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Shemot: A For Effort · A Thought for the Week

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to a Thought for the Week, a Torah in
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  Speaker 1: Motion podcast. I'm Jake Hellman, founding director of Torah in Motion,
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  Speaker 1: and it's a pleasure to have you here with us. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: welcome to say forschwant everybody, Let's begin with chapter two.
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  Speaker 1: Vaele we baked le v vaikach at. But a by
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  Speaker 1: and a man went from the house of Levy, and
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  Speaker 1: he took a daughter, a woman from the house of Levy,
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  Speaker 1: or literally, he took the daughter of Laby. This simple act,
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  Speaker 1: this marriage changed the course of history. But this was
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  Speaker 1: no simple marriage. The previous verse, the last verse in
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  Speaker 1: chapter one, has told us that Puro instructed the entire
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  Speaker 1: Egyptian nation that when they see Jewish baby, they're to
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  Speaker 1: throw them into the river. To have children in such
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  Speaker 1: an environment of basically, you know, trying to wipe out
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  Speaker 1: all Jewish males at least, is really an unbelievable act
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  Speaker 1: of faith. Who wants to have children in the Holocaust
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  Speaker 1: and destruction and terrible They're just gonna get killed. What's
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  Speaker 1: the point? What gave them the courage? So it appears
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  Speaker 1: to me that it's Shiffra and Poa who are really
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  Speaker 1: the heroes here. Schiffer. When this anonymous man from the
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  Speaker 1: house of Lavy took this anonymous woman, the daughter of Lavy,
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  Speaker 1: and they saw what Schiffra and Poa had stood up
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  Speaker 1: to Porrow. That seemed to me, that seems to inspire
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  Speaker 1: them that it is possible to stand up against evil.
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  Speaker 1: Now this is despite the fact that all indications are
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  Speaker 1: that Schiffre and Poor actually were not successful. I think
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  Speaker 1: we often think about, Wow, they're amazing, you know, they
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  Speaker 1: they stood up to Paro. It's true, they they were
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  Speaker 1: amazing and they did stand to Paro, but they were
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  Speaker 1: not really successful. How do I know that? So? First
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  Speaker 1: of all, Chapter two is about the birth of motion,
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  Speaker 1: the need to hide him and to float him in
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  Speaker 1: the river. Well, if you know, if Paro stopped killing kids,
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  Speaker 1: if they got the decree rescinded, you wouldn't need to
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  Speaker 1: have that. Secondly, the tour tells us the end of
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  Speaker 1: chapter one by our when Paro saw by he k
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  Speaker 1: Lilohim that the when the the mal the midwift spirit
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  Speaker 1: got by team. So Paro made for them houses. It's
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  Speaker 1: the way. What does that mean? So the rush bomb
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  Speaker 1: explains that he put in their house the rest li
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  Speaker 1: Hamram to garden, tell Yahu he didn't want them going
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  Speaker 1: near any more Jewish woman having kids. He arrested them
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  Speaker 1: and we never hear from Sheeprampoo again in the entire
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  Speaker 1: entire tournach. For all we know, Pa had him eliminated,
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  Speaker 1: as they might unfortunately say, that's number two. Number three.
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  Speaker 1: The decree got worse. Initially, Paro's instructions were just to
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  Speaker 1: Shifra and Pua whether that how far that went. But
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  Speaker 1: there's two people after the decree when Paris out, they're
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  Speaker 1: not listening to him. That's when Paro extended it, and
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  Speaker 1: he said all Egyptians should kill any Jewish baby, and
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  Speaker 1: even if some people are going to not agree, the
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  Speaker 1: majority will. Like we know, like in Nazi Germany, not
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  Speaker 1: everybody has to be a Nazi, and if not people
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  Speaker 1: follow what they want, we're in big trouble. This, however,
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  Speaker 1: is a price that sometimes we have to pay. Shiff
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  Speaker 1: from Poa probably knew they might not succeed, but efforts
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  Speaker 1: can backfire. Sometimes we stand up for evil and it
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  Speaker 1: really doesn't work. But the tourist seems to be teaching,
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  Speaker 1: and so I understand it that when there is pure evil,
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  Speaker 1: we must protest, it's going to get worse anyway. You're
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  Speaker 1: dealing with pure evil and don't know, well, there's some practicalities.
