The Weekly Shtikle - Beshalach

Mazal Tov to my niece and nephew, Rochel Leah and Yehoshua Greenwald, on the birth of their daughter, Tzirel Nechama. Mazal Tov to the Greenwalds, Shoneks and Bulkas and the great great grandmother, Oma Jakobovits.

Mazal Tov as well to the Davidi family on the engagement of their son Dovid to Shifra Aharanoff of Queens and on the birth of a granddaughter, Yocheved, to Yosef & Shira Shliachtzibur. Mazal Tov to the Davidis and the Perlmans and, once again, Oma Jakobovits.

 

The second to last of the many episodes that make up this week's parsha is the confrontation at Masah uMerivah. The double name seems somewhat anomalous. Indeed, the pasuk (17:7) does explain that there were two were aspects to this episode but more explanation is needed to understand the nature of the two.

 

B'nei Yisrael quarreled with Moshe saying (17:3), "Give us water so that we may drink!" Moshe counters "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test HaShem?" Ibn Ezra explains that there were two distinct groups involved in this episode. The first group were truly in need of water and this led to their altercation with Moshe. However, there was another group that still had water which they brought from Alush (their previous stop as per Bemidbar 33:14). They wanted to challenge HaShem to see if He would provide water. To the first group, which had at least some semblance of a legitimate complaint, Moshe answered "Why do you quarrel with me?" To the second, he charged, "Why do you test HaShem?"

 

The site is therefore aptly named Masah uMerivah after the two separate aspects of the confrontation. However, notes Ibn Ezra, the second group surely angered HaShem more than the first. Thus, in Sefer Devarim (6:17) we are warned "Do not challenge HaShem as you did at Masah." Merivah is not mentioned.

 

Have a good Shabbos.

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Shtikle Blog Weekly Roundup:

Happy 11th Birthday, Dikdukian!

Dikdukian: Exceptions Ahoy

Dikdukian: Midash, HaShem...

Dikdukian: Leave us Alone

Al Pi Cheshbon: Chamushim

AstroTorah: The Gemara's Aliens? by R' Ari Storch

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The Weekly Shtikle - Bo

There is much discussion regarding the exact methodology and pattern behind the ten plagues - what the plagues represented individually and as a whole and why they were in their 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 symbolized 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

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The Weekly Shtikle - Va'eira

In order to give Paroah a warning for the plague of blood, (7:15) Moshe is told to meet Paroah at the Nile and hamateh asher nehpach lenachash tikach beyadecha, the staff that was turned into a snake you shall take in your hand. This command begs the question, whose staff is it anyway? A staff was turned into a snake twice, once in front of B'nei Yisrael and once in front of Paroah. It would seem that in front of B'nei Yisrael, Moshe used his own staff, just as it was clearly used in the demonstration in front of the burning bush. From pasuk 9, it appears that the staff used in front of Paroah was Aharon's. Which one, then, is being referred to in this pasuk?

Klei Yekar on pasuk 9 points out that Moshe's staff turned into a nachash while Aharon's turned into a tanin. He then goes on to explain the difference between the two. Since our pasuk reads hamateh asher nehepach lenachash and not hamateh asher nehepach lesanin, it would seem that the staff being referred to is Moshe's. Ibn Ezra, however, holds that even the staff that was used in front of Paroah was Moshe's. According to this, it would seem to leave no doubt that the staff was Moshe's. [It is noteworthy, however, that when the signs are in fact performed in front of B'nei Yisrael, (4:30), it seems to be Aharon who performed them. Why this would be is a question unto itself. But if Aharon was the one who performed them, perhaps it is not so simple that Moshe's staff was used.]

Nevertheless, Targum Yonasan here states outright that it was Aharon's staff to be brought to the Nile. In Tosafos HaShaleim, an interesting reasoning for this is brought. Moshe's staff had HaShem's name etched on it. Rashi here tells us that Paroah was found at the Nile bank each morning to relieve himself. Therefore, taking Moshe's staff with HaShem's name on it would have been like taking a sefer into the bathroom, or worse. So, it had to be Aharon's staff that was brought to the Nile.

Another puzzling fact to consider is that, as every school child learns at a very young age, it was certainly Aharon, not Moshe, who ultimately carried out the plague of blood. Netziv, in Ha'amek Davar, makes this point but asserts that it was still Moshe's staff that is the subject of this command. Subsequently (7:17), regarding the exact wording of the warning, he provides a rather creative interpretation of how the events unfolded. Even though it was Aharon who hit the Nile with his staff, the actual plague was carried out by HaShem through the staff in Moshe's hand.

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

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