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Va'eira: Teaching Pharaoh…and Moshe · 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.
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  Speaker 1: This week's podcast is being sponsored by Ray Rubin and
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  Speaker 1: Lloyd Haffmin to bring merit and aliata of Ray's father,
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  Speaker 1: Joseph Rubin, Josef ben Israel Eichel. May we be blessed
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  Speaker 1: with good health and long life. The primary purpose of
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  Speaker 1: the Ten Plagues, a phrase that never appears in the
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  Speaker 1: tour we never hear, we just count them after the fact,
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  Speaker 1: was educational both for the Egyptians and for the Jewish people.
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  Speaker 1: At the Burning Bush, God tells Mosha he going to
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  Speaker 1: have to hit the Egyptians hard in order to get
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  Speaker 1: Paro to listen and to let the Jewish people go.
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  Speaker 1: God already foretells Moshrabinu that it's not going to be simple,
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  Speaker 1: and the katmb trying, but kolniklotaya shif sab, I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to have to take all my mica, all my miracles,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm going to have to hit and eventually, eventually
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  Speaker 1: the Egyptians borrow will let the Jewish people go, and
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  Speaker 1: we will be able to answer the question that Paro said,
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  Speaker 1: who is this god that I should listen to him? Right?
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  Speaker 1: I never heard of this god and the governor saw Lashlek,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm not going to send out the Jewish people.
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  Speaker 1: Paro was a very slow learner. It made little sense
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  Speaker 1: for Paro to refuse to let the people go. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: right at the beginning, okay, I get that. But by
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  Speaker 1: the third plague, already by the lice, Paro's advisors are
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  Speaker 1: telling him, as bellow him, who this is the hand
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  Speaker 1: of God, the finger of God. There's no way you're
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  Speaker 1: going to win, Paro, and it's about time to let
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish people go. And the next words of the
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  Speaker 1: Torah is that Paro hardened his heart. Paro was stubborn,
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  Speaker 1: was not going to listen, and despite as many many
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  Speaker 1: opportunities to listen, before more and more harm would befall
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  Speaker 1: him and the people, he refused to listen. His stubborn
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  Speaker 1: is pretty much destroyed Egypt. Like many a dictator, he
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  Speaker 1: cared little about his people. Interestingly, we do not hear
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  Speaker 1: one word from or about the Egyptian people during the plagues.
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  Speaker 1: We don't know where they protesting in the street, where
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  Speaker 1: they Yang go, Pharaoh go. We don't know what they
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  Speaker 1: were doing, on whose side they were, And I think
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  Speaker 1: this hints to the fact that for Paro, the attitude
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  Speaker 1: of the Egyptian people, or for Paro the Egyptian people
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  Speaker 1: thought were relevant, It did not matter what they thought.
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  Speaker 1: The first we hear from the Egyptian people is just
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  Speaker 1: before the last plague, the plague of the Firstborn, where
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  Speaker 1: the Tori tells us gum is Moshe gadomo at barite
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  Speaker 1: trying wow bene de parobineaam that Mosha was great in
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  Speaker 1: the eyes of the servants of Paro, his advisors, let's say,
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  Speaker 1: and beneam and among the people Mosha they loved them.
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  Speaker 1: So it's clear that who side the Egyptians were on.
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  Speaker 1: They saw the destruction that Paro was bringing to the people.
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  Speaker 1: Many Egyptians did actually learn, and many Egyptians joined the
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  Speaker 1: Jewish people as they left. They wanted out of Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: The gum arabel Ita, a multitude of people went, a
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  Speaker 1: malti of Egyptian people went with the Jewish people out
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  Speaker 1: of Egypt. And we'll read we read a little bit
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  Speaker 1: later on when the Jewish people are about to leave,
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  Speaker 1: they gladly gave us gold and silver to take with us.
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  Speaker 1: For Parro, power mattered more than people. What's ironically tragic
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  Speaker 1: for him is he did not realize that had he
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  Speaker 1: listened right away, he could have probably had both. He
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  Speaker 1: could have stayed in power, and he could have had
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  Speaker 1: the people behind him. But Parro, again, like many a
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  Speaker 1: dictator and many autocratic leaders or people who enslave others,
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  Speaker 1: he was much more interested in making the Jewish people
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  Speaker 1: suffer than helping his own people. It's interesting how the
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  Speaker 1: tour tells us by the fifth plague, the plague of
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  Speaker 1: Deva by pestilence. It says that Paro sent by Schlach
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  Speaker 1: Parot he nalo making mikn Israel adakat, and he saw
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  Speaker 1: no None of the cattle of the Jewish people were suffered.
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  Speaker 1: The Jewish people were spared the plague. And then the
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  Speaker 1: next words by feudalle Parot, and Paro's heart was hardened,
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  Speaker 1: or he hardened his heart and he didn't send the people.
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  Speaker 1: He hardened his heart when he saw the Jews were
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  Speaker 1: not suffering. Egyptians are suffering. That didn't matter. It's more
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  Speaker 1: important that Jews suffer than non Jews. Prosper It's really tragic.
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  Speaker 1: And of course Paro is not the first or the last.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe he's the first, but he's definitely not the last
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  Speaker 1: person leader to do such a have such plans. Sally,
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  Speaker 1: Paro never learned. He actually never learned, Para I said
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  Speaker 1: before he was a slow learner. I don't know he was.
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  Speaker 1: He was an never learner. It is true he let
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  Speaker 1: the people go, but that's when there was death in
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  Speaker 1: every house and in a sort of a moment of
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  Speaker 1: like an unusual moment, Okay, get out of here. The
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  Speaker 1: suffering was so great. But very soon afterwards, of course,
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  Speaker 1: he changed his mind, chasing the people, the Jews, to
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  Speaker 1: the sea and where they the Egyptians dround. Presuming Tour
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  Speaker 1: doesn't tell us directly, he presumably Paro round there too.
