Tag Archives: connections

March 20, 2014 · 20:09

Shabbat Parah – Paradox

Shabbat Parah is the third of the four special Shabbatot between Rosh Chodesh Adar and Roch Chodesh Nissan, a time of preparation for the Passover season. At the time of the Temple, Passover included an actual sacrifice that was brought and then eaten at the Seder, and in order to participate, one had to be ritually pure.  Hence the custom to read Parshat Parah, which describes some of the laws of ritual purity, several weeks before Passover.

In addition to the connection to Passover, the date of Shabbat Parah is related also to Purim. The Gemara says,

ואי זו היא שבת שלישית – כל שסמוכה לפורים מאחריה

“Which is the third week? The one right after Purim.” (Megilla 30a).

It could just as easily have said, “the week before Shabbat Hachodesh”, which is how it actually comes out on the calendar. Phrasing it as “after Purim” implies that Shabbat Parah is connected to the events that happened after Purim, and not only to the upcoming Passover.

The Haftarah of Parshat Parah begins by describing the shame of exile:

וַיָּבוֹא אֶל הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר בָּאוּ שָׁם וַיְחַלְּלוּ אֶת שֵׁם קָדְשִׁי בֶּאֱמֹר לָהֶם עַם ה’ אֵלֶּה וּמֵאַרְצוֹ יָצָאוּ:

They came to the nations to which they had come, and they desecrated the Name of My holiness, when it was said about them, “This is the people of Hashem, and they have left His land.”  (Yechezkel 36:20)

The prophet Yechezkel says explicitly that when the Jewish People are in exile, it is a “Chillul Hashem”, a desecration of G-d’s Name. It shows that we failed in our mission to further G-d’s plan for the world, and is an embarrassment to the Jewish People and to G-d Himself.

Why do we need to read this “after Purim”?  Purim was a great miracle; the Jewish People narrowly escaped destruction. But when it was all over, they were still in exile. The Haftarah of Parah tells us that this is not good enough. We must not for a moment think that our salvation on Purim shows that living “spread out among the nations” is an acceptable state for the Nation of G-d.

On the other hand, if even Mordechai and Esther, with all the power that they wielded, were unable to end the exile, then perhaps it was just too hard. We know from the Books of Ezra and Nechemiah that life in the Land of Israel at that time was barely tolerable. The state of the economy, security, even religion itself, were all sub-par, certainly relative to the strong and vital community in Shushan.  Given the problems that they were facing, they must have wondered if G-d was actually interested in them coming back. Perhaps they did not deserve to be redeemed.

The Haftarah of Parah tells us that G-d will not tolerate the shame of exile indefinitely, regardless of the relative merit of the Jewish People:

…לֹא לְמַעַנְכֶם אֲנִי עֹשֶׂה בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל כִּי אִם לְשֵׁם קָדְשִׁי אֲשֶׁר חִלַּלְתֶּם בַּגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר בָּאתֶם שָׁם:

…וְלָקַחְתִּי אֶתְכֶם מִן הַגּוֹיִם וְקִבַּצְתִּי אֶתְכֶם מִכָּל הָאֲרָצוֹת וְהֵבֵאתִי אֶתְכֶם אֶל אַדְמַתְכֶם:…וְזָרַקְתִּי עֲלֵיכֶם מַיִם טְהוֹרִים וּטְהַרְתֶּם…

… It is not for your sake that I do this, House of Israel, but for the sake of the Name of My holiness that you desecrated among the nations to which you had come.
… I will take you from the nations, and I will gather you from all the lands, and I will bring you to your land… I will sprinkle you with pure water and you will be purified  (Yechezkel 36: 22-25)

When G-d chooses to do so, He will take the Jewish People out of exile and back to the Land of Israel. Once they are there, He will take steps to “purify” them, to make sure that they deserve to live in the Holy Land.

This appears to be illogical, out of order. It would make much more sense if the Haftarah first said, “I will purify you”, and then, “I will bring you to your land.”

This paradox is one of the lessons of Shabbat Parah. The section in the Torah that we read on this Shabbat describes the ritual of “Parah Adumah”: an unblemished red cow is slaughtered and burned, and its ashes are mixed with water to create a solution that is called “purifying water”. This solution is the only way to remove the ritual impurity caused by direct contact with death. Paradoxically, every person involved in the preparation of this “purifying water” becomes impure himself[1].  This law is not meant to be logical or understandable to human beings. To make this point, this commandment is introduced as an “חוקה”, a decree.  As Rashi puts it:

גזירה היא מלפני ואין לך רשות להרהר אחריה

It is a decree before Me and you have no permission to second-guess it. (Rashi, Bamidbar 19:2)

According to the following Midrash,  this is not only true of decrees that G-d made in the Torah, it is also true of decrees that He has made in history:

זאת חקת התורה זש”ה מי יתן טהור מטמא לא אחד (איוב יד) כגון אברהם מתרח חזקיה מאחז יאשיה מאמון מרדכי משמעי ישראל מעכו”ם העה”ב מן העה”ז מי עשה כן מי גזר כן מי צוה כן לא אחד לא יחידו של עולם … תמן תנינן כל העוסקין בפרה מתחלה ועד סוף מטמאין בגדים היא גופה מטהרת בגדים אלא אמר הקב”ה חקה חקקתי גזרה גזרתי ואין אתה רשאי לעבור על גזרתי.

As it says, “Who makes pure from the impure, not the one” (Job 14). E.g.: Avraham from Terach, Hizkiyahu from Ahaz, Yoshiahu from Amon, Mordechai from Shimi, Israel from pagan nations, the World To Come from the World As it Is. Who makes this happen, who decreed this, who commanded this? The One and Only … as we learned, “everyone involved in the red cow from beginning to end becomes impure, and it itself purifies.”  G-d said, I wrote an edict, I decreed a decree, and you may not transgress My decree. (Bamidbar Rabba Chukat 19)

It would make a lot more sense to us humans if pure would come from pure. Avraham ought to have come directly from the righteous Noach, and not from ten generations of pagans. Israel ought to have come into being in purity and isolation in the Holy Land, not in the immoral filth of Egypt. The World To Come should have been created in the first place, not as an outcome of the World As Is.

But that is not how G-d chose to run the world. Just as the laws of Parah Adumah do not make sense to us, yet we accept is as a decree from Above, so, too, we must accept G-d’s choices in history as a decree from Above.

We might have expected the steps toward redemption to proceed in a logical order, that the Jewish People would first be purified and only then return to our land. We might have expected that the redemption would be led by the purest and holiest of the Jewish People. Yet the Haftarah of Shabbat Parah tells us otherwise. If G-d chooses, the converse can be true: first we return to our land, and only then we are purified. This might not make sense to us, it might not be how we would have done it, but it is a decree from Above, and we do not have the right to second-guess it.

On the first Shabbat between Purim and Passover, we prepare for national redemption, an end to the shame of Exile, no matter what form it takes.

Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל


[1] At a lower level of impurity, avoiding infinite recursion

Leave a Comment

Filed under Connections, Shabbat Parah, Special Shabbatot

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

March 13, 2014 · 18:48

Shabbat Zachor – The Reboot

On the Shabbat immediately before Purim, we read a special Maftir, which talks about the commandment to remember to wipe out Amalek. We then read a special Haftarah, the story of how King Shaul was charged with fulfilling this commandment. While we are told how he destroyed the strongholds of Amalek in Israel, the Haftarah’s mainly talks about how he lost his chance to establish a dynasty, because he allowed the people to take spoils from the war with Amalek.

We could fulfill the commandment of remembering to wipe out Amalek any Shabbat of the year, but it was established to do so on the week before Purim, due to the many connections it has to the Megilla.
Let’s start with the most familiar one:

אַחַר הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה גִּדַּל הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ אֶת הָמָן בֶּן הַמְּדָתָא הָאֲגָגִי
After these events, the king Achashverosh promoted Haman ben Hemdata the Agagi. (Esther 3:1)

The name of the king of Amalek that Shaul conquered in the Haftarah was Agag:

וַיִּתְפֹּשׂ אֶת אֲגַג מֶלֶךְ עֲמָלֵק חָי
He captured Agag, King of Amalek, alive (Shmuel I 15:8)

By calling Haman, “the Agagi”, the Megilla implies that he is a descendant of Amalek. He may have been literally from that nation, or only a follower of the Amaleki way of life. Either way, in Jewish lore, Haman is Amalek.

