Thursday, December 23, 2021

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Shemos

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 the parsha portion of tonight's shiur by quoting the Alter M'Kelem who observed that we have very little knowledge of Moshe before he became the leader of Klal Yisrael. He cited to four instances where the Torah gives into Moshe. The first two are in Shemos 2:11 where the Torah states וַיְהִ֣י | בַּיָּמִ֣ים הָהֵ֗ם וַיִּגְדַּ֤ל משֶׁה֙ וַיֵּצֵ֣א אֶל־אֶחָ֔יו וַיַּ֖רְא בְּסִבְלֹתָ֑ם - that Moshe saw the Jews' burdens. Later in the same pasuk the Torah states וַיַּרְא֙ אִ֣ישׁ מִצְרִ֔י מַכֶּ֥ה אִֽישׁ־עִבְרִ֖י מֵֽאֶחָֽיו - Moshe saw the Egyptian striking a Jew from his brethren. 

A few pesukim later Moshe is again seen where he intervenes when Dasan and Aviram are fighting and he says in 2:13 - וַיֹּ֨אמֶר֙ לָֽרָשָׁ֔ע לָ֥מָּה תַכֶּ֖ה רֵעֶֽךָ. Finally, the fourth reference is in 2:17 where Moshe comes to the well and saves the daughters of Yisro.

All four instances have one thing in common - Moshe saw that people were suffering and intervened on their behalf.

R' Frand then quoted the Ramban who noted that we see Moshe leaving Egypt at 12 and the next we see of him is when he shows up in Midyan 40 years later. The Medrash tells a great story about how Moshe became the king of Cush [I often read that from the Me'am Loez on Shabbos Shemos] - but that story does not make it into the Torah. Why? The Alter explains that the Torah is not a history book and the reason that these facts are known about Moshe is to show his empathy for others.

R' Frand then told a story about R' Wolbe who had gone with a group of talmidei chachamim to visit the grave of R' Yisrael Salanter. While he was there, R' Wolbe had an imaginary conversation with R' Yisrael who asked him - why are you here? R' Yisrael explained that he was content in the kever, but R' Wolbe should be looking out for the Jews who lived nearby and who had abandoned their Jewish identities due in part to the horrors of the war - help them! R' Yisrael further "said" to him - do you know why I am buried here and not in Lithuania? Because I travelled here due to the needs of the Jews of Germany.

R' Frand observed that although Dasan and Aviram were Moshe's nemesis, they also had the quality of looking out for their fellow Jews. R' Frand quoted the vort from the Maharal Diskin in connection with the exodus from Egypt in Parshas Beshalach. In Shemos 14:3, the Torah states that Pharaoh told the Jews that they are confused and the desert has locked them in. The obvious question is - who did Pharaoh tell this to? The Jews had already left Egypt with Moshe! 

The pashut pshat as said by many meforshim (including Rashi) is that Pharaoh said this about the Jews and not to them. But the Targum Yonasan Ben Uziel explains that Pharaoh said this to Dasan and Aviram, who had not left yet.

R' Frand asked - if Dasan and Aviram were such evil people that they did not leave with Moshe, how were they still around? These were Moshe's historical antagonists, yet we read about them later in the Torah so they obviously got out. Why did they merit to get out of Egypt, when 80% of the Jews did not make it out of Egypt (and died in Choshech) because of their evil nature?

The Maharal Diskin explains that Dasan and Aviram's merit was that they were among the nogsim - the taskmaster/enforcers who were in charge of the Jews in Egypt. But these were not like the Kapos in the concentration camps. In Egypt, these people were beaten by the Egyptians when the Jews did not meet their quotas. In that zechus and because of their empathy for their fellow Jews because they got hit to prevent people from being beaten, they merited getting out of Egypt.

R' Frand closed the vort with a story about R' Huttner who flew to Los Angeles in the 1950s for the vort of one his prized talmidim. At the vort he approached the father of the girl and told him - you will need to support this special boy in his learning. The father said - of course! R' Huttner then said - you will need to provide $350,000. The father said - I can't come up with that much money and shortly therafter the engagement was broken.

R' Frand said that he is sure that people had questions about why R' Huttner said this, but the whole story came out after R' Huttner passed away. What people were unaware of was that the parents of both sides had not met prior to the vort, the chassan being from NY and the kallah from LA. When the mother of the chosson saw the mother of the kallah, she realized that the woman had been her kapo in the camps. She would not be able to live with seeing her son marry the daughter of the woman who used to beat her, so she cried to R' Huttner to intervene. And because he was nosei b'ol chavero, he did.

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