Transcript
Good morning boker tov welcome back to Parsha Perspectives for today great to be together and learn Parshas Va'eira the continuation of our new story. The curtain came down on the birth of our family we've begun the story of the birth of our nation. We continue to grow and to be formed as a nation to find a way to feel unity and achdus and to be on this journey of redemption together as a nation. And the stories the parshas that we're reading are not only pieces and lessons of history we're not simply recalling part of the past. It is a blueprint for the present and this is the formula to be able to forge a future together. As we continue to navigate this galus and long for a geulah this story is the story of how. As always we begin with gratitude. Thank our Parsha Perspective series sponsors Becky and Avi Katz and family in memory of David Grossman לעילוי נשמת דוד מנחם מאניש. נשמה שתהא לו עליה. Shiur sponsored by the Shrayer family for the upcoming yartzeits of their parents grandparents and great grandparents Maxine and Bernard Sullivan and in memory of Uncle Lester Friedman for the refuah sheleimah of הניה טובה הלל בת יפה פרידל she should have a complete refuah sheleimah and by Yechezkel and Yitzchak Feldman commemoration of her mother's 47th yartzeit מרים מטל בת יהודה. נשמה שתהא לו עליה. And we'll also dedicate our learning there are many yartzeits today. Notably among them today's the Alter Rebbe's yartzeit we'll try to quote some Torah from the Alter Rebbe. The Shem Mishmuel the Sochatchover Rebbe's yartzeit Rav Dessler's yartzeit all share the same yartzeit today. So we'll see if we get into it. Parshas Va'eira page 318 in the Artscroll Stone Chumash and let's begin. וידבר אלוקים אל משה ויאמר אליו אני ה'. And it should and must jump out at you from the opening pasuk. Who spoke to Moshe? Elokim. The name for God of Elokim. Vayomer elav and what did he say? ani Hashem. The shift from Elokim to Hashem. We know Elokim represents middas hadin and Hashem is middas hachesed. Two different names different names or different descriptions different aspects of Hashem. Why the shift and why the change in these names? What's going on? And then what does he reveal? וארא אל אברהם אל יצחק ואל יעקב באל שדי ושמי ה' לא נודעתי להם. And he lets Moshe know that I appeared previously to the Avos but my name. Which name? Hashem Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei. lo nodati lahem I did not make myself known to them. Why so negative? Hashem wants to let Moshe know that he revealed previously to the Avos but why say I held back? There's an aspect of me they didn't know. There's something they weren't exposed to. וגם הקימותי את בריתי אתם. And I also established my covenant with them. What's going on here in these pesukim? So let's start with Rav Sacks in his Chumash. Rabbi Sacks writes the following. He says the Avos knew God by the four letter name the Lord Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei. It occurs 165 times in Bereishis. And in an earlier comment I am the Lord we discussed Rashi's decoding of the pasuk. The patriarchs knew the God of promise. The Jewish people were now about to see the God who delivers on a national scale. Note that the word yud daled ayin. We mentioned this last week. That when Hashem says to know knowledge it doesn't mean intellectual doesn't mean cognitive knowledge. Knowledge means an intimate connection. Knowledge is the intimacy that is the result of access exposure connection. Emotional intimacy is when you let someone into your inner world when you share your fears your dreams your aspirations your disappointments your failures. When you let someone in where you don't let anyone else. When someone has access and exposure to the most private thing in you that yields emotional intimacy. Physical intimacy true intimacy not just an external physical act but an act that yields an intimacy is when it's reserved when it's something that's not shared by the masses or by many or by any other but when it's exclusive and it's reserved and that knowledge that's the biblical definition of that Adam knew Chava his wife knew biblically knew physically. It means to know in a way that nobody else knows. And mentioned last week that our world has lost that. People share and overshare. They share their bodies they share their emotions they share their experiences they share their lives with no filter and nothing reserved and no boundary and the result is a world of people struggling and suffering from no intimacy. Struggling to find emotional connection and intimacy physical intimacy and connection that lasts. So that's true even in the intimacy with Hashem. That's what Rabbi Sacks notes. That here lo nodati lahem in Hebrew does not mean to know in a purely cognitive sense. It means to have direct and immediate experience of something. Avos knew that Hashem would fulfill his promises but they did not live to see the full realization of the covenant. In the ancient world the idea of God who promises... would not have made sense outside of Israel. The Lord is not a natural force, as in polytheism, or even the totality of natural forces. For this we have the word God. The Lord is the concept of a God who places himself under moral obligation for the future, hence a God who acts in history, who says Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh I will be who I will be, but Hashem told Avram I am the Lord in the vision in which he revealed to him that his descendants would be