But Haman is not the only one of the protagonists of the Megilla to be found in the Haftarah:

ה) אִישׁ יְהוּדִי הָיָה בְּשׁוּשַׁן הַבִּירָה וּשְׁמוֹ מָרְדֳּכַי בֶּן יָאִיר בֶּן שִׁמְעִי בֶּן קִישׁ אִישׁ יְמִינִי:
A Jewish man lived in Shushan City, whose name was Mordechai ben Yair ben Shimi ben Kish, a Man of Binyamin. (Esther 2:5)

The hero of our Haftarah, King Shaul, is introduced as:

וַיְהִי אִישׁ מִבִּנְיָמִין וּשְׁמוֹ קִישׁ בֶּן אֲבִיאֵל בֶּן צְרוֹר בֶּן בְּכוֹרַת בֶּן אֲפִיחַ בֶּן אִישׁ יְמִינִי גִּבּוֹר חָיִל:
לוֹ הָיָה בֵן וּשְׁמוֹ שָׁאוּל…
There was a man from Binyamin, whose name was Kish ben Aviel ben Tzror ben Bchorat ben Afiach, son of a Man of Binyamin, a great warrior. He had a son named Shaul… (Shmuel I 9)

The Megilla implies that Mordechai is related to Shaul. He is certainly from the same tribe, and even from the same family, and the text goes out of its way to make that point.
Now for Esther, the heroine of the Megilla. She enters the story because the king’s advisors suggest that because Vashti refused to come when called, she should be replaced:

וּמַלְכוּתָהּ יִתֵּן הַמֶּלֶךְ לִרְעוּתָהּ הַטּוֹבָה מִמֶּנָּה
King will give her kingdom to her fellow woman who is better than her. (Esther 1:19)

In the Haftarah, the prophet Shmuel tells King Shaul that he will lose his kingdom, and be replaced:

קָרַע ה’ אֶת מַמְלְכוּת יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵעָלֶיךָ הַיּוֹם וּנְתָנָהּ לְרֵעֲךָ הַטּוֹב מִמֶּךָּ:
“Hashem tore the kingdom of Israel from you today,
and has given it to your fellow man who is better than you. (Shmuel I 15:28)

Thus, the Megilla is a “reboot” of the story of the Haftarah, with Haman cast as Agag, and the role of Shaul divided between Mordechai and Esther.

In the Haftarah, Shaul loses his power due to his misreading of the nature of the conflict with Amalek, and due to his failure to exert his authority as king. In the Megilla, Mordechai and Esther are faced with similar challenges, and overcome them, ending up with greater positions of power.

What were Shaul’s mistakes, and how do Mordechai and Esther make up for them in the “reboot”?

First, Shaul misunderstood the nature of the battle. He treated it as any other war, against any other enemy. However, the war with Amalek is not our war, it is G-d’s war. Amalek represent an ideology and a culture that is incompatible with what G-d is trying to achieve with mankind. The Torah wants us to understand this, remember it, and act on it. That is why there is a specific commandment to hear the following verses read from the Torah, at least once a year, as the Maftir of Zachor:

זָכוֹר אֵת אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה לְךָ עֲמָלֵק בַּדֶּרֶךְ בְּצֵאתְכֶם מִמִּצְרָיִם:
אֲשֶׁר קָרְךָ בַּדֶּרֶךְ וַיְזַנֵּב בְּךָ כָּל הַנֶּחֱשָׁלִים אַחֲרֶיךָ וְאַתָּה עָיֵף וְיָגֵעַ וְלֹא יָרֵא אֱלֹהִים:
וְהָיָה בְּהָנִיחַ ה’ אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְךָ מִכָּל אֹיְבֶיךָ מִסָּבִיב בָּאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר ה’ אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לְךָ נַחֲלָה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ
תִּמְחֶה אֶת זֵכֶר עֲמָלֵק מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם לֹא תִּשְׁכָּח:
17) Remember what Amalek did to you on the road, when you left Egypt.
18) That he happened upon you on the road; he attacked those lagging at your rear,
when you were tired and exhausted; and did not fear G-d.
19) And it will be, when Hashem gives you respite from all your enemies all around,
in the land that Hashem your G-d is giving you as an inheritance, wipe out the memory of Amalek, from under the heavens; do not forget! (Devarim 25)

When the Torah describes what Amalek did, it says two things:

  1. He happened upon you on the road and
  2. He attacked the weak at the edge of the camp.

The first refers to Amalek’s ideology, the second, to the actions that result from that ideology. Amalek believes that our world is random; things happen, there is no rhyme nor reason, all is meaningless coincidence. Life is unpredictable and cruel; the distinction between good and evil is artificial and unnecessary. The only thing that has meaning is power; raiding the weak and taking what you can is as valid way as any to succeed in life.

Hitler, who in Jewish lore is also identified with Amalek, said it very clearly:

Providence has ordained that I should be the greatest liberator of humanity. I am freeing man from the restraints of an intelligence that has taken charge, from the dirty and degrading self-mortifications of a false vision known as conscience and morality, and from the demands of a freedom and personal independence which only a very few can bear. … Conscience is a Jewish invention; it is a blemish, like circumcision (Rauschning, Hitler Speaks, p. 222).

This is why G-d is in a state of war with Amalek.

When King Shaul allowed his people to take from the spoils of Amalek, he reduced the battle to a normal war against a normal enemy, in which, as per the laws and customs of the time, the spoils belonged to the conqueror. But this war was G-d’s war, not Shaul’s. The spoils were not theirs to take.

Unlike Shaul, Mordechai and Esther understood exactly who their enemy was. When Mordechai tells Esther about Haman’s plan to kill all the Jews, he tells her:

וַיַּגֶּד לוֹ מָרְדֳּכַי אֵת כָּל אֲשֶׁר קָרָהוּ וְאֵת פָּרָשַׁת הַכֶּסֶף אֲשֶׁר אָמַר הָמָןלִשְׁקוֹל עַל גִּנְזֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ בַּיְּהוּדִים לְאַבְּדָם:
Mordechai told [Esther’s messenger] about all that had happened to him,
and about the matter of the money, that Haman had said to weigh out to the king’s treasury to destroy the Jews. (Esther 4:7)

The Midrash explicitly connects this term to the one in Parshat Zachor:

אמר להתך לך אמור לה בן בנו של קרהו בא עליכם הה”ד (דברים כ”ה) אשר קרך בדרך
He told [Esther’s messenger], “Go tell her, the grandson of “happening” has come at us, as it says, “that happened upon you on the road”. (Midrash Esther Rabbah 8)

Mordechai realized that he was not dealing with just an ordinary enemy, he was dealing with Amalek. Haman was “the grandson” of the philosophy that power is the only value, that the weak exist to be exploited, and that a conscience is a blemish upon humanity. To save the Jewish People from Amalek, all resources must be mustered, and G-d’s war must be fought.

Esther needed more convincing. Like her ancestor Shaul, her innate humility had the potential to paralyze her. She did not believe that she had the power to make a difference, and she was highly concerned about making a bad impression on the people around her:

(יא) כָּל עַבְדֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ וְעַם מְדִינוֹת הַמֶּלֶךְ יוֹדְעִים אֲשֶׁר כָּל אִישׁ וְאִשָּׁה אֲשֶׁר יָבוֹא אֶל הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶל הֶחָצֵר הַפְּנִימִית אֲשֶׁר לֹא יִקָּרֵא אַחַת דָּתוֹ לְהָמִית לְבַד מֵאֲשֶׁר יוֹשִׁיט לוֹ הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶת שַׁרְבִיט הַזָּהָב וְחָיָה וַאֲנִי לֹא נִקְרֵאתִי לָבוֹא אֶל הַמֶּלֶךְ זֶה שְׁלוֹשִׁים יוֹם:
All the king’s servants and all the members of all the king’s states know that any man or woman that comes to the king to the inner courtyard without having been summoned, the law is that they be put to death; unless the king stretches his scepter toward him. And I have not been called to come to the king for the past thirty days. (Esther 4:11)

She did not feel that she had any royal authority to exercise, no power at all that could be mustered. It was perhaps similar thinking on the part of Shaul that caused him to look the other way when the people took from the spoils of Amalek. Indeed, this is what the prophet Shmuel accuses him of:

וַיֹּאמֶר שְׁמוּאֵל הֲלוֹא אִם קָטֹן אַתָּה בְּעֵינֶיךָ רֹאשׁ שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אָתָּה
“Even if you are small in your own eyes, you are the head of the tribes of Israel!” (Shmuel I 15: 17)

Shaul let his humility interfere with his ability to act, and Esther was about to make the same mistake. At this point Mordechai takes on the additional role of the prophet Shmuel:

כִּי אִם הַחֲרֵשׁ תַּחֲרִישִׁי בָּעֵת הַזֹּאת רֶוַח וְהַצָּלָה יַעֲמוֹד לַיְּהוּדִים מִמָּקוֹם אַחֵר וְאַתְּ וּבֵית אָבִיךְ תֹּאבֵדוּ וּמִי יוֹדֵעַ אִם לְעֵת כָּזֹאת הִגַּעַתְּ לַמַּלְכוּת:
If you will be silent right now, relief and salvation will come to the Jewish People from another place. But you and your father’s house will be lost. And who knows, if it were not for this moment that you became queen?” (Esther 4:14)

Mordechai understands that Esther’s nature might cause her to continue to be silent. She does not believe in her power, does not believe in herself as a queen. So Mordechai warns her of the consequences; not to the Jewish People, who will be saved some other way anyway, but to Esther herself and to “her father’s house”.

But if the Jewish People would be saved, why would Mordechai suggest that Esther and her father’s house would be lost? Would she not be included in the salvation? Why would an orphan be concerned about what will happen to “her father’s house”?
“Her father’s house” refers to Mordechai and Esther’s ultimate ancestor, Kish Ish Yemini. The loss refers to the loss of the royal dynasty, which was Shaul’s punishment for his inaction and lack of leadership. Mordechai tells Esther that she is getting a second chance. If she acts now, she can defeat Amalek. If she fails to act, the opportunity to make up for Shaul’s failure will also be lost.

