Parshat Vaera

If you refuse to let them go,

Then I will plague your whole country with frogs.

The Nile shall swarm with frogs...

The frogs shall come up on you and on your people

And on all your courtiers.

(Shemot 7:27-29)

 

On you and on your people - this is to say, they shall come even upon your bodies. This is why Pharaoh did not command the magicians to remove the frogs, for usually the magicians created and then removed ten or twenty frogs, but he knew that they could not remove the many frogs that covered the entire land, and therefore he summoned Moshe.

(Rabbi Yosef Behor Shor, Shemot 7:29)

 

And he said to his people behold the Children of Israel - Taught the Sages [in a Beraita]: He was the first to scheme, therefore he was the first to suffer; he was the first to scheme, as is written "And he said to his people"; therefore he was the first to suffer, as is written "on you and on your people, and on your couriers."

(Bavli, Sotah 11a)

 

[Note - The Hebrew for "upon" you - becha - may be written with the letter 'heh" at the end, or without it - Trans.] Every "becha" in the Torah is written without the "heh", with the exception of that referring to Pharaoh which is complete [written with the 'heh"]: "The frogs shall come upon you ["becha" with the heh"] and upon your people and upon your courtiers. Why is this? To teach us that he started the oppression.

An alternative explanation: Upon you - because he enslaved Israel first with soft words and ultimately with a heavy yoke.

Another alternative explanation: (War) upon you, teaching us that even though they took protective steps, the frogs overwhelmed his body, as is written (Shemot 8:8): "...in the matter of the frogs which He had inflicted upon Pharaoh".

(Batei Midrashot, Part 2:51, on Shemlot 7:29)

 

 

Text and telling

Yoel Rappel

Parashat Vaera begins with: "And God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai, but in My name the Lord I was not known to them." Rashi explains the words 'I am the Lord', which are repeated a number of times in our parasha: "I am the Lord - reliable to pay great reward to those who walk before me, and not for nothing did I send you, but in order to realize that which I spoke to the first fathers."

According to Rashi, the categorical "I am the Lord' contains obligation and commitment. "I am the Lord" - I will keep my commitment which I make to your grandparents, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But is not the name of the God of Israel sufficient guarantee that the promise will be kept? Why are the fathers necessary for the commitment? It is in order to tell Moshe, when you appear before Pharaoh in my name, you are being sent on a historical mission by the father of nation, those, who at the dawn of the nation, accepted a commitment which you are to realize. Two passages later, we find the four expressions of redemption "Therefore tell the Children of Israel I am the Lord I will take you out from under the burdens of Egypt, and I will rescue you from their bondage and I will redeem you with an outreached arm and with great retributions. And I will take you to Me as a people... And I will bring you to the land that I raised my hand in pledge to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob". A simple reading counts not four but five expressions of redemption: "I will take you out", "I will rescue", I will redeem", "I will take", and "I will bring," The Sages offered sundry explanations for the exclusion of "I will bring". The author of "Maaseh Rokeah" (Chap. 60) writes: "And there are those who say that the four cups [of wine drunk at the Seder] allude to four exiles and the fifth is to keep us aware of the final redemption. The fifth cup is the beginning of new chapter, not a continuation of an ongoing process.

The Yerushalayim Talmud (Pesahim 10:a) expands the discussion of the rationale for the drinking four of cups of wine at the Pesach Seder. Rabbi Yochanan, in the name of Rabbi Berechia, claims "In reference to the four terms of redemption: And I will take you out, I will rescue, I will redeem, I will take." According to this explanation - one of four mentioned in the Talmud - the four terms of redemption are stages in the divine process of the redemption of the Jewish people. Rabbi Yochanan opines that when we observe the Pesach Seder and read the "Haggada" [literally "the telling"] we are supposed to expand upon the description of the redemption for which the exodus from Egypt is the quintessential model. The fifth term - "and I will bring" is already post-process; it describes the realization and fulfillment of the geula. The Amora Rava further develops this viewpoint: "Our Rabbis instituted four cups to symbolize freedom; let us perform a mitzvah together with each." In Raba's opinion, the four cups together are not only a symbol of freedom; each one itself expresses the path to redemption. The drinking of the wine creates a feeling of release, of liberation, of freedom. This sensation, lying between inebriety and sobriety, must be felt by everyone who celebrates the Pesach Seder as a memoriam of the exodus from Egypt; imbibing of the wine grants the celebrant the sensation of passage from slavery to freedom.

