The Weekly Shtikle - Bo

    The pasuk in Bemidbar 3:13 states "Ki li kol bchor byom hakosi kol bchor b'eretz mitzrayim". In the hakdama to Maseches S'machos (found in the back of maseches Avodah Zarah) it is asked that the pasuk in this week's parsha states "vayehi bachatzi halayla v'HaShem hika kol bchor..." If the maka occurred at night, why does the pasuk in Bemidbar say "b'yom"? The answer given there is that the maka was initiated at night, and they were struggling until the morning when they died. The Maharsham states that it is because of this that we find that Pidyon HaBen is usually done during the day, because the actual death of the first born was during the day.

 

    Rav Shlomo Zalman Aurebach zt"l points out that this concept may answer an interesting discrepency between the Birchos Kriyas Shema of the morning and of the night. In the morning we say (after Shema) "mimitzrayim gealtanu... v'chol bechoreihem haragta". At night we say,"hamakeh v'evraso kol bchorei mitzrayim, vayotze es amo Yisrael mitocham..." At night, the term haka'ah is used, whereas in the morning, hariga is used. Furthermore, at night the exodus is mentioned after the killing of the first born, whereas in the morning it is mentioned before. The explanation is that at night we refer to what happened at night. The initial "haka'ah" took place at night and the exodus followed after. The actual death is what happened in the morning and that is what we refer to. By then, the geula had already begun because Bnei Yisroel were on their way out.

 

Have a good Shabbos.

 

Eliezer Bulka
EzBulka@hotmail.com
http://weeklyshtikle.blogspot.com
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