Esther takes up the challenge. She has Mordechai gather the people she leads, and then:

וַיְהִי בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי וַתִּלְבַּשׁ אֶסְתֵּר מַלְכוּת
On the third day, Esther dressed herself in royalty (Esther 5:1)

Royalty, the use of power, was not an innate part of her character. But when it was necessary, she put it on as if a costume, and wielded this power to effect the salvation of her people. The kingdom of Persia was given to Esther, “the fellow one who is better than her”. In this reboot of the story, Esther does better than Shaul, and redeems the royal house of Esther and Mordechai’s ancestor, Shaul ben Kish Ish Yemini.

PDF for printing, 4 pages A4
Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל

1 Comment

Filed under Connections, Shabbat Zachor, Special Shabbatot

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

March 6, 2014 · 18:07

VaYikra – Mincha

The Haftara of VaYikra begins with the claim that G-d does not burden us with sacrifices:

לֹא הֶעֱבַדְתִּיךָ בְּמִנְחָה וְלֹא הוֹגַעְתִּיךָ בִּלְבוֹנָה לֹא קָנִיתָ לִּי בַכֶּסֶף קָנֶה

I did not burden you with mincha, and did not weary you with incense offerings. You did not buy Me spice sticks with money (Yeshayahu 43:23-4)

To us, the word mincha  refers to the afternoon prayer, the shortest of the three daily prayer services. But what does the word mean in the Tanach? Let us see where else it is used:

  • When Yaakov was about to meet Esav on his way back to the Land of Israel. Recalling Esav’s vow to kill him, Yaakov attempts to appease him by sending him gifts – hundreds of goats and rams, dozens of camels and donkeys. The Text calls this gift “mincha“.
  • When Yosef’s brothers need to go back to the “ruler of Egypt” with their brother Binyamin. The brothers take along a “mincha” to give the ruler. It is not much – spices, honey, and nuts – but they dare not approach this powerful man empty-handed.
  • At the beginning of the time of the Judges. Israel was subjugated by the king of Moav, and the judge Ehud ben Gera was sent as the head of the delegation bringing the “mincha” to the king. It doesn’t list quantities there, but it does say that it took many people to bring it, and that delivering it entailed a long and involved ceremony.

Now it should be clear what type of gift a “mincha” is. It is a tribute, a way to appease and show deference to a powerful ruler.

We do not live in a world where people give tributes to their rulers, so it may be hard for us to visualize what giving a tribute might be like. Fortunately, we do have a shared cultural experience that will serve just as well: the 1998 Disney/Pixar movie, A Bug’s Life. The ants slave all summer to gather food as a tribute for their rulers, the grasshoppers. An accident destroys the entire tribute, the grasshoppers threaten their lives, and the plot of the movie is about finding someone to save them from their wrath.

That is “mincha“.

The subjects with their ruler, as they have to admit that they failed to offer the "mincha".

The subjects failed to offer the “mincha” to their ruler.

The ruler, when he finds out that he is not getting the “mincha”

So when the Haftarah says, “I did not burden you with mincha,” it means that the relationship between G-d and the Jewish People is not like the relationship between the grasshoppers and the ants.

In fact, it is in the Parsha of Vayikra, which details the various sacrifices that can be offered to G-d that we find out what the content of a mincha is:

וְנֶפֶשׁ כִּי תַקְרִיב קָרְבַּן מִנְחָה לַה’  סֹלֶת יִהְיֶה קָרְבָּנוֹ וְיָצַק עָלֶיהָ שֶׁמֶן  וְנָתַן עָלֶיהָ לְבֹנָה:

If a soul would bring a mincha to Hashem, his sacrifice shall be of flour, oil shall be poured over it, and frankincense shall be put on it. (VaYikra 2:1)

The Midrash expounds on the verse in the Haftarah:

לא העבדתיך במנחה זה קומץ מנחה. ולא הוגעתיך בלבונה זה קומץ לבונה. לא קנית לי בכסף קנה- ר’ הונא בשם ר’ יוסי אמר קינמון היה גדל בא”י והיו עזים וצבאים אוכלין ממנו

“I did not burden you with mincha“: that is the handful of the mincha; “and did not weary you with incense offerings”, that is the handful of frankincense; “you did not buy Me spice sticks with money”: R’ Huna in the name of R’ Yossi said: cinnamon grew in Israel; goats and deer used to eat them. (Midrash Eicha Rabba 3)

The mincha that G-d commanded us to bring is a handful of flour, and the incense is a handful of locally grown spice. You bring some flour and oil and some spices; when the Cohen offers it up on the altar, he uses only a handful of that mix. Essentially, we give G-d a very small pancake.

It is a very strange tribute that the King of Kings, Creator of the Universe, asks of us.

It is more like the kind of gift that one gives to someone very close to you, someone that you don’t need to impress, someone who is genuinely pleased that you thought of them, where it is the giving that counts and not the value of the gift. That is the type of relationship that G-d wants us to have with Him.

Perhaps that is why, with the altar gone, and prayers replacing the sacrifices of VaYikra, the shortest of those prayer services is Mincha. We interrupt our day to offer a little bit of our time to our Creator – a pancake’s worth.

Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל

1 Comment

Filed under Connections, Sefer Vayikra, VaYikra

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

February 27, 2014 · 15:42

Shabbat Shekalim – Accountability

This Shabbat is Shabbat Shekalim, the first of four special Shabbatot that precede the Passover season. For the Maftir at the end of the Torah reading, we read verses that describe the commandment to give a half-shekel for the census. The money would be used for the communal sacrifices for the entire year. Besides the Maftir, we also read a special Haftarah for Shabbat Shekalim. It tells us how King Yehoash raised money in order to repair the Temple. One of the things that the Haftarah tells us is how the money was handled:

וְלֹא יְחַשְּׁבוּ אֶת הָאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר יִתְּנוּ אֶת הַכֶּסֶף עַל יָדָם לָתֵת לְעֹשֵׂי הַמְּלָאכָה כִּי בֶאֱמֻנָה הֵם עֹשִׂים
And they did not audit the men who were given charge of the silver to give to the craftsmen, for they were working on the basis of trust. (Melachim II 12:16)

The Midrash uses this verse to discuss the level of responsibility and transparency that is required from people who handle public funds:

עליו נאמר (מ”ב =מלכים ב’= יב) ולא יחשבו את האנשים אשר יתנו את הכסף, ולא יחשבו זה דורו של יואש שהיו עושין באמונה, שנו רבותינו מי שהיה נכנס לתרום את הלשכה לא היה נכנס לא בפרגוד חפות ולא באנפליא שאם יעשיר יאמרו מתרומת הלשכה העשיר, שאדם צריך לצאת ידי הבריות כדרך שהוא צריך לצאת ידי המקום
It says (in the Haftarah), “They did not audit the men to who were given charge of the silver” – this was the generation of Yehoash, who were trustworthy. The rabbis said: Whoever would enter the treasury would not do so wearing rolled up sleeves or a cloak, so that if he were to become wealthy, people would not be able to say, “Ah, he made his money by taking from the treasury.” A person needs to look good for people just as much as he needs to look good for G-d.
(Midrash Shemot Rabba Pekudei 51)

The Midrash says that the men who were working “on the basis of trust” were trustworthy not only because they were known to have good character. They were trustworthy because of the precautions they took to be beyond reproach: that is, they would not enter the treasury with folds or pockets.

The Midrash continues by comparing their behavior to that of Moshe Rabbeinu, who had been the treasurer for the Mishkan, as is described in the Parshiyot of VaYakhel and Pekudei, which are read for Parshat Shekalim on leap years:

משה היה גזבר לעצמו על מלאכת המשכן…נכנס משה אצל בצלאל ראה שהותיר מן המשכן אמר לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא רבון העולם עשינו את מלאכת המשכן והותרנו מה נעשה בנותר, אמר לו לך ועשה בהם משכן לעדות, הלך משה ועשה בהן כיון שבא ליתן חשבון אמר להם כך וכך יצא למשכן וביתר עשיתי משכן לעדות, הוי אלה פקודי המשכן משכן העדות
Moshe Rabbeinu was himself the treasurer of the building of the Mishkan. […] He entered Betzalel’s workspace and saw that the donations were in excess of what was needed to make the Mishkan. He turned to G-d and said, “Master of the Universe! We made all the work for the Mishkan and there is a remainder. What should we do with the remainder?” He said, “Go make me a Mishkan HaEdut (a place of assembly)”. Moshe went and had that made. When the time came to give the accounting, he said to them, such and such was used for the Mishkan, and with the remainder I made the Mishkan HaEdut, as it says, “This is the accounting of the Mishkan, Mishkan HaEdut.”
(Midrash Shemot Rabba Pekudei 51)

The Torah makes a point to tell us that all the donations were carefully accounted for, and all the funds that had been donated by the community were used for the good of the community. The Midrash implies that even Moshe Rabbeinu himself might be suspected of dipping into the cash, and that no one, not even Moshe Rabbeinu, can be put in charge of public funds without having to make a careful accounting. No one person can be trusted with that much money.

