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Dedicated in memory of Alice Setton Parshat Vaera January 16, 2021 3 Shevat, 5781

TORAH Sacks on Parshat Vaera ARTSCROLL 318 In this week’s parsha, was ’s own obstinacy end of Bereishit, we read of HERTZ 232 before even the first that led him to refuse to let the how the Egyptians plague has struck Egypt, people go. interprets accompanied and his God tells : “I will God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s family in the funeral HAFTORAH harden Pharaoh’s heart heart as meaning that procession to bury . The ARTSCROLL 1149 and multiply My miraculous “repentance was withheld from Canaanites witnessed this and HERTZ 244 signs and wonders in him, and the liberty to turn from said, “The Egyptians are Egypt.” (Exodus 7:3) The his wickedness was not accorded holding a solemn ceremony of hardening of Pharaoh’s to him.” Albo and Sforno offer mourning.” They named the heart is referred to no less the opposite interpretation. God place, Abel Mizraim (Gen. Times than twenty times in the hardened Pharaoh’s heart 50:11). Note: they called it course of the story of the precisely to restore his free will. “the place of Egyptian

Weekly Times Exodus. Sometimes it is After the succession of plagues mourning,” not Israelite Pharaoh who is said to that had devastated the land, mourning, despite the fact Shacharit: Sun. 8:30 am harden his heart. At other that it was for Jacob, a non- Mon - Fri. 7:45 am Pharaoh was under times, God is said to have overwhelming pressure to let the Egyptian. Then we read of Scholars’ Kollel 9:00 am done so. The uses go. Had he done so, it how Joseph himself was (link in the daily three different verbs in this would not have been out of free embalmed and placed in a emails) context: ch-z-k, to choice, but rather under force coffin in Egypt. In the Torah, strengthen, k-sh-h, to majeure. God therefore only Joseph, and Jacob at Mincha 4:35 pm harden, and k-b-d, to strengthened Pharaoh’s heart so Joseph’s request, are make heavy. that even after the first five embalmed. So we have plagues he was genuinely free to already been forewarned Throughout the ages, the say Yes or No. It may be that all about the significance of commentators have been Times three are right and are simply death to the Egyptian mind. concerned with one responding to the different Candle Lighting 4:34 pm problem. If God hardened However, there is one specific verbs. K-sh-h, “hardening,” Pharaoh’s heart, how could aspect of Egyptian belief that Mincha 4:35 pm supports ’s reading. he have been to blame for opens up an entirely new Pharaoh was hard on the not letting the Israelites perspective on the references Hashkama Minyan 8:00 am Israelites, so God was hard on go? He had no choice in to Pharaoh’s heart. According him. K-b-d, “making heavy,” the matter. It was God’s to Egyptian myth, the Parsha Shiur 8:30 am supports Maimonides. Pharaoh doing, not his. That he and deceased underwent a trial to lacked the energy, the strength, Main 9:00 am his people should be establish their worthiness or to repent. Ch-z-k, “to punished seems to flout otherwise to enjoy life after strengthen,” supports Albo and Beit 9:15 am the fundamental principle death in Aaru, the Field of Sforno. The text allows for all of justice, that we are Reeds, where souls live on in Youth Minyan 9:45 am three possibilities. guilty only for what we pleasure for eternity. They Shiur 4:00 pm have freely chosen to do. However, part of the truth may believed that the soul resides However, the lie in a completely different in the heart, and the trial Mincha 4:30 pm commentators noted that direction. The Egyptians – consisted of the ceremony of for the first five plagues, especially – were The Weighing of the Heart. Shabbat Ends 5:43 pm Pharaoh is said to harden preoccupied by death. Their Other organs were removed Latest Times for his own heart. The funerary practices were after death, but the heart was Shema/Shemoneh Esrei obstinacy, the refusal, the astonishingly elaborate and were left because it was needed for intransigence are his. Only meant to prepare the person for the trial. On one side of the Jan. 16 9:40/10:28 am with the sixth plague is life after death. The tombs of the scales was a feather. On the God said to have