The Weekly Shtikle - Bo

This week, Ner Yisrael and the Baltimore community at large lost another of its great pillars. Rebbetzin Chana Weinberg, wife of Rosh HaYeshiva R' Yaakov Weinberg, zt"l and daughter of Rosh HaYeshiva R' Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman, zt"l passed away. A nice write-up summarizing the hespedim can be found here and full hespedim are available here. This week's shtikle is dedicated le'iluy nishmasah, Shayna Chana bas Yaakov Yizchack HaLevi.

 

    There is much disussion regarding the exact methodology and pattern behind the ten plagues - what the plagues represented individually and as a whole and why they were in ther specific order. I would like to focus on a specific subset of the ten plagues. In four out of the ten plagues, Egypt was invaded by animals. This animal invasion seems to have a theme of its own. Rashi (Bereishis 1:26) writes that man was created to rule over the fish, the birds and the animals. However, if man is not worthy, he will become subservient to the animals. This four-pronged attack from the animal kingdom served to prove that the Egyptians had reached that level of unworthiness and they needed to be shown that they were no longer in charge.

 

    The first animal invasion was that of frogs. Although the frogs invaded the land, there is very specific mention of their emergence from the water and their subsequent return to the water after the plague was over. The Nile, which the Egyptians worshipped as a deity of sorts, was completely out of their control.

 

    The invasion of lice came from the ground beneath the feet of the people. The attack of the wild beasts sybolized the Egyptians' defeat above ground as well as being invaded from the outside. Finally, the locusts represented the animal kingdom's establishing aerial supremacy, as it were, over Egypt. The four animal infiltrations together symbolized Egypt's loss of power and ultimate subservience to the animals in all physical realms of our world.

 

Have a good Shabbos.

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Shtikle Blog Weekly Roundup:

Dikdukian: Talented Locusts

AstroTorah: Korban Pesach in the Sky by R' Ari Storch

Please visit the new portal for all Shtikle-related sites, www.weeklyshtikle.com

The Weekly Shtikle and related content are now featured on BaltimoreJewishLife.com

The Weekly Shtikle - Va'eira

After being rejected by B'nei Yisroel "out of anguish of spirit and hard work," Moshe Rabbeinu is instructed to appear once again before Paroah. Moshe responds with a logical argument, (6:12) "behold, B'nei Yisroel has not listened to me. How then will Paroah listen to me for I am of uncircumcised lips." Rashi comments that this is one of the 10 instances of the use of á fortiori argument, better known to most as "kal vachomer," in the Torah. The full listing is discussed in the Midrash (Bereishis Rabba 92). However, many ask that this "kal vachomer" does not follow logically. The Torah tells us exactly why B'nei Yisroel did not listen Moshe. If this reason did not apply to Paroah, then Moshe's logic is faulty.

Sefas Emes takes a very practical approach to this difficulty, one with which Rabbeinu Tam preceded him by many hundreds of years. The Torah may tell us why B'nei Yisroel did not listen to Moshe, but Moshe, at the time, was not necessarily aware of that reason. Without the knowledge of B'nei Yisroel's inner feelings, Moshe's "kal vachomer" did, in fact, follow logically.

R' Yaakov Weinberg, zt"l, offers a deeper insight into this episode. When Moshe Rabbeinu came before B'nei Yisroel to lead them out of bondage, they should have come to a realization of their importance and sanctity for which they merit such a great deliverance. They chose, instead, to spurn this opportunity and reject Moshe. If B'nei Yisroel could not come to realize their own sanctity and merit, argued Moshe, how could Paroah possibly come to this discovery?

Have a good Shabbos.

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Shtikle Blog Weekly Roundup:

Dikdukian: The Strange thing about Frogs

Dikdukian: Dikdukei Va'eira by Eliyahu Levin

Dikdukian: Leshon Yachid veRabbim by Eliayhu Levin

AstroTorah: Stars Fell on Egypt by R' Ari Storch

Please visit the new portal for all Shtikle-related sites, www.weeklyshtikle.com

The Weekly Shtikle and related content are now featured on BaltimoreJewishLife.com

The Weekly Shtikle - Shemos

After Moshe grows up, we learn of the famous incident where he kills the Egyptian officer. The Abarbanel asks some fundamental questions on the episode. The pasuk says (2:11) that Moshe saw an Egyptian hitting an "ish Ivri mei'echav," a Hebrew man from his brethren. The word "mei'echav" seems superfluous. Surely, if he is a Hebrew, he is from his brethren. Then, when Moshe kills the Egyptian it says that he looked both ways and saw that there was no man. If that is the case, how did Dasan know that he had done it as we see from the events that followed?