What are the Seder mitzvoth which accompany each of the cups? The first cup - Kiddush; the second cup - reading the exodus narrative (Maggid); the third cup - grace after the meal; and the fourth cup - recitation of the Hallel. Two cups are benediction-related, Kiddush and grace after the meal; two cups are related specifically to Pesach - the exodus narrative and the Hallel recitation. This analysis is accepted by Prof. Yosef Tabori in his volume "Pesach Dorot", a basic text for understanding the development of the Seder. He writes "Each cup fulfills a specific purpose in the Pesach eve ceremony; their combination dos not endow them additional halachic significance" (p. 131). A separate question deals with identification of the major component of the mitzvah; is it the drinking of the wine, or the holding of the cup during the recitation of the accompanying text? For example, is the holding of the cup during the Hallel recitation more important than the actual drinking of the wine in the cup? Considering the above, the holding of the cup during the assigned text is more important than the drinking itself.

The Yerushalmi is not satisfied with Rabbi Yochanan's explanation, and the Sages seek additional reasons for drinking four cups during the Seder. And why do we not drink the fifth cup - "Elijah's cup" - that signifies "and I will bring" and is raised during recitation of "Shefoch Chamatcha"?

The Talmud offers additional reasons for drinking four cups of wine on the Seder night (Pesahim, ibid.). "Said Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: This alludes to the four cups of Pharaoh." The word "cup" is mentioned four times in the dream of the chief cupbearer and its interpretation by Joseph; "And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand. And I took the grapes and crushed them into Pharaoh's cup and I placed the cup in Pharaoh's palm... And you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand" (Bereishit 30:11-13). Joseph requests of the cupbearer "But if, once it goes well for you, you remember I was with you, do me the kindness, pray, to mention me to Pharaoh and bring me out of this house: (ibid. 12). This is a classic example of personal - not national - redemption. A third explanation suggested by Rabbi Levi is that we drink four cups of wine to allude to "the four kingdoms"; and which are the four kingdoms which enslaved Israel? - Asshur, Babel, Greece, and Rome. Each cup symbolizes liberation from one of these kingdoms. The fourth explanation recorded in the Yerushalmi is that of the Sages: "They allude to the four cups of misfortune which the Holy One, Blessed Be He will - in the future - cause Israel to drink". What are these cups? The Talmud clarifies that the reference is to two passages in the Book of Yirmeyahu "For thus said the Lord, God of Israel, to me: Take from My hand this cup of wine - of wrath" (Yimiyahu 25:15), "Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand" (Ibid, 51;7), and two passages from the Book of Psalms "There is a cup in the Lord's hand" (Psalms, 75:9). "He will rain down upon the wicked blazing coals and sulfur, a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup" (Ibid., 11:6). Each of these passages speaks of a cup of misfortune that will strike the nations of the world, as is written "They allude to the four cups of misfortune which, in the future, the Lord will cause the nations of the world who oppress Israel to drink".

The existence of four explanations indicates that none of them is perfect or supplies an absolute answer. Jewish scholars who compiled and edited the Pesach Haggadah certainly were not concerned with the question of how to explain the need for the four cups of wine on Seder night, because if they had so been, they would have related to textual matters in the Haggadah. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Kasher in his "Haggadah Sheleimah", quotes eighteen explanations which do not appear in Yerushalmi. These include: "Alluding to four misfortunes which affected Egypt - the plague of the firstborn, the drowning at the Reed Sea, the days of Nebuchadnezzar, and that yet-to-come upon her together with her allies". Additional explanations: Alluding to the four corners of the earth; alluding to the four basic elements - inanimate, animate, vegetable, speaking (man). Other explanations: to atone for [sins liable to punishment by] the four death penalties imposed by the court; alluding to Israel's four redeemers - Elijah, Messiah son of David, More explanations: alluding to the four seasons of the year; the four banners of Israel in the desert. We have not yet exhausted Rabbi Kasher's list,        So... why do we drink four cups of wine? According to the scholarly explanation and commentary of father and son, Professors Shmuel and Ze'ev Safrai (Hagadat Chazal, Jerusalem 1988, p. 48), the four cups of wine of the Pesach Seder were adaptations of the cups of wine drunk during the Hellenistic meal. The Haggadah contains many other components, too many to detail here, which testify to the close tie between the order of the Hellenistic meal and the ordering and organization of the Pesach Seder - even as we observe it in our generation, almost 2,000 years after the destruction of the Temple.

The similarity between the order of the Hellenistic meal and the Pesach eve Seder provides answers to two questions - why, in the Pesach eve Seder, do we drink four cups of wine, and why we do not drink three or five cups.

Dr. Yoel Rappel, writes and presents the Parashat Hashavuah program on the Second Channel of Kol Yisrael (Friday, 15:05)

 

The Purpose of the Plagues of Egypt: Punishment or Instrument for Education

Everything which the Egyptians planned to do to Israel, the Holy One did to them. They thought the Israelites would be their water-carriers, therefore their rivers turned to blood. They thought the Israelites would carry their merchandise, therefore He afflicted them with frogs and it was consumed.

