'yamesh choshech), such that people were afraid to move. They could not get out of their chairs. They could not get out of their beds. How then, asks the Netziv, did the Egyptians eat during this period? How did they drink? If people could not move then they could not even "fumble around and find some food in the house". If people would not eat or drink for 3 days, they would die. How is it that there was a whole nation who survived to tell the tale? It must be, says the Netziv, that during this plague, which only affected the Egyptins not the Jews, the Jews went and gave food and water to their Egyptian "friends". The Netziv is saying that "a friend in need is a friend indeed." Thst is what changed. In Parshas Shmos, there was no way they could find a friend to go ask for gold and silver. However, in Parshas Bo, it was a different relationship. The Egyptian neighbors now recognized that these Jewish neighbors saved their lives during the time of the Plague of Darkness. Now they considered themselves ”friends". The fact that the Jews saved the lives of the Egyptians – who after all, were their tormentors, speaks to the unbelievable compassion of the Jewish people. Once they made that gesture, they had an enti rely different relationship with the Egyptians. They could now approach them not as "neighbors" but as "friends". The Priorities In Life Are Never Placed In The Checked Baggage The Jewish people are about to leave Egypt. Pharaoh is finally willing and indeed anxious to send out everyone – men, women, children, flocks, and cattle. Everyone and everything the Jews wanted to take out of Egypt could now leave with them. The pasuk tells us: "The people picked up their dough when it had not yet become leavened, their leftovers bound up in their garments upon their shoulders" [Shmos 12:34]. Rashi says the term "leftovers" refers to the matzah and marror left over from the previous night's meal. It was this that they carried in their little knapsacks on their shoulders as they left Egypt. We are all familiar with what our dining room floor looks like after the Seder. It looks like a Matzah factory with pieces of lettuce spread all over the place! What do we do? We sweep it up and throw it out. The Jews at that "first Seder" in Egypt did not sweep the leftovers up and throw them out. They swept them up, wrapped them together, and put them in knapsacks, which they carried out of Egypt on their shoulders! Rashi adds that even though they had many animals on which they could have placed these packages, they purposely carried them themselves to show their love of the mitzvos. A person does not throw the most precious item into the donkey's saddlebag. It can fall out. It can get lost. If something is very special, you take it with you in your "hand luggage". No one ever places valuables into their "checked baggage" on airplanes. People carry their most precious items on themselves. Rav Simcha Zissel asks: The pasuk just stated that they borrowed gold and silver vessels. Where did they put them? Apparently, they put the gold and the silver on the donkeys but the leftover pieces of matzo and marror they carried on their own shoulders. Klal Yisrael understood what is important and what is not important; what must be a priority in life and what is not a priority in life. The gold and silv er was "replaceable". The matzo and marror, which represented the miraculous redemption from Egypt, and which represented their relationship with the Almighty, was "irreplaceable." That was not something that could be entrusted to the donkeys. They carried it on their shoulders. This write-up was adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand's Commuter Chavrusah Torah Tape series on the weekly Torah portion. The complete list of halachic topics covered in this series for Parshas Bo are provided below: Tape # 040 - Amirah L'Akum: The "Shabbos Goy" Tape # 083 - The Burning Issue of Smoking Tape # 131 - Ivris or Ivrit -- Is There a Correct Pronounciation? Tape # 178 - Tefillin and Long Hair Tape # 224 - Kiddush Levana Tape # 268 - Consequence of Dropping Tefillin or Sefer Torah Tape # 314 - Chumros in Halacha Tape # 358 - Mezzuzah-What is a Door? Tape # 402 - Doing Work on Rosh Chodesh Tape # 446 - The Dog in Halacha Tape # 490 - The Lefty and Tefillin Tape # 534 - Rash"i & Ra bbeinu Ta'am's Tefillin Tape # 578 – Tephillin on Chol HaMoed Tape # 622 – Ya'ale V'Yovo Tape # 666 – Dishwashers on Shabbos Tape # 710 – Checking Teffillin by Computer Tape # 754 – Cholent on Pesach – Why Not? Tape # 798 – Kiddush Lavanah – Moonshine on Purim Tape # 842 – What Should It Be? Hello or Shalom? Tape # 886 - Bo -- Women and Kiddush Lavana Tape # 930 – Eating Matzo An Entire Pessach – A Mitzvah? Tape # 973 – Yaaleh ve'Yavoh Tape #1017 – Kiddush Levana on a Cloudy Night Tapes, CDs, MP3s or a complete catalogue can be ordered from the Yad Yechiel Institute, PO Box 511, Owings Mills MD 21117-0511. Call (410) 358-0416 or e-mail tapes@yadyechiel.org or visit http://www.yadyechiel.org/ for further information.

