The Weekly Dvar Torah
Volume I Issue #34
The Astonishing Puzzle of Divine Providence
Va'eirah
Adapted from the wisdom of Rav Meir Simcha HaCohen of Dvinsk from the Meshech Chochmoh and Rav Tzadok HaCohen from Pri Tzadik and other works.
By Rav Yitzchak Schwartz Rosh Yeshiva Orchos Chaim Jerusalem
yschwartz@orchos.org.
This publication, Zichron Yehoshua, is in memory of Yehoshua Yakov ben Moshe-Jeffrey Nussbaum through a generous grant from Dr. Eric Nussbaum and family.
Join those who have already dedicated issues of these divrei Torah and you too will be blessed with the merits of those who spread Torah.
In this week's Torah portion we find a sequence of verses that seems difficult to understand. "Hashem spoke to Moshe and Aharon and commanded them concerning the children of Israel, and Pharaoh the king of Egypt, to take out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt. These are the heads of the households of their forefathers: the children of Reuvain: the first born of Yisrael – Chanoch, and Falu, Cheztron and Charmi, these are the families of Reuvain. And the children of Shimon: Yemueil, and Yamin, and Ohad, and Yachin, and Tzochar, and Shaul the son of the Canaanite, these are the families of Shimon. And these are the names of the children of Levi according to their births: Gershon, and Kehath, and Merrori, and the years of the life of Levi [were] one hundred and thirty-seven years." (Shemos 6:13-16)
Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk raises several intriguing questions about these verses. It is clear in the verse what Hashem wanted Moshe and Aharon to tell to Pharaoh, namely to command him, in the name of Hashem, to release the Jewish people from their bondage in Egypt. But what did Hashem instruct Moshe and Aharon with regard to the Jewish people? Another difficulty arises when examining verses 14-16 which state the lineage of three tribes, Reuvain, Shimon and Levi. Inasmuch as Moshe and Aharon were descendants of Levi, why is there a need to detail the ancestry of the families of Reuvain and Shimon? Moreover, if the Torah wished to delineate the ancestry of tribes besides Levi, why does the Torah not provide the lineage of all the twelve tribes?
In order to explain why the Torah specifically focuses on these three tribes, Rav Meir Simcha draws our attention to some interesting facts about these three particular tribes. Before he died, Yakov blessed all of his children with the exception of Reuvain, Shimon, and Levi whom he chastised. Furthermore, regarding the other nine tribes, Yakov's blessing to each of them contained a reference or hint assuring them that they would receive a portion in the land of Israel. By contrast, Reuvain, Shimon, and Levi received no such promise. Instead, Yakov said that Levi and Shimon would be scattered around the land. Reuvain received his portion on the east side of the Jordan River which did not have the same sacred status as the Promised Land itself.
Rav Meir Simcha goes on to cite a fascinating statement from the Yerushalmi Talmud in tractate Rosh Hashana 17a that discusses the laws of a Jewish servant. Under extreme circumstances of financial distress the Torah allows a Jewish person to sell himself into the servitude of a fellow Jew for a period of up to six years. If the servant, of his own volition, chooses to work beyond the initial period of six years, he is obligated to serve his master until the Jubilee year (which occurs once in fifty years) but no longer. Upon arrival of the Jubilee year the master is obligated to free all of his Hebrew servants. The Talmud teaches that the laws of Jewish servants are only in force when the Jewish people dwell in the land of Israel and the Jubilee year is in effect. In the absence of these conditions, a Jewish person cannot halachically become a servant. In its discussion of these laws the Yerushalmi Talmud refers to verse 6:13 in our parsha and poses the same question that Rav Meir Simcha raised, namely what did Hashem command Moshe to say to the Jewish people? The Talmud gives a perplexing answer. "He [Hashem] told Moshe to teach the people the law of releasing [Hebrew] slaves." Given that the Jews at that time were located in Egypt-not in Israel-the halachik concept of a Jewish slave could not have been applicable at that time. Indeed the Jews themselves were still Egyptian slaves rendering them incapable of possessing their own slaves. So what did the Talmud mean?
Rav Meir Simcha offers a novel interpretation of the Talmud's answer. He suggests that the Talmud Yerushalmi here is implicitly informing us of an astonishing historical fact. Not all Jews in Egypt were slaves. The tribes of Reuvain, Shimon, and Levi were not subject to the Egyptian bondage. In fact these three tribes, owing to their elite status in Egyptian society enjoyed extraordinary privileges including the ability to own slaves. Rav Meir Simcha surmises that they even purchased slaves from amongst their fellow Jewish brethren. In light of this theory Rav Meir Simcha explains the intent of the Talmud's answer. When the Talmud says that- in verse 6:13 - Hashem is telling Moshe to teach the Jews the laws of the "Hebrew servant", what the Talmud means is that Hashem instructed Moshe to warn the tribes of Reuvain, Shimon and Levi that it was not only Pharaoh who was being commanded to free the children of Israel. They too had to release the Jewish slaves that they owned.
