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Parshas Shemos: 3 Divrei Torah from Rabbi Dovid Fink [Where Am I?] [Labels] [King of the House]

By BJLife/Rabbi Dovid Fink

Posted on 01/12/23

Parshas HaShavua Divrei Torah sponsored by
Dr. Shapsy Tajerstein, DPM - Podiatry Care.
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WHERE AM I?


Parshas Shemos details the first time in our history where we are faced, as an Am, with perhaps our greatest challenge.  Galus.  The Parsha begins with the enslavement and persecution of Bnei Yisroel following their emigration and assistance to Mitzrayim.  While Sefer Bereishis is often looked to, appropriately, for the greatest instances of Maaseh Avos Siman Libanim, our existence and survival in Galus obviously strikes very close to home for all of us.  Unfortunately, sometimes our presence in Galus is so entrenched that we are actually able to forget what it really means to be in Galus.


Recently, I had the privilege to be in Eretz Yisroel for Channuka.  While I have visited fairly regularly over the last 10 years, this was only my second time there for Channuka in twenty five years.  I had been at the Yam Hamelech earlier in the day, prior to lighting the first candle and on the way back was struck by the beautiful displays of Menoros (Chanukiyot) lit up on all intersections and marking the highways in Israel, much the way certain goyish holidays are recognized here in America.  On that first night, my family gathered around the table to light candles where we were staying.  We made the Brochos, lit the candles and sang Maoz Tzur much the way we typically did in our home in Baltimore.  But then, something happened.


Music erupted from the courtyard outside our apartment in Ramot Eshkol.  We gazed out from the Mirpeset (balcony) to see people lighting a large Menorah in the Street and then dancing around it with genuine glee, excitement and celebration.  This sight was replicated throughout Yerushalayim, at the Kosel,  Mamilla, the shopping malls and in many other neighborhoods.  People of different backgrounds – black hat, Kippa Seruga and uniformed soldiers dancing together in celebration of the Yom Tov of Channuka.


It struck me quite profoundly that while we observe the Yomim Tovim of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and the Shalosh Regalim much the same way in America as they do in Eretz Yisroel, this was very different.  I got into a taxi and was greeted with “Channuka Sameyach” by the driver, who by all appearances was a very secular Jew.  The buses as they drove by were flashing “Channuka Sameyach” on their digital displays alternatively with their destinations.  Book stores, dry cleaners and every type of merchant were selling artery clogging 7 pound sufkaniyot (donuts) to mark the Yom Tov. 


Yes, my children have attended a Chagiga at a teachers house and we get together with family to celebrate Channuka, but when we say Al Hanisim and light the Menorah, we are largely completing a ritual which commemorates an historic event which occurred close to two thousand years ago.  That, my friends, is the disconnect.  For us, in Galus, the story of Channuka is very similar to the Spanish Inquisition and the Crusades - a bad time for Jews being persecuted by the Goyim around them.  But this is clearly and demonstratively not the case in Israel. Channuka has a much more personal and profound meaning for the people there.   


In Israel when they read the words “ V’atah B’rachamecha Harabim Amadeta Lahem B’es Tzarasam”  they know precisely of what they speak.  Giborim Byad Chalashim and Rabbim Byad Miatim, are quite literally very fresh in their minds.  At the Kosel, when the Menorah is lit, everyone feels and knows that only through Hashem’s kindness and intervening on our behalf do we have the privilege to stand so close to the Makom Hamikdash today.  Indeed, it is palpable that this is the very place we fought for.  Moreover, every Israeli knows a brother, father, or uncle who fought against hopeless odds so that we would have the opportunity to walk in the land of our fathers.  


And that is one of the worst afflictions of our Galus.  We are so far removed from our Land, that we don’t even feel what it means not to be there.  How can we ask Hashem to return us when we are so shallow in our longing that we don’t even know what we are missing?  We all must take time out to appreciate what a gift it is to be able to freely visit and live in Eretz Yisroel – a dream many of our grandparents could never realize.  Further, we must know that we don’t belong here.  Together with these realizations, hopefully we can reach the Madrega of the words in this weeks Parsha – “Vayaamen Ha’am, Ki Pakad Hashem es Bnei Yisroel V’chi Ra’ah es Anyam”.  Hashem wants to bring us out from this Galus.   Maybe He’s just waiting for us to realize we are in one.


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LABELS


In introducing us to Klal Yisroel’s greatest prophet and teacher, the Torah also portrays for us a valuable lesson regarding the psychology of human beings.  When Hashem tells Moshe that he should go to Mitzrayim and communicate to Bnei Yisroel that the time for the redemption has come, Moshe resists in a number of ways, none of which is nearly as pronounced as his protest that “I am not a man of words” and “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Shemos 4:10).  Hashem then assures Moshe that he will give him the ability to perform miracles with his staff and produce leprosy, but Moshe is still declining the mission.  Finally, Hashem says Ahron will go with you and be your spokesperson. 