Transcribed by David Twersky Seattle, WA; Technical Assistance by Dovid Hoffman, Baltimore, MD
RavFrand, Copyright © 2007 by Rabbi Yissocher Frand and Torah.org.
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The Timeless Rav Hirsch - Parshas Bo

Can we do תפילות prayers for:

Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein and torah.org?

That also through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוהYeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?

The Timeless Rav Hirsch by Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein Print Version
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Parshas Bo The Moral High Road is a Two Lane Street1 Please speak in the ears of the people. Let each man request of his fellow and each woman from her fellow silver vessels and gold vessels. Hashem granted the people favor in the eyes of Egypt. Moreover, the man Moshe was very great in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of the servants of Paroh, and in the eyes of the people. It is easy to understand just how Hashem granted His people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. He provided them with a powerful demonstration of the character of the Jewish people. It was so powerful, that it was able to eradicate generations of stereotypes and contempt. For three days, the Egyptians were immobilized by the plague of darkness. Everything they possessed was available to the Jews for the taking. Moreover, they themselves were fair game to anyone seeking vengeance and reprisal for all the horrors inflicted upon the slave-nation by their Egyptian masters. When the Egyptians began to see again, it was not only with a sense of relief at having survived their ordeal, but of disbelief that they and their possessions had emerged unscathed and unmolested. Their dwellings were fully in order; nothing at all was missing. The Jews, free to help themselves of whatever they pleased – and with good reason to do so – had taken nothing at all. In an instant, they comprehended the moral nobility of the people with whom they had dealt so unjustly. Moshe, the leader of that people, achieved stature in their eyes for guiding them to moral greatness. This – not all the plagues he had visited upon them – made him great in their eyes. The Jews must have sensed their triumph, and understood that they had laid firm and unambiguous claim to the moral high road. Once in possession of it, they would not part with it easily. This is why they had to be urged and cajoled (“Please speak”) to ask their newly-found admirers for gifts. Having tasted the sweet taste of moral significance, they were unwilling to trade away any part of it for money. Accepting money – blood money - from their erstwhile oppressors would buy some atonement for the Egyptians, and narrow the moral gap between the two peoples. Why, then, did Hashem want them to accept the reparations? The Jews stood on the threshold of genuine peoplehood. They would cross the border of Egypt as a nation, not a huge collection of individuals. Hashem was already looking towards the future, shaping their future well-being at the very moment that he was sculpting them into a complete nation. He was concerned about their future. Their material prosperity was no small part of it. The foundation of that prosperity should be strong, and He wanted the first deposit into their account to be made by outsiders who had recognized the moral greatness of Hashem’s chosen people. The first installment in their savings plan should be elevated above the ordinary by linking it to a Jewish success in spreading awareness of Hashem and His teaching. We had to make a bit of room on the moral highway for repentant Egyptians to accomplish this, but in His love for His people, Hashem deemed it a price worth paying. Participatory Democracy 1012 Moshe said, “With our young people and with our old people we will go. With our sons and our daughters, with our flock and our cattle we will go, because it is a festival of Hashem for us. Paroh asks, “How many of you, exactly, is this worship service of yours going to involve? Make the number reasonable, and we will think about it.” Moshe responds, “The arithmetic is pretty simple. We all go!” Paroh counters, “That is absurd. It is not going to happen.” Moshe stands his ground. “We’re not negotiating. After all, it is a festival of our G-d. If these negotiations are not going anywhere, it may be time to roll out the next plague.” The exchange strikes us as a battle of wits and determination. Moshe simply raises the ante against whatever Paroh is ready to offer. This really isn’t so, though. Moshe’s insistence that it is a festival of Hashem for us adds nothing to the argument, if we are looking at nothing more than a clash of strong wills. Instead, it is a lesson in comparative religion. Paroh thought that divine service meant discharging some responsibility to the gods. Give these deities what they need, or what they want, and they will reciprocate with their power and influence. There is no reason why the message and the accompanying tribute cannot be brought by suitable representatives acting on behalf of others. Moshe tells Paroh that he has it all wrong. Serving G-d is not about delivering messages and gifts. Therefore, there is no room for priests, intermediates, substitutes. We do not serve Hashem with what we give Him, but with ourselves. When G-d calls us, He wants us, not something from us. There are no exceptions. The smallest baby goes, as well as all our possession, i.e. our extended selves. We are, moreover, a community, and all of our members are equal before G-d. The word festival, chag, is related to the word for “circle.” When He calls, we all gather around, as in a circle, to be with Him. Spending time in His Presence is itself a form of service, albeit one that Paroh cannot fathom, being completely foreign to the pagan conception of the relationship between Man and a Deity. Moshe’s response to Paroh is one more in a series of lessons that Hashem wished communicated to the world. 1. Based on the Hirsch Chumash, Shemos 11:2-3 2. Based on the Hirsch Chumash, Shemos 10:9 Questions or comments? Email feedback@torah.org. Join the Jewish Learning Revolution! Torah.org: The Judaism Site brings this and a host of other classes to you every week. Visit http://torah.org or email learn@torah.org to get your own free copy of this mailing. Permission is granted to redistribute, but please give proper attribution and copyright to the author and Torah.org. Both the author and Torah.org reserve certain rights. Email copyrights@torah.org for full information.

