VA-EIRA
by Rabbi Avraham
Greenbaum
Torah
Maftir for Rosh Chodesh:
Numbers 28:9-15
Haftara for Rosh Chodesh on Shabbos: Isaiah 66:1-24
"WITH
MY NAME YKVK I WAS NOT KNOWN TO THEM"
At the end of last week's
parshah of SHEMOS, we saw how, precisely when Moses started the process of Geulah (redemption) by asking Pharaoh to send away the
Children of Israel, the latter responded by intensifying their oppression and
servitude. This caused even Moses to question his mission: "Lord, why have
You done evil to this people? Why have You sent me?" (Ex. 5:22).
Our parshah of VA-EIRA
opens with G-d's answer to Moses. It contains a profound teaching about faith.
G-d promises, and it is up to G-d to deliver! He can
be relied upon absolutely to do so -- in His own good time. Even in the
thickest darkness, we must have faith that G-d will redeem us. We must
understand that the darkness is most intense just before the morning.
In G-d's answer to Moses,
He says that He appeared to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as
"the Eternal G-d" but "WITH MY NAME YKVK I WAS NOT KNOWN TO
THEM" (Ex. 6:3). What does this mean? It is a fact that the essential name
of HaShem, YKVK -- expressing the perfect unity of G-d within and beyond all
phenomena -- was indeed known to the patriarchs, as we see many times in
Genesis. However, as pointed out by Rashi here, the Hebrew text (NODA'TI) does
not mean, "I did not make it known to them". Rather, it implies:
"I was not known and RECOGNIZED for my quality of truthfulness. as HaShem Who am faithful in proving the truth of My words.
For I promised them but as yet I have not fulfilled the promise" (see
Rashi).
An integral part of faith
in G-d is to have faith that He will bring about everything He has promised
through His prophets, even if we cannot see how this can possibly come about.
The Exodus from
No less essential a part
of the promise than the redemption from Egypt was that G-d will "bring you
to the Land that I swore to give it to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, and I
WILL GIVE IT TO YOU AS AN INHERITANCE -- I AM HASHEM" (Ex. 6:8). It is not
sufficient for the Children of Israel "go out from
* * *
When the Children of
Israel could not hear Moses' message of redemption because of "shortness
of spirit and hard work" (Ex. 6:9), Moses wondered: "If the Children
of Israel did not listen to me, how will Pharaoh listen to me?" (ibid. v. 12).
Moses' argument is based
on making an inference from a "light" case -- the Children of Israel
-- to a "stringent" case: Pharaoh. In Hebrew such an inference is
known as KAL VA-CHOMER, "light-and-stringent". In the written text of
the Five Books of Moses there are ten cases of arguments using KAL VA-CHOMER
(Rashi ad loc.) The ten cases are listed in the Tannaitic
commentary on Exodus, "Mechilta". The
argument of KAL VA-CHOMER is one of the most important of the hermeneutical
methods by which the sages derived teachings by inference even though they are
not written explicitly in the Torah text. KAL VA-CHOMER is the first of
"thirteen rules of Torah interpretation" set down by the tannaitic sage, Rabbi Ishmael. These have become part of
the daily order of prayer, being recited at the conclusion of the sacrificial
portions prior to PSUKEY DE-ZIMRA, the verses and psalms of the morning
service. Besides Rabbi Ishmael's thirteen, there are other hermeneutical rules,
such as the Thirty-Two rules of Midrash collected by Rabbi Eliezer son of Rabbi
Yosi HaGalili (printed in
the KLALIM, "rules" of the Talmud, after Tractate Berachos).
As in the case of Moses'
argument by KAL VA-CHOMER that Pharaoh would not listen, all the other rules of
interpretation are themselves contained in the biblical text. It is through the
application of these rules that extensive parts of the Oral Torah were
developed by the early sages and rabbis. When rules like KAL VA-CHOMER are
applied to the text, it is possible to infer new teachings that are not
explicitly written in the text but are logically implied. The legitimacy of
this method of argument is sanctioned by its use in the Biblical text itself,
as here. This shows the essential unity of the Oral and Written Torah.