Abarbanel offers a novel interpretation of the events. There were in fact many present at the time. The word "mei'echav" is telling us that the Egyptian grabbed this one man from amongst his (Moshe's)  brothers and began to beat him only. Moshe saw this and looked both ways and saw that there was no man, that no one was man enough to stick up for his fellow Jew. Then Moshe saw that he needed to be the one to stand up and do something about it so he killed the Egyptian. But, it was indeed in front of many.

There is an alternative answer to Abarbanel's second question. According to the Midrash (Shemos Rabba) the man being flogged by the Egyptian was none other than Dasan himself. It is therefore no surprise that he was aware of Moshe's having killed the Egyptian. But it paints an even uglier picture of what went on. Dasan challenges Moshe the next day, saying, (2:14) "are you  going to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?" Not only is he pointing a finger at Moshe for a noble deed,  he is showing complete ingratitude for having saved his own life.

The above interpretations fit well with Rashi's second interpretation of Moshe's reaction when he states, (Ibid) "Alas, it is known." The obvious meaning is that his killing of the Egyptian is known. But Rashi offers another angle. "I was always bothered, why the Israelites were deserving of such oppression. Now I know they are deserving." This episode brought out the worst in B'nei Yisroel. First, a crowd watches idly as their brother is beaten. And then Dasan fails to acknowledge Moshe's virtuous bravery.

Have a good Shabbos.

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Shtikle Blog Weekly Roundup:

Dikduian: Bas Paroah (Guess what I have to say about that!)
Dikduian: From the Children of the Hebrews
Dikduian: The Strange Thing about Straw
Dikduian: Affliction
Dikduian: Raamseis

Dikdukian: Random Dikduk from Shemos by Eliyahu Levin

AstroTorah: Reflections of the World, Klal Yisrael, and the Sky by R' Ari Storch

Please visit the new portal for all Shtikle-related sites, www.weeklyshtikle.com

The Weekly Shtikle and related content are now featured on BaltimoreJewishLife.com

The Weekly Shtikle - Vayechi

The following is a story told to me by a friend that directly pertains to this week's parsha. He heard it in a schmooze from R' Aharon Kahn in YU. R' Kahn tells that one day his rebbe approached him, grabbed by the lapels and exclaimed, "It's refraction!" (For an explanation of refraction, see below.*)

"What is? What is?" he answered.

"Refraction," he repeated.

"What? What's refraction?"

The following was his explanation: Rashi explains (48:16) that the word "veyidgu" comes from the same root as the word "dag," meaning fish. The blessing given to Efrayim and Menasheh is that they should multiply like the fish in the sea over which "ayin hara," the evil eye, has no power. Why does the evil eye have no power over fish? The gemara (Sotah 36b) explains that the ayin hara has no power over fish because they are covered by water. This rebbe explained that since fish are always in the water, when you look at them you are really not looking directly at the fish but rather, due to refraction, you are seeing some sort of distorted image of the fish and the image is somewhat shifted. Therefore, the evil eye has no power over them. Unbelievable!

*Refraction is the phenomenon that occurs when light passes through media of different densities.

If the light passes through at an angle, the angle is slightly altered as it passes from one medium to

the next, depending on their densities. This phenomenon is responsible for  a pencil looking bent when half of it is inserted into water and is also the concept behind eye glasses.

Have a good Shabbos.

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Shtikle Blog Weekly Roundup:

Dikdukian: NEW FEATURE: I have added a new feature on the side bar on the Dikdukian page - a "View by Parsha" dropdown which allows you to instantly jump to Dikudkian entries which pertain to any given parsha (so long as they exist.)
Dikdukian: You Make the Call: Aveil Mitzrayim

AstroTorah: Was Yissachar Really the One to Regulate the Calendar? by R' Ari Storch

Please visit the new portal for all Shtikle-related sites, www.weeklyshtikle.com

The Weekly Shtikle and related content are now featured on BaltimoreJewishLife.com