Rav Meir Simcha then asks an obvious question- why did these three tribes enjoy such a privileged status? The answer lies in the parting words Reuvain, Shimon, and Levi received from Yakov on his deathbed. When Yakov blessed his sons, included in his blessings was an promise that the Jews would be redeemed from Egypt and inherit the Promised Land. The children of Israel, fortified by these blessings were encouraged and inspired to preserve the purity of their lineage and remain a separate and distinct people. They were empowered by the anticipation of deliverance, and felt totally confident that Yakov's blessings would be fulfilled. They were certain of their redemption and dreamed of the day that they would inhabit the Land of flowing milk and honey as their great forefather Yakov had promised. They retained their national identity in four unique ways. They did not engage in illicit sexual relations, they did not speak lashon harah – gossip or defamatory speech, they did not adopt gentile names, and they spoke to one another in their sacred tongue – Hebrew.
On the other hand, the tribes of Reuvain, Shimon and Levi had been harshly chastised by Yakov. Divested of Yakov's blessings and promise to inherit the Land, they were left both vulnerable and uncertain about their future. They would have been completely broken in heart and spirit and would have lost their kinship with the rest of the children of Israel had they been oppressed with slavery and suffering in the way that their brethren suffered. Whereas their brothers and sisters were able to tenaciously retain their national and spiritual identity by drawing strength from Yakov's blessings, the tribes of Reuvain, Shimon, and Levi had no such wellspring of encouragement in their ancestral heritage to draw upon. For this reason Hashem spared them from the hardships of oppression and slavery in Egypt.
One might suspect that in light of their elite status, the tribes of Reuvain, Shimon, and Levi would have easily intermarried with their Gentile neighbors which in turn would have diluted the purity of their lineage. For this reason the Torah, in the verses that we began with, makes a special point to detail the ancestry of these three tribes. The Torah is proclaiming that the tribes of Reuvain, Shimon, and Levi also remained pure in their lineage. Over the course of two hundred and ten years the incredible fact is that there was only one instance of an illicit relationship between a Jewess and an Egyptian. This was the Egyptian man that Moshe killed because he was viciously beating the husband of the woman that he had defiled. The tribes of Reuvain, Shimon and Levi enjoyed all the rights and privileges of Egyptian noblemen. Although they lived lives of wealth and power, above and beyond anything else they cherished their noble ancestry. They saw themselves not as noble Egyptians but as the aristocratic sons of Yakov. Reinforced by a remarkable strength of ancestral pride, they were able to withstand the temptation of assimilation.
Rav Meir Simcha points out another amazing insight. Many of the major figures in the generation of the exodus were from these three tribes. Moshe and Aharon were from the tribe of Levi in addition to the zealot Pinchas and the notorious mutineer Korach. Dathan and Aviram, the spiteful contesters of Moshe were descendants of Reuvain. The iniquitous Zimri was the prince of the tribe of Shimon. Rav Meir Simcha explains the remarkable depths of Hashem's hashgacha – providence in allowing these challengers to Moshe. If the Torah was to live on through eternity it would be necessary to transmit it through a faithful and super – precise conduit that could assure its survival in face of the awesome challenges from within and without that the harsh and turbulent currents of our history would produce. The faith in the leadership and prophecy of Moshe stands at the very foundation of the Judaism. When Hashem chose Moshe to be his prophet he promised him that the Jewish people would have faith in his prophecy in all generations. But only a faith earned by merit of external verification, attained with tears, sweat, and blood would be capable of weathering the ages intact. To accomplish this, Moshe's leadership and prophecy needed to undergo a process of authentication by convincingly prevailing over the various challenges to his leadership that went on while the Jews spent forty years in the desert.
Forty years in the wilderness, while leading a nation of brilliant minded people, toughened and stubborn willed as they were, with plenty of free time on their hands--- facilitated this process. Especially qualified to challenge Moshe were the descendants of the three tribes Reuvain, Shimon and Levi. Having lived tranquil and prosperous lives in Egypt they were not beholden to Moshe and much less inclined to submit to his leadership than their brethren from the other tribes that suffered so much in Egypt. They scrutinized Moshe on every move that he made. His critics and challengers, unburdened by the yoke of providing physical sustenance – in the wilderness Hashem miraculously provided them with everything – had abundant time and copious spiritual and intellectual resources to examine, often with ruthless exactness, Moshe's every single deed and utterance. If not for this painful, agonizing, and sometimes tragic process of challenge and verification, the faith in Moshe's mission and his prophecy would have been discarded long before our times. The wonders of Hashem's hashgacha take on a new perspective when we see the total picture. Sometimes the challenges and challengers in our lives may be a blessing in disguise.
