Updates
Do you have a Dvar Torah you would like to share on KosherPages?
If so we would love to include it, please use our contact form to send it through to us.
Beshalach
The Torah this week reveals that before G-d split the sea, He sent a very powerful wind (14:21). Why did He send this wind when we know quite clearly that G-d told Moshe (Moses) to lift up his hand over the sea?
The Ramban (Nahmanides) writes that this wind was to fool the Egyptians into thinking that it was the wind that was splitting the sea, and not G-d, in order that the Egyptians would run into the sea after the Jewish People and meet their end.
Now think about this from the Egyptian perspective here. They had experienced ten earth-shattering plagues not so long ago, all of which had been predicted and had been clearly sent by G-d, with the aim of taking His People out of Egypt. From the Egyptians perspective, why would G-d not split the sea for His People too? Why on earth would the Egyptians really believe that the wind split the sea? Since when can wind split the sea down the middle (and certainly not into 12 lanes!).
That is the power of imagination and fantasy; the Egyptians WANTED to believe that it was not G-d who had split the sea, because they WANTED to believe that they could get the Jewish People back as slaves. Because they wanted to believe this, they turned reality on its head and subjectively fooled themselves into believing an impossibility - that the wind split the sea, and not G-d.
That is the power of dellusion. 'Do not go after your desires' - look at things objectively and you will see a clear picture of reality.
Bo
Immediately before the 10th plague of Makas Bechoros (the death of the Firstborn), Pharaoh told Moshe (Moses) “You shall no longer see my face, for on the day that you see my face, you shall die!" (10:28).
After this final plague, Pharaoh desperately needed to talk to Moshe to tell him that the Bnei Yisroel (Children of Israel) should leave Mitzrayim (Egypt). He sent for Moshe. But why would Moshe risk coming to see Pharaoh? Surely Moshe remembered what Pharaoh said and certainly would not show up.
The Kli Yakar answers, that the answer lies in an extra word in the verse. First the verse says (12:30) “Pharaoh got up in middle of the night when Makas Bechoros struck. The next verse says "Pharaoh called to Moshe and Aharon (Aaron) in the night.” Why does the pasuk say again the word “Leiyla – in the night"? We already know that it was the night from the previous verse? The extra Leiyla, explains the Kli Yakar, was Pharaoh's answer to Moshe's fear about Pharaoh carrying out his threat of killing Moshe. Pharaoh said the "day" I see you, you will die, but now it was night time.
Alternatively says the Kli Yakar, Pharoah said the next time I see your face. Since it was night time and it was dark outside Pharaoh tried to reassure them, I won't actually see your face and therefore my threat is not applicable.
Vo'eiro
And Aharon (Aaron) lifted his hand over the waters of Egypt and a frog arose and covered the land of Egypt (Exodus 8:2).
There was there only one frog, yet the whole land was covered? Rashi says, whilst initially there was only one frog, since they hit the frog, it split and created more frogs. They continued to hit the frogs and each time they did this, the more they increased.
The Steipler asked, when they saw that more came out when they hit the frogs, why did they continue hitting them? They knew the consequence of hitting them, that there would be “more frogs” yet they still continued to hit them. Why did they not use a little self-control?
The Steipler answered that this is a typical example of what happens when we lose our temper. We can know the consequences that it will exacerbate the situation, never-the-less we will still say or do something in the heat of the moment that we will come to regret.
We must learn from this to reign in our temper and take a deep breath so as not to end up suffering from our actions.
Shemos
Moshe (Moses) grew up in the house of Pharoah, went out and saw an Egyptian taskmaster hitting a Jewish slave.
The posuk (verse) says (2:12) 'And he [Moshe] turned this way and that way, and saw there was no man [looking at him], and he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.'
Why did Moshe look around to make sure that no-one was looking? Is that not a little out of character for someone of his calibre? Surely Moshe did what was right, what G-d wanted from him without worrying about consequences!
Explains the Kotzker Rebbe (Rabbi), this was the moment of decision for Moshe. He was Jewish but had been raised in the most Egyptian home, the home of Pharoah.
Says the Kotzker, this is the real meaning of the posuk above: "And he [Moshe] turned this way and that way" - looking inside himself and noticed that he was part Egyptian and part Jew - "and saw there was no man" - and he realised that this is no way to be a man - "and he killed the Egyptian" - he killed the Egyptian part that was inside of him - "and buried him in the sand" - and buried the Egyptian part of himself deep down in the sub-conscious.
This was Moshe's moment of greatness, and the moment he decided to be 100% Jewish with no Egyptian in him whatsoever.
Vayechi
Verse 48:20 in this week’s Torah portion contains the famous blessing that Yaakov (Jacob) gave to Yosef’s (Joseph's) sons - a blessing that many people have the custom to give to their children on Friday night; yesimcha Elokim k’Ephraim u’chiMenashe, may you become like Ephraim and Menashe.
Why do we give these blessings to our children - why do we not bless our children that they should be like the Avos (Patriarchs) or like any of the other tribes? One idea is that Ephraim and Menashe were unique in that they had shalom (peace and harmony) between them. Every one of the Avos had to live through some form of sibling rivalry and ‘family issues’ - Avrohom (Abraham) with his idolatrous father Terach and then with Lot his nephew. Similarly, Yitzchok (Isaac) had to deal with Yishmoel (Ishmael), and Yaakov (Jacob) had to worry about Eisav and then Lovon. Moreover, Yaakov’s sons sold Yosef into slavery. Therefore, Ephraim and Menashe were the first generation to have serenity and peace at home. This is what we bless our children with - that they should live with constant shalom and without any family feuds or bickering.
Another idea here is that Efrayim and Menashe grew from being ‘mere sons of Yosef’ to being tribes in their own right. Thus, we bless our children that they should grow into being more than is expected of them - that they should (spiritually) grow out of proportion!
Vayigash
Why didn’t Yosef’s (Joseph’s) brothers realise that this mysterious Egyptian viceroy chap (Yosef) was their brother? We are used to going through the ‘Joseph story’ from an informed onlooker’s perspective; knowing that the viceroy is really Yosef and knowing that the brothers are unaware of this. Let’s look at the story from the brothers’ perspective this time, and the story will take on an entirely new facet …
The brothers, for whatever reason sell their brother Yosef into slavery. He was originally sold to the Yishma’elim (Ishmalites), but was eventually sold on to the Egyptians, and made it down to Egypt. For a slave to eventually make his way to Egypt in those days was not particularly rare, Egypt was the major power then - so the possibility of Yosef ending up there should not have been completely out of the brothers’ minds. In fact, Rashi tells us (42:13) that the reason the brothers entered Egypt through different gates was to spread out and look for Yosef - it seems that the brothers did think that Yosef was in Egypt.
Years later, ten of the brothers (all but Binyamin - Benjamin) are sent down to Egypt to purchase food due to the famine in the Land of Israel, and they meet with the viceroy of Egypt. This viceroy was Yosef, of course, but the brothers didn’t know this. We are told that the brothers did not recognise Yosef for he now had a beard (Rashi 42:8). A beard is not too major a change of appearance, and there surely must have been a resemblance of the brother when they saw the viceroy’s features. Why then when seeing this viceroy did it not ring a bell in the brothers’ minds?
Next, the viceroy accuses the brothers of being spies, and they respond by saying that they are actually all brothers and they have left one brother back in Cana’an. The viceroy then asks them to prove this by bringing down this remaining brother to Egypt, and meanwhile takes Shimon (Simeon) as a captive. This is extremely puzzling, and the following questions should have no doubt been surfacing in the brothers’ minds: since when did people get a chance to protest their innocence at being accused as spies in ancient Egypt? And what does it prove if they ARE all brothers? Maybe they are all brothers, yet they could still be spies? And what proof of not being spies is it to bring someone who may or may not be their brother? As far as the viceroy is concerned, they could take a man off the street and pretend it’s their brother? And which ruler would run the risk of letting nine spies free whilst only keeping one in prison? And if this viceroy really thought that they were spies, why did he fill their bags with food?
One would assume that these questions would have been going through the brothers’ minds; they must have realised that something funny was going on, and this viceroy chap was behaving in a most uncharacteristic fashion. At the very least they must have wondered why the viceroy was treating them with such kindness relative to what should have occurred normally.