* * *
THE TEN
PLAGUES
In the event, G-d took on
the "harder" task of bringing down Pharaoh and breaking his stony
heart. This was what would make the Children of Israel listen! This was
accomplished through the Ten Plagues. The gripping account of the first seven
plagues occupies the greater part of this week's parshah of VAYEIRA, while next
week's parshah of BO bring us to the climax with the last three plagues and the
Exodus itself.
Many have sought to
explain the sequence of plagues according to some rationale. One of the most
celebrated explanations is that mentioned by Rashi on Ex. 8:17, quoting from
Midrash Tanchuma Parshas BO
#4, a Tannaitic source:
"Our Rabbis of
blessed memory said: The Holy One blessed be He
brought the plagues upon them using the tactics of worldly kings. When a region
rebels against a king of flesh and blood, he sends his legions to surround it.
The first thing he does is to shut off their water supply. If they relent, all
the better! If not, he brings against them criers with loud voices... then
arrows. barbarian hordes. He hurls heavy weights at
them. shoots burning oil. fires
cannon. rouses multitudinous armies against them. imprisons them. kills their great
ones. In the same way, the Holy One blessed be He came
against the Egyptians with the tactics of kings. With the plague of blood He
stopped up their water supply. The "criers" were the frogs with their
loud croaking. His "arrows" were the fleas. His "barbarian
hordes" were the wild animals. The "heavy weights" were the
"heavy pestilence" that killed their livestock. The "burning
oil" was the boils. The cannon shots were the hail. The
"multitudinous armies" were the locusts. The Egyptians were
"imprisoned" through the plague of darkness. Finally, He killed their
great ones in the plague of the first born."
A kabbalistic
explanation of the sequence and rationale of the plagues is provided in the
writings of the ARI in Sha'ar HaPsukim
(the Gate of the Verses) Parshas Va-eira.
The Ten Plagues correspond to the Ten Sefiros,
ascending from the bottom of the "ladder" to the top. Thus the seven
plagues recounted in this week's Parshah of VA-EIRA correspond to the seven
"lower" sefiros, from Malchus-Kingship
up to Chessed-Kindness, while the three plagues
recounted in next week's Parshah of BO correspond to the top trio: Binah-Understanding, Chochmah-Wisdom
and finally Keser-Crown. According to this
explanation, the Ten Plagues came as successive manifestations of the 10
different aspects or "attributes" of G-d's kingly power over all the world (the ten sefiros of
MALCHUS -- or "NUKVA" -- of ATZILUS). In this way the arrogant
supremacy of worldly power, the "Evil MALCHUS" -- the force that
conceals G-dliness -- was broken. Behind the nightmare to which
* * *
THE
PHARAOH WITHIN US
"Do not rejoice when
your enemy falls, and when he stumbles, let not your heart exult. Lest G-d will see and it will be bad in His eyes" (Proverbs
24:17).
We may not laugh over
Pharaoh's downfall, because there is a Pharaoh in each one of us. This is the
stubborn MELECH (king) who rules in our hearts, in our ego, our vanity and
pride. I.
Writ large in the drama
of Moses coming against Pharaoh in the name of G-d is the story of our inner
lives, our daily conflicts and struggles in the test of free will to which we
are all subjected. One side of us -- Moses, "conscience" -- knows
what we should do. But another side -- Pharaoh, "the evil urge", the
king riding the chariot -- resists. There are constant ups and downs in the
trial of free will. Today one "wants to" -- Pharaoh relents.
Tomorrow, he hardens his heart again and resists.
Does it need plagues to
beat this Pharaoh down? Or can we find better ways to get free and to take our
destiny into our hands?
Shabbat Shalom! Chodesh Tov Umevorach!
Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum