Essay Parsha Story

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Shemot 5763 (2002) Moses’ Mother Comment Somewhere there is a boundary, a line that separates the near from the far, the within from the without. If you can straddle that line, if you can And the more they afflicted stand with one foot inside and the other foot out- them, the more they multiplied side, you can be both and the more they gained Responses to "A Dialogue on strength . Relationships Intermarriage" (Exodus 1:12) We got hundreds of e-mails with questions, criticisms and compliments, and requests for "the ending" of this captivating human drama. Some of them were too good not to publish...

Freud's Great Freudian Slip Essay It appears in his last book, Moses and Monotheism, a strange work if ever there was one. It was published in 1939, by which time Freud had taken refuge in Britain... Deep Love Parenting Who Needs all those Parenting You cannot reach deeper Seminars, Anyway? within another than you reach in If you wanted to play tennis, would you play your own self. with a person who plays worse than you, or with If you love yourself for your a person who plays better than you? achievements, your current assets, the way you do things The Fork in the Road and handle the world -- and Story Between Vilna and Mezeritch... The ascent of the despise yourself for failure in tzaddik... The physical world according to Rabbi the same-- it follows that your Schneur Zalman of Liadi... The longer shorter relationship with another will way... Readings for Tevet 24 also be transient and superficial. To achieve deep and lasting Shemot — Exodus 1:1 - 6:1 love of another person, you Parsha It was the darkest hour yet in the history of the need to first experience the fledgling nation. Slaves in a foreign land, subject depth within yourself -- an inner to the cruelest of decrees. Just as it seemed that core that doesn't change with things could never be worse, a leader appears, sent time or events. If it is the true by G-d to redeem them. Then things do get worse essence, it is an essence shared by the other person as well, and deep love becomes unavoidable. For more information or to subscribe new material added daily! to one of our many insipiring This magazine contains sacred Torah periodicals log on to: material. Please do not discard. www.Chabad.org www.Chabad.org

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Moses' Mother If you are outside of a problem, you can’t solve it. by Yanki Tauber If you are part of the problem, you can’t solve it either. You need to be both. The woman who gave birth to and raised Moses could not have been of the generation that was born in Egypt, the generation for whom galut was the reality. She could not have been of the generation born in the Holy Land, for whom galut was never One of the colorful figures in in the Talmud is a real. She had to be both. certain Rabbi Yirmyiah, famous for his incessant, unrelenting questioning. No sooner is a law cited, than Rabbi Yirmiyah has a half-dozen scenarios with which to test it: what if the situation were reversed? what if it were bigger, smaller, darker, lighter, nearer, farther? At one point, the patience of his colleagues reached its limits. They were discussing a certain law regarding food preparation on the festivals which differentiates between a pigeon found within 50 cubits (approximately 75 feet) of the pigeon house, or more than 50 cubits from the nest. “What would be the law,” asked Rabbi Yirmiyah, “if the pigeon is standing so that one of its legs is within the 50 cubit limit, and the other leg outside?” Rabbi Yirmiyah was ejected from the study hall. But Rabbi Yirmiyah has a point. Conventional wisdom would argue that a thing is either near or far — it can’t be both. But somewhere there is a boundary, a line that separates the near from the far, the within from the without. If you can straddle that line, if you can stand with one foot inside and the other foot outside, you can be both. And often, in the trajectory of our lives, we must be both. And in the history of a people, there must be leaders and visionaries who are both.

The Torah tells us that when Jacob and his family came to Egypt, they numbered “seventy souls”. But the detailed list given by the Torah (in Genesis 46:8- 27), includes only 69 names. Our sages explain that when Jacob’s family departed the Holy Land, there were only 69 Jews; but upon their arrival in Egypt, they numbered 70. Who is the mysterious 70th soul? It is Jocheved, the mother of Moses, born “between the boundary walls” as the first Jewish family entered our first galut (exile).

Relationships opera fan who missed the final episode, so I will end with “Expiring minds want to know!” :-) Responses to "A Thank you. Dialogue on Dearest Rabbi, I have read this continuing story about intermarriage. I have my own views as well. Mine are from a child of Intermarriage" an intermarried couple. My father was a Jew and my mother was a Christian. Both of them were good people who loved each other and had no intention of hurting anyone. Most especially their own daughter. When I was born the decision was made to have me Editor’s note: Our regular readers will surely recall converted to Judaism. No questions asked. An Orthodox the “Dialogue on Intermarriage” we published in our rabbi was brought from New York... Devarim 5762 issue — a correspondence between As I grew I studied everything and left nothing unno- “Juan”, a graduate student in a large South American ticed. My religious identity was the greatest part of my city, and “Rabbi Gershon Abrahamson,” the local governing conscience. I didn’t study as much about Chabad rabbi (not their real names). Juan, who describes Judaism as I did Christianity, Islam, Hindu and himself as someone who “unfortunately does not have Buddism. I did my best to rebel against parents and thor- the honor of being a Jew”, had fallen in love with oughly let them know that this wasn’t fair. I had to “Paulina”, a Jewish woman; the two wished to marry, choose whether I am Jewish, and if I did that I dishon- but were met with vehement opposition on the part of ored my own mother. If I didn’t choose Judaism, I dis- the young woman’s family. Seeking to understand the honored my father. How could I do that to either one? So basis of this opposition, Juan wrote to Rabbi I dishonored them both... Logic doesn’t allow me not to Abrahamson. Their resultant correspondence, spanning choose, because by not choosing I have also chosen... 42 e-mails and 14 months, is a fascinating document on I ultimately chose G-d over both my parents and they love, marriage, religion, racism, anti-Semitism and had to deal with their own deeds for the rest of their Judaism — in addition to being a captivating human lives. Both of my parents did state that they would never drama. It also captivated our readers, who sent us hun- approve of intermarriage for any selfish excuse again. dreds of e-mails with questions, criticisms and compli- “Love isn’t enough,” is what my mother said, “not when ments — and requests for “the ending” (which was pub- there is G-d.” lished in our Ki-Teitzei 5762 issue). Some of them were I still to this day have painful memories because of too good not to publish — so here goes. (If you haven’t my parents’ intermarriage. I have dishonored my moth- read the “Dialogue” itself yet, go here). er in a way that I can’t change, and it was caused by intermarriage. I don’t expect many to understand my Dear Chabad On Line, view, but I do give great caution to anyone who wants to I have just finished reading the “Dialogue on try it. Not wise at all. Intermarriage.” It is fascinating, not only for its amazing wisdom, but The Rabbi’s entire presentation of his ideas struck me for the love, kindness, sensitivity and profound respect as an ongoing assault on the dignity of both Juan and his displayed by the two men for each other, for the young beloved Paulina. And every time he said he was merely woman, and for the issue at hand. “explaining” rather than “judging” opinions with which I would like to know, however, do we ever get to he disagreed, he was in fact severely judgmental.... His know the outcome of the underlying situation between goal is to change two young people to his way of think- “Paulina” and “Juan”, or, at least, whether there was ing, an easy thing to do, as most educators know. And in ever any conscious closure to the dialogue between the process he invokes G-d, family, society, the perpetu- Rabbi Abrahamson and “Juan?” Or did the discussion ation of Judaism. This is a lot of heavy duty ammunition just peter out? he uses in his “dialogue” with inexperienced young people. He will no doubt change their minds, which is his In typing this, I feel a bit like a voyeur, or a soap purpose all along. He is not interested in dialogue, only

relationships Dear Rabbi Responses to "A Dialogue I read with rapt facination your correspondence with “Juan”. I have walked in those shoes with my on Intermarriage" first marriage. Briefly, I was raised Catholic, but had been a believer in the Torah for many years prior to my meet- ing _____ (my first husband). My parents, bless them, in persuading the immature to see the world as he were most supportive of this. I wish I could have said does. the same for his mother.... Even after I converted, a The entire correspondence (I read every word of it) decision I made, I was never “Jewish” enough for her. was nothing more, in my view, than a picture of a man And they were Reform! foisting his belief system on young, inexperienced She never came to our apartment. He was always people. That the believer should find his beliefs so asked over to her home, without me. We struggled satisfying is no surprise. After all, he is arguing a case through this for four years until things simply went within a closed circle, where every idea reinforces the apart. others. The problem is that a true “friend” should be Do I know what Juan is feeling? And HOW! I pray wiling to think outside of his favorite circle in order to that he finds out that Paulina’s family will never see other people’s ideas as well, with the goal being to change, nor should they, given his decision to remain understand the “other” more and more fully. It should in his faith, a good thing no matter what religion one never be to create in the other a clone of oneself, espe- is or how much a follower is of the laws of that reli- cially in the name of friendship. gion... Juan does sound at times as if he needed to hear What a find! Your recently published “Dialogue on that it was okay for he and Paulina to marry. It isn’t. Intermarriage” is nothing short of fantastic. Having It’s against the rules, so to speak. He can understand lived through a similar scenario — and now watching what you wrote, but he isn’t listening... as a sister struggles with her decisions — I assure you I wonder how your correspondence with Juan con- that this article will provide an objective and non-concluded, if it has. I can only empathize with them both frontational launching point for a much overdue fam- and pray they will come to the right conclusion. ily conversation... Thank you for sharing this with everyone. And in retrospect, the happy ending is that the cul- mination of my search has been in finding Chabad in My 25-year-old daughter went to yeshiva for 10 ______. Without belaboring the details, my son and years, always belonged to conservative synagogue, I blindly walked into Chabad about a year-and-a-half always active with Jewish friends. She found a non- ago, searching for a shul that felt right for us on Jewish boyfriend 2 years ago. As of May we no Shabbos. We’ve been going ever since and our growth longer speak to her. Can you imagine a child giving as father/son, and as Jews has never been deeper — up her entire family and all old friends for this horri- even though I was raised very traditionally... That’s ble situation? Any suggestions? why we support Chabad as we do. Thanks! Dear Gershon, Our greatest leaders came from mixed unions. Our I am a 34-year-old woman who was raised in a faith was built and preserved by the product of mixed strongly fundamentalist Christian home. I went to unions. Ruth was a Moabite — not born a Jew... I live conservative Christian schools and college. I married in a small town. Because of deaths, childlessness, a Christian man that I met in college, and divorced people moving away, etc., what was once a thriving him 6-1/2 years later... congregation now can’t get a minian.... We are a religion (Jews are not a race as Hitler would have us I distanced myself from my family a bit any time believe) — what should be done is active search for we had friction over religious beliefs, and in that dis- converts... tance I started exploring and wanting to know exactly why I believe what I believe. I went to a Buddhist

Comment | Relationships | Essay | Parenting | Story | Parsha | Week at Glance 22 2 4 www.Chabad.org relationships children (from a non-Jewish wife). After his divorce, he returned to his religion and seems to be fairly seri- Responses to "A Dialogue ous about it. His children will need to convert, so I didn’t understand why it would have been a problem on Intermarriage" for me and my children to convert as well. At any rate, we seem to have ended for good. However, my interest in the religion (and unfortunately in him) continues. I will be leaving the city in which I met him and returning to ______where I will zendo for about a month just to sort of see others’ begin searching for what to do next. beliefs and see that there are others who believe as fervently about things as Christians, yet have different I realize you must be a very busy man. However, if foundations for their beliefs. you have time, I would appreciate any thoughts you might have. I am terribly heartbroken....wishing I I visited my parents a few weeks ago, and my would have converted before I had met him. mother told me that a distant grandmother on her side was a Jew, and that it was passed down through the females. Thank you for sharing your amazing correspon- I went home and started reading about Judaism, dence. I plan to send this to a student of mine who has and then got more and more hungry to learn all that I a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father. She is could. I bought a Stone Edition Tanach as well as the becoming religious and he feels hurt and is trying to JPS and was dismayed to see that they differed so tell her that it’s a mistake She is conflicted. I think that much in interpretations from the Christian Bibles I’ve this will help her.... studied. I went to the Judaism section at Barnes & Noble one day, and a young man standing there asked Dear Rabbi Abrahamson if I was a Jew. We ended up sitting on the floor, talk- I am just writing to say how impressed I was reading about things. He pulled out several books, told me ing this dialogue. It is the first time I have read arti- I need to find a Chabad near me.... cles on the Chabad website, and I have just spent at I’m very confused about everything and looking least an hour and a half at work reading this unbeliev- for answers. I don’t want to be someone who accepts ably detailed and well written real-life drama! No a hand-me-down religion. I want to know why I doubt this is a very sensitive and controversial area — believe what I believe and that I’m believing it I was very impressed with your reasoning. The reason because it is the truth. I am writing is just to satisfy my curiosity — are you able to tell me what eventually happened in this story? Dear Rabbi: We are going through difficult times at home with my sister and her relationship and I really benefited from I came across your email interchange with “Juan” reading some of your arguments... while searching for a synagogue in which to begin my conversion to Judaism. I have been interested in Judaism for as long as I ....Thank you for these emails. I wish I had read can remember. My interest has steadily grown, culmi- them before my daughter secretly wed a non Jew. She nating in a relationship with a Jewish man that I sim- has now returned home, ready to seek a divorce, and ply adored. we pray for the wisdom and guidance to support her at this point in her life, and to offer her guidance she I was too shy to really press my interest in will accept... Judaism....afraid that he would think I wanted to convert merely for him. The truth is I have been fascinat- ed by the religion since I started kindergarten...when I found your dialogue with Juan very interesting. If my first best friend, Sarah ______, explained Juan would choose conversion (to Judaism) would Hanukkah to me. their relationship work? I’m in a similar situation, I am now a 37-year-old divorced woman with four except that I’m married. I would like to read more of young children. The man I was in a relationship with the correspondence. was a 40-year-old divorced man with three young