The story continues. The brothers manage to get their father’s permission to bring Binyamin (Benjamin) down to Egypt, and Shimon is returned to them as promised. The viceroy, in apology for his false accusations towards them, arranges for a slap-up meal in his house for the brothers with him. Unsurprisingly, it was hardly the protocol for a leader of ancient Egypt to treat those he had accused of being spies with a lavish meal with him at his house to apologise. In fact, it probably wasn’t even protocol to give someone accused of being a spy enough time to establish his innocence in the first place! Did the brothers not realise that this was not normal?
Then, this viceroy sits the brothers in age order in accordance with their mothers, saying ‘Yehudah (Judah) is kingship so sits at the front, Reuven (Reuben) the firstborn sits next to him,’ etc. and he went on to say that ‘Binyamin should sit next to me’ (the ‘viceroy’) for ‘we both have no living mother’ (Rashi 43:33). Why didn’t the brothers ‘click’ that this information indicated that this viceroy was their brother Yosef?
Eventually, after the brothers leave and the cup is planted in Binyamin’s sack, the brothers return and Yosef reveals his true identity to them. Now what is the reaction to this revelation? The pasuk (verse) (45:3) says that the brothers were completely speechless. Nobody turned to his brother and said ‘I thought it might have been Yosef,’ or ‘I told you so’. It seems that the thought that this might be Yosef did not enter the brothers’ minds at any point during this entire episode. The question is, in summary, it seems that the brothers had many clues that;
a) this viceroy was behaving differently towards them,
b) they had assumed that Yosef was in Egypt,
c) this viceroy must have been rather familiar to them in appearance ,
d) he had told them their family history,
e) they believed in HaShem (G-d) and knew their family history of Divine providence, so it would not have been utterly strange for HaShem to have caused them to meet up with their brother.
So why did they not realise that this was Yosef? To make things even more surprising, the Midrash Rabbah 93:8 reports that when this ‘viceroy’ was about to reveal himself, he first said to the brothers ‘your brother who you sold is in the house,’ and started calling out ‘Yosef ben Yaakov (Joseph the son of Jacob) come out’, the brothers started looking round the room in all four directions to see where their brother would appear from. They had no idea that the viceroy was Yosef. And even when he did reveal himself by saying ‘I am Yosef,’ the above Midrash reports that the brothers did not believe him! Yosef had to prove himself of his Jewishness.
The answer is that subconsciously, this was never allowed to be an option as it would have been far too embarrassing. This explains why, even when Yosef did reveal himself, the brothers could not accept this conclusion. In fact, this is why, when the pasuk (45:3) tells us that the brothers were speechless after Yosef had revealed himself, Rashi says ‘because of the embarrassment.’ Surely shock would have been a more fitting emotion here; why embarrassment? The answer is that it was the embarrassment of being suddenly shown to be wrong all these years.
The lesson to learn here is one of modeh al ha’emes (admission of the truth) (Pirkei Avos 5:10), i.e. acquiring the ability to be objective about things and admitting truth - regardless of how painful the personal consequences might be. We are very good at twisting the facts to fit with our expectations or perceptions of what did, should, or would have happened. It is important for us to force ourselves be objective and open-minded, especially when it comes to overcoming our own personal bias.
Mikeitz
This week’s Torah portion witnesses the most dramatic turnaround possible in the fortunes of Yoseph (Joseph). In a matter of moments he is transformed from forgotten prisoner, destined to spend the rest of his life rotting in jail for a crime he never committed, to the King’s right hand man, and national hero. Included in the tale of this meteoric rise from ‘rags to riches’ is the somewhat glossed over story of Yoseph’s marriage. Yet the story behind the identity of Yoseph’s wife contains lessons which are fundamental to Jewish philosophy - our understanding of G-d and the way He interacts with the world in which we live. The Torah explains that Yoseph, having been appointed prime minister, married. The Talmud relates that Leah, recognising that Rachel would be unable to play her true role in Jewish history if she could not provide two of the tribes, prayed that she herself give birth to a girl and not the head of the eleventh tribe, but rather Rachel should be given the honour.
Miraculously G-d changed the foetus from male to female. Leah then had a daughter, Dina. Leah’s self-sacrifice cannot be overestimated. The chance to mother another of the foundation stones of the Jewish people was an unbelievable opportunity, and an achievement whose spiritual greatness cannot be truly appreciated. Leah was fully aware of this. In fact it was due to her recognition of this that she prayed for Rachel to be given the honour. Indeed Rachel went on to mother Yoseph and Binyomin (Benjamin). The life of Dinah (Leah’s daughter) was not trouble free. In fact she was kidnapped and raped by Shechem. She became pregnant and bore a daughter. Eventually Yaakov (Jacob), under pressure from his sons, insisted that this daughter leave the family home. She left with an amulet that Yaakov gave her to assist her on her dangerous journey. Eventually she arrived in Egypt where she was adopted by Potiphar and his wife. This adopted daughter was of course Osnas. But how did Yoseph meet her and why did he marry her? Yoseph was, as mentioned, a national hero. He was particularly adored for his good looks. In fact when he would travel the country the local women would scale walls to get a glimpse of their hero. They would throw things at him just to get his attention. Osnas didn’t have anything to throw at Yoseph and threw the Kamiya (amulet) that she had been given by Yaakov. Yoseph caught this Kamiya and immediately recognised it as indicating that Osnas came from the family of Yaakov. He then knew she was an appropriate wife and married her.
The story continues … Yoseph and Osnas had two sons, Ephraim and Menashe. When Yaakov is eventually reunited with Yoseph he announces that Ephraim and Menashe will receive a unique status among Yaakov’s grandsons – they will have a status equal to that of the other tribes of the Jewish people. So Ephraim and Menashe, the sons of Yoseph and Osnas, end up on par with Yaakov’s sons in terms of their centrality as ‘founding fathers’ of the Jewish people.
In short – Leah sacrifices her right to mother a seventh tribe, preferring to allow her sister the opportunity to do so instead. As a result she has a daughter, Dina, who in turn gives birth to a daughter Osnas in rather tragic circumstances. Amazingly Osnas ends up in Egypt where Yoseph somehow happens upon her existence as a grand-daughter of Yaakov and marries her. The resultant children, Ephraim and Menashe, end up with the status of being among the tribes of Israel even though they are only Yaakov’s grandchildren and not his sons.
Amazingly, Leah ends up with two more offspring (great grandsons) as heads of tribes all because she made the original decision to forgo the right to mother a 7th tribe for the benefit of Rachel.
This is an example of a central philosophical concept in Judaism in terms of our understanding of G-d and His creation i.e. the world around us – justice dictates that each of our actions, whether for good or bad, create a reality which expresses itself measure for measure. Leah gave up so much for Rachel. Justice (measure for measure) dictated that she deserved to be rewarded with the very thing she sacrificed to do the right thing. However, the story of Leah and Osnas is a perfect example – for many years it seemed as though Leah’s righteousness only resulted in hardship and suffering. She must have suffered immensely to see the fate of Dina and then Osnas. At no point could she have ever anticipated the eventual outcome. Yet ultimately she received ‘payment’ measure for measure in the most remarkable way. And when she did, it was perfect justice. As this story of Leah demonstrates, eventually G-d’s justice is realized in the most perfect way.
Vayeshev
"Vayeshev" - and he sat. Rashi brings (37:2) that Yaakov (Jacob) was seeking to sit in peace after his trouble-filled life thus far. And HaShem said that this world is not for sitting in tranquillity, following which the episode of Yosef (Joseph) soon followed, which was more painful for Yaakov than his previous family plights.
The idea is that 'sitting' means staying still' one cannot move when one is sitting. Thus, sitting hints towards spiritual stagnation and non-progression. It has been said that the mizbeyach (altar) being built with a slope as opposed to steps hints to this too. If one puts a ball on a slope (unlike a step), it will not stay in the same position; either it's pushed up the ramp or it rolls down - effort is needed even to just keep the ball in the same position.
So too spiritually, there is no such thing as staying still. No effort doesn't mean staying still but rather going down hill. So let's move on up!
Vayishlach
This weeks Torah portion ends with an account of the genealogy of Esav. We are told of the birth of Amalek, the progenitor of the nation that would constantly strive to destroy Klal Yisroel (the nation of Israel).
“And Timna was a concubine to Eliphaz and Eliphaz gave birth to Amalek.”
The Gemara (Talmud) in Sanhedrin informs us of the background to this terrible occurrence. Timna was a Princess, but she wanted to convert to Judaism. She came to Avrohom (Abraham), Yitzchak (Isaac) and Yaakov (Jacob) to convert but they would not accept her . She then became a concubine to Eliphaz, the son of Esav. She said that it was better to be a maidservant to this nation - Israel - rather than be a powerful woman in another nation. As a result, Amalek, who would cause Israel great pain, was born from her. What is the reason that this incident caused Amalek to be born from her? Because the Avos (Patriarchs) should not have distanced her. Rashi explains that the Gemara means that they should have allowed her to convert .
It seems clear that the Avos had sufficient reason to reject Timna’s efforts to join their nation. They were aware of the evil within Timna’s nature . Consequently, they refused to allow her to join the Jewish people. So, why were they punished so harshly for their seemingly correct decision?
Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz explains that we learn from here that no matter how bad a person is, they should not be totally rejected. As long as there remains any hope that the person will improve their ways it is forbidden to distance them and thereby remove any chance of their doing teshuva (repentance). Evidently, there was enough hidden potential within Timna that justified allowing her to join Klal Yisroel.
We learn from the incident with Timna that rejecting a person as a hopeless cause is a very serious matter. If Chazal (our Sages) tell us that Timna, the person who produced Amalek, was deserving of a chance to join Klal Yisroel, all the more so, a person who is struggling with his Yiddishkeit (Judaism), deserves the opportunity to improve himself. Showing faith in a person is a tremendous way of helping him change his ways.
This does not only apply with regard to people drifting from Torah, it also applies to our children, students and people around us. The Gemara in Sotah tells us that we should push away with our left hand and bring in with our right. The right hand is stronger than the left, thus the Gemara is telling us that we should always give precedence to positive reinforcement over criticism. Showing others the inherent good in them is the most effective way of bringing about improvement. May we all merit to bring out the best in ourselves and those around us.
Vayeitzei
We find that after Leah had six sons, she was pregnant with the seventh son. Since she knew that there would only be 12 tribes she calculated that since the two maidservants had 4 sons between them, 2 each, if she would have a 7th, that would leave only 1 for her sister Rachel. This would be embarrassing for Rachel as she would have less than the maidservants. Leah prayed and it changed to a female and she was named Dinah.
This was a tremendous sacrifice that Leah had done for her sister Rachel, to give up the merit of having another holy Tribe.
One would imagine that such a daughter, born as a result of Leah’s self-sacrifice would merit great blessings and a tremendous Choson (groom).
But what happened? She gets taken by Shechem a Gentile!
Is this Leah’s reward for her sacrifice? Is this the Nachas (the pleasure) Leah is supposed to get from Dinah for her self-sacrifice?
A daughter was born from the union of Shechem and Dinah. Her name was Osnas (Osnat). She was considered Jewish as her mother was Jewish. Nevertheless, the brothers wanted to kill her so people shouldn’t say there was immorality in the “House of Yaacov (Jacob).”
Yaacov wrote the Holy Name of G-d on something and hung it around Osnas’s neck and sent her away. G-d, who sees everything, sent the Angel Michoel to take her and bring her down to Egypt to the house of Potiphar and his wife. The wife of Potiphar was barren and brought up Osnas as her own daughter. Eventually she married Yoseph (Joseph).
Yoseph and Osnas had two children, Menashe and Ephraim. They were counted among the 12 tribes.
So now we have the amazing answer to our question! Leah gave up one tribe and gained two tribes Menashe and Ephraim, her great grand children!!
In the beginning, when Leah made this sacrifice, we didn’t see immediate beneficial results. Only much later do we see the final benefit that she merited double.
We learn from all of this that we have to have patience. We won’t always see immediate results for our sacrifices. But if we have patience we may see it in the end. With this outlook we can make peace with the difficult present.