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Rabbi Zweig - Parshas Bo

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Rabbi Yochanan Zweig and torah.org?

That also through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוהYeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?

Rabbi Zweig on the Parsha by Rabbi Yochanan Zweig Print Version
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Parshas Bo Do Not Resist "And you shall safeguard the matzos"(12:17) The literal interpretation of the verse is that one should approach the preparation of the matzos with extreme caution, for the slightest delay could cause the dough to become "chameitz" - "leavened", thereby invalidating the matzos for use on Pesach. Rashi cites a Midrashic interpretation which states that by changing the vowels, the word "matzos" can be read as "mitzvos", making the verse an injunction requiring us to perform all mitzvos with "zrizus" - "alacrity"; When a person has the opportunity to perform a mitzva, he should not allow it to become "leavened", rather he should perform it immediately.. The comparison that the Midrash draws between the preparation of matzos and the performance of mitzvos raises the following difficulty: If a person prepares the matzos without the necessary alacrity, he invalidates them. However, while not the preferred manner, procrastination in the performance of mitzvos does not invalidate them. Additionally, the following Talmudic dictum requires explanation: "A person should always involve himself in Torah and mitzvos, even with improper motivation, for through their performance, he will come to do them with the proper motivation." Why does the performance of a mitzva with improper motivations have merit, while the performance of a mitzva with proper motivations but without alacrity is compared to valueless chameitz? If a woman sends her child to buy some groceries, he goes out of a sense of obligation to his mother. If, when he returns, his mother informs him that she forgot a certain item, the child will make another trip to the store, albeit reluctantly. If this scenario persists, each time the mother asks him to make another trip, the child's reluctance will build, until he will get to the point where he resents his mother having asked him to go in the first place. He may, in fact, even voice his resentment by speaking disrespectfully to his mother. It would have been preferable for his mother not to have asked him to go altogether, for what began as an act of respect, spiraled into a flagrant display of disrespect. However, if the mother would offer her child a monetary incentive, then the child would perform the task happily. The explanation for this is as follows: The longer a person performs a task with resistance, the greater his reluctance will be. He will reach a point of such great resentment, that he will loathe performing this task. However, incentives would alleviate his reluctance, and he may even come to enjoy performing the task. Maimonides teaches that we should create incentives to get our children such as giving them candy to perform mitzvos so that they relate to the experience in a positive manner[3]. This is probably the pathology behind every synagogue having a "candy man". Experience has shown us that if we force our children to go to shul and the experience is a negative one, at the point where we no longer wield that control over them, they will stop going. If however, they identify the experience as a positive one, albeit for the wrong reasons, chances are they will continue to go. Hopefully, they will then grow to love the experience for the appropriate reasons. A person may have the correct intentions in the performance of a mitzva, but if he performs it in a lax manner, he indicates that he is doing it with resistance. This resistance can grow to the point where he loathes the performance of the mitzva. Therefore, Chazal refer to a mitzva performed without alacrity as chameitz. On the other hand, if a person performs a mitzva enthusiastically, he may come to love the performance of that mitzva, even if that enthusiasm is generated by rewards or incentives. Therefore, Chazal encourage such behavior. 