Relationships very interesting. I am quite impressed with the rabbi’s knowledge, and his ability to relate it to someone that Responses to "A Dialogue is not of our faith. on Intermarriage" Dear Juan and Gershon — why don’t you two get married. You could spend the rest of your lives discussing this problem and never reach a conclusion. I think Juan should do a good look into his family There are no answers. You just do the best you can and tree. If he shakes it and a Jewish root falls out, he follow your heart. That’s what G-d would expect, no should convert... more, no less. You don’t get points for being a martyr. You only get heartache. Would it be wise to let Mr. Garcia know that Jews are not only born, but also made? I really, really enjoyed reading the first part of this I suspect not, because I think conversions aught to dialogue. I was really, really disappointed by the “epi- be motivated by different aspirations. Plus there are logue”, however. It had little to say beyond the wealth those rules which require that Jews discourage a per- of insight provided in first part. Basically, in last son’s conversion three times and so on. installment, Rabbi Abramson’s responses were lazy and unworthy of the provocative questions that Juan Still, I can’t help but see the potential for Mr. continues to raise — and, more importantly, of the Garcia, that is, with his current religious tabla rasa. pain he evinces. What are your thoughts? Perhaps, even after such a long break, both men simply are tiring of each other and of the meaty issues What if this non-practicing Christian is a Jew they chewed over previously in such detail. It’s per- whose ancestors were forced into Christianity by the fectly understandable for the dialogue to run out of sword over the past centuries or is part of the “Lost steam. But just because the dialogue has resumed — Tribes”... and the Blessed and Holy Creator who is in and just because your readers clamor for more — control is drawing this man back into the fold via this doesn’t mean that you have to feel compelled to pub- love and marriage? What right does the rabbi (a lish it. Let’s see where (or even if) the dialogue con- human being) have to get involved and stop what the tinues, and then decide if the two men have anything Blessed and Holy Creator may be doing...? new to tell us. Please accept this in the spirit with which it’s Dear Rabbi Abrahamson: offered. I am writing my comments both as a reader You are a credit to the Jewish Community, a bright and an editor. shining light that one must respect. I will continue to follow the dialogue between you and Juan because I Thank you soooo much for the updated post! Some am learning so much from both of you. very important statements were established with Juan and should be with us. Rabbi — 1) It is Truth not Happiness that is key. I had just spent a good portion of my time at shul 2) We obey Torah because it is Truth, it is what it is, last Shabbat wrapped up in the ChabadOnline Weekly and not because it necessarily makes us happy. Magazine, more specifically, your dialogue with However, the third key or finishing thought: Juan. It was one of the most important (for lack of a 3) When we pay attention to truth, and obey better word) articles that I had read anywhere in quite because it is truth and we have faith that it is our good a while. You are to be commended for bringing this that G-d ultimately desires, then.... we find happiness. conversation to light. I passed it on to a friend who is How? Through finding the Truth that G-d longs to running such a risk with his daughter. bestow upon us. So many are looking for happiness Keep up the good work and don’t let the “fame” without understanding what it is. get to you :-)

Please keep me up to date on the dialogue, I find it

Essay story of Moses is not a myth but an anti-myth. It takes a myth and turns it upside down. Freud's Great Its message is simple and revolutionary. True royalty — the Bible suggests — is the opposite of our Freudian Slip conventional wisdom. It isn’t privilege and wealth, By Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks splendor and palaces. It’s moral courage. Moses, in discovering that he is the child of slaves, finds great- ness. It’s not power that matters, but the fight for jus- tice and freedom. Had Moses been an Egyptian It was Freud’s greatest Freudian slip, and for some prince, he would have been eminently forgettable. reason his commentators, at least those I’ve read, Only by being true to his people and to G-d did he haven’t noticed it. become a hero. It appears in his last book, Moses and Monotheism, Freud had mixed feelings about his own identity. a strange work if ever there was one. It was published He admired Jews but was tone-deaf to the music of in 1939, by which time Freud had taken refuge in Judaism. That is why, I suspect, he failed to see that Britain. Had he stayed in Vienna, heaven knows what he had come face to face with one of the most pow- humiliations he would have suffered before being mur- erful moral truths the Bible ever taught. Those dered along with his fellow Jews. For some reason, at whom the world despises, G-d loves. A child of this desperate time, Freud wrote a book (he originally slaves can be greater than a prince. G-d’s standards described it as a “historical novel”) in which he tried to are not power and privilege. They are about recog- prove that Moses was an Egyptian. There have been nizing G-d’s image in the weak, the powerless, the many speculations as to why he wrote it, and I have no afflicted, the suffering, and fighting for their cause. wish to add to their number. Early on in the book, What a message of courage Freud might have sent though, there is a most curious episode. his people in that dark night! Let us at least see what he did not, that the story of Moses is one of the great Freud notes that several scholars have identified a narratives of hope in the literature of mankind. common theme in stories about the childhood of heroes. The hero’s birth is fraught with danger. As a baby, he is exposed to the elements in a way that would Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks is Chief Rabbi of Great Britain normally lead to death — sometimes by being placed in a box and thrown into the water. The child is rescued and brought up by adoptive parents. Eventually, he discovers his true identity. It is a story told about Sargon, Gilgamesh, Oedipus, Romulus and many others. It is also the story of Moses. At this point, however, Freud notes that in one respect the story of Moses isn’t like the others at all. In fact, it’s the opposite. In the conventional story, the hero’s adoptive parents are humble, ordinary people. Eventually he discovers that he is actually of royal blood, a prince. In the Moses story, the reverse is the case. It is his adoptive family that is royal. He is brought up by the daughter of Pharaoh. His true identity, he discovers, is that he belongs, by birth, to a nation of slaves. Freud saw this and then failed to see what it meant. Instead he changed tack and concluded that the story is a fabrication designed to conceal the fact that Moses was the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; he really was a prince of Egypt. What Freud failed to realize is that the

parenting with quality people who are eager to learn and grow, we, too, will enter into that mode and obtain new Who Needs all those skills and ideas that had not been part of our natural repertoire in the past. Parenting Seminars, There is no such thing as a perfect parent or a perfect spouse, but neither is there a parent or a spouse Anyway? who doesn’t do some things right. As a parent of 14 By Yaakov Lieder children, I still search for new ways to be a better parent, and learn something new each day. I see what works for others and see if these methods will also work for me. I complimented a group of parents on their willing- Parenting is an individual thing, which depends ness to expand their parenting skills. We were spend- on the characters of the parents and children, as well ing an hour a week learning and sharing methods in as the circumstances in which the family finds itself. raising a healthy and strong family. I said to them that The most important rule in parenting is that there are knowledge is the mother of action. We need to know no rules. Not everything that works for someone else what to do, so we can do what we know. will necessarily work for me, but many things will. One parent stood up and said: “I’m not sure that I’m It is only by trying and finding out what works that so proud of this. As a matter of fact, I didn’t tell my sis- we are able to improve. If we see that something ter that I’m attending a parenting workshop. She would isn’t working, we should stop it and move onto just make fun of me, and would say things like, ‘You’re something else. There are only general guidelines. always going to those personal development seminars. The basic principle of striving for a balance between The ideas they introduce sound good at the seminar, discipline and love is universal, and is applicable in but aren’t practical in daily life. You will quickly revert all situations with minor adaptions to each one. to your old habits and then feel guilty that you’re not We will earn respect from our children when they doing it “right”...’ Isn’t it better to do the best we know see that we are eager to learn how to be better at and be satisfied with it?” she concluded. what we are doing. They will get the impression and I asked this woman, if she wanted to play tennis, understand clearly that we are not perfect and that would she play with a person who plays worse than we are still growing. When we make a mistake, her, or with a person who plays better than her? “I which is inevitable, they will not judge us, as they would play with a person better than me,” was her will know we are on a journey and have not yet answer, “because it would be more challenging and I reached our destination. would learn new skills.” If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. I explained that this principle also applies to the A person who does not read good books has no game of life and especially to parenting and relation- advantage over the person who cannot read them. ships. Each one of us plays the game of life with our Reading good parenting books for 10 or 15 minutes own talents at our own levels. But human nature is a day will definitely improve our skills in the most such that — in the words of the Talmud — “One who important job of our lives. has a hundred, desires two hundred; and one who has Try it — it works! 200, desires 400.” We are not satisfied with what we have and always want more. This trait, if used proper- By Rabbi Yaakov Lieder; [email protected] ly, can be implemented to improve the quality of our life. This could be done by looking for people who have better parenting or relationship skills than we have, and adopting them as our peers. You can love your cynical sister and skeptical rela- tives, but your peers should be chosen very carefully. The people we spend time with on a regular basis influence our lives, whether we like it or not. By interacting

Story

The Fork in the Also see: Road BIRTHDAY: A CHAI ELUL ANTHOLOGY www.chabad.org/article.asp?AID=3071 KISLEV 19: THE “NEW YEAR” OF CHASSIDISM www.chabad.org/article.asp?AID=63817

When Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745- 1812, founder of Chabad Chassidism) neared his twentieth year, he decided — with the consent of his wife, Rebbetzin Sterna — to travel to a center of Torah learning and service of G-d. At that time, Vilna and Mezeritch were the great Jewish capitals of Eastern Europe. Vilna was the seat of Rabbi Eliyahu, the famed Gaon of Vilna, and Mezeritch was the hometown of Rabbi DovBer (the “Maggid”), leader of the Chassidic movement. Related Rabbi Schneur Zalman: “I debated as to where I should go. I knew that in Vilna one was taught how to study, and that in Mezeritch one could learn how to pray. To study I was somewhat able, but of prayer I knew very little. So I went to Mezeritch. “The Almighty blessed me with making the right choice. I became a devoted disciple of our Rebbe’s and, upon my return to Vitebsk, I guided my stu- dents in the teachings of Chassidism, which were well received by them.”

The 24th of Tevet — this year, Sunday, December 29, 2002 — marks the 190th anniversary of the passing of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi while fleeing Napoleon’s armies in the winter of 1812. For more on Tevet 24th, Rabbi Schneur Zalman, and the “Chabad” philosophy and approach to life he taught, see the following articles: THE ASCENT OF THE TZADDIK THE PHYSICAL WORLD ACCORDING TO RABBI SCHNEUR ZALMAN OF LIADI THE LONGER SHORTER WAY TWENTY-EIGHT TEACHINGS

Story Of the elements I see - The Ascent of the Tzaddik Their material form by Zvi Yair Their mantle of corporeality No longer Do my eyes perceive

The Grandson: What else do you see, Grandfather?

The Tzaddik lies, his eyes closed, suddenly they The Tzaddik: open wide Farewell The Grandson: My precious one What do you see, Grandfather? Two pillars of light Have come to take me. The Tzaddik: I see that the husk From the fruit is peeling Based on a Chassidic tradition describing the From the face of The Creation passing of Rabbi Schneur Zalman on Liadi on The mask is falling Tevet 24, 5573 (1812) I see By Zvi Yair; from the Hebrew by Yanki Tauber, edi- The word of the Creator [email protected] Its garments shedding I no longer see A table, a chair, a lamp... Only letters do I see The utterances of genesis The commands “Let there be!” Which nestle In the creations of the world Forcefully instilled By perpetual command Lest they revert to The nullity They crave

As the sap’s pulsing flow Through the twigs of the tree So see I Rivers of being Constantly streaming Along the river-beds of existence The soul

Story Body: The Physical World account, After havdallah, several minutes before giv- According to Rabbi Schneur ing up his soul in purity to G-d). The contents of these two discourses present Zalman of Liadi something of an enigma to the student of Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s philosophy, who expects to see a recapitulation of the Rebbes earlier works in these products of his final days. Instead, one finds what The 24th of Tevet is the anniversary of the passing appears to be a departure from—or even a reversal of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of of—certain key principles of his previous teachings. Chabad Chassidism. Spirit Over Matter Rabbi Schneur Zalman was born in the White In his Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman describes a Russian town of Liozna on Elul 18, 5505 (1745) — perpetual struggle between the spiritual and the the 47th birthday of the founder of the Chassidic material in man and in creation. movement, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov. In 1764 he traveled to Mezeritch to study under the tutelage of Within the human being, this conflict takes the the Baal Shem Tov’s successor, Rabbi DovBer. form of a battle between the animal soul and the G- Despite his youth, he was accepted into the inner cir- dly soul. The animal soul is our physical self—the cle of the great master’s pupils. drive to be and exist, the instinct for self-preserva- tion, self-fulfillment and self-enhancement. The G- Upon his return from Mezeritch, there gathered dly soul is the source of our spirituality—our drive about him a group of disciples whom he instructed in for self-transcendence, our yearning to escape the the ways of Chassidism. It was during these years confines of our material existence and connect to the that he formulated his distinct Chabad philosophy infinite and the eternal. Life is the war between these and approach to life, which he subsequently outlined two opposing drives: every act we do, every word we in his magnum opus, Tanya, on which he labored for utter, even every thought we think, is an outcome of twenty years before publishing it in 1796. By that this inner struggle, representing the victory of one of time, his influence had spread throughout White the two selves vying to express itself and further its Russia and Lithuania, where a significant part of the aims via the body and faculties which they share. Jewish population regarded him as their Rebbe and leader. On the cosmic level, there is the conflict between the spiritual essence of creation—the divine utter- In late summer of 1812 Rabbi Schneur Zalman ances or sparks of holiness at the core of every creat- fled the approach of Napoleon’s armies, which were ed thing—and the mantle of materiality that embod- advancing through White Russia in their push toward ies, obscures and imprisons them. We redeem these Moscow (Rabbi Schneur Zalman actively supported sparks of holiness by utilizing the material objects the Czar in the war against Napoleon—see our previ- and resources of our world to serve G-d, thereby ous articles, Bonaparte and the Chassid and Is transforming them from material things (i.e. things Judaism a Theocracy?). After many weeks of wan- that exist for their own sake) into spiritual things dering he arrived, in the dead of winter, in the town (things whose sole purpose is to serve a higher end). of Pyena. There he fell ill and on Tevet 24, Motzaei Shabbat (Saturday night) following Shabbat Parshat What makes the spiritual more holy than the mate- Shemot, at 10:30 in the evening, he returned his soul rial? Why are the instincts and drives of the animal to its Maker. soul less G-dly than those of the G-dly soul? Rabbi Schneur Zalman explains that the cardinal law of In those last days in Pyena Rabbi Schneur Zalman existence is that “There is nothing else besides Him” wrote one of the most profound essays to issue from (Deuteronomy 4:35). Hence, transcendent and self- his pen—a lengthy treatise later published as Section abnegating entities are holy and G-dly, for they 20 of Igeret HaKodesh (a collection of his letters and affirm and convey the truth that there is no true exis- essays appended as Part Four of Tanya). Another tence (that is, nothing that exists for its own sake) manuscript that has been preserved from those days other than G-d. Self-oriented things are profane and is a short discourse entitled The Humble Soul, which unG-dly because their very existence entails an the Rebbe wrote shortly before his passing (by one