done so. Pharaohs were among their most other, was placed the heart. Jan. 23 9:39/10:28 am This led to several lavish creations. Tutankhamun’s, If the heart was as light as explanations. discovered in 1922, is a dazzling the feather, the dead could Next Shabbat example. One of the greatest continue to Aaru, but if it was Rashi says that the Bo literary works of heavier, it was devoured by hardening of Pharaoh’s was The Book of the Dead. The the goddess Ammit (a Candle Lighting 4:42 pm heart in the last five Torah notes the attention the combination of , plagues was a punishment Egyptians gave to death. At the hippopotamus and crocodile), Mincha 4:45 pm for the first five, when it 26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck, NY 11023 (516) 487-6100 Shabbat Announcements Vaera 5781 and its owner was condemned to live in Duat, the underworld. The religion of Israel is not intended to be the religion of all An illustration, on , in The Book of the Dead shows the humanity. Nowhere in the narrative does God imply that He ceremony, undertaken in the Hall of Two Truths, overseen by wants the Egyptians to adopt Israelite religious practices. The Anubis, the Egyptian God of the dead. point is quite different. Religion is particular. Morality is universal. If the story of the “heavying” of Pharaoh’s heart It follows that the root k-v-d, “to make heavy,” would have had does allude to the Book of the Dead, then the story of the a highly specific meaning for the Egyptians of that time. It Exodus is not simply a partisan account from an Israelite point would imply that Pharaoh’s heart had become heavier than a of view. It is telling us that certain things are wrong, whoever feather. He would fail the heart weighing ceremony and does them and whoever they are done against. They are therefore be denied what was most important to him – the wrong by Egyptian standards too. That was true of Pharaoh’s prospect of joining the gods in the afterlife. No one would have decision to kill all male Israelite children. That was an been in any doubt as to why this was so. The feather unforgivable sin against Ma’at. represented Ma’at, the central Egyptian value that included the concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, justice, morality, Justice is universal. That is the point made plainly by the and law. Not only was this fundamental to Egyptian culture. It Torah’s three stories of Moses’ early life. He sees an Egyptian was the task of the Pharaoh to ensure that it prevailed. This hitting an Israelite and intervenes. He sees Israelites hitting had been an Egyptian principle since a thousand before one another and intervenes. He sees Gentile shepherds , found in Pyramid texts dating from the third behaving roughly to Jethro’s daughters and intervenes. The millennium BCE. Ma’at meant cosmic order. Its absence invited first was a case of non-Israelite against Israelite, the second chaos. A Pharaoh whose heart had become heavier than the was Israelite against Israelite, the third was non-Israelite Ma’at feather was not only endangering his own afterlife, but against non-Israelite. This is the simplest way of telling us that threatening the entire people over whom he ruled with turmoil Moses’ sense of justice was impartial and universal. and disarray. Finally, and most deeply, the Torah is hinting at a self- One of the things the deceased were supposed to do as part of contradiction at the heart of the Egyptian concept of Ma’at. The the trial was to make a series of negative confessions, 42 in all, most generous interpretation of Pharaoh’s refusal to let the declaring themselves innocent of the kind of sin that would people go is that he was charged with maintaining order in the exclude them from paradise. These are some of them: I have Empire. A successful minority like the Israelites could be seen not done injury to men. I have not oppressed those beneath as a threat to such order. If they stayed and thrived, they me. I have not murdered. I have not commanded murder. I might take over the country as the Hyksos had done several have not caused suffering to men. If the “heavying” of centuries earlier. If they were allowed to leave, other enslaved Pharaoh’s heart is an allusion to the Weighing of the Heart groups might be tempted to