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.
R' Frand began his first vort by quoting the pasuk in Shemos 6:9 in which the weekday aliyah of Levi ends with the statement that the Jews did not hear Moshe because of shortness of breath and hard work.
R' Frand observed that there is a general rule which we learn from Koheles that an aliyah does not end on a negative statement. But then why do we end this aliyah with that expression of negativity?
R' Frand answered by quoting R' Shimshon Pinkus who explains based on the Vilna Gaon that this was not a negative statement. The Gaon noted that the notes on "Vayimarru Es Chayehem" (Shemos 1:14 are a kadma v'azla which translate as "got up and left". He explains that it was because of the intensity of the hard work that the Jews left Egypt early, so this was not a negative. R' Frand also spoke of the gematria of kadma v'azla which is 190 - the number of years which were deducted from the 400 which the Jews were supposed to be in Egypt. [Although R' Frand did not attribute this to him, I heard this gematria in the name of the Apter Rav a few years back in a shiur given by R' Mansour].
R' Frand also quoted the pasuk in Shemos 6:12 where Moshe asks Hashem how Pharaoh will listen to him if the Jews wont listen to him due to his speech impediment. R' Frand cited to the Rashi which states that this is one of the ten kal v'chomer (a fortiori arguments) found in the Torah, as Moshe was stating that if they wont listen, how could Pharaoh possibly listen?
However the statement that this is a kal v'chomer could be open to debate, as the pasuk itself states that the Jews would not listen due to their hard work and Pharaoh was not similarly enslaved at the time!
R' Frand proposed two answers to this question. The first came from the Siftei Chachamim who explains that Moshe's kal v'chomer was more predicated on his speech impediment than the hard work. If the Jews would not heed one of their own if he had a speech problem, why would Pharaoh?
R' Frand also quoted R' Leib Chasman who cited the Seforno in explaining that the term kotzer ruach (which I translated above as shortness of breath) could also be explained as obsession. The Jews were so obsessed with their jobs that they did not have the attention span to hear Moshe. Similarly, explained R' Chasman, Pharaoh was so obsessed with his role as an ersatz deity, that he would or could not pay attention to Moshe.
R' Frand closed the vort by quoting the Mesilas Yesharim which writes that a person can be so busy that he lacks the time to sit and think. Pharaoh fomented this in Egypt by giving the Jews Avodas Parech which deprived them of a chance to contemplate what Moshe was saying, even as they were desperate to leave slavery.
R' Frand closed the vort by observing that modern culture is the same with our smartphones, in that people don't take time to think or ponder, as every moment a person has "down time" - whether on an elevator or waiting for a train, the person is looking at things on their smartphone.
If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!
No comments:
Post a Comment