The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha Thursday evening. Due to family vacation and related travel and technical issues, I was unable to complete this before Shabbos. Other than that - same rules as usual apply. 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.
The medrash about the first plague (blood) is well known in that all of the Egyptians' water turned to blood, regardless of their status and their means. If an Egyptian wanted water, he needed to buy it from a Jew and the amount that he had to pay before his blood transformed back to water was dependent on the level of payment he owed that Jew for services performed.
Still in all, the Torah does not recount that Pharaoh in any way cared that his people did not have the most basic human staple. But why did Pharaoh not care? The Meshech Chachma quotes a medrash which states that Pharaoh's personal water was unaffected. But why did he not have to pay for water? The Meshech Chachma explains that this was reimbursement to Pharaoh for the money that he spent on raising Moshe.
[Although R' Frand did not elaborate on the Meshech Chachma, I saw a further explanation of this concept in the Sha'arei Aharon which resonated with me. For the average person, he needed to pay the Jew his owed wages before the blood transformed back to water. However since Pharaoh kept Moshe in the lap of luxury, there was no payment due.]
R' Frand next quoted the Tolner Rebbi who explains that this shows the concept of HaKaras HaTov - because of all that Pharaoh did for Moshe, he did not have to buy water. But wait - isn't this like a kidnapper turning around and asking to be paid for raising the child? If it were not for the gezeira of Pharaoh that all the Jewish male children being thrown into the river, there would have been no need for this! So why should Pharaoh be paid?
The Tolner Rebbi explains that the situations are not comparable - in this case we were on the receiving end of Pharaoh's generosity and for this reason it is not comparable to the kidnapper approaching the parent. Since the Jews as a whole benefited from Moshe's being raised in the palace, there was a debt to repay. And this shows the incredible extent of the concept of HaKaras HaTov.
R' Frand said a second vort, in regards to the plague of frogs. In Shemos 7:26-8:11 the Torah tells the story of the plague of frogs which descended on Egypt. As part of this discussion, the Torah writes at 7:28 that the frogs would descend everywhere in Egypt from the palace to bedroom to the kitchen of the servants. In bringing the plague, Hashem commands Moshe to tell his brother Aharon to bring up the frogs, using the word "V'Ha'al" (8:1). The Ba'al Ha'Turim notes that this is one of two places in the Torah where Hashem uses that word. The other occurrence is when Hashem tells Moshe to bring Aharon up to Hor HaHar where Aharon will die. (Bamidbar 20:25).
R' Frand quoted the gemara in Pesachim which discusses how Chananya, Mishael and Azaraya threw themselves into a fiery furnace rather than bow down to an idol of Nebuchadnezzar. The gemara explains that they drew a kal v'chomer from the frogs. Since the frogs were all over Egypt from the bedrooms to the kitchens and these frogs chose to fall into the ovens rather than the beds, Chananya, Mishael and Azaraya chose to fall into the furnace. These frogs did not even have a mitzva to die Al Kiddush Hashem, but people do have this obligation and so they chose to enter the furnace.
The Ba'al HaTurim then quoted a Medrash on Tehillim which notes that when the Torah discusses the death of the frogs after Moshe prayed to Hashem there is no mention that the frogs that were in the oven died like all the other frogs...because those frogs who threw themselves into the ovens did not die! Moshe & Aharon had a chance to sanctify Hashem's name but did not do so. For this reason they would die on Hor HaHar.
R' Frand then quoted R' Elya Svei who explained that the frogs could have made an analysis and decided which is the bigger kiddush Hasehm - to drive them crazy for seven days or to jump in the fire, and decided that by being a pain for seven days would be a bigger kiddush Hashem. However the lesson is that where is a chance to make a kiddush Hashem, there should not be an analysis. Instead, there should be action. And because the frogs acted, they "lived to tell the tale" as those who jumped in the ovens survived.
R' Frand then quoted the Tosfos on Pesachim which asked, why did Chananya, Mishael and Azaraya have to draw a lesson from the frogs? There are three mitzvos which a Jew must die rather than transgress. Since idol worship is one of those three mitzvos, this would have been enough of a reason for Chananya, Mishael and Azaraya to fall into the furnace, rather than bow to the idol! Tosafos answers that the idol was not truly an idol. It was a statue of Nebuchadnezzar had made of himself which he wanted people to worship to show their loyalty to him. He did not view himself as a deity and the bowing was not meant to treat him that way. Thus Chananya, Mishael and Azaraya had a real reason to draw a kal v'chomer from the frogs.
How did Chanaya, Mishael and Azarya decide what to do? They went and asked Yishaya what to do and he told them - just run away and you won't have to make the decision. But they chose not to run and they did jump in the fire, having drawn a parallel from the frogs and they too lived to tell the tale.
So when Moshe came to the opportunity to speak or hit the rock, he decided that because the Jews were not on a high enough level that they would not be zoche to have water come from the rock by merely speaking to it, that it would be better to make a smaller kiddush Hashem by having water come through hitting the rock vs speaking and nothing coming out.
R' Elya Svei explains that this why the word V'Haal is used by the frogs and by Moshe and Aharon. They failed to learn the lesson of the frogs that when its time to make a kiddush Hashem there should be no calculating or thought - there should be action. Hashem told them to speak the rock and they should have done so, rather than calculate if the Jews were worthy.
R' Frand closed the vort by explaining that had Avraham made a cheshbon - he would not have brought Yitzchak at the Akeidah because he would have said - how could I have children through Yitzchak? And as a direct result of following through, some of Yitzchak's neshama left him and when it came back to him, he was now able to have children whereas before he was prevented from doing so. The net result was that by not questioning, now Avraham could have a lineage through Yitzchak where it was not possible before. So when faced with a choice of potential kiddush Hashem when commanded by Hashem to act, one should not question, just act.
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