This Week In The Torah



Parsha Bo Shemos/Exodus Ch10/1 - 13/16

Pharaoh in Pajamas: The Physiognomy of the Fallen

After the plague of darkness, Pharaoh told Moshe that he didn't want to see him any more. Moshe said, "True have you spoken. I shall never see your face again." Ch.10/29

Nevertheless, we do find that they met again, during the night of the slaying of the first-born (see12/31). But this requires explanation, since Moshe was a man of truth, and his words were prophecy. Is it possible that he was wrong?

When Channah came to the Tabernacle to pray for a child, she received a brocha (blessing) from Eli. On her departure, the verse says ... Then the woman went on her way and her face was no longer on her. (Shmuel 1/18.) The commentaries explain that her face had been transformed from one of sad anxiety (due to her childlessness) to a happy countenance, full of faith and trust in G-d owing to her visit to the Tabernacle. It was in that sense that her face was no longer on her.

So, too, what Moshe meant was that the old face of Pharaoh---the face of royal arrogance and luxurious self-indulgence---would never be seen again. And indeed,. when Moshe next encountered Pharaoh, in the last plague, it was an unfamiliar sight. For now the haughty facade was stripped away, as Pharaoh ran hysterically from house to house, searching for Moshe (Rashi 12/31).

We have seen this happen in our own time, as well. When Saddam Hussein emerged from his hole in the ground, he was barely recognizable. No longer the lord and master of a powerful nation, he was a hunted prey, pleading for his life. His face was no longer on him.

Sources: Gan Rova

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Passover: The Night of Conspicuous Consumption
by Rabbi Yechezkel Fox

They shall take some of its (the Paschal lamb's) blood and place it on the two doorposts and on the lintel upon the house in which they shall eat....The blood will be a sign for you upon the houses where you are; and I will see the blood and I shall skip over you; there will not be a plague among you, when I strike in the land of Egypt. Ch.12/7&13

Did G-d really need a sign to know which houses the Jews were living in? G-d knows where every grain of sand is, He surely knows where every Jew lives without any signs.

The lamb was one of the gods of the Egyptians. Under Egyptian law a slave was never allowed to own one, let alone slaughter one. Anyone who did was punishable by death. Yet this was exactly what G-d expected us to do. On the tenth of the month we were to go out and purchase lambs. Just walking them down the street we were risking our lives. For another four days we kept them hanging around the house, and then on the fourteenth of the month in the afternoon we slaughtered them out in the street. If we thought that after that we could breathe a sigh of relief, we were wrong. For more was expected of us. We had now to roast its meat. No aroma carries more than roasting meat. At night we finally got to eat it in the privacy of our homes. However, the blood that we had daubed on the doorposts made us sitting ducks for the Egyptian police.

The sign that G-d saw was not a mark of identification; it was a sign of total loyalty to Him. It was a sign of our belief in Him as our protector. And it was this sign that made us worthy of being saved from the plague and to be redeemed.

Sources; Chumash Rav Penin

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Let My People Go...And Have A Nice Day!

As the Jewish People were leaving Egypt, Moshe made the following announcement:

Today you are going out in the month of spring. Ch13/4

Rashi asks the obvious question: Didn't they know in which month they went out? And he answers, Rather he was telling them the following "See the kindness that He bestowed upon you, that he took you out in a month which is fitting for departure, not hot nor cold or rainy".

The Jewish People had been in Egypt for 210 years and had been enslaved and persecuted for several generations. Now they were finially going free. Did the weather really matter? If it had been hot they could have dressed down a bit; if cold they could have put on an extra sweater; and if rainy - they would have been dancing in the rain! They were going free!

Moshe was teaching them (and us) a very important lesson: Because gratitude to G-d is one of the main foundations of our service to Him, even the smallest detail should not be overlooked. It is as though Moshe was saying "Be grateful for everything, even that it is a nice day for travelling."

Readers are invited to contrast this to This Week in the Torah - Parshas Vayeishev



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