1.12:17 2.Pesachim 50b 3.Hilchos Teshuva 10:5 The Talmud in Pesachim makes the same point as to how to keep children involved at the seder. Double Trouble Come to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart stubborn..." (10:1) Last week's parsha, Parshas Va'eira contains seven of the ten "makkos" - "plagues" inflicted upon Miitzrayim. Parshas Bo records the remaining three. Why are the makkos divided over two parshios? The preamble to the three makkos in this parsha includes Hashem's instruction to Moshe to appear before Pharaoh as well as the requirement to relate to our children the miracles which Hashem performed on our behalf. Both of these messages are applicable to all ten makkos; why are they recorded at this juncture? Bnei Yisroel were commanded to apply the blood of the Pascal lamb to their door posts and lintels[1]. The merit of fulfilling this commandment would protect them from harm during "makkas bechoros" - "the death of the firstborn". Furthermore, at the time of the makkah the verse states that Hashem "pasach" - "passed over" the Jewish-owned houses. Rashi comments that "pasach" also translates as "had mercy"[2]. All of the previous plagues struck only the Mitzrim and no special protection was necessary. Why did makkas bechoros require new merit and an extra measure of mercy? Rashi cites a Midrash which states that the ten makkos followed a calculated war strategy. When an attacking army wants the enemy to capitulate, they begin by cutting off their enemy's water supply. If the enemy refuses to submit, psychological warfare is waged to bring them to their knees. Similarly, Hashem first attacked the Mitzrim's water supply. Failing to submit brought upon the Mitzrim the frogs which emitted a terrible sound, instilling the entire nation with fear. The Midrash offers a second explanation as to Hashem's motivation for bringing the ten makkos. The makkos inflicted upon Pharaoh were directed at all the elements which he used to enslave Bnei Yisroel. The plagues were a concerted punitive action against the Mitzri enslavement machine[3]. What emerges from these two Midrashim is the understanding that the plagues served a dual purpose; they were used to force Pharaoh to submit to the will of Hashem and they were punitive in nature, punishing the Mitzrim for having enslaved the children of Hashem. Although after the seventh plague Pharaoh had already capitulated proclaiming "Hashem is the Righteous One, and I and my people are the wicked ones"[4], Moshe was informed that Hashem had strengthened Pharaoh's resolve not to set Bnei Yisroel free. It now becomes apparent that there is a second purpose to the makkos, for even after Pharaoh had acceded to Hashem's demands, the plagues continued. This purpose is the fulfillment of Hashem's promise to Avraham "But also the nation that they shall serve I will judge"[5]. The punishment is not complete until after all ten makkos have been meted out. The demarcation of the parshios represents the two dimensions of the makkos. Since the focus of the first seven is the submission of Pharaoh whereas the remaining makkos are solely punitive in nature, this is the appropriate juncture for the division of the parshios. When the basis of the plagues was to elicit Pharaoh's submission, Bnei Yisroel did not require their own merit as protection. However, when the plagues became purely punitive in nature and the Attribute of Justice was unleashed, Bnei Yisroel themselves became subject to scrutiny and required their own merit to ward off retribution. Moshe, aware of this, was reluctant to go before Pharaoh after the seventh makkah. Thus, it became necessary for Hashem to instruct Moshe that he must inform Pharaoh that the plagues would continue. The Attribute of Justice manifested itself in the plague of darkness; Rashi cites the Midrash which states that eighty percent of Bnei Yisroel were decimated under the cover of darkness so that the Mitzrim would not witness their punishment[6]. The message which we relate to our children is that aside from sending forth miracles against Mitrayim to ensure our emancipation, Hashem also punished the Mitzrim for having enslaved us. 1.12:23 2.12:13 3.Tanchuma Bo 4 4.9:27 5.Bereishis 15:14 6.13:18 Questions or comments? Email feedback@torah.org. Join the Jewish Learning Revolution! Torah.org: The Judaism Site brings this and a host of other classes to you every week. Visit http://torah.org or email learn@torah.org to get your own free copy of this mailing. Permission is granted to redistribute, but please give proper attribution and copyright to the author and Torah.org. Both the author and Torah.org reserve certain rights. Email copyrights@torah.org for full information.

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