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  Speaker 1: Practicalities matter much less because even if they're not going
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  Speaker 1: to protest, they'll just do one evil after another. They
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  Speaker 1: and I think sometimes the evil people use this to
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  Speaker 1: tramp descent. They may they want to make it seem
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  Speaker 1: like protests doesn't work. But sometimes even if protest is
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  Speaker 1: not going to work, that's what we have to do.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what shiffrin Pu did, and that gave the
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  Speaker 1: strength to the parents of Moshrabenu to get married. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I think many of you probably heard what I just
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  Speaker 1: told you. The rush bomb building the house is that
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  Speaker 1: I think less well known than Rushi. Russi is always
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  Speaker 1: more well known than the rush Bomb. His grandfather, Russi's
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  Speaker 1: Rush the rush Bomb's grandfather. So Rashi said the houses,
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't Paro like the way the verse reads. And
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  Speaker 1: he saw that the meldt feared God, and he, meaning Paro,
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  Speaker 1: built houses. So the way Russi, she interprets the verse
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  Speaker 1: by they he saw that the midwife feared God and
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  Speaker 1: God made them homes. It have been God made them homes.
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  Speaker 1: So Russi quotes to me Drash that God rewarded Shifra
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  Speaker 1: and Pua with and according to Rushi, she will get
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  Speaker 1: to this in a moment. Sheifra and Pua were Johebed
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  Speaker 1: and Miriam. They were Jewish, and from them they were
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  Speaker 1: rewarded with the Livia, the Kuhunan, the Liviatki being the
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  Speaker 1: spiritual leaders. Obviously motion arn coming from Abbet and they
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  Speaker 1: malkut the kingship coming from Miriam, because according to Rabbinic tradition,
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  Speaker 1: it's not in the Torah. Miriam married Khalai Kalai from
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  Speaker 1: you know the Moroclium story the spies, one of the
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  Speaker 1: two good spies, so to speak. And he was of
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  Speaker 1: course from the tribe of Judah Yhuda, and they are
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  Speaker 1: of course the tribe that would be the kings of
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish people. That's how way Russi interprets it very different.
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  Speaker 1: This in a sense is a very powerful idea. Despite
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  Speaker 1: their failure in a sense failure in the practical sense
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  Speaker 1: of sif and Pua, it was their efforts that got
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  Speaker 1: we got that because of their efforts, God rewarded them
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  Speaker 1: in the material world, in the business world, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's the bottom line that counts, and that's the way
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  Speaker 1: it has to be. Uh, you're not successful, your business
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  Speaker 1: doesn't go well, you don't make money. That's the way
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  Speaker 1: it is. To take a more mundane example, if you're
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  Speaker 1: a team doesn't do well, they lose too many football
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  Speaker 1: games at the end of the football so they fired
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  Speaker 1: the coach. Doesn't matter, his fault, wasn't his fault. The players,
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. The bottom line is what counts, and efforts. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: that we put in a great effort, you lose, you lose.
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  Speaker 1: That's it. But that's only from us in a material
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  Speaker 1: bottom line, which is an important one at times. However,
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  Speaker 1: from a mind perspective, it is effort that matters the
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  Speaker 1: most because ultimately God decides to our efforts are going
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  Speaker 1: to pay off or not. We all know that, I
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  Speaker 1: hope we know. Maybe we don't think about it enough,
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  Speaker 1: but so much of our success are due to factors
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  Speaker 1: beyond their control. I would say, I don't know what
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  Speaker 1: number you want to give, but it's a lot. It's
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  Speaker 1: a very high number. There's so many factors that terriffs
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  Speaker 1: the climate, world, geopolitical events, competition, new laws, five thousand things,
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  Speaker 1: that can impact on how successful or unsuccessful you're going
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  Speaker 1: to be. That you cannot control, no matter how smart
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  Speaker 1: and how hard you work, quote unquotes, that's the divine,
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  Speaker 1: that's luck, whatever you want to call it. So we
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  Speaker 1: never know if our efforts are going to pay off.
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  Speaker 1: But therefore Judaism says, we put in the efforts, and
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  Speaker 1: God rewards is not from the bottom line. The bottom
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  Speaker 1: line is not up to us. God rewards is for
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  Speaker 1: the efforts we put in. And that's of course what
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  Speaker 1: Shiffrin Pua did and they got this reward. As Rushi says,
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  Speaker 1: now Russia assumes they're Jewish. We don't know that, And
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  Speaker 1: of course the commentaries are split down the middle worship
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  Speaker 1: from poo a Jewish or weren't they Jewish? What do
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  Speaker 1: you mean? How can they be Jewish? Why would power
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  Speaker 1: tell Jews to kill other Jews non Jews? That's that's
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  Speaker 1: one of the questions here. But the point is that
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  Speaker 1: we don't know if they're Jewish, and I think that
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  Speaker 1: is exactly the point of the tour. The tour leaves
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  Speaker 1: it vague, and the tour new that we wouldn't know Jewish.