The Haftarah of Shekalim, which we read right before Rosh Chodesh Adar, also has parallels in Megillat Esther. When Haman gets Achashverosh drunk and convinces him to kill all the Jews, he says the following:

אִם עַל הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב יִכָּתֵב לְאַבְּדָם וַעֲשֶׂרֶת אֲלָפִים כִּכַּר כֶּסֶף אֶשְׁקוֹל עַל יְדֵי עֹשֵׂי הַמְּלָאכָה לְהָבִיא אֶל גִּנְזֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ: וַיָּסַר הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶת טַבַּעְתּוֹ מֵעַל יָדו ֹוַיִּתְּנָהּ לְהָמָן בֶּן הַמְּדָתָא הָאֲגָגִי צֹרֵר הַיְּהוּדִים: וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ לְהָמָן הַכֶּסֶף נָתוּן לָךְ וְהָעָם לַעֲשׂוֹת בּוֹ כַּטּוֹב בְּעֵינֶיךָ:
If it pleases the king, let it be written to destroy them,and ten thousand measures of silver,I will weigh out into the hands of the contractors to bring to the king’s treasury. The king took his ring from his hand,and gave it to Haman ben Hemdata Agagi, enemy of the Jews. The king said to Haman: “The money is given to you, and the people, to do with it however you please.” (Esther 3)

The phrase, “into the hands of the contractors,” does not appear anywhere else in Tanach – except in the Haftarah of Shekalim:

וְנָתְנוּ אֶת הַכֶּסֶף הַמְתֻכָּן עַל יְדֵי עֹשֵׂי הַמְּלָאכָה הַמֻּפְקָדִים בֵּית ה’
They gave the coined silver into the hands of the contractors who were assigned to Beit-Hashem. (Melachim II 12:12)

These “contractors” were the people that the Haftarah describes as being very trustworthy, the ones who were beyond reproach in their handling of the funds. If Haman suggests channeling the money through them, then part of Haman’s argument to Achashverosh was that the ten thousand measures of silver would not delivered by him personally, but rather that the money would be supervised by an impeccably trustworthy source. When Achashverosh answers him, “the money is given to you,” what he’s saying is that he has absolute trust in Haman. He doesn’t need accountants, Haman himself can take care of everything. The money, the people’s lives, the entire kingdom – Achashverosh hands everything over to Haman with no auditing whatsoever.

As we have seen from the Parsha and the Haftarah, the Torah does not approve of placing that amount of trust in any human being: Moshe Rabbeinu himself had to account for the way he used money dedicated for the Mishkan; the “contractors” for the renovation of the Beit HaMikdash could not go into the treasury wearing loose cloaks. Yet Achashverosh places no limits and no controls on Haman’s power. This is so dangerous and so reckless, that when Mordechai tells Esther about the meeting between Achashverosh and Haman, he says:

וַיַּגֶּד לוֹ מָרְדֳּכַי אֵת כָּל אֲשֶׁר קָרָהוּוְאֵת פָּרָשַׁת הַכֶּסֶף אֲשֶׁר אָמַר הָמָן לִשְׁקוֹל עַל גִּנְזֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ בַּיְּהוּדִים לְאַבְּדָם:
Mordechai told [Esther’s proxy] about all that had happened to him,and about the matter of the money, that Haman had said to weigh out to the king’s treasury to destroy the Jews. (Esther 3:7)

The way Achashverosh handled “the matter of money” showed the unreserved trust that he had in Haman, and the complete and utter power that he placed in this one man.

The Midrash connects that “matter of money” with Parshat Shekalim:

אמר רבי שמעון בן לקיש גלוי וידוע לפני הקב”ה שעתיד המן הרשע לשקול שקלים על ישראל לפיכך הקדים שקליהם לשקליו:
Reish Lakish said: Hashem knew that the evil Haman would weigh shekalim against Israel, therefore, He pre-empted his shekels with their shekels. (Megilla 13:2)

This Midrash goes on to explain that the half-shekels given by the entire Jewish People at Sinai, at six hundred thousand people times a half-shekel each, added up to ten thousand measures of silver, the same amount that was mentioned in the Megilla. Haman promised Achashverosh the amount of silver that would have been given by the entire Jewish People for the commandment of “Shekalim.”

Reish Lakish did not see this as a coincidence, and neither did Mordechai. By handing over ten thousand measures of silver, Haman attempted to “buy” each and every member of the Jewish People from Achashverosh. Not only did Achashverosh give him unlimited power, he gave them unlimited power over the entire Jewish People, with no constraints whatsoever.
This is why Mordechai tore his clothes in despair, and why Esther risked her life to go to the king.

However, as Reish Lakish pointed out, the commandment of Shekalim pre-empted Haman’s attempt to “buy” us from Achashverosh. We were already “paid for” – with the half-shekel that we gave to our King, the King of Kings.

Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל

1 Comment

Filed under Connections, Shabbat Shekalim, Special Shabbatot

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 20, 2014 · 22:33

VaYakhel – Labor of Love

The Parsha of VaYakhel could have been much, much shorter. It could have just said,

“And Moshe told the Jewish People all the things that G-d had commanded them regarding building the Mishkan (tabernacle). The Jewish People did all the things that G-d commanded.”

End of Parsha.

If it wanted to be a little more descriptive, it might have included chapter 25, the first chapter of Parshat VaYakhel. In it, Moshe first warns them about keeping Shabbat, then he tells them about all the things that need to be made, and asks for donations. We hear about how all the people donated everything that was necessary, after which it could have ended with, “And the Jewish People made all the things that G-d commanded.”

End of Parsha.

Instead, we have chapters 26, 27, and 28, which are in the format of:

“He made fifty golden hooks…”
“He made goatskin curtains …”
“He made wooden boards…”
“He made a woven hanging for the entrance…”

and so on,  thirty-odd times[1].

The Haftarah has a similar format. The chapter of Melachim that is read for the Haftarah describes the making of the objects needed in the Temple. Here too, the list is very detailed, including objects like pots, shovels, nets, and basins. Here too, this chapter (of which the Sefardim read one subset of verses and Ashkenazim another) repeats the word “he made”, ויעש, many times[2]. The Haftarah that we read is even known by its first few words, “ויעש חירם”, “Hiram made”, referring to the chief craftsman of the project.

Hence we see that both in the Parsha and the Haftarah, there is an emphasis on the detailed craftwork that was required for the various objects needed in the Temple, with a specific emphasis on the craftsman.

Why is this important?

Pulpit rabbis and Bar Mitzvah boys who find themselves having to give a speech about this Parsha tend to find refuge in its first few verses. Moshe gathers the people, and the first thing he does, as we mentioned earlier, is tell them that they must keep Shabbat.

(א) וַיַּקְהֵל מֹשֶׁה אֶת כָּל עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם אֵלֶּה הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה ה’ לַעֲשֹׂת אֹתָם:
(ב) שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תֵּעָשֶׂה מְלָאכָה וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי יִהְיֶה לָכֶם קֹדֶשׁ שַׁבַּת שַׁבָּתוֹן לַה’ כָּל הָעֹשֶׂה בוֹ מְלָאכָה יוּמָת:

1) Moshe gathered the entire congregation of Bnei Israel; he said to them, these are the things that Hashem has commanded you to do:
2) Six days you will do melacha[3], and the seventh day will be holy, Shabbat-Shabbaton to Hashem; whoever does melacha will be put to death. (Shemot 35)

Keeping Shabbat means that you do melacha for six days, and during the seventh day, you do not do any melacha. What is melacha? It’s something that one does, a form of labor or work. But what kind, exactly?

A bit later in the same chapter, when the chief craftsman of the Mishkan, Betzalel, is introduced, we hear more about what it entails:

ל) וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל רְאוּ קָרָא ה’ בְּשֵׁם בְּצַלְאֵל בֶּן אוּרִי בֶן חוּר לְמַטֵּה יְהוּדָה:
לא) וַיְמַלֵּא אֹתוֹ רוּחַ אֱ-לֹהִים בְּחָכְמָה בִּתְבוּנָה וּבְדַעַת וּבְכָל מְלָאכָה:

30) Moshe said to Bnei Israel: Look, Hashem has called the name of Betzalel ben Uri ben Chur of the tribe of Yehudah.
31) He has filled him with the Spirit of G-d: with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with all melacha.

Similarly, when chief craftsman of the Temple, Hiram, is introduced (a few verses before he appears in our Haftarah[4]), it says:

יג) וַיִּשְׁלַח הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה וַיִּקַּח אֶת חִירָם מִצֹּר:
יד)….וַיִּמָּלֵא אֶת הַחָכְמָה וְאֶת הַתְּבוּנָה וְאֶת הַדַּעַת לַעֲשׂוֹת כָּל מְלָאכָה בַּנְּחֹשֶׁת וַיָּבוֹא אֶל הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה וַיַּעַשׂ אֶת כָּל מְלַאכְתּוֹ:

13) King Shlomo sent for and got Hiram of Tzor.
14) … He was filled with the wisdom, the understanding, and the knowledge to do all forms of melacha in bronze. He came to King Shlomo and he made all of his melacha.

From the juxtaposition of melacha with “wisdom, understanding, and knowledge”, we can infer that melacha refers to skilled labor, or craftsmanship. In fact, the Laws of Shabbat define melacha as the set of activities that were needed to build the Mishkan and its contents, activities that require a certain amount of skill or competence. Moreover, actions that are not done in a skillful manner do not count as melacha. Examples of this are: doing something unintentionally, having two people do a task meant for one individual, or doing something for a particular purpose and accomplishing something else as a result. In other words: if it’s done without “wisdom, understanding, and knowledge”, it is not truly melacha.

Now one might think that the fact that G-d does not want us to do melacha on the day that He made holy, on Shabbat, it means that G-d does not think very highly of this type of work, or even work in general. Perhaps the ideal for human beings is to be spiritual beings who spend their time in contemplation, rather than in activity.