do likewise. Emigration is a bad ceremony, it allows us to read the story in a completely new sign when the place people are trying to leave is a superpower. way. First, it suggests that it is directed to Egyptians as well as That is why, for many years, the Soviet Union forbade to Israelites; to humanity as a whole. The Torah tells us three leave the country. times that the purpose of the signs and wonders was “so that Pharaoh, in his repeated refusal to let the people go, doubtless the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord” (Ex. 7:5; 14:4; justified his decision in each case on the grounds that he was 14:18). This is the core of monotheism. It is not that the securing Ma’at, order. Meanwhile however, with each plague Israelites have their God, and the Egyptians their pantheon, but the country was reduced to ever greater chaos. That is rather that there is one sovereign power in the universe. because oppressing people, which is what Pharaoh was doing, That is the point of at least three of the plagues: the first, was a fundamental offence against Ma’at. On this reading, the directed against Hapfi, the god of the Nile; the second, frogs, whole issue of Pharaoh hardening his heart was not so much directed against Heqet, the Egyptian goddess of fertility and psychological as political. In his position as semi-divine head of childbirth, represented in the form of a frog; and the ninth, the state of an empire that practised forced labour on a massive plague of darkness, directed against Ra, the sun god. The scale, Pharaoh could not let the Israelites go free without message of these plagues would have been clear to the creating the risk that other groups would also challenge the Egyptians: there is a power greater than those they have Corvée, the unpaid, conscripted semi-slave labour that was worshipped until now. The God of Israel is the God of the world part of Egyptian society from the building of the pyramids and and of all humanity. abolished only in 1882. For the first five plagues, Pharaoh could tell himself that he was enduring minor inconvenience to protect a major principle. But as the plagues became more Great Neck Synagogue serious, reducing Egypt to chaos, Pharaoh’s room for 26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck , NY 11023 maneuver grew ever less. Having five times said “No” to the 516-487-6100 Israelites, he could not now back down without making himself look ridiculous, forfeiting his authority and damaging his Rabbi Dale Polakoff, Rabbi standing. Pharaoh was a prisoner of his own system, held Rabbi Ian Lichter, Assistant Rabbi captive by his own decisions. Rabbi Yehoshua Lefkowitz, Intern Rabbi Seeking to protect order, he created chaos. That is because Dr. Ephraim Wolf, z”l, Rabbi Emeritus the order he was seeking to protect was built on a foundation Yitzy Spinner, Cantor of injustice: the enslavement of the many for the benefit of the Eleazer Schulman, z”l, Cantor Emeritus few. The more he tried to defend it, the heavier his heart grew. Rabbi Sholom Jensen, Youth Director Zehava & Dr. Michael Atlas, Youth Directors I believe that justice is universal. The Exodus story of how the Mark Twersky, Executive Director supreme Power entered history to liberate the supremely Dr. James Frisch, Assistant Director powerless, is not just for Jews. It is the world’s greatest Jordan Wolf, President metanarrative of hope. Dov Sassoon, Chairman of the Board SISTERHOOD EVENT

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IF YOU KNOW OF SOMEONE WHO IS MOVING INTO THE Mazal Tov to Dassie & Eddy Barth on the birth of a grandson GREAT NECK AREA PLEASE LET THE OFFICE KNOW. born to their children Naomi Barth & Jonathan Henkin. SISTERHOOD NEWS Mazal Tov to Betty & Joel Crane on the upcoming marriage Join on Tues. Jan. 12th at 7:30 pm for a lecture by Robyn of their granddaughter Gabriel Tannenbaum daughter of Blumner on “Breaking Bad.” Join on zoom here. Alison & Dov Tannenbaum to Etai Shoob. Mah Jongg Cards are available at $9/card or $10/large print. Mazal Tov to Leonard & Louise Kahn on the marriage of Forms are due by Jan. 25th. Please make check out to GNS their granddaughter Tamara, daughter of Doron & DV to Ari Sisterhood. Hoffman in Florida. CHAVERIM CENTER TRIBUTE DINNER The next Chaverim