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Body: The Physical World in the material for its own sake—for no purpose other than sustaining or giving pleasure to the According to Rabbi Schneur body—it sees the potential for sanctification even in as physical an activity as eating fat beef and drinking Zalman of Liadi spiced wine when it serves the purpose of giving oneself an expansive state of mind in which to serve G-d and [study] His Torah or to fulfill the mitzvah to enjoy the Shabbat and the festivals. obfuscation of this truth. The Tanya goes so far as to declare the physical world to be the ultimate objective of G-d’s creation Thus, even the most innocent of physical actions and the only environment within which His desire for can be a subtle form of evil. If a person eats with no a world can be satisfied. All other dimensions of cre- thought other than satisfying his natural craving for ation—including the most lofty of spiritual worlds food—which is his animal soul’s desire to sustain its and realities—were created solely to facilitate the physical existence—his eating constitutes a denial of creation and the continued existence of our physical the principle that there is nothing else. The Tanya world and its actualization of the divine desire for a therefore instructs us to sanctify our eating by eating home in the lower realms. Indeed, as Rabbi Schneur for the purpose of utilizing the energy we derive from Zalman points out in numerous discourses, virtually our food to serve G-d. In this way, the act of eating all the mitzvot of the Torah involve the utilization of becomes a holy act—an act that expresses, rather some material substance to fulfill the will of G-d— than controverts, the exclusivity of the Divine. wearing tefillin made of animal hide or tzitzit made It is not enough, says the Tanya, to carry out the of wool, eating matzah on Passover, giving money to commandments of the Torah and refrain from trans- charity, etc. gressing its prohibitions. This is but the most overt This, however, does not contradict our earlier clas- battlefield in the war of life. We must delve deeper, to sification of the material as profane and unG-dly. In battle the more subtle challenge to the integrity of our fact, it is precisely because of its profanity and unG- bond with G-d: to vanquish the material self that con- dliness—precisely because its very existence belies tests the divine truth with its pretensions to a self- the truth that “There is none else besides Him”—that defined existence. the physical reality is the focus of G-d’s desire for The Tanya charts a program for life to achieve this creation. end: to dethrone the material self from its natural sta- For it is in the conquest of the material that the true tion as the seat of our identity and the prime motiva- supremacy of the spirit is revealed. As the intensity tor of everything we do, and establish our spiritual of a lamp is measured by the farthest point its light self in its place; to transform our every deed from an can reach, and as genius is ranked by the extent of its act of self-perpetuation to an act of self-transcen- ability to explain itself to the simplest of minds, so is dence and self-abnegation; to actualize the spiritual the all-pervasiveness of the divine most powerfully essence within every creation and free it of its corpo- expressed when a material substance—the least tran- real body and prison, by enlisting it in the endeavor scendent of G-d’s creations—is made to serve a G- to serve G-d. dly aim. As Rabbi Schneur Zalman writes in a key passage In other words, the paramount role that physical in Tanya, “The foundation and root of the entire reality plays in the divine purpose in creation is not a Torah is to raise and exalt the soul over the body.” factor of any positive quality on its part. On the con- The Conquest of Earth trary: because of its contrariness to all that is spiritu- One would presume the moral tone of such an al and G-dly, it is the vehicle of choice to reveal the approach to life to be one of disdain for the material infinite reach and scope of the divine truth. world and for all things physical. Yet the Tanya is far The Divine Analogue from an ascetic’s manifesto. It does not call for a Such is the world-view put forth in the Tanya and denial of the body’s needs, or even for a renunciation augmented by scores of maamarim (discourses) of physical pleasure. While it condemns indulgence delivered by Rabbi Schneur Zalman in the four

Story Body: The Physical World attestation to His truth. If we listen to what the physical object says about itself, we hear a blatant denial According to Rabbi Schneur of its Source; but if we look at what it is, we see an analogue of the divine being. Zalman of Liadi This is why the mitzvot—the building blocks of G- d’s home in creation and the ultimate facilitators of our relationship with G-d—are physical deeds enact- ed with physical objects: not only because the mate- decades of his leadership. Then, in the last days rial world is the greatest challenge to the divine truth before his passing, he authored two discourses which (making its conquest the greatest proof of its poten- open an entirely new perspective on the material cy), but also because, in the final analysis, physical reality. matter is the most divine of G-d’s creations. In Section 20 of Igeret HaTeshuvah, Rabbi The Humble Soul Schneur Zalman addresses the issue of the centrality This is also the thrust of The Humble Soul, the of the physical mitzvot to the divine purpose in cre- other discourse authored by Rabbi Schneur Zalman ation. Here, however, he does not explain this in in the last days of his physical life. terms of the greater challenge to the divine truth posed by the material world. Instead, he attributes it Rabbi Schneur Zalman was a master philosopher to a certain synonymy between the divine reality and and Kabbalist, and his achievements as a Talmudist the physical reality. and Halachist were lauded by follower and foe alike. Yet he devoted a great portion of his time to the mate- We have described physical matter as the most rial needs of his people, working to establish agricul- self-defined of G-d’s creations. This quality of the tural colonies to provide a livelihood for hundreds of physical, we said, constitutes a denial of the truth that families, and counseling the many thousands who “There is nothing else besides Him.” But it is also the came to Liadi to seek his advice regarding their com- quality that marks it as the only creation that shares munal, business and domestic affairs. this quality with its Creator. In the closing moments of his life, Rabbi Schneur G-d is the ultimate self-defined being—a being Zalman looked back upon these expended hours and not preceded by any cause, a being who exists to no energies without regret. For the truly humble soul, he end other than itself. This is how He perceives wrote, its mission in life lies in the pragmatic aspect Himself—for this is what He is. Other than G-d, of Torah, both in studying it for himself and explain- there is only one other being that sees and presents ing it to others, and in doing acts of material kindness itself as such—the physical object. But the physical in lending an empathizing mind and counsel from object sees and presents itself as such only because it afar regarding household concerns, though the major- was instilled with this self-perception by its Creator. ity, if not all, of these concern things of falsehood. And in granting it this self-perception, G-d has imbued the physical object with a quality that is Why occupy oneself with things of falsehood, uniquely His. Only G-d, who Himself possesses much less see them as one’s mission in life? Rabbi absolute being, can create something that exudes Schneur Zalman finds the answer in the following such absoluteness of being—something that regards Midrashic account of the creation of man: itself as having no other cause preceding it. Truth said: He should not be created, for he is full So the great lie of the material reality is also a of lies. Benevolence said: He should be created, for great truth. It is a great lie because it presents itself as he is full of kindness .... What did G-d do? He took a true existence when the only true existence is G-d. Truth and threw it to the ground. Thus it is written It is a great truth because the truth it so falsely appro- (Daniel 8:12), And You cast truth to the ground. Said priates to itself is a representation, imprinted in its the ministering angels to G-d: Master of the Worlds! very being, of the truth of its Creator. Why are You insulting Your signet? [Said G-d:] Truth shall ascend from the earth.: Thus it is written If we take the material world at face value, it is a (Psalms 85:12), Truth shall sprout forth from the challenge to the exclusivity of G-d. But if we delve earth. (Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 8:5) deeper into its essence and origin, it is the ultimate

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Body: The Physical World time of self-refinement. But to appreciate the value of a mitzvah as Reb Yaakov Mordechai did, one must According to Rabbi Schneur first sleep on a bench for thirty years.

Zalman of Liadi Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, www.therebbe.org; adapted by Yanki Tauber edi- [email protected] The material life of man is full of falsehoods: the fallacy that its concerns are formidable and important, the fallacy that material conditions have the power to dictate one’s spiritual course, the fallacy THE LONGER SHORTER WAY that physical life is an end in itself. Our first inclina- Said Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananiah: "Once a tion may be to demolish these falsehoods, or to rise child got the better of me." above them. But the truly humble soul accepts that it "I was traveling, and I met with a child at a cross- is its mission in life not to repress or escape the mate- roads. I asked him, 'which way to the city?' and he rial, but to deal with it with faith and integrity. answered: 'This way is short and long, and this way And when it does so, it will find that its cultivation is long and short.' of the false soil of earth has caused a deeper truth to "I took the 'short and long' way. I soon reached the sprout forth: the truth that, in the words of city but found my approach obstructed by gardens Maimonides, “All existences, of the heaven, the and orchards. So I retraced my steps and said to the earth, and everything in between, exist solely from child: 'My son, did you not tell me that this is the the truth of His existence.” short way?' Answered the child: 'Did I not tell you A Story that it is also long?' " How might we reconcile these two world views? Is (Talmud, Eruvin 53b) the vision of reality expressed in Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s Pyena writings a departure from the vision formulated in his Tanya? Or are the Pyena discourses Also in life there is a "short but long" way and a in fact the crowing turret of his life’s work, while his "long but short" way. earlier works are the foundation and edifice that In his Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi sets invariably lead to them and support them? down the fundamentals of the Chabad-Chassidic Instead of attempting to resolve this question—an approach to life. On the cover page of this "Bible of attempt which is sure to consume many more pages Chassidism" he defines his work as follows: than our format allows—we will conclude this essay "[This book is] based on the verse (Deuteronomy with a story: 30:14), 'For [the Torah and its precepts] is something There was once a Chassid by the name of Yaakov that is very close to you, in your mouth, in your heart, Mordechai who, for many years, deprived himself of that you may do it-- to explain, with the help of G-d, all physical comforts in order to achieve a suprema- how it is indeed exceedingly close, in a long and cy of spirit over matter in his life. Before his passing, short way." however, he expressed regret at having weakened his The Torah and its commandments (mitzvot) are the body with his unrelenting regimen: perhaps, had he Creator's blueprint for creation, detailing the exact not been so hard on himself, he would have lived to manner in which He meant life to be lived and His observe even one more mitzvah. Thirty years to sleep purpose in creation to be fulfilled. But is a life that is on a bench! he was later quoted to have said. To put ordered by Torah indeed feasible? Can the ordinary on tefillin one more time is far more valuable than to "everyman" be realistically expected to conduct his sleep on a bench for thirty years! every act, word and thought in accordance with the When Chassidim told this story, they would add: Torah's most demanding directives? True—a single mitzvah is more valuable than a life- The Torah itself is quite clear on the matter: "For the mitzvah which I command you this day, it is not

Story al nature, is literally revolting to him, since it disrupts his The Longer Shorter Way relationship with G-d and runs contrary to his own true self. But a person may argue: Why spend a lifetime pursu- ing this demanding regimen of mind and heart? Why must I toil to understand and feel? Why not take the direct approach -- open the books and follow instruc- beyond you nor is it remote from you. It is not in tions? I'm a simple Jew, this person may maintain, and heaven... nor is it across the sea... Rather, it is the attainment of such lofty spiritual states as "compre- something that is very close to you, in your hension of the Divine", "love of G-d", and "awe of G-d" mouth, in your heart, that you may do it." Torah is are way beyond my depth. I know the truth, I know what not an abstract ideal, a point of reference to strive G-d wants of me -- the Torah spells out the do's and toward, but a practical and attainable goal to don'ts of life quite clearly. I have a material and egocen- achieve. tric nature? An inborn inclination towards evil and self- But how? In the Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman destructive desires? I'll control them. My faith, determi- develops the Chabad approach -- a holistic nation, and willpower will do the job. approach to life in which the mind and intellect This, however, is the short but long way. As the most play the leading and pivotal role. First, a person direct and simple line between two points, it is mislead- must study, comprehend and meditate upon the ingly the surest way to town; but in truth, the direct quintessential truths of existence: the all-tran- approach is a dead end. As with the route which Rabbi scendent, all-embracing, all-pervading reality of Yehoshua first chose, it seems to lead straight to the city G-d; the root and essence of the soul and its -- only somehow it never quite makes it. For it is a path intrinsic bond with its Creator; man's mission in of never-ending struggle, the scene of perpetual duel life, and the resources and challenges that are between the self-oriented animal soul of man and his extended to him to fulfill it. Since these concepts upward-reaching G-dly soul. True, man has been given are extremely subtle and abstract, one must toil "a free choice and furnished with the necessary fortitude toil of the soul and a toil of the flesh" to grasp and spiritual staying power to meet his every moral chal- them and relate to them. lenge; but the possibility of failure, G-d forbid, also The next step of this approach is to translate exists. No matter how many times he will triumph, this knowledge and comprehension into emotion- tomorrow will bring yet another test. On the short and al feelings. Because of an innate superiority of the long road one may win battle after battle, but there is mind over heart that the Creator has imbued in never a decisive victory in the war of life. human nature, the understanding, assimilation On the other hand, the long but short way is winding, and meditation upon these G-dly concepts will steep, tedious, and long as life itself. It is full of ups and compel the development of the appropriate emo- downs, setbacks and frustrations. It demands every tions in the heart: the love and awe of G-d. "Love ounce of intellectual and emotional stamina the human of G-d" is defined by Rabbi Schneur Zalman as being can muster. But it is a road that leads, steadily and the unquenchable desire to cleave to Him and be surely, to the aspired-to destination. When one does unified with His essence; "awe of G-d" is the utter finally acquire an aptitude and intellectual taste for the abhorrence towards anything which erects barri- G-dly, when one does develop a desire for good and ers between Him and man. abhorrence for evil, the war has been won. The person Finally, when a person has so oriented his mind has transformed himself into someone whose every and so transformed his heart, his observance of thought, deed and act is naturally attuned to his quintes- the Torah's precepts becomes not only possible, sential self and purpose in life. but a compelling need. He craves the fulfillment of the mitzvot with every fiber of his being since Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; adapted by they are the bridge between him and G-d, the Yanki Tauber Originally published in Once Upon A Chassid means -- and the only means -- by which he can (Kehot 1994) connect to his Creator. And any transgression of G-d's will, no matter how attractive to his materi-

exclusion of any alien influence, G-d forbid... While the Story animal soul desires Twenty-Eight Teachings the very opposite... 8. There are two types of pleasure before G-d. The first is from the complete nullification of evil and its transforma- 1. This is what man is all about; this is the purpose of tion from bitterness to sweetness and from darkness to his creation and of the creation of all the worlds, sub- light by the perfectly righteous. The second [pleasure] is lime and lowly — to make for G-d a dwelling in when evil is repelled while it is still at its strongest and the physical world. mightiest... through the efforts of the “intermediate man” (beinoni)... As in the analogy of physical food, in which 2. A little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness. there are two types of delicacies that give pleasure: the first being the pleasure derived from sweet and pleasant 3. By virtue of its inborn nature, the mind rules the foods; and the second, from sharp and sour foods, which are spiced and prepared in such a way that they become heart. delicacies that revive the soul...