By Rav Yitzchak Schwartz Rosh Yeshiva Orchos Chaim Jerusalem
yschwartz@orchos.org.
This publication, Zichron Yehoshua, is in memory of Yehoshua Yakov ben Moshe-Jeffrey Nussbaum through a generous grant from Dr. Eric Nussbaum and family.
Join those who have already dedicated issues of these divrei Torah and you too will be blessed with the merits of those who spread Torah.
In this week's Torah portion we find a sequence of verses that seems difficult to understand. "Hashem spoke to Moshe and Aharon and commanded them concerning the children of Israel, and Pharaoh the king of Egypt, to take out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt. These are the heads of the households of their forefathers: the children of Reuvain: the first born of Yisrael – Chanoch, and Falu, Cheztron and Charmi, these are the families of Reuvain. And the children of Shimon: Yemueil, and Yamin, and Ohad, and Yachin, and Tzochar, and Shaul the son of the Canaanite, these are the families of Shimon. And these are the names of the children of Levi according to their births: Gershon, and Kehath, and Merrori, and the years of the life of Levi [were] one hundred and thirty-seven years." (Shemos 6:13-16)
Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk raises several intriguing questions about these verses. It is clear in the verse what Hashem wanted Moshe and Aharon to tell to Pharaoh, namely to command him, in the name of Hashem, to release the Jewish people from their bondage in Egypt. But what did Hashem instruct Moshe and Aharon with regard to the Jewish people? Another difficulty arises when examining verses 14-16 which state the lineage of three tribes, Reuvain, Shimon and Levi. Inasmuch as Moshe and Aharon were descendants of Levi, why is there a need to detail the ancestry of the families of Reuvain and Shimon? Moreover, if the Torah wished to delineate the ancestry of tribes besides Levi, why does the Torah not provide the lineage of all the twelve tribes?
In order to explain why the Torah specifically focuses on these three tribes, Rav Meir Simcha draws our attention to some interesting facts about these three particular tribes. Before he died, Yakov blessed all of his children with the exception of Reuvain, Shimon, and Levi whom he chastised. Furthermore, regarding the other nine tribes, Yakov's blessing to each of them contained a reference or hint assuring them that they would receive a portion in the land of Israel. By contrast, Reuvain, Shimon, and Levi received no such promise. Instead, Yakov said that Levi and Shimon would be scattered around the land. Reuvain received his portion on the east side of the Jordan River which did not have the same sacred status as the Promised Land itself.
Rav Meir Simcha goes on to cite a fascinating statement from the Yerushalmi Talmud in tractate Rosh Hashana 17a that discusses the laws of a Jewish servant. Under extreme circumstances of financial distress the Torah allows a Jewish person to sell himself into the servitude of a fellow Jew for a period of up to six years. If the servant, of his own volition, chooses to work beyond the initial period of six years, he is obligated to serve his master until the Jubilee year (which occurs once in fifty years) but no longer. Upon arrival of the Jubilee year the master is obligated to free all of his Hebrew servants. The Talmud teaches that the laws of Jewish servants are only in force when the Jewish people dwell in the land of Israel and the Jubilee year is in effect. In the absence of these conditions, a Jewish person cannot halachically become a servant. In its discussion of these laws the Yerushalmi Talmud refers to verse 6:13 in our parsha and poses the same question that Rav Meir Simcha raised, namely what did Hashem command Moshe to say to the Jewish people? The Talmud gives a perplexing answer. "He [Hashem] told Moshe to teach the people the law of releasing [Hebrew] slaves." Given that the Jews at that time were located in Egypt-not in Israel-the halachik concept of a Jewish slave could not have been applicable at that time. Indeed the Jews themselves were still Egyptian slaves rendering them incapable of possessing their own slaves. So what did the Talmud mean?
Rav Meir Simcha offers a novel interpretation of the Talmud's answer. He suggests that the Talmud Yerushalmi here is implicitly informing us of an astonishing historical fact. Not all Jews in Egypt were slaves. The tribes of Reuvain, Shimon, and Levi were not subject to the Egyptian bondage. In fact these three tribes, owing to their elite status in Egyptian society enjoyed extraordinary privileges including the ability to own slaves. Rav Meir Simcha surmises that they even purchased slaves from amongst their fellow Jewish brethren. In light of this theory Rav Meir Simcha explains the intent of the Talmud's answer. When the Talmud says that- in verse 6:13 - Hashem is telling Moshe to teach the Jews the laws of the "Hebrew servant", what the Talmud means is that Hashem instructed Moshe to warn the tribes of Reuvain, Shimon and Levi that it was not only Pharaoh who was being commanded to free the children of Israel. They too had to release the Jewish slaves that they owned.