After telling Bnei Yisroel that the redemption is at hand, Moshe again responds to Hashem by claiming “Bnei Yisroel doesn’t believe me how will Pharaoh listen and I have impaired speech” (Vaeira 6:12)  Moshe in fact, goes with Ahron and produces these miraculous signs and tells Pharaoh to let Bnei Yisroel go out to the desert for three days to bring sacrifices to Hashem.  Pharaoh refuses and instead orders Bnei Yirsoel’s workload to increase, by withholding straw from them in building their bricks.  As we move further into parshas Vaeira, Moshe continues with protestations of the same kind.  Hashem tells him to return to Pharoah and Moshe resists stating, “I am of impaired lips” (Vaeira 6:30). 


 We can understand how Moshe used all means at his disposal to resist Hashem’s mission.  First he was the humblest of people.  He truly did not believe he was worthy of being Hashem’s messenger. Second, he was wanted for murder in connection with the Mitzri who he had killed, the whole reason he had fled life in the palace in the first place.  Finally, he has this speech impediment, which in his mind has always made him of lesser communicative abilities.  It is this issue with his “disability” though which dogs Moshe throughout – even after Hashem had given him the ability to perform miracles and given him Ahron as his spokesperson.  Why was this one issue seemingly impossible for Moshe to get past?  How could he keep bringing this same issue up again and again and again after Hashem had assured him that it would not hamper his mission?


When someone is impaired, objectively or subjectively, the effect on one’s self image can be buried deep into their psyche.  A person who believes they are overweight, can become depressed or anorexic, even if they are completely normal or of slight build.  A person who believes they are intellectually challenged can feel inadequate or worthless even when they are of gifted abilities.  Obviously, when someone suffers from an objective impairment, how much more so it can affect their self image.  In fact, it can become the very nature of how they define themselves.  Even Moshe, our greatest Navi and teacher defined himself as one “with impaired speech”.


In a time when ever more children are faced with diagnosis of ADD, ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia, Learning Disabilities and Down’s Syndrome, we must be extremely vigilant in not allowing these challenges to define these people.  This is true in two crucial aspects.  First, we must realize that “labels” can sometimes be helpful in grouping symptoms for treatment or remediation, but it is still just a label. We should not use them to define people.  People can and do overcome many difficulties.  Sometimes, the label can be the most difficult thing to overcome.  Second, parents must remember that no one cares for or loves their child as much as they do and they must push back against the institutionalized urge to give everyone, who is even the least bit out of the box, a label or a diagnosis.  The Chozon Ish’ parents were told that their son was not “bright enough” to warrant spending the extra money for advanced Torah studies, Helen Keller was deaf and blind shortly after birth and Albert Einstein failed grade school miserably, presumptively due to multiple learning disabilities.  One shudders to think as to how any of them would have fared in today’s “advanced” society.


Challenges are difficult enough to overcome without the associated practical and psychological stigmatization that often goes along with it.  We all have challenges.  What defines us is not how we do with what comes easily but how we triumph over the obstacles which are placed in front of or inside of us.  Our society needs to try harder to always keep in mind that while none of us are perfect, we also all have what to contribute and should be valued accordingly. 


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KING of the HOUSE


Parshas Shemos begins the horrific enslavement and persecution of Klal Yisroel in Mitzraim.  Indeed, enslavement was not enough, Parroh enacted a multitude of other decrees to insure there was no opportunity for them to gain freedom.  Parroh’s astrologers had informed him that the savior of Bnei Yisroel would be born in the near term so he enacted a directive that the midwives should kill all baby boys as they were born (Shemos 1:16). The Torah goes on to tell us that Shifra and Poo’ah (identified as Yocheved and Miriam) refused to kill the boys because they feared Hashem (1:17).  The Torah then tell us that “Because they feared G-d, He made them houses” (1:21).  Houses? Maybe he should have blessed them with many children, perhaps with long life but what do “houses” have to do with them sparing the boys lives?  How is that an appropriate reward for the brazen and dangerous act they were committing by violating Parroh’s decree?


Rashi addresses this point and says “houses” refers to the houses of Kehuna, Leviya and Malchus which descended from Yocheved and Miriam. [1]  An interesting point for sure but the question remains, why is this an appropriate reward for this particular act of courage?  My father often spoke over an interesting take on this pasuk and Rashi.  He pointed out that if Yocheved and Miriam had listened to Parroh, what would have happened?  Klal Yisroel would have continued.  The baby girls would have grown up and presumably married Egyptian men.  Their children would have been Jewish.  But what would have been lost – the Kehuna, the Leviya and Malchus, because those were paternally transmitted.  


Accordingly, this promise of Hashem to make them “houses” could not be more fitting.  It was the actions of Yocheved and Miriam in saving the baby boys that allowed the paternal line to survive and preserved the Kehuna, the Leviya and Malchus.  We are told many places how the Cheshban of Shamayim is mida k’neged mida, Eyen tachas Eyen and Shein tachas Shein.  Sometimes we see it right away and others generations later but it is always there.







[1] Rashi cites the gemara in Sotah which informs us how the Davidic dynasty descended from Miriam through one of her granddaughters.