4. Prayer without direction of the heart is like a body 9. When one’s body is viewed with scorn and contempt, without a soul... Love of G-d and fear of G-d are the and one’s joy is in the soul alone, this constitutes a direct two wings by which a deed rises heavenward. and simple way to fulfill the commandment “Love your fellow as yourself” toward every Jew, great or small... For 5. Every individual Jew, righteous or wicked, has two the source of their souls is in the One G-d, and they are- souls... One soul derives from kelipah (the “husks” of divided only by virtue of their bodies. Therefore, those creation) and sitra achra (the “other side”), and clothes who give priority to their body over their soul, find it itself in the blood to animate the body... From it derive impossible to share true love and brotherhood except that the evil traits... and also the Jew’s instinctive good which is conditional on some benefit. This is what Hillel traits... The second soul in the Jew is literally a the Elder meant when he said about this commandment “part of G-d above.” [the love of Israel]: “This is the whole Torah; and the rest is commentary.” For the foundation and source of all 6. “The soul of man is a lamp of G-d” (Proverbs 20:27). Torah is to elevate and give ascendancy to the soul over Just like the flame of the lamp strains upwards, seeking the body... to tear free of the wick and rise heavenward - though this would spell its own demise - so, too, does the G-dly 10. Also those who are far from G-d’s Torah and His serv- soul in man constantly strive to tear free of the body and ice... one must draw them close with strong cords of love the material existence and be nullified — perhaps one might succeed in bringing them closer to within its source in G-d. Torah and the service of G-d. And even if one fails, one has still merited the rewards of the fulfillment of the 7. The body is likened to a small city: like two kings Mitzvah, “Love your fellow.” who wage war over a city, each desiring to capture it and rule over it, that is, to govern its inhabitants accord- 11. It is written: “Forever, O G-d, Your word stands firm ing to his will so that they obey him in all that he in the heavens” (Psalms 119:89). Rabbi Israel Baal Shem decrees for them, so do the two souls - the G-dly [soul] Tov, of blessed memory, explained the verse thus: Your and the animal [soul] - wage war against each other word which you uttered, “Let there be a firmament...” over the body and all its organs and limbs. The desire (Genesis 1:6), these very words and letters stand firmly and will of the G-dly soul is that it alone should rule forever within the firmament of heaven and are forever over the person and direct him, and that all his limbs clothed within the heavens to give them life and exis- should obey it and surrender themselves completely to tence... And so it is with all created things, down to the it and become a vehicle for it, and serve as a vehicle for most corporeal and inanimate of substances. If the letters its ten faculties [of intellect and emotion] and three of the “ten utterances” by which the world was created “garments” [thought, speech and action]... and the during the six days of creation were to depart from it for entire body should be permeated with them alone, to the but an instant, G-d forbid, it would revert to absolute

Story matters, and a tremendous failing in all that pertains to Twenty-Eight Teachings one’s spiritual attainments. 17. During the time that Rabbi Schneur Zalman was imprisoned in Petersburg, one of the czar’s miniters asked him to explain the verse (Genesis 3:9) “And G-d called nothingness. out to the man and said to him: Where are you?” Did G-d not know where Adam was? Rabbi Schneur Zalman asked 12. If the human eye were allowed to see the spiritual the minister: Do you believe that the Torah is eternal, that vitality flowing from the utterance of G-ds mouth into its every word applies to every individual, under all con- every creation, we would not see the materiality, gross- ditions, at all times? The minister replied that he did. ness and tangibility of the creation, for it would be Rabbi Schneur Zalman was very gratified to hear this, for utterly nullified in this was a basic principle of the “subversive” teachings of relation to this divine life-force. the Baal Shem Tov, the propagation of which was at the heart of the accusations leveled against him. “Where are 13. The era of Moshiach is the fulfillment and culmi- you?” said Rabbi Schneur Zalman to the minister, “is G- nation of the creation of the world, for which purpose it d’s perpetual call to every man. Where are you in the was originally created. Something of this revelation has world? You have been allotted a certain number of days, been experienced once before on earth, at the giving of hours, and minutes in which to fulfill your mission in life. the Torah at Mount Sinai [when] “To you it has been You have lived so many years and so many days — shown, to know that the L-rd is G-d; there is none else Where are you? What have you accomplished?” beside Him” (Deuteronomy 4:35). G-dliness was then perceived with physical vision.... Subsquently, howev- 18. Once, in the early years of his leadership, Rabbi er, sin coarsened both them and the world - until the era Schneur Zalman of Liadi said to his disciples: “One must of Moshiach, when the physicality of the body and the live with the times.” He later explained his meaning: One world will be refined, and we will be able to apprehend should live with and experience in one’s own life the the revealed Divine light which will shine forth to Torah portion of the week and the specific section of the Israel by means of the Torah.... “The glory of G-d will week’s portion which is connected to that day. be revealed; and all flesh will see that the mouth of G- d has spoken” (Isaiah 40:5)... This all depends on our 19. In essence, every mitzvah is as supra-rational as the deeds and labor throughout the duration of the galut... law of the Red Heifer. It is only that the divine will is When a person does a mitzvah, he draws down a flow of Divine light into the world, to be suffused and inte- revealed to us in varying degrees of rational “garments”. grated into the material reality... 20. There is love like fire, and there is love water.

14. Rabbi Mordechai of Haradak, a disciple of Rabbi 21. The Jewish heart is a smoldering coal. The words of Schneur Zalman, told: The first thing we heard from prayer are the bellows that fan it to a roaring flame. the Rebbe was: “What is forbidden, one must not; and what is permitted, one need not.” Three or four years 22. Following his release from imprisonment on Kislev we toiled with this, until we this approach was 19, 5559 (1798), an event which marked the Chassidic ingrained in our lives. Only then would we be received movement’s decisive victory over its opponents, Rabbi in a private audience with the Rebbe to ask about our Schneur Zalman sent a letter to his followers. The letter individual paths in serving the Almighty. begins by quoting the verse in which Jacob says to G-d, “I am diminished by all the kindnesses... You have shown 15. To a disciple who complained of his financial trou- Your servant” (Genesis 32:11). “The meaning of this,” bles: You speak of what you need, but you say nothing explains Rabbi Schneur Zalman “is that every kindness bestowed by G-d upon a person should cause him to be of what you are needed for. exceedingly humble. For a [Divine] kindness is [an expression of] ... ‘His right hand does embrace me’ (Song 16. “One who is satisfied with his lot” (Ethics of the of Songs 2:6) — G-d is literally bringing the person close Fathers 4:1) describes a tremendous virtue in material to Himself, far more intensely than before. And the clos-

PARSHAH in a nutshell Shemot Exodus 1:1-6:1 Torah Reading for Week of December 22-28, 2002

The Children of Israel multiply in Egypt. Threatened by their growing numbers, Pharaoh enslaves them and orders the Hebrew midwives, Shifrah and Puah, to kill all male babies at birth. When they do not comply, he commands his people to cast the Hebrew babies into the Nile. A child is born to Jocheved, the daughter of Levi, and her husband, Amram, and placed in a basket on the river, while the baby’s sister, Miriam, stands watch from afar. Pharaoh’s daughter discovers the boy, raises him as her son, and names him Moses. As a young man, Moses leaves the palace and discovers the hardship of his brethren. He sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and kills the Egyptian. The next day he sees two Jews fighting; when he admon- ishes them, they reveal his deed of the previous day, and Moses is forced to flee to Midian. There he rescues Jethro’s daughters, marries one of them - Zipporah - and becomes a shepherd of his father-in-law’s flocks. G-d appears to Moses in a burning bush at the foot of Mount Sinai and instructs him to go to Pharaoh and demand: “Let My people go, so that they may serve Me.” Moses’ brother, Aaron, is appointed to serve as his spokesman. In Egypt, Moses and Aaron assemble the elders of Israel to tell them that the time of their redemption has come. The people believe; but Pharaoh refuses to let them go, and even intensifies the suffering of Israel. Moses returns to G-d to protest: “Why have You done evil to this people?” G-d promises that the redemption is close at hand.

also join our enemies, and fight against us...”

The Egyptian’s way of dealing with their “Jewish problem” was Shemot to enslave the Jews. “They made their lives bitter with hard labor, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of work in the Exodus 1:1-6:1 field.” And yet, Torah Reading for Week of December 22-28, 2002 The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.

Our Parshah opens by once more listing the names (shemot) of The king of Egypt summons two Jewish midwives, Shifrah and the sons of Jacob who came with him to Egypt, where “the chil- Puah, and commands them to kill all Jewish newborn males. dren of Israel were fruitful, and proliferated, and multiplied, and When the midwives defy his instructions, grew very, very strong; and the land was filled with them.” Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying: “Every son that As long as Jacob’s sons were alive, the Children of Israel pros- is born you shall cast into the River, and every daughter pered in the land which Joseph had saved from starvation; but you shall make live.” after the passing of Joseph and his brothers, There arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph. The Birth of Moses And he said to his people: “Behold, the people of the chil- There went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a dren of Israel are more and mightier than we.” daughter of Levi. “Come, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and And the woman conceived, and bore a son. And she saw it come to pass that when any war should chance, they

Commentary (Midrash Tanchuma; Rashi)

AND THESE ARE THE NAMES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WHO CAME INTO AND THERE AROSE A NEW KING OVER EGYPT, WHO KNEW NOT JOSEPH (1:8) EGYPT:REUBEN,SHIMON,LEVI, AND JUDAH (EXODUS 1:1-2) Some say it was actually a new king; others say, it was the same king with Although G-d had already counted them in their lifetime, He again counted new decrees. “Who knew not Joseph”—who acted as if he did not know them at the time of their death, to express His love for them. For they are Joseph (since, in either case, he surely knew about Joseph and his salvation like the stars, which He takes out and brings in by number and name; as it of Egypt). is written (Isaiah 40:26): “He takes out their hosts by number, He calls them each by name.” (Talmud; Rashi)

(Rashi) LET US DEAL WISELY WITH THEM (1:10)

AND JOSEPH DIED, AND ALL HIS BROTHERS, AND ALL THAT GENERATION Pharaoh himself took hold of a basket and shovel; all who saw Pharaoh with (1:6) a basket and shovel working in bricks, did likewise. The Jews came, too, and diligently worked with him all day, for they were strong and brawny. Joseph, who lived 110 years, was the shortest-lived of the brothers; Levi, When evening fell, Pharaoh placed taskmasters over them, and said: “Count who lived 137, was the longest-lived. Hence, the enslavement of Israel, how many bricks they made.” He then said to the Hebrews: “This number which began after Levi’s death, was no longer than 116 years (the period you shall deliver to me each and every day,” appointing the Egyptian from Levi’s passing to the Exodus), and no shorter than 86, the age of taskmasters over Hebrew officers and the Hebrew officers over the people. Miriam at the time of the Exodus (Miriam, meaning “bitterness,” was so named on account of the bitterness of the exile). (Midrash Tanchuma)

(Seder Olam) THE MORE THEY AFFLICTED THEM, THE MORE THEY MULTIPLIED AND GREW (1:12) “Loath positions of authority” (Ethics of the Fathers, 1:10), for they bury those who hold them. Was not Joseph among the youngest of his brothers? Said Rabbi Akiva: In the merit of the righteous women of that generation Yet he was the first of them to die. were the Israelites delivered from Egypt.

(Avot d’Rabbi Natan) At first, Pharaoh only insisted that they make the prescribed number of bricks each day. Then he commanded that they should not be allowed to AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WERE FRUITFUL, AND PROLIFERATED, AND sleep in their homes, so that they should not be able to have children. So the MULTIPLIED, AND GREW VERY, VERY STRONG (1:7) taskmasters said to them: “If you go home to sleep, you will lose a few hours each morning from your work, when we send for you, and you will They would give birth to six at a time (fruitful=1, proliferated=2, multi- never complete the allotted number.” So they made them sleep on the plied=3, grew strong=4, very=5, very=6). ground out in the field.

hires to nurse and care for the child. When the child grows older, he is returned to Pharaoh’s daughter, who raises him as her son. She calls him Moses, “he who was drawn from the water.”

Shemot Flight From Egypt Exodus 1:1-6:1 Torah Reading for Week of December 22-28, 2002 And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brothers, and looked on their suffering; and he saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brothers. him that he was good; and she hid him three months. He looked this way and that, and when he saw that there When she could not longer hide him, she took for him a was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the box made of papyrus, and daubed it with clay and with sand. pitch, and put the child in it; and she laid it in the rushes by the River’s brink. But not only Egyptians were doing the smiting. The next day, Moses encounters two Jews fighting. “Why will you smite your The child’s older sister, Miriam, stands watch from a distance, fellow?” he demands of the attacker. “to know what would be done to him.”