(Midrash Tanchuma Bo 4)

 

"I will harden..." - Since God desires repentance of sinners and not their death, as is written, "As I live - declares the Lord God - it is not my desire that the wicked shall die, but that the wicked turn from his ways and live." He said that He will multiply his omens and his miracles in order to influence the Egyptians to repent, by making known his greatness and his goodness through signs and miracles, as He said, "Just on account of this I have allowed you to withstand, to make you see my power." It was also His intention that Israel see and fear, as He said, "In order that I may put my signs among them... that you may recount". There is no question that without the hardening of his heart, Pharaoh would have expelled Israel - not because of change of heart or from submission to God, not because of remorse at having rebelled - even though he was aware of His greatness and goodness - but because of his inability to continue suffering the plagues, as expressed by his servants, "Do you not yet know that Egypt is lost?" This would not have constituted repentance at all, although should Pharaoh have decided to surrender to the Blessed God, to sincerely repent, nothing would have prevented him from doing so. God said "I will harden Pharaoh's heart" so that he be able to bear the plagues and not expel Israel because of fear of the plagues "Just on account of this I have allowed you to withstand, to make you see my power." As a result of the plagues they will recognize my greatness and my goodness, and they will return in complete repentance and in order. "... that you may recount" - that you, Israel, who witnesses their distress - tell your children, to teach them that God will do all this to a person in order to return him to Him; this will happen when man examines his actions when afflicted by misfortune.

(Sforno, Shmot 7:3)

 

Moses' Pedigree

The Torah tells us that the biological pedigrees of the Patriarchs and of Moses do not jibe with later Torah prohibitions. This comes to teach us that a person's level, the level he achieves in his consciousness of God, is not connected to biological factors.

Furthermore, Hizkuni, one of the classic Torah commentators, explains that Providence saw to it that Moses would be born from a coupling that would later be deemed tainted - even if it was acceptable at the time of his birth - "in order to keep him from being arrogant towards the community." Every leader and sovereign faces the danger of becoming arrogant towards the community. Even if the leader is a man of God, the loyal shepherd of Israel, he may still become arrogant. That is why it is desirable that a leader always be reminded of something that might be seen as tainting his pedigree.

This is the idea expressed by the Sages' famous dictum: "A leader should not be set up over the community unless a box of vermin is tied behind him, so that if he becomes proud of himself they can tell him: 'Turn around!'" That is to say - "Remember who you are!" That is a warning to leaders in every generation and every age. In this connection the expected King Messiah is also trailed by a string of illicit relationships and illegal marriages: Ruth the Moabite (the descendant of Lot and his daughter), Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar, David and Batsheva, Solomon and Naama the Ammonite.

(Prof. Y Leibowitz, z"l, He'arot le'Parshiyot ha'Shavua pp. 43-44)

 

Omens are not truth

Israel's belief in Moshe was not based upon the miracles he performed; one who believes on the basis of miracles is spiritually deficient, for it is possible that the omen was produced in secret and through sorcery. The signs he produced in the desert were to serve specific needs, but not for the purpose of offering proof of his prophecy. In order to drown the Egyptians, he split the sea and engulfed them. We needed food, he brought down the manna. They were thirsty, he split the rock. Korach's band rejected him, the earth swallowed them. And so with all the other miracles. And why did we believe in him at the Sinai revelation? Our eyes - not those of strangers - saw; our ears - not those of others - heard the fire and the sounds and torches. And he approached the mist, and the voice spoke out to him, as we listened: Moshe, Moshe - go and tell them such and such. And so does Moshe say, "Face to face did He speak to you all" (Devarim 5:4), and it is written, "It was not with your fathers that the Lord cut this covenant" (Devarim 5:4). And from where do we know that the revelation at Sinai was the sole proof of the unblemished truth of his prophecy? It is written, "I will come to you in a thick cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust in you forever after" (Shemot 19:9); from this we deduce that prior to that point, they did not believe in him with everlasting faith - their faith was subject to thought and deliberation... From this we learn that whichever prophet appears after our teacher Moshe will not gain our trust because of the miracle alone ("If he performs a miracle we shall heed him in whatever he says"), but because of God's commandment which Moshe commanded us in the Torah, saying that if he gives a sign, "to him, shall you listen" (Devarim 18:15). Just as He commanded us to pass judgment on the basis of the testimony of two witnesses, even though we cannot be certain whether their testimony is true or false, so are we commanded to obey the prophet, whether his sign be true or produced by sorcery in private. Therefore, if a prophet rises up and performs great signs and omens, but seeks to deny the prophecy of Moshe our teacher, we do not heed him, and we know for a certainty that those signs are sorcery and secretly prepared, for the prophecy of Moshe our teacher is not dependent upon signs, that we should weigh these signs against those signs, but with our own eyes we saw it and with our own ears we heard it, just as he did.

(Rambam, Mishneh Torah, "Laws of the Foundations of the Torah", 8:1-3)

 

 

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