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Shemot Artscroll P.292 | Haftarah P.1146 Hertz P.206 | Haftarah P.225 Soncino P.319 | Haftarah P.345 29 December 2018 21 Kislev 5779 Shabbat ends London 4.53pm Jerusalem 5.24pm Volume 31 No. 17 Shemot Artscroll p.292 | Haftarah p.1146 Hertz p.206 | Haftarah p.225 Soncino p.319 | Haftarah p.345 In loving memory of Harav Yitzchak Yoel ben Shlomo Halevi ‘Moses and the Burning Bush’ by Deana Harvey “An angel of God appeared to him (Moshe) in a blaze of fire from amid the bush. He saw and behold! the bush was burning in the fire but the bush was not consumed” (Shemot 3:2). 1 Sidrah Summary: Shemot 1st Aliya (Kohen) – Shemot 1:1-17 nation and that Moshe should go to Pharaoh and The Torah names the sons of Yaakov who came instruct him to let the nation leave Egypt. down to Egypt. Yosef’s death is recorded again. 5th Aliya (Chamishi) – 3:16-4:17 His brothers also die. The nation increases in God reassures Moshe that the elders of Israel will number. A new Pharaoh comes to power, who respond to his call. Moshe is to request from subjects the nation to hard labour. Yet the more Pharaoh that he let the Hebrews out for three they are afflicted, the more they increase. The days, to bring offerings in the desert. Pharaoh will Egyptians intensify the labour. Pharaoh instructs refuse, after which God will smite Egypt with the Hebrew midwives to kill new-born Hebrew plagues. God empowers Moshe with three signs males (see p.3 article). They refuse, instead giving to show the people – a staff that turns into a the babies food and drink (see Rashi’s snake, his hand turning white with the appearance commentary). of leprosy and water taken from the Nile turning Point to Consider : What miraculous birth-rate is to blood. Moshe is reluctant to take the hinted to in verse 1:7? (see Rashi) leadership. God tells Moshe that his brother Aharon can be his spokesman. 2nd Aliya (Levi) – 1:18-2:10 Pharaoh commands the Egyptians to drown all 6th Aliya (Shishi) – 4:18-4:31 new-born males in the River Nile. Moshe is born. Moshe returns to Egypt from Midian. God tells After hiding him for three months, his mother Moshe to warn Pharaoh that He will eventually kill Yocheved places him in a basket in the reeds at the Egyptian firstborn if Pharaoh refuses Moshe’s the riverbank. Pharaoh’s daughter retrieves the requests (Rashi). Moshe fails to circumcise his basket and identifies the baby as a Hebrew infant. new-born son Eliezer when they stop in lodgings Moshe’s sister Miriam, watching from afar, on the way; Tziporah does it instead. Aharon offers to get a Hebrew nurse. Pharaoh’s daughter greets Moshe, who relates God’s words to him. agrees; Miriam brings Yocheved, who looks Aharon in turn relays these words to the people. after him until he is weaned. Moshe is then Moshe performs the three signs. brought up in Pharaoh’s house. 7th Aliya (Shevi’i) – 5:1-6:1 3rd Aliya (Shlishi) – 2:11-28 Moshe and Aharon approach Pharaoh. Pharaoh Moshe encounters an Egyptian striking a Hebrew; refuses their requests and increases the work he kills the Egyptian (see p.4 article). Pharaoh load. The people complain to Moshe and hears of Moshe’s crime. Moshe flees for his life, Aharon. Moshe asks God why He sent him, if arriving in Midian, where he meets the daughters his intercession has only made life more difficult. of Re’uel (also known as Yitro) by a well. Moshe Question : In what way was the Israelites’ work marries Re’uel’s daughter Tziporah. They have a load increased? (5:7) Answer on bottom of page child, called Gershom. God hears the Hebrews in 6. Egypt crying out because of their hard labour. Haftarah 4th Aliya (Revi’i) – 3:1-15 The prophet Yeshaya depicts how low the nation Moshe, shepherding Yitro’s flock, arrives at the of Israel has stooped and bemoans the drunken ‘Mountain of God’. He encounters a fiery blaze in arrogance of the tribe of Ephraim and the other a bush, which is not consumed by the flames. lost tribes. However, one day a great shofar will God appears, instructing Moshe to take off his be blown and all those cast away in foreign lands shoes. God tells Moshe that He will rescue the will return to Jerusalem. Unit ed S ynagogue Daf Hasha vua Pr oduc ed by US Living & Learning toge ther with the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue Edito r: Rabbi Chaim Gr oss Edito r- in-Chief: Rabbi Baruch Davis Editorial T eam: Ra bbi Daniel Sturgess, Rabbi Michael Laitner, S haron Radley Available also via email US website www.theus.org.uk ©United Synagogue To sponsor Daf Hashavua ple ase contact Danielle Fox on 020 8343 6261 , o r [email protected] .uk If you have