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  Speaker 1: More important to the educational message is for the Egyptians
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  Speaker 1: with courses for the Jewish people, that the Jewish people
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  Speaker 1: also had to know that there's a God who controls
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  Speaker 1: the world, and God is going to be our God,
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  Speaker 1: and we're going to be his people, and we're going
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  Speaker 1: to have to know the Tour says that Aniem let
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  Speaker 1: me trying. The Jewish people should know that I'm the
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  Speaker 1: lords or a god who took you out of Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: Had Parro had Paru just let us go, that would
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  Speaker 1: have been nice from his perspective. But the danger for
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish people is we would not have realized the
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  Speaker 1: hand of God. We were just saying Power is a
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  Speaker 1: great guy. He freed the slaves. So it was important
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  Speaker 1: from a Jewish point of view, for the for the
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  Speaker 1: Jewish people, of course, to see the power of God
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  Speaker 1: to learn, and of course they could not leave Egypt
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  Speaker 1: until they did an action to demonstrate their acknowledgement of
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  Speaker 1: God by putting the blood on the door post. However,
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  Speaker 1: the Jewish people were also slow learners, perhaps for more
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  Speaker 1: understandable reasons, but they would have to die in the desert.
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  Speaker 1: Take another generation who wouldn't have the slave mentality, and
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  Speaker 1: of course would be able to enter the land of Israel.
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  Speaker 1: I'll conclude by discussing one lesson. Not so I mean
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  Speaker 1: it's a lesson for all of us, but there's a
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  Speaker 1: lesson through Mosha Moshra Benu, and that is the if
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  Speaker 1: you look at the plagues. So the first three plagues
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  Speaker 1: were carried out by Aaron. God tells Mosha to tell
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  Speaker 1: Aaron to carry out the plagues. The rest of the
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  Speaker 1: plagues are done by Mosha, of course, except for the tenth,
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  Speaker 1: which is done by God. And of course the question
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  Speaker 1: is why. It says, for example, by O Mashema, Mosha
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  Speaker 1: mor Laron, you tell Aaron. God tells Mosha to tell
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  Speaker 1: Aaron tea, I'll lift up your hand and you will
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  Speaker 1: bring out the frogs. And he tells them to list
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  Speaker 1: OF's hand and hit the round and the key name
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  Speaker 1: the lights will come out. And our commentaries explain that
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  Speaker 1: Moshra Benu could not do the first three because he
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  Speaker 1: had to have gratitude to Egypt. He had of gratitude
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  Speaker 1: towards the water. His life was saved by being floated
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  Speaker 1: in the Nile, and it would be very unbecoming for
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  Speaker 1: Mosha therefore to hit the river and to turn into blood.
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  Speaker 1: So too, the swardin came from the waters, and he
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  Speaker 1: could not bring that out, and the keening delights came
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  Speaker 1: from the ground. And Mosha's life was saved the second
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  Speaker 1: time when he buried Egyptian in the ground. And therefore
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  Speaker 1: it would be inappropriate for Mosha to conduct to bring
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  Speaker 1: forth those plagues. This is truly an amazing and amazing
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  Speaker 1: teaching that that Mosha a Beno, despite the quot having,
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  Speaker 1: they had to happen, but Mosha Abeno cannot be the
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  Speaker 1: one to do it. They have a car stock gratitude
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  Speaker 1: even for people who enslaved our people who threw our
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  Speaker 1: babies into the nile, who made us suffer for hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of years. Nonetheless, Mosha Abno could not be the one
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  Speaker 1: to about those have the notion gratitude. Even the people
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  Speaker 1: who are otherwise very evil, people who do terrible things
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  Speaker 1: to us, if they do something right, have gratitude. And
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  Speaker 1: in many ways, this is actually the opening lesson, one
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  Speaker 1: of the opening lessons of the Torah itself, where God
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  Speaker 1: confronts Adam and says to him, why did you eat
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  Speaker 1: from the fruit of the tree. So Adam says, natat Aali,
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  Speaker 1: the woman that you gave me, she told me to eat.
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  Speaker 1: And of course that's true, but it's irrelevant. And Russi
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  Speaker 1: right away points out here Adam showed his ingratitude. God
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  Speaker 1: gave him a wife to be a partner to help
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  Speaker 1: they could grow together Sha Natatali, And yet he turns
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  Speaker 1: it around into something that God is your fault. It
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  Speaker 1: was the ingratitude of Adam. That was really the greater
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  Speaker 1: sin in many ways, of eating from the tree. And
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  Speaker 1: in a sense, Mosha abenu that lesson which we did
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  Speaker 1: was not learned. That the beginning of biration has to
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  Speaker 1: be taught at the beginning of the book of schmudt
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  Speaker 1: on a practical level. Perhaps that's the key takeaway of
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  Speaker 1: the Makut, the notion of a karasatov that we have.
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  Speaker 1: We always think of Akaratov to God for doing what
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  Speaker 1: he did, and of course that's a major theme, and
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  Speaker 1: that's the theme of pass up and so much of
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  Speaker 1: what we do in all the meatswelf. We do to
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  Speaker 1: remember the Exodus, but there's also a karasatov to the Egyptians,
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  Speaker 1: and of course we have to constantly remember to be
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  Speaker 1: nice to strangers because we were slaves in Egypt, or
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  Speaker 1: not to punish the Egyptians. We actually did grow there
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  Speaker 1: as a nation, so despike the suffering we had, not
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  Speaker 1: just Mosha, but the entire Jewish people Olhos. In many
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  Speaker 1: ways it did of gratitude to the Egyptian people. And
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  Speaker 1: I think that's a message we have to keep in mind.
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