Parshas B'shalach

Oi Vay!


“And it was, (Vayhi), as Paroh sent the people (out of Egypt)…..”

Chazal, (the sages of the Talmud), tell us that “Vay” – “And it…” is a loshon tzar; a linguistic device to indicate trouble and upset.

Therefore whenever a passage begins with the (vav/kometz/yud) “Vay..” prefix, something is wrong!

The most famous example is at the start of the Megilla, “And it was in the days of Achashverush…”, “Vayhi bimey Achashverush…” (Please excuse the transliterations, the site won’t let me paste Hebrew in from Word).
There the verse introduces us to the tale of the attempted genocide against the Jewish nation.

In the context of our parsha however, with the downtrodden children of Yakov Avinu, finally led out of the land of their enslavement as free men/women/people, what trouble and upset was there?! Wasn’t this a moment of unparalleled joy?

This is the question of R’ Yehonason Eibshitz in his work Tiferes Yehonason.

He explains that “the people”, (“Ha’am”), refers to the mixed multitude, or the Eiruv Rav, the large group of members of other nations, also enslaved in Egypt that left together with Yisroel.

The Egyptians were the world leaders in sorcery, R Yehonason explains, (and I have also heard in the name of the Gr”a), that Egyptian sorcerers were able to prevent slaves from leaving Egypt through their sorcery: The Eiruv Rav was only able to leave with Paroh’s permission.

But why would Paroh give everyone permission to leave? Just because Yisroel were leaving, did that call for giving up and letting everybody go?!

Rather, explains Rabbi Eibshitz, after being decidedly beaten by Hashem in the game of wills, Paroh knowingly did this in order to reduce Hashem’s Glory: If just Yisroel had left, it would have clearly been the work of God. If everybody left, the miracles of the plagues could be attributed to the idols of the other nations as well!

If the followers of idolatry also left en mass, how can you be sure that Hashem performed miracles on behalf of the Jewish people? Maybe it was the idols weighing in for their worshippers, either on their own or together with Hashem?

Thus Moshe and the whole Nation of Israel were upset, at what was supposed to be the moment of national relief and celebration, God’s honor had been reduced through Paroh’s latest scheme!

Why should they have been so upset though? Who cares about Hashem’s glory?!

The Chasam Sofer writes in one of his drashos, that, anyone who’s heart is completely with Hashem is able to perceive the spiritual feeling of mourning during the period of the three weeks between 17 Tamuz and 9 Av. Such people don’t need laws of mourning during this period, they are in sincere mourning anyway!

The hearts of Moshe and Klal Yisroel were at this point completely with Hashem, they could perceive this reduction in God’s glory! Thus they were pained by this to the extent that even at the moment of their freedom, they were preoccupied with this scheme of Paroh.

Most of us today do not feel pained at any reductions in God’s glory, it’s not an easy task in our generation! However, if we can at least realize that when Hashem’s honor is under attack se should feel upset, then this could be a start towards “resensitizing” ourselves to Hashem and spirituality!
Then there's Labor, the party that, at Camp David in 2000 and in the subsequent final months of president Clinton's administration, sought and failed to achieve a permanent agreement with the Yasser Arafat-led PA. I don't know whether, even as a junior coalition partner, it would push for further concessions than those considered by Barak back then. Those concessions, it will be recalled, fell some way short of the parameters apparently contemplated by Olmert in recent months. enders have warned that the is unlikely to recover this year, despite the government's suggestions that lending should be returned to 2007 levels.ohousing market unemployment foreign exvhange personal finaince