A Garden of Ideas: The Weekly Torah Portion on Shemot

Entering the Garden: "Who Made This Person?" (4:11)

A mute boy was brought by his father to the righteous Rabbi Menashe Tzvi of Savawan, and his question was on his lips: Why did Hashem allow the boy to be born mute, unable to speak a word?

The tzaddik placed his hand on the boy's shoulder and asked him aloud for all to hear: "Tell me, if you could speak, what would you say?"

To everyone's surprise, the boy opened his mouth and answered clearly: "I would go and inform on the Jews to the non-Jews!"... and he returned to his silence.

All present understood that sometimes, Hashem "doesn’t give a mouth to a person" to prevent him from misusing it.

Simple Interpretation: "Let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to Hashem our God" (5:3)

Rabbi Yitzhak Abarbanel questions why Moshe Rabbeinu asked Pharaoh for only three days, when in truth he intended to take the people of Israel out permanently?

Rather, Hashem does not put a person to a test that he cannot withstand, and since it was clear to Him that if Pharaoh were asked to release the people of Israel permanently, he would not agree, Hashem told Moshe to request a temporary release for three days for the purpose of religious worship. Once Pharaoh refused even that small request, he was punished with the full force and severity of the Ten Plagues.

Hint: "And they were vexed because of the children of Israel" (1:12)

The rebbe Rabbi Chaim Meir of Wiznitz explained as a hint that what caused the Egyptians to feel vexation and repulsion was precisely the "faces" of the children of Israel. The distinctive features of Jewish facial appearance, adorned with beards and sidelocks, appeared to them as a painful thorn, something they could not tolerate.

Interpretation: "And they will not believe me" (4:1)

Rabbi Yaakov Abuchatzira – whose yahrzeit falls this week – explains that Moshe Rabbeinu argued before Hashem: You command me to tell the people of Israel that their redemption has come. But they are sunk in the forty-nine gates of impurity of Egypt; how can one expect them to believe that the time has come to end their dreadful bondage and begin a new era of spirituality?

Hashem replied, you are correct, but know that they are merely influenced by the Egyptians. If we take them out of Egypt and disconnect them for a short time from their connection with the Egyptians (through the Ten Plagues), you will soon see how they will return to their spirituality and status.

As proof, Hashem gave him three signs: Moshe threw his staff on the ground, and it turned into a serpent; he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, it was leprous like snow; he took water from the Nile, and when he poured it on the land, it became blood. The common denominator of these three signs is their removal from their framework and usual use.

Thus, Rabbi Yaakov concluded, the children of Israel were saved from the Egyptian exile by disconnecting them from their temporary state and reconnecting them to their spiritual level. And just as it will be in the future, when we decide to detach ourselves from our sins and bad habits, our eternal redemption will come immediately!

Secret: "And Moshe hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God" (3:6)

Many people are drawn to study the secrets of the universe. Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon – the Rambam (whose yahrzeit is this week) explains in the verse before us a short and essential guideline for those who approach this study: The first thing he states is that a person must not delve into the secrets of the universe (this does not refer to merely reading the *Zohar* and the like) unless he has mastered the revealed Torah well.

However, even after a person has delved into the revealed Torah, corrected some of his traits, and begun to study the secrets of the universe, he should do so gradually, with great humility and shyness. After all, when Moshe Rabbeinu was privileged to prophecy, it is immediately written that "Moshe hid his face, for he was afraid to look (all at once straight) at God."

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