But that is not the message that we get from Parshat VaYakhel. Shabbat is meant to remind us of Creation. When G-d created the world, He did not rest for seven days. Rather, He acted for six days and rested on the seventh. Human beings were created “be’tzelem Elokim”, in the image of G-d. We are His partners in Creation; He has given us power over nature, the ability to work with wood and metal to create things that nature cannot bring forth on its own. Just as He created for six days, we, too, are expected to act, to be “filled with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge”, and to create things for six days. We are then commanded to also emulate Him by holding back, by refraining from melacha, from craftwork, on the seventh day, on Shabbat. Not because melacha is not important, but because it is an expression of our godliness, of our “Tzelem Elokim”, as is Shabbat itself.

Having given us the ability to create, a portion of Himself, as it were, G-d is delighted in seeing us do so. So much so that He lists every one of the actions of craftsmanship involved in implementing the joint G-d / human project, the Mishkan.

The Ramban, in attempting to answer the question posed above, regarding the purpose of Parshat VaYakhel’s detailed repetition of the work of the Mishkan, says the following:

ועל הכלל כל זה דרך חבה ודרך מעלה, לומר כי חפץ השם במלאכה ומזכיר אותה בתורתו פעמים רבות

In general, all of this shows affection and regard, that is, that Hashem desires this melacha and mentions it in His Torah several times (Ramban, Shemot 36:8)

The reason that the Torah repeats each and every act of melacha, of creation, thirty-odd times, is that Hashem gets nachas from seeing His children act in “tzelem Elokim”, in wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.

It is precious to Him, and it should be precious to us, also.

Dedicated to the memory of Rose Alster, z”l, my grandmother (in-law), Elta Bubby to thirty-odd great-grandchildren, whose yahrtzeit was this past week, 19th Adar. She got nachas from hearing every detail of each and every one of their actions, as they were each precious to her. She is still precious to us all.

Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל

 

[1] According to the search results of Bar-Ilan’s Morashti CD, 37 times.

[2] Seven times in the entire chapter, 2 of them in the Haftarah that we read.

[3] The word melacha was deliberately left un-translated, as it does not have a direct parallel in English. The rest of this essay attempts to pin down its precise meaning.

[4] This is the section of the chapter read by Sefardi shuls for VaYakhel. They read our section next week, for Pekudei, while we read the section after that.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Connections, Sefer Shemot, VaYakhel

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 13, 2014 · 14:16

Ki Tisa – Who’s to blame?

The Haftarah of Ki Tisa is the story of Eliyahu at Har HaCarmel, where he proves to the Jewish People that Hashem is G-d and the idol Ba’al is imaginary.  At first glance, this Haftarah appears to be the natural choice for the Parsha of Ki Tisa, which recounts the Sin of the Golden Calf:  Moshe had to deal with idolatry, and Eliyahu had to deal with idolatry. However, the situations are not parallel, they are inverse. The Parsha starts with the Jewish People serving G-d whole-heartedly and follows with them devolving into worshipping a golden statue. Conversely, the Haftarah starts with the Jewish People serving a pagan god, and follows with them saying “Hashem is G-d,” and serving G-d whole-heartedly.

If one wanted to match the Sin of the Golden Calf with a chapter of Prophets on the topic of idolatry, there is a plethora of chapters to choose from[1];  all of the prophets dealt with idolatry in one way or another. So why was this chapter chosen?

What the Parsha and the Haftarah have in common is not the idolatry, and not Moshe’s or Eliyahu’s ways of dealing with it, but rather how each of them defended their people before G-d. According to the Midrash (Talmud Bavli Berachot 32-33), both Moshe and Eliyahu put the blame for what happened on G-d Himself.

Eliyahu said,

לז) עֲנֵנִי ה’ עֲנֵנִי וְיֵדְעוּ הָעָם הַזֶּה כִּי אַתָּה ה’ הָאֱ-לֹהִים וְאַתָּה הֲסִבֹּתָ אֶת לִבָּם אֲחֹרַנִּית:

“Answer me, Hashem, answer me!   So that these people shall know that You, Hashem, are G-d, for You have turned their hearts backwards.” (Melachim I 18:37)

Eliyahu accuses G-d of having turned the hearts of the Jewish People away from Him. They cannot bear the entire blame for their actions if G-d set up a situation that they were not able to handle. The Jewish People had never had an aristocracy; Achav is only the second generation in his dynasty, and the concept of a royal family was relatively new. When Jezebel, the royal princess of the House of Tzidon, became the queen, she saw it as her mission to show the Jews how things ought to be done; to introduce the rituals of the wealthiest, most cosmopolitan, most admired culture in the region into their society, by force if necessary. How could they be expected to match wills with someone like her,  to withstand that level of pressure?

We all know that G-d is the ultimate matchmaker. If He had caused this match to fail, or caused Achav to marry someone more suitable, none of this would have happened. Eliyahu holds G-d responsible.

Similarly, according to the same Midrash, when Moshe said,

יא) … וַיֹּאמֶר לָמָה ה’ יֶחֱרֶה אַפְּךָ בְּעַמֶּךָ אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם בְּכֹחַ גָּדוֹל וּבְיָד חֲזָקָה:

“Why, Hashem, should You be angry at Your people, whom You have taken out of the land of Egypt, with great might and a strong hand?” (Shemot 32:11)

… what he really meant was, “You have no right to be angry after leaving them for generations in the most pagan culture in the world!”

Here is a Midrash that puts it all into a metaphor that only Chazal could permit themselves to use:

א”ר הונא בשם ר’ יוחנן משל לחכם שפתח לבנו חנות של בשמים בשוק של זונות. המבוי עשה שלו והאומנות עשתה שלה והנער כבחור עשה שלו יצא לתרבות רעה. בא אביו ותפסו עם הזונות התחיל האב צועק ואומר הורגך אני. היה שם אוהבו אמר לו אתה איבדת את הנער ואתה צועק כנגדו. הנחת כל האומניות ולא למדתו אלא בשם והנחת כל המובאות ולא פתחת לו חנות אלא בשוק של זונות.כך אמר משה רבון העולם הנחת כל העולם ולא שעבדת בניך אלא במצרים שהיו עובדין טלאים ולמדו מהם בניך. ואף הם עשו העגל לפיכך אמר אשר הוצאת מארץ מצרים דע מהיכן הוצאת אותם.

R’ Huna said from R’ Yohanan:  It’s analogous to a scholar who opened for his son a perfume shop in a red-light district full of prostitutes. The location did what it does, the profession did what it does, and the guy did what a guy does.

His father came and caught him with the prostitutes, and started screaming, “I’m going to kill you!” The father’s friend was there, and said to him, “You destroyed the boy, and now you’re screaming at him? Of all possible professions you taught him perfumery; of all possible locations, you opened him a shop in a red-light district?!”

So, too, Moshe said, “Master of the Universe! Of all the nations in the world in which to enslave Your children, You picked Egypt, who worship calves? Your children learned from them and also made a calf!”  This is why Moshe said, “whom You have taken out of Egypt”. You should realize where You took them out of!  (Midrash Shemot Rabba 43)

Like Eliyahu, Moshe blames G-d for the failure of the Jewish People. It is G-d who is responsible for their pagan mindset. If He didn’t want them to have that influence, He should not have put them in that situation in the first place[2].

This attitude is more than a little bit chutzpadik. If it weren’t Chazal that said it, we certainly would not have dared to interpret Moshe’s or Eliyahu’s words in this manner. But was it wrong of them to blame G-d? Were they punished for it? We know that neither prophet was perfect; Moshe was punished for hitting the rock in his anger rather than speaking to it, and Eliyahu, as we will read in the Haftarah of Pinchas, was censured for some of the things he said. Here, however, there is no hint of censure; not in the text and not in the Midrash. On the contrary, G-d listens to both Moshe and Eliyahu, implying is that the argument is valid and He accepts His share of the blame.

Or maybe He is just really happy that the Jewish People have leaders who are willing to go to such lengths to defend them.

Copyright © Kira Sirote  
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל


[1] For instance, Melachim I 12, where King Yeravam makes golden calves and says: “These are your gods, Israel that took you out of Egypt”.

[2] This Midrash directly contradicts the popular saying, “G-d does not put people in situations they cannot handle.”

1 Comment

Filed under Ki Tisa, Sefer Shemot

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

February 6, 2014 · 16:53

Tetzaveh – Atoning for the atoner?

While the bulk of Parshat Tetzaveh lists the commandments of the consecration of the Cohanim and their complicated attire, the Haftarah is connected textually to a handful of verses that describe the consecration of the Altar itself.
The Parsha:

וְעָשִׂיתָ לְאַהֲרֹן וּלְבָנָיו כָּכָה כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִי אֹתָכָה שִׁבְעַת יָמִים תְּמַלֵּא יָדָם. וּפַר חַטָּאת תַּעֲשֶׂה לַיּוֹם עַל הַכִּפֻּרִים וְחִטֵּאתָ עַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ בְּכַפֶּרְךָ עָלָיו וּמָשַׁחְתָּ אֹתוֹ לְקַדְּשׁוֹ. שִׁבְעַת יָמִים תְּכַפֵּר עַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ וְקִדַּשְׁתָּ אֹתוֹ וְהָיָה הַמִּזְבֵּחַ קֹדֶשׁ קָדָשִׁים כָּל הַנֹּגֵעַ בַּמִּזְבֵּחַ יִקְדָּשׁ.