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if you're Jewish or not Jewish, doesn't
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  Speaker 1: matter who you are. It matters what you do, not
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  Speaker 1: who you are. If you see evil, you must protest. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: if they're non Jews, it has a more powerful message.
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  Speaker 1: And I can't help but think of Ahmed. Ahmed, that's
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  Speaker 1: the Syrian hero of the Bondi Beach massacre, the tragedy
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  Speaker 1: in Bondi Beach. He was the of course the Syrian
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  Speaker 1: store owner of living in Australia, who who you know,
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  Speaker 1: rescued and fought against the attacker and saved many lives.
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  Speaker 1: That's a modern day story to stand up against evil,
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  Speaker 1: and it's beautiful to see it. It's this is a
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  Speaker 1: human issue, it's not a Jewish issue. Interestingly, ironically, I
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  Speaker 1: don't know what words you want to use exactly. As
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  Speaker 1: far as Jewish history concerned, Chiffra and Pua were very successful.
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  Speaker 1: It's only because of the harsh decrees of a Paro,
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  Speaker 1: which happened because of the actions of Shifra and Pua,
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  Speaker 1: that Mosha had to be floated in the river, and
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  Speaker 1: therefore he was picked up by butt Parou and according
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  Speaker 1: to many commentaries, it was the daughter of Paro. After
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  Speaker 1: saving motion, realizing he's a Jewish baby that she convinced
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  Speaker 1: her father not to rescind the decree. You don't hear
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  Speaker 1: about it anymore. And of course raising him in the
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  Speaker 1: royal Palace gave Mosh of the tools come the leader.
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  Speaker 1: Can the slaves can't produce their own leader. You needed
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  Speaker 1: an outsider to come to leader. So in a certain sense,
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  Speaker 1: Chief and Pua were the ones who got Jewish history,
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  Speaker 1: the redemption of the Jewish going. What's equally interesting, we
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  Speaker 1: don't know who Chiffer and Poo are. We also don't
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  Speaker 1: know who Mosha's parents are, at least not at this
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  Speaker 1: point in the story, and that's also quite significance. They
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  Speaker 1: are anonymous, the a man house of Lavy and the
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  Speaker 1: daughter the daughter of Lavy, daughter house LaVey. Doesn't really matter.
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  Speaker 1: We won't find out for four more chapters, or, to
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  Speaker 1: be more precise, eighty years later, when Mosha comes back
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  Speaker 1: to Egypt who they are, And like Shifren, Pua de
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  Speaker 1: Torre tells us basically nothing about Aarmra Magnjoche. But in
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  Speaker 1: rabbinic let meet Rushing, there's who I'm reman. But in
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  Speaker 1: the in the biblical text, we know nothing about Amara Yokaba.
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  Speaker 1: They're plain, simple people, and they are the parents of Mosha, Abaneh,
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  Speaker 1: of Arnakoen of Miriam. Doesn't matter who they are, it
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  Speaker 1: matters what they did. Simple people can do great things. Again,
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  Speaker 1: the simple person, the simple act of faith of the
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  Speaker 1: truth throughout history. That's why the people are still here.
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  Speaker 1: We all too often focus on on scholarship and all
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  Speaker 1: kinds of you know, elitism and all these other things
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  Speaker 1: that preserve the Jewish people. The Jewish people have been
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  Speaker 1: preserved because of the simple, anonymous Jew who maintained this
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  Speaker 1: faith throughout the trials and tribulations of history. Tem Sabi,
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  Speaker 1: my uncle family, national oke and we are all standing
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  Speaker 1: before God. Mosh Rabno tells us as he's about to die.
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  Speaker 1: One hundred and twenty years later, I guess from this
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  Speaker 1: events and who's there? Zekenik them shot rip them? Coali
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  Speaker 1: she Israel. It's true, our elders. We need elders, and
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  Speaker 1: we need judges and police people Coali's but every Jew
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  Speaker 1: is there. Tam your children, the sham, your the wives,
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  Speaker 1: all the woman gerkhat, the stranger, the convert, the wood chopper,
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  Speaker 1: shovin Mecha, the person who carries the water that's who
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  Speaker 1: God's covenant with this, not with the rabbis, It's with
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  Speaker 1: the simple Jew. And it's the simple Jew who are
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  Speaker 1: the heroes of Judaism, who preserve Jewish way of life
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  Speaker 1: despite the many parts that we have faced in the world.
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  Speaker 1: And let us have the merit to have the strength
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  Speaker 1: and faith and finacity of a simple June about your love.
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