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Parshas Bo

“And Hashem said to Moshe, come to Paroh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants in order to place these wonders of mine in his midst.”

The Ramban comments on this verse as follows:

“The Holy One Blessed Be He made known to Moshe that he was hardening their hearts since they were afraid of Him on account of the hail and confessed their iniquity.
And He said to him, (Moshe), “The reason that I am doing this is in order that I will place in their midst these wonders which I wish to do to them so that Egypt will know of my might, not that I shall punish them more because of this hardening, and further more, in order that you and all Yisroel should recount the strength of My doings for your subsequent generations and you shall know that I am Hashem and all that I wish to do, I carry out, in the heavens and the earth.”

God told Moshe that although the Egyptians wouldn’t be punished any more than they were already deserving of, nonetheless, the hearts of Paroh and his counselors would be hardened in order to prolong the subjugation of the Jewish People and the perform additional plagues to demonstrate His might.

However, if Hashem was going to perform additional plagues, isn’t that additional punishment?

If the full amount of the punishment already accrued by Egypt hadn’t yet been visited upon them by the time they confessed their iniquity, hadn’t the opportunity to continue punishing them been lost?

Why was this step by step slow increase in the intensity of the plague required? Why couldn’t one super-plague have took the place of the hail, without any subsequent need for additional heart hardening?

It could be that Hashem wanted to incrementally increase the intensity of the plagues rather than to throw everything at them at once in order to make the greatest psychological impact. There is a format in Mishnayos of introducing the smallest chiddush first. (That is quoting the halacha which departs the least from our expectations at the beginning of a list of halachos). This format is called Lo Zu, Af Zu, not only this but even this! I have heard said in a gemoro shiur, that this format is designed to intensify the emotional impact on the reader, as the Mishna intensifies the “newness” of its contents.
Thus it could be said in the case of the plagues too, that one super-plague wouldn’t have the incremental physcological effect of a build up of ten plagues, ending with the slaying of the first born.
Therefore, if Paroh and his advisors had acceded to Moshe’s request to be allowed to leave before reaching “number 10”, the full revelation of God’s power which He wanted to reveal in Egypt would not have been reached. Yisroel would have left before they had seen the all of the miracles which would testify for them that, “I am Hashem and all that I wish to do, I carry out, in the heavens and the earth.”

Therefore the punishment of which Egypt was already deserving, before the start of the plagues, was divided into ten from the outset.

However this still leaves the question that if Paroh and his advisors wanted to repent, thereby bringing the plagues to an early conclusion, how could Hashem prevent this? And isn’t this an infliction of additional punishment?!

To answer this it may be possible to rely on the Rambam, Hilchos Teshuva, 1:4, who says that in the case of serious transgressions, even though the sinner repents, only once tribulations have come upon him, (and in the most serious cases of sin, death as well), will he be atoned.

If this idea can apply to nations as well as individuals, then we can now understand why even after Paroh wanted to repent and his heart was hardened, additional plagues weren’t considered additional punishment, the repentance of Egypt wasn’t enough to avoid the coming of further plagues.

Therefore, in order to visit divine retribution in an orderly and incremental fashion, revealing some of Hashem’s greatness to the Jewish people in the most effective manner, Paroh’s heart had to be hardened, allowing the plagues to continue in the presence of the Jewish people in Egypt.


Although this approach hasn’t dealt will all the questions that one could ask on the Ramban, and although it too generates further questions, nonetheless, we have at least to some extent understood this piece and identified some fundamentals of the faith!



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Parshas V’era

“And Elokim spoke to Moshe and said to him I am Hashem”. Shemos 6,2

A first reading of the opening verse of the parsha reveals something quite unusual:

The verse begins referring to Elokim, the name connoting God’s attribute of justice and correspondingly has God speaking to Moshe, connoting harshness.

However, the verse finishes with God referred to as Hashem, connoting His attribute of mercy, saying to Moshe, connoting softer speech!

Put like this the verse reads, “And God with his attribute of justice spoke harshly to Moshe to say to him in a softer fashion that, ‘I am God in my attribute of mercy’!”

Why did the verse need to open with justice and harshness in order to close with softness and mercy, without even saying anything in between?!

Parshas Shemos ends with Moshe Rabenu, filled with distress that his first meeting with Paroh has resulted only in the increase of the hardships of the Bnei Yisroel. He asks God, “Master! Why have you worsened the lot of this people? Why have you sent me?”

Rashi explains our verse in this week’s parsha as beginning with God speaking to Moshe harshly and with justice, on account of his having questioned Him (in Shemos) and ending with God confirming that He will reward those who walk in front of him and that not for nothing has he sent Moshe on his mission.

The Satmar Rov, HaRav Yoel Teitelbaum asks two questions on this verse:

1) Why should God speak harshly to Moshe for asking in his distress at the suffering of Yisroel, why He allowed the situation of to worsen?

2) Having done so, why should God go back on Himself to speak with Mercy within the same prophetic communication? He could have “made His point” continuing to speak harshly!

The Satmar Rov continues to quote a Midrash, that in our verse, “Elokim” refers to God’s dealing with Egypt and “Hashem” to Yisroel, explaining in the name of the Yefes To’ar, (a Chassidic work on the Torah), that God explains in this verse that he will judge Egypt and have mercy upon Yisroel. On this Midrash and its explaination, Reb Yoel asks, “Who mentioned Egypt”? The verse is referring to God talking to Moshe about the sufferings of Bnei Yisroel and Moshe’s response to those sufferings!

To provide a theoretical basis for his answer the Satmar Rov, turns to another Midrash. This Midrash explains that the verse dealing with the splitting of the Red Sea, “And the water was for them a wall, (Chomah)” should also be read homiletically as “And the water was for them angry, (Chamoh)”

The sea was filled with anger at Yisroel for serving idols in Egypt. Ultimately this anger was unleashed on the pursuing Egyptians as the walls of the sea came crashing down upon them. Reb Yoel explains that even though both Yisroel and Egypt had served Idols, the Jewish People are judged swiftly, in order to punish them in this world, whereas the other nations are shown clemency, in order that those good deeds that they have are fully rewarded in this world and not the World to Come.

Nonetheless, this punishment was transferred onto the Egyptians and the sea’s anger at Bnei Yisroel was unleashed on their oppressors, even though Bnei Yisroel were guilty of idolatry and even though Egypt had plenty of their own misdeeds to be punished for, without needing to receive anyone else’s punishment instead!

At that moment it was appropriate to punish Yisroel, and so the sea filled with anger. However, the sins of the enslaved Jewish nation were not entirely of their own volition, under the strain of their slavery and the influence of the corrupt Egyptian society surrounding them, they were led into sin.

Therefore the anger generated at the sins of Yisroel ultimately found the right address; those responsible for the descent into sin!

With this Midrash, Reb Yoel is able to explain the two difficulties outlined above, although Moshe Rabbenu was moved by the suffering of his brethren, for somebody on his exalted spiritual level, his complaint against God was considered to be improper. Thus, God’s attribute of justice was aroused.

However, Moshe’s distress was caused by the suffering inflicted by Egypt, thus the punishment was directed at Egypt!

Now we can understand the first Midrash, the attribute of justice aroused by Moshe’s complaint was transferred into Egypt, leaving Moshe and Yisroel to be dealt with according to the attribute of God’s mercy.