You shall do for Aharon and his sons thus, according to all that I have commanded you; seven days you shall consecrate them. A bullock of purification offer each day as atonement, and purify the Altar in atoning for it, and anoint it to make it holy. Seven days atone for the Altar, and make it holy, so that the Altar will become holy of holies; all that touches the Altar becomes holy. (Shemot 29:35-37)

The Haftorah, whose topic is the rebuilding and rededication of the Altar in the final Beit HaMikdash, contains the following:

וְנָתַתָּה אֶל הַכֹּהֲנִים הַלְוִיִּם אֲשֶׁר הֵם מִזֶּרַע צָדוֹק הַקְּרֹבִים אֵלַי נְאֻם אֲ-דֹנָי ה’ לְשָׁרְתֵנִי פַּר בֶּן בָּקָר לְחַטָּאת. וְלָקַחְתָּ מִדָּמוֹ וְנָתַתָּה עַל אַרְבַּע קַרְנֹתָיו וְאֶל אַרְבַּע פִּנּוֹת הָעֲזָרָה וְאֶל הַגְּבוּל סָבִיב וְחִטֵּאתָ אוֹתוֹ וְכִפַּרְתָּהוּ….
שִׁבְעַת יָמִים יְכַפְּרוּ אֶת הַמִּזְבֵּחַ וְטִהֲרוּ אֹתוֹ וּמִלְאוּ יָדָיו.

You shall give to the Cohanim of Levi, who are the descendants of Tzadok, who are close to Me, says Hashem Elokim, to serve Me, a bullock as a purification offering. You shall take of its blood, and place it on the four horns, and on four corners of the ledge, and on the ledge around it, and you will purify it and atone for it….
Seven days atone for the Altar, and cleanse it, and consecrate it.
(Yechezkel 43:19-20, 26)

What can we learn about the Altar, if we focus on the terms that are repeated in both texts?
In both the Parsha and the Haftorah, we are told to bring a “bullock of purification” for the Altar. This implies that there was a sin that needed to be cleansed. What sin would that have been? Additionally, while the stated function of the Altar is to effect atonement to those who bring sacrifices, here it says “seven days atone for the Altar”, implying that the Altar itself needs atonement. For what?

Rashi suggests that the “bullock of purification” comes to atone for a sin related to another member of the cow family, the Golden Calf. Even though the Parshiot that describe the Mishkan, Terumah and Tetzaveh, are written in the Torah before the story of the Golden Calf, there is a lot of symbolism in the Mishkan that appears to be directly related to it. According to Rashi, this bullock is an example of this symbolism. The purification of the Altar through the bullock atones for the sin of idolatry on the part of the Jewish People — in particular, for the Sin of the Golden Calf.

The Haftorah supports this theory when it says, in its first verses, that the Jewish People will only be given the instructions for the new Beit HaMikdash when they are ashamed of the actions that caused the previous Beit HaMikdash to be destroyed, namely, idol-worship. The “bullock of purification” brought on the new Altar would remove any association it might have had with pagan rites and practices, atoning for the misuse of altars in idolatry.

The Midrash, however, traces the connection between the Altar and its potential for Atonement to Creation itself. Explaining why Adam was created specifically from “Adamah”, earth, the Midrash says:

מן האדמה, רבי ברכיה ורבי חלבו בשם רבי שמואל בר נחמן אמרו ממקום כפרתו נברא, היך מה דאת אמר (שמות כ) מזבח אדמה תעשה לי, אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא הרי אני בורא אותו ממקום כפרתו והלואי יעמוד.
“From the earth”: R’ Berechiah and R’ Chelbo in the name of R’ Shmuel bar Nachman said: He was created from the place of his atonement, as it says, “Make Me an Altar of earth” (Shemot 20). God said, Let Me make him from the place of his atonement, and hopefully, it will work out. (Midrash Bereishit Rabba 14)

The Midrash tells us that Adam was made of Adamah because the Altar would one day be made of Adamah, which would allow it to atone for him.
The concept that mankind would need atonement was built into the fabric of Creation. Adam was given freedom of choice. Yet, he was created from Adamah as a part of the finite, material world. Because of his limitations as a mortal, it would be inevitable that some of the choices he made would be wrong ones, and in creating the world, God prepared a way for him to cleanse himself of at least some of their consequences.

The Recanati, a 13th century kabbalistic commentator, quotes the Zohar and Midrashic sources that equate the seven days of Creation with the seven days of consecrating the Altar. After describing the kabbalistic model of the world where ideal “forms” are expressed in the physical world, he explains the purpose of the seven days of consecration:

יש לך לדעת כי מחטא אדם הראשון שהטיל הנחש פגם בצורה עליונה לא נשלמה הצורה עד ז’ ימי המילואים מלואים ממש.
You should know this: from the sin of Adam, when the snake caused a flaw in the “ideal form”, that “form” was not completed until the seven days of consecration, literally, “days of completion.” (Recanati on Shemot 29:1)

According to the Recanati, the seven days of consecration are atoning for Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden. That is why the purpose for the atonement of the Altar is not spelled out specifically, neither in the Torah nor in the Haftorah. The sin which the Altar cleanses is not something specific to their generation, but rather one that is common to all of humanity. Adam’s sin was arrogance, of wanting to be something other than what God created, something other than a being made of “Adamah.”

Idolatry has its roots in the same attitude as Adam’s sin: wanting to “know good and bad”, the desire to decide what is good and what is bad based on your own judgment, the urge to make your own gods in your own image. The alternative that Adam was given was to subjugate his judgment to that of God, and he proved himself unwilling to do so.
The purpose of the Torah is to bring the world back to the state that Adam was in before he sinned, and to undo the mistake that he made. Chazal tell us that when the Jewish People agreed to accept the Torah at Sinai, they reached a level where Adam’s sin no longer had a hold on them. Unfortunately, the Jewish People were unable to sustain this level, and the Sin of the Golden Calf caused them to crash back down.

According to the Recanati, the building of the Altar and the seven days of its consecration allowed the Jewish People to reach toward that level again. The word “consecration”, or literally, “completion”, refers to the wholeness that the world achieved when the Altar of the Mishkan, built to atone for Adam’s mistakes, became functional.
The Beit HaMikdash also had an Altar which was also consecrated for seven days, and it also had the potential to reverse Adam’s sin.. When it was destroyed, that possibility was lost with it — but only temporarily. The Haftorah tells us that there will be another opportunity, another Altar, another set of seven days of consecration, and the world will be purified and made complete once again.

Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל

Leave a Comment

Filed under Sefer Shemot, Tetzave

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 23, 2014 · 17:18

Mishpatim – Commitment and Betrayal

The Haftarah of Mishpatim tells the story of how, just a few years before the destruction of Jerusalem, wealthy slave-owners released their Jewish slaves, only to recapture them when the situation quieted down.

G-d’s response is the following:

כֹּה אָמַר ה’ אֱ-לֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אָנֹכִי כָּרַתִּי בְרִית אֶת אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם בְּיוֹם הוֹצִאִי אוֹתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים לֵאמֹר:
מִקֵּץ שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים תְּשַׁלְּחוּ אִישׁ אֶת אָחִיו הָעִבְרִי אֲשֶׁר יִמָּכֵר לְךָ וַעֲבָדְךָ שֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים וְשִׁלַּחְתּוֹ חָפְשִׁי מֵעִמָּךְ וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ אֲבוֹתֵיכֶם אֵלַי וְלֹא הִטּוּ אֶת אָזְנָם:
So says Hashem, the G-d of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers,
on the day that I took them out of Egypt, out of slavery, as follows:
At the beginning of the seventh year, you shall send away your brother, the Hebrew, who has been sold to you; he will have worked for you for six years, then you will send him free from you. Your fathers did not listen to me, and did not pay attention (Yirmeyahu 34:13-14)

Which covenant is G-d talking about, “on the day that [He] took us out of Egypt”?

First of all, “on the day that I took them out of Egypt”, does not refer to just that one day. The phrase Yetziat Mitzraim, the Exodus, refers to the entire experience from the beginning of the Plagues until the Jewish People entered the Land of Israel. Therefore, when looking for this covenant, we are not limited to the actual day of the 15th of Nissan.
Instead, the phrase refers to the Exodus as a whole, which was, as stated from the very beginning of Shemot, that Hashem would take Israel to be His people, and be their G-d. This was done by means of a covenant between G-d and the Jewish People, and took place at Sinai. The description of this covenant is found in Parshat Mishpatim:

וַיִּקַּח סֵפֶר הַבְּרִית וַיִּקְרָא בְּאָזְנֵי הָעָם וַיֹּאמְרוּ כֹּל אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר ה’ נַעֲשֶׂה וְנִשְׁמָע:
וַיִּקַּח מֹשֶׁה אֶת הַדָּם וַיִּזְרֹק עַל הָעָם וַיֹּאמֶר הִנֵּה דַם הַבְּרִית אֲשֶׁר כָּרַת ה’ עִמָּכֶם עַל כָּל הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה:
[Moshe] took the Book of the Covenant; he read it into the ears of the people.
They said, “All that Hashem said, we will do and we will listen.”
Moshe took the blood, threw it on the people; he said, “This is the blood of the Covenant, that Hashem has made with you, based on all these things.” (Shemot 24:7-8)

What was in this “Book of the Covenant,” and what were “all these things” upon which they based their agreement to enter into the covenant with G-d?