And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself “Who made you prince and a judge over us?” comes the reply. at the River. And she saw the box among the rushes, and “Do you say to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?” she sent her maid to fetch it. And Moses feared, and said: “Indeed, the thing is known.” She opened it and she saw the child: behold, a weeping boy. And she had compassion on him, and said, “This is Moses’ fear materializes: word reaches Pharaoh, and Moses is one of the children of the Hebrews.” sentenced to death. Moses flees to the land of Midian. Miriam approaches and offers the services of a Hebrew nurse- In Midian, Moses sits by a well. The daughters of Jethro, the maid. When Pharaoh’s daughter accepts, Miriam brings priest of Midian, come to draw water for their father’s flocks Jocheved, the child’s own mother, whom Pharaoh’s daughter

Commentary revealed Himself by the Red Sea, these children recognised Him first, as it is said: “This is my G-d and I will praise Him” (Exodus 15:2). What did the daughters of Israel do? They would go down to draw water from the river, and G-d would send them small fish into pitchers, which they (Midrash Tanchuma; Talmud, Sotah 11b) drew up half full of water and half full of fish. They then set two pots on the THE MORE THEY AFFLICTED THEM, THE MORE THEY MULTIPLIED AND GREW fire, one for hot water and the other for the fish. They sold the fish and bought wine, which they carried to their husbands in the field, and washed, (1:12) annointed, fed, gave them to drink. They would then take out their mirrors and look into them with their husbands, teasing them, “Look, I am more What is the meaning of the verse (Jeremiah 11:16) in which the Jewish peo- beautiful than you” thus arousing their desire and cohabiting with them ple are called “a leafy olive tree, fair with goodly fruit”? Just as the olive is among the sheepfolds, as it is written: “When ye lie among the sheepfolds” marked out for shriveling while it is yet on its tree, after which it is brought (Psalms 68:14). (It was these mirrors which G-d later commanded Moses to down from the tree and beaten, and after it has been beaten is brought up to use in the making of the washstand in the Sanctuary — see Exodus 38:8).. the vat and placed in a grinding-mill, where it is ground and then tied up with ropes, and then stones are brought, and then at last it yields its oil, so After the women had conceived they returned to their homes; and when the it is with Israel: the heathens come and beat them about from place to place, time of childbirth arrived, they went and were delivered in the field beneath imprison them and bind them in chains, and surround them with officers, the apple trees, as it is written: “Under the apple-tree I brought you forth” and then at last do Israel repent and G-d answers them. (Song of Songs 5:5). G-d sent an angel from the high heavens who washed (Midrash Rabbah) and straightened the limbs [of the babes] in the same manner that a midwife straightens the limbs of a child; as it is said: “And as for your nativity, in the PHARAOH COMMANDED ALL HIS PEOPLE, SAYING:“EVERY SON THAT IS BORN day that you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in YOU SHALL CAST INTO THE RIVER” (1:22) water to cleanse you” (Ezekiel 16:4). He also provided for them two round stones, one for oil and one for honey, as it is said: “And He made him to He imposed the same decree upon his own people. Said Rabbi Yose ben suck honey out of the rock, and oil from a boulder” (Deuteronomy 32:13). Rabbi Chaninah: He made three decrees. First, [he instructed the midwives,] “If it be a son, then you shall kill him”; then he commanded, “Every When the Egyptians noticed them, they went to kill them; but a miracle [Hebrew] son that is born you shall cast into the river”; and finally, occurred and [the children] were swallowed in the ground. The Egyptians “Pharaoh commanded all his people,” imposing the same decree upon his brought oxen and ploughed over them, as it is said: “The ploughers own people. ploughed upon my back” (Psalms 129:3). After they had departed, they broke through the earth and came forth like the herbage of the field, as it is (Talmud, Sotah 12a) said: “I caused you to multiply as the bud of the field” (Ezekiel 16:7). When the children had grown up, they came in flocks to their homes. When G-d

And the angel of G-d appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a thornbush; and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, but the bush was not consumed. And Moses said: “I must turn aside, and see this great Shemot sight, why the bush is not burnt.” Exodus 1:1-6:1 And G-d called to him out of the midst of the bush, and Torah Reading for Week of December 22-28, 2002 said: “Moses! Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” And He said: “Do not come near; remove your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. and are driven away by shepherds; Moses comes to their aid. “I am the G-d of your father, the G-d of Abraham, the G-d Moses is subsequently invited to Jethro’s home, and marries of Isaac, and the G-d of Jacob.” one of the daughters, Zipporah. A son is born to them and named Gershom, “Because I was a stranger (ger) in a foreign And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon G-d. land”. And G-d said: “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cries at the hand In the meantime, the lot of the Children of Israel in Egypt wors- of their oppressors, I know their pain... ens, “and their cry rose up to G-d out of their bondage.” “Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that At the Burning Bush you shall bring My people the children of Israel out of Egypt.” Moses was shepherding the sheep of Jethro; and he led the flock far away into the desert, and came to the moun- “Who am I,” objects Moses, “that I should go to Pharaoh, and tain of G-d, to Horeb. that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

Commentary Where did he go? He went in the counsel of his daughter. EVERY SON THAT IS BORN YOU SHALL CAST INTO THE RIVER, AND EVERY Moses’ father, Amram, was the greatest man of his generation; when he saw DAUGHTER YOU SHALL MAKE LIVE (1:22) that the wicked Pharaoh had decreed “Every son that is born you shall cast Pharaoh did not merely allow the Jewish girls to live; he commanded to into the river,” he said: In vain do we labor. He went and divorced his wife. “make them live” (techayun, in the Hebrew). All the Israelites thereupon arose and divorced their wives.

Pharaoh’s decree of annihilation against the Jewish people consisted of two Said his daughter to him: “Father, your decree is more severe than parts: to throw every Jewish newborn male into the Nile, and to make live Pharaoh’s. Pharaoh decreed only against the males; you have decreed every female. The boys were to be physically murdered. The girls were to against the males and females. Pharaoh only decreed concerning this world; be murdered spiritually by making them live the Egyptian life, by indoctri- you have decreed concerning this world and the World to Come. In the case nating them into the perverse lifestyle of Egypt. of the wicked Pharaoh there is a doubt whether his decree will be fulfilled The boys were to be drowned in the Nile. The girls, too, were to be drowned or not; in your case, it will certainly be fulfilled.” So Amram went and in the Nile - conceptually, if not actually. The Nile, which irrigated the fields remarried his wife; and they all arose and took back their wives. of rain-parched Egypt, was the mainstay of its economy and its most ven- erated god. The girls were to be raised in this cult of the river, their souls “And he took to wife” it should have read “and he took back”! Said Rabbi submerged in a way of life that deifies the earthly vehicle of material suste- Judah ben Zebina: He acted towards her as though it had been the first mar- nance. riage. He seated her in a palanquin, Aaron and Miriam danced before her, and the Ministering Angels proclaimed: “A joyful mother of children.” In our own day, the Pharaoh-instituted practice of drowning children in the Nile is still with us: there are still parents whose highest consideration in Why is she called “a daughter of Levi”? She was one hundred and thirty choosing a school for their children is how it will further their child’s eco- years old! Because the signs of maidenhood were reborn in her. nomic prospects when the time will come for him or her to enter the job market. (Talmud, Sotah 12a) The people of Israel survived the Egyptian galut because there were Jewish mothers who refused to comply with Pharaoh’s decree to submerge their AND SHE SAW HIM THAT HE WAS GOOD (2:2) children in his river. If we are to survive the present galut, we, too, must resist the dictates of the current Pharaohs. We must set the spiritual and At the time when Moses was born, the whole house was filled with light. moral development of our children rather than their future “earning power” For it is written here, “And she saw him that he was good,” and elsewhere and “careers” as the aim of their education. it is written (Genesis 1:4), “And G-d saw the light that it was good.”

(The Lubavitcher Rebbe) (Talmud, Sotah 12a)

THERE WENT A MAN OF THE HOUSE OF LEVI, AND TOOK TO WIFE A DAUGH- AND SHE LAID IT IN THE RUSHES BY THE RIVER’S BRINK (2:3) TER OF LEVI (2:1) Why did she put Moses in the River? So that Pharaoh’s astrologers should

G-d then gives Moses detailed directions on how to proceed and how the Exodus will come about:

Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them: “G-d, the G-d of your fathers, has appeared to me, Shemot saying: I have surely remembered (“pakod pakadati”) you, Exodus 1:1-6:1 and have seen that which is done to you in Egypt. And I Torah Reading for Week of December 22-28, 2002 have said: I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” “I will be with you,” answers G-d, and tells Moses the ultimate And they will hearken to your voice. And you shall come, goal of the Exodus: “When you bring the people out of Egypt, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you you shall serve G-d upon this mountain” (upon which the peo- shall say to him: “G-d, the G-d of the Hebrews has met ple of Israel will receive the Torah). with us; and now let us go, we entreat you, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to G-d...” Says Moses: “When I come to the Children of Israel, and say to them, ‘The G-d of your fathers has sent me to you,’ they will And I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go, not say to me: ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out My hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in their midst, And G-d said to Moses: “I am who I am.” And He said: and after that he will let you go. “Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: Eheyeh (‘I And when you go, you shall not go empty: every woman am’) has sent me to you.” shall ask of her neighbor, and of her that sojourns in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and garments

Commentary child. For only a Jew can weep soundlessly. think that he has already been cast into the Nile, and not search for him. (Rabbi Bunim of Otwotzk)

(Midrash Rabbah) AND SHE CALLED HIS NAME MOSES (2:10)

[PHARAOH’SDAUGHTER] SAW THE BOX AMONG THE RUSHES, AND SHE SENT From here you can infer how great is the reward of those who perform acts HER MAID (“AMMATAH”) TO FETCH IT (2:5) of kindness. For although Moses had many names, the name by which he is known throughout the Torah is the one which Batyah, the daughter of Another interpretation of this verse renders the Hebrew word ammatah as Pharaoh, called him, and even G-d called him by no other name. “her arm” rather than “her maid.” Ammatah also means “arm lengths.” This is to teach us that “her arm was extended for many arm-lengths” (to enable (Midrash Rabbah) her to reach the basket). HE WENT OUT TO HIS BROTHERS, AND LOOKED ON THEIR SUFFERING (2:11) (Talmud; Rashi) He saw great burdens put upon small people and light burdens upon big If Moses’ basket lay beyond her reach, why did Pharaoh’s daughter extend people, and a man’s burden upon a woman and a woman’s burden upon a her arm? Could she possibly have anticipated the miracle that her hand man, and the burden which an old man could carry on a youth, and of a would be “extended for many arm-lengths”? youth on an old man. So he left his suite and rearranged their burdens, pre- There is a profound lesson here for each and every one of us. Often, we are tending all the time to be helping Pharaoh. G-d then said to him: “You have confronted with a situation that is beyond our capacity to rectify. Someone put aside your affairs and have gone to share the sorrow of Israel, behaving or something is crying out for our help, but there is nothing we can do: by to them like a brother; I too, will leave those on high and below and speak all natural criteria, the matter is simply beyond our reach. So we resign our- only with you.” selves to inactivity, reasoning that the little we can do won’t change matters anyway. Moses saw that they had no rest, so he went to Pharaoh and said: “If one has a slave and he does not give him rest one day in the week, the slave But Pharaoh’s daughter heard a child’s cry and extended her arm. An dies.” Said Pharaoh: “Go and do with them as you say.” Thereupon Moses unbridgeable distance lay between her and the basket containing the weep- ordained for them the Sabbath day for rest. ing infant, making her action seem utterly pointless. But because she did the maximum of which she was capable, she achieved the impossible. Because she extended her arm, G-d extended its reach, enabling her to save a life and (Midrash Rabbah) raise the greatest human being ever to walk the face of the earth. AND HE LOOKED THIS WAY AND THAT, AND WHEN HE SAW THAT THERE WAS (The Lubavitcher Rebbe) NO MAN (2:12)

SHE OPENED IT AND SHE SAW THE CHILD: BEHOLD, A WEEPING BOY.AND He saw that there was no hope that any righteous person would arise from SHE SAID,“THIS IS ONE OF THE CHILDREN OF THE HEBREWS” (2:6) him or his offspring until the end of generations.

She saw him weeping, but did not hear him; thus she knew it was a Hebrew (Midrash Rabbah)

To which G-d responds:

“Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes a man dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I G-d? Now therefore Shemot go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you should say.” Exodus 1:1-6:1 Torah Reading for Week of December 22-28, 2002 Still, Moses persists in his refusal to take on the mission of redeeming Israel from exile. “O please, my G-d!” he cries. “Send by the hand of him whom you shall send!”

and you shall despoil Egypt. And the anger of G-d burned against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can But they won’t believe me that You indeed appeared to me, speak well. Behold, he comes to meet you, and when he says Moses. G-d responds by giving him a number of supernat- sees you, he will be glad in his heart; he shall be your ural “signs” to perform: Moses’ staff turns into a serpent and spokesman to the people back to a stick; his hand becomes covered with leprosy, and is “And you shall take this staff in your hand, with which you miraculously healed. If these two signs do not suffice, says G-d, shall perform the signs.” take water from the Nile, and it will turn to blood. “Let My People Go” Moses has a further objection: “O my G-d, I am not a man of words, also not yesterday, also not the day before, also not Moses places his wife and sons on “the donkey” and sets out since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of for Egypt. On the way, he is nearly killed when they stop for the speech, and of a slow tongue.” night; his life is spared only when Zipporah circumcises their

Commentary AND MOSES DWELLED IN THE LAND OF MIDIAN; AND HE SAT BY A WELL (2:15) AND HE SLEW THE EGYPTIAN (2:12) He took his example from Jacob, who found his wife by the well. How did he slay him? Rabbi Abyatar said: With his fist. Others say that he took a clay shovel and cracked his skull. The Rabbis say that he pronounced (Rashi) G-d’s name against him and thus slew him; thus [the Hebrew he saw fighting the next day] said to him, “Do you say to kill me?” AND THE PRIEST OF MIDIAN HAD SEVEN DAUGHTERS; AND THEY CAME TO WATER THEIR FATHER’S FLOCK (2:16) (Midrash Rabbah) Jethro was at first a priest to idolatrous worship; but when he saw that there TWOMENOFTHEHEBREWS FIGHTING (2:13) was no truth in it, he summoned his townsmen and said: “Hitherto I minis- tered unto you, but now I have become old; choose another priest.” And he These were Datan and Aviram (who were yet to cause much trouble for returned unto them all the insignia of his priesthood. Whereupon they Moses - see Exodus 16:20 and Numbers 16). excommunicated him, that no man be in his company, or work for him or tend his flock; he asked the shepherds to look after his flock, but they (Rashi) refused, and he had to employ his daughters.