any comments or questions regarding Daf Hashavua please email [email protected] .uk 2 Great People, Great Deeds by Rabbi Chaim Gross, Editor Daf Hashavua “The king of Egypt said a level of greatness, there ceases to be a to the Hebrew midwives, distinction between ‘big’ and ‘small’ actions. whose names were Shifrah Their deeds reflect their greatness of character, and Puah – and he said: such that even the smallest nuance in their ‘when you deliver the behaviour reflects this greatness. Yocheved Hebrew women, and you and Miriam were such people. Even the very must look at the birthstool; basic acts of caring for and soothing babies if it is a son, you are to kill were invested with their magnitude of character him, and if it is a daughter, she shall live’. But and became fitting appellations. the midwives feared God and they did not do as the king of Egypt spoke to them, and they We see elsewhere that the opposite is also true. caused the boys to live” (Shemot 1:15-17). An attempt to perform a grand deed can be disastrous if it does not come from a proper The Midrash reveals the identity of the Hebrew basis. Lot grew up in the house of Avraham. midwives. ‘Shifrah’ ( hrpw ) was in fact Yocheved, He must have witnessed Avraham’s great Moshe’s mother. The verse calls her Shifra hospitality, typified when, aged 99 and because she was ‘meshaperet’ ( trpwm ) the recovering from his brit milah , he invited in Hebrew babies, meaning she would look after three guests and treated them with amazing care them at birth. ‘Puah’ ( hivp ) was actually Miriam, and attention to detail (see Beresihit 18:1-8). Moshe’s sister, referred to by this name to indicate the cooing sound she would use to Yet when Lot later attempted to show hospitality calm the crying babies. to two of those guests in his home in Sedom, he offered his two daughters to the local mob in Yocheved and Miriam performed amazing acts of return for leaving his guests unharmed! (ibid. bravery, defying the command of Pharaoh, in 19:8) Lot was aiming for an act of greatness but order to perpetuate the Israelite nation. Indeed, lacked the character refinement of Avraham. their actions incurred his wrath and they had to cleverly contest his accusations (see 1:18-19). Rabbi Levovitz’s message is that when in the The Torah goes on to report that they were presence of a righteous person, one can be rewarded handsomely for their courage – inspired by the small nuances of their behaviour. Yocheved became the ancestress of the priestly This is one of the explanations for the Talmud’s dynasty and Miriam of the Davidic dynasty (1:20 injunction to watch and learn from the behaviour with Rashi). If their actions were so grand and of great Torah scholars (see Berachot 7b). far-reaching – asks Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz (d. 1936) – why does the Torah give them names in association with the small physical actions that they did, such as cooing to the babies, which is common to all midwives? Surely it would have been better to give them names that reflected the unique grandeur of their actions, such as ‘heroine’ or ‘brave one’. He answers that the Torah is hinting at a fundamental lesson. When a person consistently works on his or her character traits, and toils successfully to refine themselves and thus reach In memory of Chaya Rachel bat Moshe Ben-tzion 3 Solutions in the Sidrah: Excellence in Empathy by Rabbi Yoni Birnbaum, Hadley Wood Jewish Community In her bestselling book, Much later in Moshe’s career, the importance The Empathy Exams: of having developed this sense of empathy Essays (Graywolf Press, became abundantly clear. When the Jewish 2014), author Leslie people committed the grievous sin of the Jamison describes her Golden Calf, Moshe advocated for them and unusual work as a pleaded for their forgiveness. In doing so, medical actor. Essentially, he stated that if God would not forgive them, this involved pretending then he too should be “erased” from the Torah to be a sick patient in front of medical students. itself (ibid. 32:32). This remarkable statement For 15 minutes, the students would have to try is perhaps the epitome of empathetic to assess her ‘condition’ to the best of their understanding. Even though he strongly ability. Afterwards, she would assess them condemned their actions, Moshe identified on two main grounds. First, on the amount of to such a great extent with the people that information they had been able to extract from he could not bear to consider the possibility her. Second, how well they interacted with her – of being spared without them.
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