Many of us are familiar with Rashi’s opinion, that these events, even though they are recorded in Parshat Mishpatim, actually took place before the Ten Commandments were given, that they committed to “we will do and we will listen” on pure faith, and that “all these things” that Moshe read to them was a record of the miracles of Exodus.

However, Ramban and Ibn Ezra insist on interpreting these chapters in chronological order. According to this view, which is the simpler reading of the text, the covenant follows the Ten Commandments, as well as the laws listed in Parshat Mishpatim. When the Jewish People said, “we will do and we will listen,” they knew very well what they were committing to do. Parshat Mishpatim contains a representative sample of the commandments such as laws of fair conduct in business and interpersonal relationships, laws of justice and morality, and laws of Kashrut and holidays. G-d wanted them to understand what they were signing up for, and had Moshe read it all out to them – “into their ears”, making sure that they heard clearly – before they entered the covenant.

What was the very first of the laws that Moshe read to them?

וְאֵלֶּה הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר תָּשִׂים לִפְנֵיהֶם:
כִּי תִקְנֶה עֶבֶד עִבְרִי שֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים יַעֲבֹד וּבַשְּׁבִעִת יֵצֵא לַחָפְשִׁי חִנָּם:
And these are the laws that you should put before them:
If a person buys a Hebrew slave, six years he will work, and on the seventh will go free. (Shemot 21:1-2)

The commandment to limit slavery was the first among the commandments that formed the basis of the covenant. Additional laws in this chapter in Mishpatim limit the owner’s ability to exploit and oppress his slaves, especially female slaves .
One might have expected the Jewish People, as former slaves in Egypt, to be particularly careful to observe this commandment, to show extra empathy to their slaves and be only too glad to limit or even abolish slavery altogether. However, the Haftarah tells us that it was not kept by the Jewish People, at least not by generations prior to Yirmeyahu’s time: “your fathers did not listen to Me; they did not pay attention, says G-d.”

So when King Tzidkiyahu forced them to make a covenant to release their slaves, and they listened to him and did so, we might have thought that this would actually make G-d somewhat upset. He might have sent a prophet accusing them of caring more for an earthly king than for the King of Kings. He might have been disappointed that the original covenant at Sinai was not sufficient for them and they needed a new one to make them keep this commandment. Instead, we are told that G-d was unreservedly pleased by their actions:

וַתָּשֻׁבוּ אַתֶּם הַיּוֹם וַתַּעֲשׂוּ אֶת הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינַי לִקְרֹא דְרוֹר אִישׁ לְרֵעֵהוּ וַתִּכְרְתוּ בְרִית לְפָנַי בַּבַּיִת אֲשֶׁר נִקְרָא שְׁמִי עָלָיו:
Today you returned, and you did the right thing in My eyes, by proclaiming liberty, each man to his fellow, and you made a covenant before Me, in the house upon which My name is called. (Yirmeyahu 34:15)

They did “the right thing in His eyes”, they freed the slaves, and G-d was proud of them.

Alas, as great as the pride, such was the magnitude of the disappointment.

When they recaptured the slaves that they had freed, not only did they do an evil and repugnant deed, not only did they break the covenant that they had just made with King Tzidkiyahu, they spit in the face of the Covenant of Sinai itself. They did not fail to observe a random commandment, they took the very first commandment that they signed up for, and violated it in the worst way possible.

Instead of showing the empathy to slaves expected of the Jewish People, they acted as if they had no recollection of the Exodus or of their mission to be the nation that does “the right thing in G-d’s eyes.” They rendered the entire covenant between G-d and the Jewish People, null and void.

Mercifully, the Haftarah does not end with this fiasco, but rather with the following verses:

כֹּה אָמַר ה’ … גַּם זֶרַע יַעֲקוֹב וְדָוִד עַבְדִּי אֶמְאַס … כִּי אָשִׁיב אֶת שְׁבוּתָם וְרִחַמְתִּים.
So says Hashem… would I reject the offspring of Yaakov and My servant, David…? For I will return his captives and have mercy upon them.
(Yirmeyahu 33:25-26)

It is a very good thing that G-d has infinite patience. It is a very good thing that He knows that we are capable of more, that our commitment to Torah can be renewed. The Haftarah’s ending tells us that G-d’s commitment to us is eternal. We can mess up, our actions can be disastrous and detestable, but He will find a way to get us back. The destiny of the Jewish People will continue. G-d Himself will make sure of that.

[2] People often ask why G-d did not skip this intermediate step and just outlaw slavery in the first place. This is not a question that we can answer without a deep understanding of the economics of the time. It is not fair to anachronistically judge those generations through a world view which is based on opportunities that were not available to them. Anyway, we see that even this commandment was beyond their abilities.

Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל

Leave a Comment

Filed under Connections, Mishpatim, Sefer Shemot

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 16, 2014 · 17:07

Yitro – The Armies of G-d

Parshat Yitro describes Ma’amad Har Sinai, the prophetic experience shared by the entire Jewish People at Mount Sinai. It was a pivotal point in our history, marking our entry into the covenant with G-d and our commitment to accepting His Torah. The experience itself was awe-inspiring, even frightening. As the Torah describes:

וְכָל הָעָם רֹאִים אֶת הַקּוֹלֹת וְאֶת הַלַּפִּידִם וְאֵת קוֹל הַשֹּׁפָר וְאֶת הָהָר עָשֵׁן וַיַּרְא הָעָם וַיָּנֻעוּ וַיַּעַמְדוּ מֵרָחֹק
And the whole nation saw the sounds and the lights and the sound of the Shofar, and the mountain was smoking; the nation saw, and shook, and stood far away. (Exodus 20:14)

The Haftarah of Yitro also describes an awe-inspiring prophetic experience. Yeshayahu is shown G-d’s Throne, as it were, surrounded by angels. This vision also becomes frightening, in similar ways:

וַיָּנֻעוּ אַמּוֹת הַסִּפִּים מִקּוֹל הַקּוֹרֵא וְהַבַּיִת יִמָּלֵא עָשָׁן
The pillars shook from the sound of the call, and the house was filled with smoke. (Yeshayahu 6:4)

But unlike Har Sinai, where the overwhelming experience was a prelude for receiving G-d’s Torah and becoming His nation, Yeshayahu’s vision is followed by a message of destruction of the cities of Yehudah.

Why is this prophecy of punishment and destruction introduced by a such a lofty vision, practically a reenactment of the experience of Har Sinai? What does Har Sinai have to do with the failings of Yeshayahu’s generation?

In Yeshayahu’s vision of the Heavenly Court, we read the famous prayer of the angels:

וְקָרָא זֶה אֶל זֶה וְאָמַר קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ קָדוֹשׁ ה’ צְבָא-וֹת מְלֹא כָל הָאָרֶץ כְּבוֹדוֹ:
Each [angel] called out to the other and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Hashem Tzva-ot! The whole world is filled with His Glory!” (Yeshayahu 6:3)

The Name that the angels use to address G-d, “Hashem Tzva-ot,” is the key to understanding how the vision ties to Sinai, and to the message of destruction.

“Hashem Tzva-ot”, one of the Names of G-d, is usually translated as “Lord of Hosts,” which literally means “commander of armies.” The word “army” is plural, because G-d has two armies: an Army of the Heavens and an Army on Earth. The Army of the Heavens consists of the various angelic beings described in prophetic visions in the Tanach, including that of the Haftarah of Yitro. G-d’s Army on Earth is the Jewish People. We know this to be the case because it says so explicitly in the Torah. When the Jewish People leave Egypt as a newly formed nation, the Torah uses the following phrase to describe them:

וַיְהִי בְּעֶצֶם הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה יָצְאוּ כָּל צִבְאוֹת ה’ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם:
…on that very day, the armies of Hashem left the land of Egypt (Shemot 12:41)

The purpose of an army is to execute the will of their commander. The angels do this as a matter of course; our tradition tells us that they have no freedom of choice, and no independent thought. Their entire being is dedicated to doing G-d’s will.

The Army on Earth is made up of human beings, the Jewish People. Unlike the angels, we do have freedom of choice. When the Jewish People accepted the Torah, we made a conscious decision to put G-d’s will above our own, and His wisdom above our understanding. That is what it meant when we said, “We will do, and we will hear” (“Na’aseh Ve’nishma”) at Sinai: whatever G-d says, that is what we will do. He is now our commander, and we subordinate our freedom of choice to His Torah.

The Midrash links this decision to accept the Torah to the Haftarah of Yitro:

אמר רבי הונא בשם רבי חייא אלו ישראל שהקדימו עשיה לשמיעה ואמרו כל אשר דבר ה’ נעשה ונשמע (שמות כ”ד) בא ללמדך שגדולים הצדיקים יותר ממלאכי השרת תדע לך שבשעה שאמר ישעיה כי איש טמא שפתים אנכי ובתוך עם טמא שפתים אנכי יושב (ישעיה ו) א”ל הקב”ה ישעיה בעצמך אתה רשאי לומר איש טמא שפתים אבל לישראל אתה אומר בתוך עם טמא שפתים שהם הקדימו עשיה לשמיעה ומיחדין את שמי פעמים בכל יום ואת קורא אותן עם טמא שפתים
R’ Huna said in the name of R’ Hiya: Israel put doing before hearing, and said “Everything that Hashem says, we will do and we will hear” (Shemot 24). This teaches us that the righteous are greater than the angels.