will be Wednesday Jan. 20th from 12:30- Hadassah and Jack (z”l) Wachstock are being honored together 1:30. with their children Mira and Yakir by YUHSG as a legacy family. PESACH SCOPE DEADLINE AND SPONSORSHIP The virtual dinner will take place on Wednesday, January 13th at Please submit all SCOPE magazine articles, recipes, photos, ads, 7:30-8:30. The link for the dinner is: yu.edu/yuhsdinner2021. sponsorships and any other material by Monday, January Monday, 27 Tevet 25th to Diane Rein at [email protected]. Please share photos Tina Machnikoff for William Machnikoff and captions of GNS smachot (weddings, bar/bat , bris, Zehava Atlas for William Machnikoff etc.) that took place over the past few during COVID-19 Daniella Muller for William Machnikoff so we can make a collage for the Pesach issue. Thank you very Sydelle Knepper for Michael Marin much to our SCOPE sponsors (we have about 80!) for their Ira Rosenberg for Rosenberg strong support by sponsoring 3 issues (Rosh Hashanah, Tuesday, 28 Tevet Chanukah and Pesach) for a total cost of $100 for the . We Thelma Kattan for Naim ben Harun strongly encourage others who are not currently SCOPE Amy Griffel for Sally Fox sponsors to have their names added. You can dedicate the Mel Fox for Sally Fox sponsorship in honor or in memory of a loved one. Thank you! Susan Mandelbaum for Irvin Justin Wednesday, 29 Tevet SAVE THE DATE - GNS VIRTUAL GALA Seth Horowitz for Barbara Horowitz Please join in honoring Rabbi Sholom and Aksana Jensen and Michal Rosenzweig for Heskel Khazzam with special thanks to Rabbi Jensen for his 30 years of Jill Swartz for Enid J. Lee dedication and Service to the Great Neck Synagogue. Y Osnass Shein for Bessie Miller In addition, there will be a tribute in honor of all of the front line Sandy Nissenbaum for Nissenbaum workers, first responders, doctors, nurses and technicians who A Stephen Rabinowitz for Milton Rabinowitz have so bravely faced the COVID 19 Pandemic. We look forward Lisa Adler for Robert Swartz to your joining the GNS Virtual Gala on Saturday night, Ronald Swartz for Robert Swartz February 27, 2021, at 8:00 pm. To volunteer to help and to join H Joyce Swartz for Robert Swartz the committee please call Mark Twersky. Steven Swartz for Robert Swartz R George Zobel for Hillel Zobel GNS CONNECTIONS Thursday, 1 Shevat GNS Connections is a new initiative to reach out to members of Michael Brisman for Joan Brisman our synagogue – many who usually attend services but are not Z Jonathan Brisman for Joan Brisman able to during this COVID pandemic for health and safety Ebrahim Gabbaizadeh for Shmuel Gabbaizadeh reasons. If you are interested in volunteering to make phone E Eli Moradi for Jahan Ghadamian-Moradi calls 1-2x to keep in touch with these members, please Mark Landa for Golda Landa email the Chair of GNS Connections, Rachel Brecher at Myles Mittleman for Jack Mittleman [email protected]. I Anne Sandler for Harry Usher Howard Wolf for Emma Wolf CHESED OPPORTUNITES Friday, 2 Shevat This March, Ruben Prawer will be running in the T Chava Shalmon for Sh’maye Grinzpan marathon for Yachad. The work Yachad does for children with Linda Horowitz for Arthur Kagan special needs is unparalleled and every dollar that is donated S Ehsan Reyhanian for Aharon Reyhanian will be well spent by this amazing cause. Feel free to reach out Liza Novogrudsky for Helen Young with any questions about the marathon or to run yourself! Saturday, 3 Shevat (All donations are tax deductible.) Here’s the link to join: Rhonda Lipsky for Nathan Olk Sunday, 4 Shevat https://jerusalem.teamyachad.com/runner/Rprawer3/ Mahin Aryeh for Raphael Aryeh Commonpoint Queens is part of the Samuel Field in Little Neck. Michael Aryeh for Raphael Aryeh Pass It Forward works closely with them. There is an ongoing Nathaniel Aryeh for Raphael Aryeh volunteer opportunity to help them deliver meals to needy Holly Hoenig for Irene Berns households in Queens and Nassau county starting January Philip Hanfling for Max Hanfling 19th. The program will be delivering over 500 meals daily. Jeffrey Wiesenfeld for Markus Wiesenfeld Commitment would be at least one a week between the Monday, 5 Shevat Mitchell Siegel for Helen Siegel hours 9am-12pm. Anyone interested should sign up here. Carol Berlin for Joseph Simon