AND HE SAID TO THE WICKED ONE:“WHY WOULD YOU SMITE YOUR FEL- (Midrash Rabbah) LOW?” (2:13) AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THE COURSE OF THOSE MANY DAYS, THAT THE KING Said Resh Lakish: He who lifts his hand against his fellow, even if he did OF EGYPT DIED; AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL GROANED BY REASON OF not smite him, is called wicked; as it is written: “And he said to the wicked THE BONDAGE (2:23) one: Why would you smite your fellow?” It does not say, “Why did you smite,” but, “Why would you smite,” indicating that though he had not He didn’t actually die, but was afflicted with leprosy, and his physicians smitten him yet, he was termed a “wicked one.” said to him that his only cure is to slaughter Hebrew children—150 in the morning and 150 in the evening—and bath in their blood twice a day. (Talmud, Sanhedrin 58b)

(Midrash Rabbah; Rashi) AND MOSES FEARED, AND SAID:“INDEED, THE THING IS KNOWN”(2:14)

Moses was meditating in his heart: “In what have Israel sinned, that they AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL GROANED BY REASON OF THE BONDAGE should be enslaved more than all the nations?” When he heard their words, (2:23) he said: “Tale-bearing is rife among them, and how can they be ripe for salvation?” Thus he proclaimed, “Indeed the thing is known”—now I know Until this point, the Children of Israel were so deeply sunk in their galut that the cause of their bondage.. they could not even sense it. But now, when the first budding of their redemption began to emerge, they could begin to feel the depth of their suf- (Midrash Rabbah; Rashi) fering.

taskmasters:

“You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick, as Shemot before: let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the quantity of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, you Exodus 1:1-6:1 shall lay upon them; you shall not diminish naught of it.” Torah Reading for Week of December 22-28, 2002 When the Jewish officers complain to Moses that his visit to Pharaoh has only made things worse, he can bear it no longer: son. And Moses returned to G-d and said: “My G-d, why have You G-d appears to Aaron and sends him to the desert to meet done evil to this nation?! Why have You sent me?! Moses. In Egypt, the brothers assemble the elders of Israel. Aaron conveys the message of redemption from G-d, and Moses “For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has performs the signs. “And the people believed.” done worse to this nation; and You have not saved Your people’ After that, Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh: “Thus says G-d, G-d of Israel: Let My people go, that they And G-d said to Moses: “Now you shall see what I will do to may observe a festival for Me in the wilderness.” Pharaoh; for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.” And Pharaoh said: “Who is G-d, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I know not G-d, nor will I let Israel go.”

Not only does Pharaoh refuse their demand—he increases the burden of labor on his Hebrew slaves, commanding their

Commentary AND THE ANGEL OF G-DAPPEAREDTOHIMINAFLAMEOFFIREOUTOFTHE MIDST OF A THORNBUSH (3:2) (Chidushei HaRim) Why in a thornbush and not some other tree? In order to demonstrate that AND MOSES WAS SHEPHERDING THE SHEEP OF JETHRO (3:1) “I am with them in their affliction.”

G-d tests the righteous. How does He try them? With sheep. (Rashi)

He tried David through sheep and found him to be a good shepherd, as it is THE BUSH BURNED WITH FIRE, BUT THE BUSH WAS NOT CONSUMED (3:2) written (Psalms 77:70), “He chose also David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.” As a shepherd, David would bring the smallest sheep Moses had thought to himself that the Egyptians might consume Israel. So out first, so that they should graze upon the tender grass; then he allowed G-d showed him a fire which burned but did not consume, saying to him: the old sheep to feed from the ordinary grass; lastly, he brought forth the “Just as the thornbush is burning and is not consumed, so the Egyptians will young, lusty sheep to eat the tougher grass. Whereupon G-d said: He who not be able to destroy Israel.” knows how to look after sheep, bestowing upon each the care it deserves, shall come and tend my people. (Midrash Rabbah)

Also Moses was tested by G-d through sheep. Our Rabbis relate that when At Sinai, Moses beheld the heart of the simple Jew. Moses was tending the flock of Jethro in the wilderness, a little kid escaped from him. He ran after it until it reached a shady place. When it reached the “Man is a tree of field.” (Deuteronomy 20:19). But the field has many types shady place, there appeared to view a pool of water and the kid stopped to of trees. The Talmud compares the righteous Torah scholars to fruit trees, drink. When Moses approached it, he said: “I did not know that you ran which bestow beauty, fragrance and nourishment upon the world. The fruit away because of thirst; you must be weary.” So he placed the kid on his trees also burn — they burn with the ecstasy of their Torah study, with the shoulder and walked back. Thereupon G-d said: Because you were merci- fervor of their prayer, with the warmth of their good deeds. But theirs is a ful in leading the flock of a mortal, you shall tend My flock, the people of fire that burns and burns out, a fire that is sated by the words of Torah and Israel. prayer and the fulfillment of the divine will..

(Midrash Rabbah) But the thornbush burns with a fire that is never satisfied. The simple Jew, who cannot fathom the depths of Torah, who can barely articulate his AND HE CAME TO THE MOUNTAIN OF G-D, TO HOREB (3:1) prayers, who has little understanding of the significance of a mitzvah — his is a thirst never quenched. His heart burns with a yearning for G-d he can The mountain had five names: The Mountain of G-d, Mount Bashan, the never hope to still, with a love he can never hope to consummate.. Mountain of Peaks, Mount Horeb, and Mount Sinai. When Moses, the most perfect of men, beheld the heart of flame that smol- (Midrash Rabbah)

YOU SAY TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL: ‘I AM’ HASSENTMETOYOU”(3:14)

G-d said to Moses: “Go and say to Israel: ‘I am’ with you in this servitude, Shemot and ‘I am’ with you in the servitude of the other kingdoms.” Said Moses to G-d: “Master of the Universe! It is enough that they deal with Exodus 1:1-6:1 each trouble in its time!” (I.e., why speak to them now of their future sub- Torah Reading for Week of December 22-28, 2002 jugations?) Said G-d: “You have spoken well. Go and tell them: ‘I am’ has sent me to you.” Commentary (Talmud; Rashi) ders within the thornbush, he was humbled by the sight. “I must turn aside to see this great sight,” he said: I must move from where I am and strive to G-d said to Moses: You want to know My name? I am called by My deeds. awaken in myself the insatiable fire of the simple Jew. I might be called E-l Sha-dai, or Tzevakot, or Elokim, or HaVaYaH. When I judge My creatures, I am called Elokim. When I wage war on the wicked, I (Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov) am called Tzevakot. When I tolerate the sins of man, I am called E-l Sha- dai. When I have compassion on My world, I am called Ha-Va-Ya-H...” AND G-D CALLED TO HIM OUT OF THE MIDST OF THE BUSH:“I AM THE G-D OF YOUR FATHER” (3:4-6) (Midrash Rabbah)

G-d first called to Moses in the voice of Amram his father, so as no to star- AND G-D SAID TO HIM “CAST [YOUR STAFF] ON THE GROUND” AND IT tle him. At that moment Moses rejoiced, saying, “My father still lives.” Said TURNED INTO A SNAKE... AND HE PUT HIS HAND INTO HIS BOSOM AND HIS G-d: “I am not your father, but the G-d of your father.” HAND WAS LEPROUS, AS WHITE AS SNOW (4:2-6)

(Midrash Tanchuma) G-d was indicating to Moses that he acted wrongly in saying that the people of Israel will not believe. The snake is an allusion to the primordial ser- AND MOSES HID HIS FACE; FOR HE WAS AFRAID TO LOOK UPON G-D (3:6) pent, who was punished for his evil talk; leprosy is the punishment for slan- der. Rabbi Joshua ben Korchah and Rabbi Hoshaia discussed this. The first said: Moses did not do well in hiding his face, for had he not done so, G-d would (Midrash; Rashi) have revealed to him what is above and what is below, what has happened and what will happen. Man was created to do, achieve and create. If his hand is indolently rest- ing in his bosom, it is dead flesh. Rabbi Hoshaia the Elder said: Moses did well in hiding his face. Said G-d to him: Since you showed Me respect and hid your face when I would show (Malbim) Myself to you, I assure you that you will be near Me on the mountain for forty days and forty nights, in which you will not eat nor drink, but feast on “I AM SLOW OF SPEECH, AND OF A SLOW TONGUE”(4:10) the splendor of the Divine Presence. When Moses was a child in the royal palace Pharaoh would take him on his (Midrash Rabbah) lap to kiss and hug him, and Moses used to take the crown of Pharaoh and place it upon his own head. AND MOSES SAID TO G-D:“WHO AM I, THAT I SHOULD GO TO PHARAOH?” AND HE SAID:“THISISYOURSIGNTHATI HAVE SENT YOU” (3:11-12) The magicians of Egypt sat there and said: “We fear that this is the one of whom we prophesy that he will take away the kingdom from you.” Some This itself—your humility—is the reason why I have chosen you. of them counseled to slay him and others to burn him, but Jethro was present among them and he said to them: “This boy has no sense. However, test (Avnei Azel) him by placing before him a gold vessel and a live coal; if he stretches forth his hand for the gold, then he has sense and you can slay him, but if he The story is told of two brothers, both disciples of the Rebbe of Lublin, who makes for the live coal, then he has no sense and there can be no sentence served as Chassidic rebbes. One enjoyed a large following, while the other of death upon him.” So they brought these things before him, and he was had few disciples. about to reach forth for the gold when the angel Gabriel came and thrust his Said the second brother to the first: “I don’t understand. We are both disci- hand aside so that it seized the coal; Moses thrust his hand with the live coal ples of our late master; we are both equally great in learning and piety; so into his mouth, so that his tongue was burnt, with the result that he became why do so few Chassidim come to me, while so many seek you out?’ slow of speech and of tongue.

Replied the other: “I, too, ask the same question: Why do they come to me (Midrash Rabbah) instead of to you? But it seems, my brother, that in both our cases, our question is also the answer. They don’t come to you because you can’t under- Moses was afflicted with a speech impairment so that no one should think stand why they don’t come to you; and they come to me because I can’t that his success in transmitting the Torah to the world was due to his orato- understand why they come to me.” ry skills. Rather, it derived solely from the fact that “the divine presence spoke from his throat.” (Maayanah Shel Torah)

(Derashot HaRan) AND G-D SAID TO MOSES:“I AM WHO I AM.” AND HE SAID:“THUS SHALL

of Pharaoh’s soothsayers, saw the staff with the mysterious markings on it and coveted it; he took it and planted it in the garden of his home, and no man was able to come close to it.

When Moses came to Jethro’s house, he entered the garden and saw the Shemot staff and read the markings on it; he reached out his hand and plucked it Exodus 1:1-6:1 from the ground. When Jethro saw this, he proclaimed, “This man shall redeem the people of Israel from Egypt,” and gave him his daughter Torah Reading for Week of December 22-28, 2002 Zipporah as a wife.

(Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer, ch. 40) Commentary AND MOSES TOOK HIS WIFE AND HIS SONS AND SET THEM UPON THE DON- AND MOSES SAID TO G-D:“O MY G-D,I AM NOT A MAN OF WORDS, ALSO KEY, AND HE RETURNED TO THE LAND OF EGYPT (4:20) NOT YESTERDAY, ALSO NOT THE DAY BEFORE, ALSO NOT SINCE YOU ARE This is the very donkey which Abraham saddled for the Binding of Isaac, SPEAKING TO YOUR SERVANT...” (4:10) and this is the very donkey upon which the Messiah is destined to be For seven days G-d was persuading Moses at the bush to go in His mission. revealed, as it is written (Zechariah 9:9), “A pauper, riding upon the don- “Yesterday,” “the day before” and “since You are speaking” are three days; key.” three times “also” indicate another three days; thus Moses was standing on (Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer; Rashi) the seventh day when he said “O please, my G-d! Send by the hand of him whom you shall send!” AND IT CAME TO PASS ON THE WAY THAT G-D MET HIM AND SOUGHT TO KILL HIM IPPORAH TOOK A SHARP STONE AND CUT OFF THE FORESKIN OF HER (Rashi) .Z SON, AND CAST IT AT HIS FEET (4:24-25) “O PLEASE, MY G-D! SEND BY THE HAND OF HIM WHOM YOU SHALL SEND!” (4:13) Because Moses was lax in circumcising his (second) son, Eliezer, an angel came to kill him. Said Moses: I know that I am not destined to take them into the Land and to be their Future Redeemer. You have other messengers—send them!! (Rashi) Jethro had made this a condition of his marriage with Zipporah - that half (Rashi) their sons would be circumcised, and the other half would not. AND THE ANGER OF G-DBURNEDAGAINSTMOSES; AND HE SAID:“ISNOT (Midrash Agadah) AARON THE LEVITE YOUR BROTHER?” (4:14) AND G-D SAID TO AARON:“GOTOTHEWILDERNESSTOMEETMOSES.” AND Rabbi Joshua ben Karchah said: A lasting effect is recorded of every HE WENT, AND MET HIM IN THE MOUNT OF G-D, AND KISSED HIM (4:27) instance of divine anger in the Torah, but no lasting effect is recorded in this case. This is what the verse (Psalms 85:11) refers to when it says, “Benevolence and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed.” Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said: A lasting effect is recorded in this instance “Benevolence” this is Aaron; “truth” this is Moses. “Righteousness” is too, for it says, “Is there not Aaron the Levite your brother?” But wasn’t Moses; “peace” is Aaron. Aaron a Kohen (priest)? However, originally Moses was to be the Kohen and Aaron the Levite, and their roles were reversed. (Midrash Rabbah)

(Talmud, Zevachim 102b) ANDTHEPEOPLEBELIEVED; ANDTHEYHEARDTHATG-DHADREMEM- BERED THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL (4:31) AND WHEN [AARON] SEES YOU, HE WILL BE GLAD IN HIS HEART (4:14) The people of Israel were redeemed from Egypt only in the merit of their Not, as you thought, that he would be jealous of your ascension to the lead- faith, as it is written, “And the people believed.” ership. In the merit of this, Aaron was granted the Choshen (priestly breast- plate) worn on the heart. (Mechilta)

(Rashi) When Moses said to G-d, “But they will not believe me,” G-d said to him: They are believers, the children of believers, whereas you will ultimately AND YOU SHALL TAKE THIS STAFF IN YOUR HAND, WITH WHICH YOU SHALL disbelieve. They are believers, as it is written, “And the people believed”; DO THE SIGNS (4:17) they are the children of believers, as it is written (Genesis 15:6), “and [Abraham] believed in G-d”; and you will ultimately disbelieve, as it it is This staff was created at twilight of the sixth day of creation and was given written (Numbers 20:12): “And G-d said to Moses and Aaron: Because you to Adam in the Garden of Eden. Adam gave it to Enoch, Enoch to Noah, believed not in Me” Noah to Abraham, Abraham to Isaac and Isaac to Jacob. Jacob brought it with him to Egypt and gave it to Joseph. When Joseph died his house was (Talmud, Shabbat 97a) despoiled and the staff ended up in Pharaoh’s palace. Jethro, who was one

Pharaoh went into his palace chamber and scrutinized every nation and its gods, beginning with the gods of Moab, Ammon, and Zidon. He then said to them: “I have searched for his name throughout my archives, but have not found him. Is he young or old? How many cities has he captured? How Shemot many provinces has he subdued? How long is it since He ascended the throne?” Exodus 1:1-6:1 Torah Reading for Week of December 22-28, 2002 (Midrash Rabbah)

AND THE KING OF EGYPT SAID TO THEM:“WHY DO YOU,MOSES AND AARON, DISTRACT THE PEOPLE FROM THEIR WORK? GOOFFTOYOUR Commentary LABORS” (5:4)

The letters (which held the secret of the redemption) were given over only It was the custom for every nation to have its clergy, the teachers of its faith. to Abraham; Abraham gave them over to Isaac, Isaac gave them to Jacob, For this reason, Pharaoh absolved the tribe of Levi from forced labor, rec- and Jacob to Joseph. Joseph transmitted them to his brothers, while Asher ognizing them as the sages and elders of the Jewish people... Thus Pharaoh the son of Jacob handed them down the secret to his daughter Serach. said to Moses and Aaron “Go off to your labors,” as the enslavement of the Jewish people in Egypt did not include the tribe of Levi. When Moses and Aaron came and performed the miraculous signs before the elders of Israel, the elders went to Serach and said to her: “A man has (Nachmanides) come and performed such and such signs.” AND THE OFFICERS OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, WHOM PHARAOH’S Said she to them: “These signs don’t mean anything.” TASKMASTERS HAD SET OVER THEM, WERE BEATEN, SAYING:WHY HAVE YOU Said they to her: “But he said, pakod pakadati (‘I have surely remembered’). NOT FULFILLED YOUR QUOTA IN MAKING BRICK? (5:14)

Said she to them: “This is the man who will redeem the people of Israel from These Israelite officers were worthy men who jeopardized their lives for Egypt.” Israel, bearing the blows of the Egyptians so that Israel’s task might be (Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer, ch. 40) lighter. For this merit they were subsequently endowed with the holy spirit, as G-d later instructs Moses (Numbers 6:16): “Gather unto Me seventy men AFTER THAT,MOSES AND AARON CAME AND SAID TO PHARAOH (5:1) of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over them.” Said G-d: Since they were beaten for Israel’s sakes, Where had the elders gone? They are not mentioned here, though G-d had therefore they will merit the holy spirit and be appointed as prophets over said to Moses, “And you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king them. of Egypt.” (Midrash Rabbah) Our Sages explained that the elders did indeed go with them, but stole away AND THEY SAID TO [MOSES AND AARON]: “ YOU HAVE MADE US ABHORRENT furtively, singly or in pairs, so that by the time they reached the palace of Pharaoh, not one of them was there. IN THE EYES OF PHARAOH AND IN THE EYES OF HIS SERVANTS, TO PUT A SWORD IN THEIR HAND TO SLAY US” (5:21) For this reason, when Moses and Aaron went up with the elders to Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, G-d turned them back, as it says (Exodus 24:14): They said to Moses: “To what are we compared? To a lamb which a wolf “And unto the elders he said: Wait here for us.” comes to devour, and then a shepherd comes to wrest it from the jaws of the wolf. Between the shepherd and the wolf, the lamb is torn in two.” Thus did (Midrash Rabbah) Israel say: Moses, between you and Pharaoh, we are dying.

AND PHARAOH SAID:“WHO IS G-D?” (5:2) (Midrash Rabbah)

That day was Pharaoh’s day for the reception of ambassadors, when all the And G-d said to Moses: “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh kings came to pay him honor, bringing with them gifts of crowns with which (6:1) they crowned him lord of the world, and also their idols did they bring with them. G-d said to Moses: Because you questioned My ways, “Now you shall see”—what is now done to Pharaoh you will witness, but you will not live After they had crowned him, Pharaoh’s servants came and said: “Two old to see what I will do to the kings of the Seven Nations when I bring Israel men are at the gate.” into the Land.. When Moses and Aaron entered, Pharaoh asked them, “Who are you?” (Rashi; Talmud, Sanhedrin 111a) “We are the ambassadors of G-d, blessed be He.” “What do you want?” “Thus says G-d, G-d of Israel: Let My people go, that they may observe a festival for Me in the wilderness.” “Has he not the sense to send me a crown, that you come to me with mere words? Wait, while I search in my records.”

FROM THE CHASSIDIC MASTERS only by a reed basket, sharing, if only in potential, the fate of his fellow babes cast into its waters. Here we have a further lesson in leadership: the MOSES: THE BIRTH OF A LEADER leader cannot appear from “above,” but must share the fate of his people. This was the lesson which G- The Parshah of Shemot is the story of a galut - of d Himself conveyed by first appearing to Moses in a the exile and enslavement of the Children of Israel in thornbush: “I am with them in their affliction.” Egypt, which our sages regard as the father and pro- But Moses’ placement in the Nile was not only a totype of all subsequent exiles and persecutions of demonstration of empathy with the plight of Israel: it the Jewish people. It is also the story of the making was also the first stage of their salvation. Our sages of the quintessential Jewish leader, Moses. tell us that Pharaoh ordered all Hebrew male babies Everything the Torah tells us about Moses is a les- to be cast into the Nile because his astrologers told son in Jewish leadership. We are told that Moses’ him that the savior of Israel will meet his end by mother, Jocheved, was born “between the boundary water (this prediction was fulfilled many years later walls” of Egypt when Jacob’s family first arrived when Moses was prevented from entering the Holy there. This, explains the Lubavitcher Rebbe, means Land because of the “Waters of Strife”). On the day that Jocheved belongs neither to the “old generation” that Moses was placed in the Nile, Pharaoh’s born in the Holy Land, to whom galut will always be astrologers informed him that the one destined to a foreign and unknowable world; nor is she of the redeem the people of Israel has already been cast generation born in Egypt, to whom the state of exile into the water, and the decree was revoked. As a is a most natural and obvious fact of life. Rather, she three-month-old infant, seemingly a passive partici- straddles both these worlds, meaning that she has pant in the events surrounding him, Moses was intimate knowledge of the circumstance of galut as already fulfilling his role as a savior of his people. well as the transcendent vision to supercede it. So Thanks to Miriam’s ingenious ploy, Moses is Jocheved is the woman in whose womb could be nursed and raised by his own mother in his early formed, and under whose tutelage could develop, the childhood. But then he is brought to Pharaoh’s one who could redeem the Children of Israel from palace to be raised as a member of the royal family. their exile. Moses must be both Hebrew slave and Egyptian The circumstances of Moses’ birth are a lesson in prince. To lead his people, he must share their fate; the selflessness demanded of the leader. Jocheved to defeat the forces that enslave them, he must infil- and Amram had separated when Pharaoh decreed trate the citadel of Egyptian royalty. He must “come that all newborn Hebrew males be cast in the Nile. into Pharaoh” (Exodus 10:1) and gain intimate Their eldest daughter, Miriam, rebuked them: “Your knowledge of the essence of his power and vitality. decree is worse than Pharaoh’s: Pharaoh decreed to Defender of Israel annihilate the males, and your action shall spell the end of all Jewish children.” Amram and Jocheved The first of Moses’ actions to be explicitly realized that, as leaders whose actions will be emu- recounted by the Torah delineate two central tasks of lated by others, they had to rise above the personal the leader: to defend his people from external threat, danger and anguish involved in fathering Jewish and to safeguard their internal integrity. children in these terrible times. The result of their On the day that Moses attains adulthood, he “goes remarriage was the birth of Moses. out to his brothers” and “sees their affliction” - his Infancy and Childhood years in Pharaoh’s palace have not inured him against affinity with this tribe of Hebrew slaves and When Moses is born, the “house was filled with sensitivity to their plight. He sees an Egyptian beat- light” attesting to his future as the enlightener of ing a Hebrew to death. He is compelled to act, sacri- humanity. But right away this light has to be hidden, ficing, with this single action, his privileged life as a for he, as all Hebrew newborn males, lives in per- member of the ruling class and binding his fate to petual fear of discovery by Pharaoh’s baby killers. that of his brethren. Then he is placed in the Nile, precariously protected

FROM THE CHASSIDIC MASTERS

ice or wickedness - it was merely thirsty. By the same token, when a Jew alienates himself from his The very next day Moses acts again, this time to people, G-d forbid, it is only because he is thirsty. intervene in a quarrel between two Jews. Seeing two His soul thirsts for meaning in life, but the waters of of his brethren in conflict, he suddenly comprehends Torah have eluded him. So he wanders about in for- that the source of their enslavement is not the power eign domains, seeking to quench his thirst. of Egypt, but their own internal disunity, and that the When Moses understood this, he was able to key to their redemption lies in fostering a sense of become a leader of Israel. Only a shepherd who has- mutual interdependency and responsibility among tens not to judge the runaway kid, who is sensitive to the members of the fledgling nation of Israel. the causes of its desertion, can mercifully lift it into From these two demonstrations of leadership one his arms and bring it back home. would expect Moses to proceed directly to his The Ultimate Sacrifice ordained role as leader of Israel. But first he had to After many years of leadership in the making, the become a shepherd. stage is set. He was a Hebrew baby cast into the Nile, The Faithful Shepherd an infant at Jocheved’s breast, a young Egyptian For the role of a leader in Israel is not only to prince, a fearless defender of his people, an equally defend, redeem, preach and govern, but also and pri- fearless campaigner of Jewish unity, a shepherd in marily, to nurture. Moses is the savior of Israel and the wilderness. Then G-d revealed Himself to him in their teacher and legislator, but also their raaya a burning bush to say: I have seen the affliction of meheimna - their “faithful shepherd” and “shepherd My people, I have heard their cries, I know their sor- of faith” - meaning that he is the provider of their rows. I’m sending you to redeem them. Go, take needs, both materially and spiritually, feeding their them out of Egypt, and bring them to Mount Sinai bodies with manna and feeding their souls with faith. for their election as My chosen people. So Moses is driven from Egypt to faraway Midian Most amazingly, Moses refuses to go. to become a shepherd of Jethro’s sheep. The Midrash He doesn’t just refuse - for seven days and seven relates how another shepherd, David, learned the art nights he argues with G-d, presenting every conceiv- of leadership by caring for his father’s flocks: he able excuse to decline his commission, until “G-d’s would have the small kids graze first on the tender anger burned against Moses.” tips of grass before allowing the older sheep and First came the excuse of humility: “Who am I, that goats to feed on the middle portion of the stalks, and I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the only afterwards releasing the strong, young rams to children of Israel out of Egypt?” devour the tough roots. A leader cannot simply point the way and a teacher cannot simply teach; he must G-d ends all debate along those lines with the “shepherd” his flock, supplying to each guidance and words: “I will be with you.” Can even “the humblest knowledge in a manner that can be absorbed and man on the face of the earth” plead unworthiness digested by its recipient. after that? The Midrash also tells how, one day, a kid ran But I don’t know Your essence, says Moses. How away from the flock under Moses’ care. Moses can I present myself as a messenger when I can’t chased after it, until it came to a spring and began to explain the nature of the One who sent me? drink. When Moses reached the kid he cried: “Oh, I So G-d tells him who He is. did not know that you were thirsty!” He cradled the They won’t believe me when I say that G-d sent runaway kid in his arms and carried it to the flock. me. Said the Almighty: “You are merciful in tending G-d rebukes Moses for slandering His people. sheep - you will tend My flock, the people of Israel.” Yes, they will believe you. Whatever else you say The Lubavitcher Rebbe points out that in addition about them (and there’s lots to say), they are believ- to demonstrating Moses’ compassion, the incident ers. But if you’re not convinced of their faith, here’s holds another important lesson: Moses realized that a few magic tricks you can perform. the kid did not run away from the flock out of mal-