Know, that when Yeshayahu said, “I am a man of impure lips and I live among a nation of impure lips”, Hashem said to him, “Yeshayahu! About yourself you can say “impure lips”, but about Israel you’re saying, “a nation of impure lips”?! They put doing before saying, and unite My name twice a day [by saying Shema], and you’re calling them a nation of impure lips?!” (Midrash Tanhuma Vayishlach 2)

According to this Midrash, the choice of the Jewish People to accept G-d as their Commander makes us greater than the angels themselves. They do not have a will of their own to subordinate to His, and we do.

Moreover, the Midrash points out, this choice was not a one-time occurrence; we accept our commitment to G-d’s sovereignty every single day when we say Shema. When we say, “Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad,” what we mean is that He, and Only He, runs the world. He, and only He, gives commands to all Creation, and only those commands are to be followed; it is only within His framework that we must exercise our free will. Shema is the mission statement of the Army of G-d.

When Yeshayahu received his prophecy, the Jewish People had been derelict in fulfilling their mission. Before being sent to tell them to shape up, Yeshayahu was shown a vision of angels, G-d’s Army of the Heavens, as they chant their motto, “Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Hashem Tzva-ot.” This vision was meant as a reminder of the dedication expected of the Army of G-d on Earth. Yeshayahu was sent to tell them that they need to do better; they need to hear what G-d has to say and act on it, as they had committed to do at Sinai by saying “Na’aseh ve’Nishma.”

However, when Yeshayahu himself starts criticizing the Jewish People, and says “I live among a nation of impure lips”, G-d gets upset with him. Saying that the Jewish People are “people of impure lips” suggests that our commitment to the Torah was mere lip-service. This is not the case. As the twice-daily Shema demonstrates, our commitment is both real and lasting.

Unfortunately, being that we are not actually angels, and we do have free will and make our own decisions, we occasionally fail to live up to the expectations of Hashem Tzva-ot. We occasionally need to be reminded of our mission, of what is expected of us. That is the purpose of the Haftarah in showing Yeshayahu a vision that was an awe-inspiring re-enactment of Har Sinai, before sending him to remind the Jewish People to execute the Will of our Commander.

That is also the reason that the Siddur has us repeat and recreate this vision of angels chanting “Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh”, right before we reaffirm our commitment to the commandments by saying Shema, and again, as we stand, angel-like, at the Amidah of Shemoneh Esrei.

The Army of the Heavens reminds the Army on Earth to do the will of our mutual Commander, Hashem Tzva-ot.

Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל
Haftarot Unrolled http://www.torahforum.org/haftara

1 Comment

Filed under Connections, Sefer Shemot, Yitro

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 9, 2014 · 17:58

Beshalach – Death Trap

The Haftarah talks about the miraculous defeat of the Canaanite general Sisra at the hands of Barak ben Avinoam. However, it does not describe it at all; in fact, it only hints at how it occurred. What went wrong for Sisra? How was it that 900 chariots failed to destroy Barak’s ragtag gang of farmers? What made Sisra’s camp panic and why did he have to run away on foot?

In past weeks, we have seen how understanding the Haftarah can give us insight into the Parsha. This time, it’s the other way around. Some of the information missing from the story of Barak’s victory over Sisra can be filled in by looking at similar text in Parshat Beshalach.

This is the text of the Haftarah, describing Sisra’s defeat:

יג) וַיַּזְעֵק סִיסְרָא אֶת כָּל רִכְבּוֹ תְּשַׁע מֵאוֹת רֶכֶב בַּרְזֶל וְאֶת כָּל הָעָם אֲשֶׁר אִתּוֹ מֵחֲרֹשֶׁת הַגּוֹיִם אֶל נַחַל קִישׁוֹן:

טו) וַיָּהָם ה’ אֶת סִיסְרָא וְאֶת כָּל הָרֶכֶב וְאֶת כָּל הַמַּחֲנֶה לְפִי חֶרֶב לִפְנֵי בָרָק וַיֵּרֶד סִיסְרָא מֵעַל הַמֶּרְכָּבָה וַיָּנָס בְּרַגְלָיו:

טז) וּבָרָק רָדַף אַחֲרֵי הָרֶכֶב וְאַחֲרֵי הַמַּחֲנֶה עַד חֲרֹשֶׁת הַגּוֹיִם וַיִּפֹּל כָּל מַחֲנֵה סִיסְרָא לְפִי חֶרֶב לֹא נִשְׁאַר עַד אֶחָד:

13) Sisra summoned his entire armored division, 900 iron chariots, and all the people that were with him, from Charoshet HaGoyim, to Nahal Kishon.
15) Hashem caused panic to Sisra, and all the chariots, and the entire camp, by the sword, before Barak; Sisra got down from his chariot and ran away on foot.
16) Barak chased the chariots and the camp, all the way to Charoshet HaGoyim;all of Sisra’s camp fell by the sword, not a one was left.

And this is the text of the Parsha, as it describes the defeat of Pharaoh at the Red Sea:

ז) וַיִּקַּח שֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת רֶכֶב בָּחוּר וְכֹל רֶכֶב מִצְרָיִם וְשָׁלִשִׁם עַל כֻּלּוֹ:

כד) וַיְהִי בְּאַשְׁמֹרֶת הַבֹּקֶר וַיַּשְׁקֵף ה’ אֶל מַחֲנֵה מִצְרַיִם בְּעַמּוּד אֵשׁ וְעָנָן וַיָּהָם אֵת מַחֲנֵה מִצְרָיִם:

כה) וַיָּסַר אֵת אֹפַן מַרְכְּבֹתָיו וַיְנַהֲגֵהוּ בִּכְבֵדֻת  וַיֹּאמֶר מִצְרַיִם אָנוּסָה מִפְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל כִּי ה’ נִלְחָם לָהֶם בְּמִצְרָיִם:

כח) וַיָּשֻׁבוּ הַמַּיִם וַיְכַסּוּ אֶת הָרֶכֶב וְאֶת הַפָּרָשִׁים לְכֹל חֵיל פַּרְעֹה הַבָּאִים אַחֲרֵיהֶם בַּיָּם לֹא נִשְׁאַר בָּהֶם עַד אֶחָד:

7) Pharaoh took six hundred of his best chariots and all the cavalry and officers.
24) Toward morning, Hashem looked at Egypt’s camp with pillar of fire and cloud, He caused panic in Egypt’s camp.
25) He removed the wheels of the chariots, and drove it hard. Egypt said, “Let’s run away from Israel, for Hashem is fighting for them against Egypt.
28) The waters returned and covered the chariots and horsemen, all of Pharaoh’s army that were coming after them in the sea; not a one was left.

Repeated use of identical phrases in the Tanach is not coincidental, it is intentional. By making two texts parallel, the Tanach tells us that the two events they describe are parallel as well.

Consequently, we may ask the same questions about Pharaoh: how was it his 600 chariots failed to defeat a ragtag gang of slaves? What caused his army to panic? And how exactly does G-d “remove wheels of chariots”?

What we do know is that while the Jewish People crossed the sea on dry land, the same was not true for the Egyptians. As the pillar of cloud softened the ground, the chariots and horses churned it into mud. Anyone who has ever gotten their car stuck in muddy terrain will know that no matter how hard you rev the engine, the wheels only dig further in. The same is true for chariots, only worse: unlike most car engines, horses have feelings, and frustration makes them lash out. With horses kicking and screaming all around, the chariot becomes a trap for the people inside it. The only way out is on foot, while trying to dodge the hooves of the panicked horses.

The defeat of Sisra and his 900 chariots happened the same way. From the fact that he had to run away on foot, we know that his horses were unusable. The implication is that here too, the problem was muddy terrain.

In the Land of Israel, there is no rain from the months of April through September.  Sisra would never have taken his chariots out if there were any risk of mud.  We can thus infer that Barak drew him out to Har Tavor in early summer, in May or early June.  Sisra must have seen this battle as golden opportunity to get rid of all Jewish resistance forever in one fell swoop while providing an excellent training exercise to his army of chariots.

One can only imagine what the men waiting on the top of Har Tavor felt, seeing this deadly force arraigned against them. Surely they were going to die…. Some suggest[1] the plan had been that while Sisra would be busy slaughtering them in the valley below Har Tavor, the forces of Ephraim would attack from the rear, and Zevulun from the west. But they would get slaughtered either way.

It is at this point that Hashem intervened. It happens very rarely, but it does happen, that there is a serious rainstorm in early summer, which causes instant flooding and terrible road conditions. A tiny swerve “from the stars in their paths” as Devorah called them, and Sisra’s army of chariots turned into a death trap. The reversal was total: the slaughter that Barak had anticipated did take place – but not of them, of their enemies. “Not a one was left.”

Similarly, in the Parsha, when the Jewish People were standing with their backs to the sea, with Pharaoh’s chariots bearing down on them, they surely felt that they were about to be slaughtered. There was no chance, no hope, of them surviving this battle. When Hashem intervened, and the chariots turned into death traps, the reversal was total: of their enemies, “not a one was left.”

The response of Moshe at the sea and Devorah at Har Tavor was identical as well: to compose a “Shira”, an epic poem, describing how their paralysis and fear turned to success and jubilation.

This is what Pharaoh was riding on

This is what Pharaoh was riding on. Until he wasn’t.

PDF for printing, 2 pages A4
Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל

 

 

[1] Daat Mikra, upon which I relied heavily for the translation.

Leave a Comment

Filed under BeShalach, Connections, Sefer Shemot

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,