Rav Meir Simcha then asks an obvious question- why did these three tribes enjoy such a privileged status? The answer lies in the parting words Reuvain, Shimon, and Levi received from Yakov on his deathbed. When Yakov blessed his sons, included in his blessings was an promise that the Jews would be redeemed from Egypt and inherit the Promised Land. The children of Israel, fortified by these blessings were encouraged and inspired to preserve the purity of their lineage and remain a separate and distinct people. They were empowered by the anticipation of deliverance, and felt totally confident that Yakov's blessings would be fulfilled. They were certain of their redemption and dreamed of the day that they would inhabit the Land of flowing milk and honey as their great forefather Yakov had promised. They retained their national identity in four unique ways. They did not engage in illicit sexual relations, they did not speak lashon harah – gossip or defamatory speech, they did not adopt gentile names, and they spoke to one another in their sacred tongue – Hebrew.
On the other hand, the tribes of Reuvain, Shimon and Levi had been harshly chastised by Yakov. Divested of Yakov's blessings and promise to inherit the Land, they were left both vulnerable and uncertain about their future. They would have been completely broken in heart and spirit and would have lost their kinship with the rest of the children of Israel had they been oppressed with slavery and suffering in the way that their brethren suffered. Whereas their brothers and sisters were able to tenaciously retain their national and spiritual identity by drawing strength from Yakov's blessings, the tribes of Reuvain, Shimon, and Levi had no such wellspring of encouragement in their ancestral heritage to draw upon. For this reason Hashem spared them from the hardships of oppression and slavery in Egypt.
One might suspect that in light of their elite status, the tribes of Reuvain, Shimon, and Levi would have easily intermarried with their Gentile neighbors which in turn would have diluted the purity of their lineage. For this reason the Torah, in the verses that we began with, makes a special point to detail the ancestry of these three tribes. The Torah is proclaiming that the tribes of Reuvain, Shimon, and Levi also remained pure in their lineage. Over the course of two hundred and ten years the incredible fact is that there was only one instance of an illicit relationship between a Jewess and an Egyptian. This was the Egyptian man that Moshe killed because he was viciously beating the husband of the woman that he had defiled. The tribes of Reuvain, Shimon and Levi enjoyed all the rights and privileges of Egyptian noblemen. Although they lived lives of wealth and power, above and beyond anything else they cherished their noble ancestry. They saw themselves not as noble Egyptians but as the aristocratic sons of Yakov. Reinforced by a remarkable strength of ancestral pride, they were able to withstand the temptation of assimilation.
Rav Meir Simcha points out another amazing insight. Many of the major figures in the generation of the exodus were from these three tribes. Moshe and Aharon were from the tribe of Levi in addition to the zealot Pinchas and the notorious mutineer Korach. Dathan and Aviram, the spiteful contesters of Moshe were descendants of Reuvain. The iniquitous Zimri was the prince of the tribe of Shimon. Rav Meir Simcha explains the remarkable depths of Hashem's hashgacha – providence in allowing these challengers to Moshe. If the Torah was to live on through eternity it would be necessary to transmit it through a faithful and super – precise conduit that could assure its survival in face of the awesome challenges from within and without that the harsh and turbulent currents of our history would produce. The faith in the leadership and prophecy of Moshe stands at the very foundation of the Judaism. When Hashem chose Moshe to be his prophet he promised him that the Jewish people would have faith in his prophecy in all generations. But only a faith earned by merit of external verification, attained with tears, sweat, and blood would be capable of weathering the ages intact. To accomplish this, Moshe's leadership and prophecy needed to undergo a process of authentication by convincingly prevailing over the various challenges to his leadership that went on while the Jews spent forty years in the desert.
Forty years in the wilderness, while leading a nation of brilliant minded people, toughened and stubborn willed as they were, with plenty of free time on their hands--- facilitated this process. Especially qualified to challenge Moshe were the descendants of the three tribes Reuvain, Shimon and Levi. Having lived tranquil and prosperous lives in Egypt they were not beholden to Moshe and much less inclined to submit to his leadership than their brethren from the other tribes that suffered so much in Egypt. They scrutinized Moshe on every move that he made. His critics and challengers, unburdened by the yoke of providing physical sustenance – in the wilderness Hashem miraculously provided them with everything – had abundant time and copious spiritual and intellectual resources to examine, often with ruthless exactness, Moshe's every single deed and utterance. If not for this painful, agonizing, and sometimes tragic process of challenge and verification, the faith in Moshe's mission and his prophecy would have been discarded long before our times. The wonders of Hashem's hashgacha take on a new perspective when we see the total picture. Sometimes the challenges and challengers in our lives may be a blessing in disguise.