FROM THE CHASSIDIC MASTERS Nor did Moses ever accept the decree of galut. After assuming, by force of the divine command, the mission to take Israel out of Egypt, he embarked on a lifelong struggle to make this the final and ultimate Moses’ excuses are running out. He tries: But I redemption. To the very last day of his life, Moses have a speech impairment. A leader needs to give pleaded with G-d to allow him to lead his people into speeches, you know. the Holy Land; to his very last day he braved G-d’s G-d’s answer is so obvious it hardly needs repeat- anger in his endeavor to eliminate all further galut ing. from Jewish history. In Moses’ own words: “I So Moses finally just cries: O please, my G-d, beseeched G-d... Please, let me cross over and see don’t send me. “Send by the hand of him whom You the good land across the Jordan, the good mountain shall send.” (Jerusalem) and the Levanon (the Holy Temple). And Why, indeed, is Moses acting so strangely? His G-d grew angry with me for your sakes... and He brothers and sisters are languishing under the said to Me: Enough! Speak no more to Me of this taskmaster’s whip; Pharaoh is bathing in the blood of matter...” (Deuteronomy 4:23-26). Jewish children. The moment for which the Children Says the Lubavitcher Rebbe: G-d said “Enough!” of Israel have hope and prayed for four generations but Moses was not silenced. For Moses’ challenge of has finally come: G-d has appeared in a burning bush the divine plan did not end with his passing from to say, “I am sending you to redeem My people.” physical life. The Zohar tells us that every Jewish Why does Moses refuse? Out of humility? Because soul has at its core a spark of Moses’ soul. So every he’s not a good speaker? Jew who storms the gates of heaven clamoring for Our sages interpret the words, “Send by the hand redemption continues Moses’ struggle against the of him whom You shall send,” to mean: send by the decree of galut. hand of him whom You shall send in the end of days, Moshiach (the Messiah), the final redeemer of Israel. WHY? The Chassidic masters explain that Moses knew that he would not merit to bring Israel into the Holy It's probably the oldest question in the history of Land and thereby achieve the ultimate redemption of human thought. It's surely the most disturbing, the his people. He knew that Israel would again be most frequently asked and the least satisfactorily exiled, would again suffer the physical and spiritual answered: Why, oh why, do bad things happen to afflictions of galut (if Moses himself would have good people? brought the Children of Israel into the Holy Land Everyone asks the question: philosophers, theolo- and built the Holy Temple, they would never have gians, butchers, bakers and candlestick-makers. No been exiled again and the Temple would never have one really answers it. The Bible devotes the 41 chap- been destroyed, since “all Moses’ deeds are eter- ters of the Book of Job to the subject, offering sever- nal”). So Moses refused to go. If the time for Israel’s al interesting explanations only to refute them all, the redemption has come, he pleaded with G-d, send the conclusion being that finite man cannot fathom the one through whom You will effect the complete and ways of G-d. eternal redemption. For seven days and nights Moses For most, the protest against evil is something that contested G-d’s script for history, prepared to incur rises out of one's own encounters with the rough G-d’s wrath upon himself for the sake of Israel. spots of life. To a true leader who feels the pain of his (This extreme form of self-sacrifice, in which a people as his own, it is a bottomless cry issuing from man like Moses jeopardizes his very relationship the seemingly bottomless well of human suffering. with G-d for the sake of his people, was to charac- It didn't take long for Moses to issue that cry. terize Moses’ leadership throughout his life. When Shortly after G-d appeared to him in a burning bush the people of Israel sinned by worshipping the to appoint him liberator of Israel, Moses was back. Golden Calf, Moses said to G-d: “Now, if You will And Moses returned to G-d and said: "My G-d, forgive their sin—-; and if You will not, blot me out why have You done evil to this people?! Why have of the Book which You have written.”) You sent me?! For since I came to Pharaoh to speak

FROM THE CHASSIDIC MASTERS

The true believer, on the other hand, knows that everything that happens happens only because it is ordained from Above. He knows that G-d is the in Your name, he has done worse to this nation; and essence of good and that only good flows from Him. You have not saved Your people!'' (Exodus 5:22-23). And he also knows that man can talk to G-d and expect a response to his entreaties. So he cannot but cry out: "My G-d, why have You done evil to Your And what does G-d say? Hold on just a little people?!" longer and you'll see that it all turns out right at the This is what we must learn from Moses. We must end. Encouraging words, especially when coming speak to G-d, confront Him, ask Him: Why is there from G-d Himself; but still no answer for the ulti- evil and suffering in Your world? We do not know mate Question. enough to comprehend the answer; we must, howev- Was it a failing on the part of Moses that he er, believe and care enough to ask the question. protested G-d's way of doing things? A cursory reading of the Talmudic and Midrashic expositions on Moses' dialogue with G-d would suggest that it was. By Yanki Tauber;[email protected] based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Moses is criticized for not measuring up to the unquestioning faith of the Patriarchs; by some accounts, he is even punished for his outburst. But a fundamental rule of Torah scholarship is that "the Torah does not speak negatively even of an impure animal" unless there is a positive, construc- tive lesson to be derived. To what end does the Torah tell us about Moses' "failing"? Some would say that this is to teach us that even great men such as Moses can experience doubt and despair. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, however, takes a different approach. Moses' protest to G-d , says the Rebbe, was not a breach of faith, but an act of faith of the highest order. Indeed, the question/protest/outcry, "Why have You done evil to Your people?!" can issue only from the mouth of a true believer. The non-believer, too, may be outraged by the cruelty and suffering our world abounds with, but just who is he outraged at? The blind workings of fate? The oblivious and aper- sonal god of physical law and evolutionary process? The random arrangement of quarks that make up the universe? Even people who believe in G-d are not necessarily driven to confront Him as Moses did. They may not believe that He is truly responsible for all that transpires in the world. They may not be convinced of His ultimate goodness. They may think that it's pointless to protest to Him, since He doesn't really care how they feel about it. Or maybe everything's just fine in their lives, and what's happening to the rest of the world just doesn't concern them. Comment | Relationships | Essay | Parenting | Story | Parshah | Week at Glance 22 2 31 www.Chabad.org

Week at a Glance history of Torah scholarship; on his gravestone were inscribed the words, "From Moses to Moses, none arose as Moses." Maimonides was born in Cordova, Spain, on the 14th of Nissan of the year 4895 from creation (1135); his father, Sunday Tevet 17 | December 22 Rabbi Maimon, was the Dayan (chief rabbinic authority) of On This Date: 1st NY synagogue (1728) Cordova and a descendent of King David. In 1148, the fanatical Muslim Almohades came to power and the Jewish In 1684, by a group of Spanish and Portuguese Jews population became subject to severe persecution and who fled the Inquisition [see below] held a Rosh forced conversion to Islam; the family of Rabbi Maimon fled Hashanah service in New Amsterdam, thereby founding Cordova and wandered for ten years throughout southern congregation Shearith Israel ("Renment of Israel"). On Spain and northern Africa, lived for five years in Fez, this 17th of Tevet in 1728, the congregation purchased Morocco, finally making its way, by way of of Jerusalem and a lot in Lower Manhattan to erect the first synagogue in Hebron, to Fostat (old Cairo) in Egypt. New York. When the drowning death of his younger brother David, a passing of Toldot Aaron (1754) jewel merchant whose ship went down in the Indian Ocean Rabbi Aaron Zelig ben Joel Feivush of Ostrog, Russia, along with all the family's assets, forced Maimonides to author of Toldot Aaron, passed away on Tevet 17 of the become the family breadwinner, he took up the practice of year in 5515 from creation (1754). medicine (which he had studied in his youth); in time, he and Dubna Maggid (1804) became personal physician to Grand Visier Alfadhil and to Sultan Saladin and authored a number of medical tracts. Tevet 17 is also the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Yaakov Wolf He also served as the leader of Egyptian Jewry. Krantz (1740-1804), the Maggid (itinerant preacher) of Dubna, particularly known for the parables (meshalim) Maimonides began the authorship of his first major work, a he employed in his sermons and writings. commentary on the Mishnah written in the Arabic vernacu- lar (which includes his famed "Thirteen Principles" of the Jewish faith), as a young man of 23; he also wrote a com- Monday Tevet 18 | December 23 mentary on much of the Talmud (which has been lost), and On This Date: Huna killed (469) Sefer HaMitzvot, which enumerates the 613 precepts of the Torah. His most important work is Mishneh Torah, a 14-vol- The Exilrach ("Reish Galuta") of Babylonian Jewry, ume codification of the entire body of Torah law; it was the Huna Mori bar Mar Zutra, was executed in Pumpadita first such systematic codification, and the most compre- by order of the Persian emperor on the 18th of Tevet of hensive ever written. (In 1984 the Lubavitcher Rebbe initi- the year 4229 from creation (469 of the common era). ated a daily study cycle for the Mishneh Torah and Sefer Also killed on that day was Rav Mesharshia bar Pekod Hamitzvot, bringing the knowledge of these basic Torah (the third Jewish leader who was arrested with them, works to many thousands of Jews worldwide). Rav Ameimar bar Mar Yenuka, was executed two months later. In the last decade of his life, Maimonides authored his the famed philosophical tract, Guide for the Perplexed. yahrtzeit of B'nei Yissaschar (1841) Maimonides passed away on the 20th of Tevet of the year passing of Rabbi Zvi Elimelech Shapiro of Dynov 4965 from creation (1204) and was buried in the city of (1783?-1841), author of the Chassidic work B'nei Tiberias in the the Holy Land. Yissaschar. Links: TODAY'S RAMBAM LESSONS; http://www.chabad.org/dai- Link: Forty-Three Rubles lystudy/rambam.asp?tDate=12/25/2002&Lang= http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?aid=3005 MAIMONIDES ON CHARITY; http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?aid=45917 MAIMONIDES ON THE BIRTH OF JUDAISM AND FREEDOM OF CHOICE (TWO Tuesday Tevet 19 | December 24 ESSAYS BASED ON THE LUBAVITCHER REBBE'S TEACHINGS) On This Date: Passing of American Jewish philan- http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?aid=2612 http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?aid=54492 thropist, Judah Touro (1854) printing of Talmud (1483) The first volume of the Babylonian Talmud, the tractate Wednesday Tevet 20 | December 25 Berachot, was printed in Soncino, Italy, on the 2th of Tevet Passing of Maimonides (1204) of the year 5244 from creation (1483) Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, Talmudist, Halachist, physician, philosopher and leader, known in the Jewish world Thursday Tevet 21 | December 26 by the acronym "Rambam" and to the world at large as "Maimonides", is one of the most important figures in the On This Date: Shimon born (1567 BCE)

Week at a Glance Prague rescue (1622) In the yearbook of the Meisel Synagogue in Prague, the 22nd of Tevet is designated to commemorate the escape of Yosef Thein from the gallows in the year 5383 from creation (1622). Shimon, the second son of Jacob and Leah, was born on Tevet 21 (according to another opinion, on Tevet 28), LIGHT SHABBAT CANDLES BEFORE SUNSET of the year 2194 from creation (1567 BCE), nine years after Jacob's arrival in Charan. Jacob was 86 at the time Shabbat, Tevet 23 | December 28 (by another calculation, Shimon was born in 1566, when his father was 85). According to Seder Hadorot, Torah reading: Shemot (Exodus 1:1-6:1) Shimon also died on this date, at age of 120, seventy- Haftarah: Haba'im Yashresh Yaakov (Isaiah 27:6-29:23) five years after Jacob's family relocated to Egypt. Laws & Customs: Blessing the new month Shimon and his younger brother Levi were the most This Shabbat is Shabbat Mevarchim ("the Shabbat that volatile of Jacob's sons. It was they who (age 14 and 13 blesses" the new month): a special prayer is recited bless- at the time) killed the inhabitants of Shechem in ing the Rosh Chodesh ("Head of the Month") of upcoming response to the rape of their sister Dinah, and who led month of Shevat, which falls on Shabbat of next week. the brothers' plotting against Joseph. To separate the Prior to the blessing, we announce the precise time of the two, Joseph ordered that Shimon be held as a new moon's "birth" -- Friday, 9:50:04 am (Jerusalem time). "hostage" in Egypt until the brothers would bring It is a Chabad custom to recite the entire book of Psalms Benjamin to him. Shimon and Levi were rebuked by before morning prayers. Jacob on his deathbed, though he only cursed their "anger" and "wrath", not their person or even their Links: On the Significance of Shabbat Mevarchim actions. Jacob deemed that they be "divided up... scat- http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?aid=54766 tered in Israel": they were the only two tribes not allotted a distinct territory in the land of Israel (the tribe of Levi was assigned to serve in the Holy Temple and were given 48 cities within the other tribes' territories, while the tribe of Shimon became itinerant schoolteachers and received their portion in the land within the territory of Judah). Shimon had six sons -- Yemuel, Yamin, Ohad, Yachin, Zochar, and Saul "the son of the Cannaaitess." According to one Midrash, "the Cannaaitess" is Dinah, who refused to leave the home of Shechem until Shimon promised to marry her. A year after the Exodus from Egypt, Shimon's descendents numbered 59,300 heads of household (i.e., adult males between the ages 20 and 60), but they were greatly disseminated by the Pe'or incident; on the eve of the Children of Israel's entry into the Holy Land 40 years later, only 5 of the 6 Shimonite families survived, with a total population of 22,200 heads of household.

Friday, Tevet 22 | December 27 On This Date: Portuguese expulsion (1496) Just four years after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain -- many of whom found refuge in the neighboring country of Portugal -- a decree was issued giving all the Jews living in Portugal one year to either convert to Christianity or leave the country. Over the next 350 years, the infamous Inquisition persecuted, tortured and burned at the stake thousands of "marranos" throughout Spain, Portugal and their colonies for continuing to secretly practice the Jewish faith.