The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.
In Shemos 2:21, the Torah writes "Va'Yoel Moshe" which is simply explained as Moshe agreed to marry Tzipporah. However, R' Frand quoted a Medrash from the Mechilta which states that when Moshe asked Yisro for permission to marry her, Yisro asked him to agree that their first born son would be given over to be a priest for idol worship and Moshe agreed! Then Yisro asked Moshe to promise that he would do so, and Moshe did as well.
R' Frand asked two questions - why would Moshe even consider marrying the daughter of the priest of Midyan and how could he possibly agree to the condition that he would give over a child to be an idol worshipper?
R' Frand quoted R' Elya Svei who explained this Mechilta based on two Targum Yonasan Ben Uziel Medrashim. One of the Targum Medrashim was that when Moshe came to Midyan, Re'uel (Yisro's father) heard that Moshe was wanted by Pharaoh. In order to avoid potential punishment, he had Moshe thrown in a pit for 10 years. During this time, Tzipporah came and fed him daily.
The second Targum Medrash involved the staff of Ya'akov which had been buried in Yisro's garden. When Moshe was released from the pit, he came to Yisro's garden and saw the staff which was inscribed with the acronyms Dtzach Adash B'Achav. Moshe was aware of the power of the staff and he miraculously removed it from the earth.
Based on these Targumim, R' Svei explains that Moshe married Tzipporah as a hakaras hatov for what she did for him by feeding him all those years. And he had no concern about the promise that Yisro wanted him to make, because he knew that once Yisro saw the miracles that he would accomplish with the staff, Yisro would rescind the promise.
R' Frand also said a second vort on Shemos 5:4 when Moshe and Ahraon are told by Pharaoh to go to their own burdens. Rashi explains that when Pharaoh said this, he meant that they should go home and cry about their burdens. But this is difficult to understand, as the tribe of Levi did not have to work. In fact the Chizkuni explains that the exemption from work was based on a conversation between the sons of Levi and Pharaoh when they were working side by side, early on during the time the Jews were in Egypt. The sons of Levi said to Pharaoh - Ya'akov gave us a blessing that we will carry the Mishkan - we cannot carry secular things on our shoulders. To this Pharaoh responded, OK.
But why did Pharaoh willingly allow the tribe of Levi not to do the heavy lifting?
R' Frand quoted the Tolner Rebbi who explained that Pharaoh wanted to break the Jews spirit and he thought that if he could separate Levi from the rest of the Jews, they would be jealous of Levi and there would be infighting. R' Frand remarked that this was the same playbook utilized by the Nazis in using Jews as kapos.
However, Pharaoh did not realized that even though Levi did not do the heavy work, they still suffered as they went out into the fields every day to comfort and cry with their brethren. R' Frand explained that they learned this from Moshe himself.
R' Frand closed the vort by noting that Levi knew that this would be the case in Egypt and that this is why he named his sons the way that he did. He explained that Merrari is bitterness and that Levi presciently told his children - there will be bitterness in Egypt and you need to be a shoulder for your cousins.
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