strangers in the land, not their own where they would be enslaved and mistreated. The repetition of these words to Moshe creates a vast temporal arch between Avram and Moshe, the first and last scenes of exile. And with this Rabbi Sacks continues with another comment, we have now the Dalet Leshonos of Geula, the four expressions of redemption. We commemorate these four expressions where? The Pesach Seder. How? Four cups of wine. That commemorates the four expressions, there really is a fifth, Veheveisi, Hashem promises to bring us into Eretz Yisrael and indeed fulfilled that promise, so much so as we spoke in the past, רבי מנחם מנדל כשר's suggestion with the founding of the State of Israel, the modern state, that we introduce a fifth cup at the Seder, it was rejected because we don't yet have Geula, we don't yet have a Beis Hamikdash, we don't yet have a full Hashras Hashechina, we know we continue to suffer and struggle. It was rejected, but there is that fifth expression. But on the first four, Vehotzeisi, Rabbi Sacks continues: What is revolutionary in Judaism is not simply the concept of monotheism, that the universe is not a blind clash of conflicting powers, but the result of a single creative will. It is that Hashem is involved in His creation. God is not simply the force that brought the universe into being, nor is He reached only in the private recesses of the soul. At a certain point He intervenes in history to rescue His people from slavery and set them on the path to freedom. This is the revolution, at once political and intellectual. Judaism is the escape into history, the unique attempt to endow events with meaning, to see in the chronicles of mankind something more than a mere succession of happenings, to see history as nothing less than a drama of redemption in which the fate of a nation reflects its loyalty or otherwise to a covenant of Hashem. Some 3,300 years ago, Hashem tells Moshe He will intervene in the arena of time, not only though primarily to rescue the Jewish people but also to have my name known throughout the land. The script of history will bear the mark of a hand, not human but divine, and it begins with these words: Therefore, say to the Jewish people, I am the Lord and I will free you from the forced labor of the Egyptians. Says Rabbi Sacks, and we'll see this more echoed in many of the other commentaries, including the Gerrer Rosh Yeshiva רב שאול אלתר שליטא, and others, that the curriculum that was the Makkos, these ten plagues and the experience of taking us out of Mitzrayim and what we will commemorate at the Pesach Seder is not simply a piece of history, but rather it is a description and a prescription for our destiny. It is to be able to reinforce within us that Hashem didn't create a world and move on from there. He didn't set the world in motion and then move and pivot to another project. Hashem maintains and continues an intimate connection with us. The Ibn Ezra quotes Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, the author of the Kuzari, the Kuzari he writes in himself, that why, why do the Aseres Hadibros begin that I am the Lord your God who took you out of Egypt? Why start, why does Hashem introduce Himself I am Hashem who took you out of Egypt? What's more impressive? That Hashem took us out of Egypt or that He created the world? Always put on the top of your resume, we're looking now for a new controller of finance officer, if you know of anyone who's excellent in accounting to manage our bookkeeper and reconcile our finances, we're in the market, full-time on campus, going to be fantastic. So we're getting resumes, that was a way, you saw what I just did there? It's called networking, I'm trying to find somebody. So if you know somebody seriously, send them. But as we collect resumes, so if you look on the top of the resume, you launch, you start with what? Your most impressive thing. What's more impressive about Hashem? That He took us out of Egypt or created the world? By far creating the world is the most impressive thing in all of history, more impressive than the splitting of the sea or ten plagues, more impressive than any miracles is creation itself. Ex nihilo, something from nothing. There's the atheist, the story of the atheist who challenged God, big deal, You created, I can also create. So God says, okay, let's see. So he goes to Home Depot or Lowes and he gets the ingredients and he puts them together and he builds this robot and he introduces AI and he creates a Golem and he programs it to speak and to feel and to think and to act. And he says, you see God? So God looks at him and he says, get your own materials. Ex nihilo, this something from nothing. All of our creation starts from something. We build a house, we have the materials, we build a person, procreation, conception, which is a great miracle and the ultimate imitation of Hashem. He gives us the ingredients and we rely on him for the mixture of the two actually resulting in conception. But to create ex nihilo something from nothing, we have no conception. We have no experience. We cannot imitate that something from nothing. So wonders Rabbeinu Yehuda HaLevi in the Kuzari. So if that's the most impressive thing that Hashem ever did, why not start with that? Why not launch? Why not have on the top of the resume, Hashem created something from nothing? Why does he start with Yetziat Mitzrayim? You know why? Because despite how old we look, despite the white hair that we have, someone complimented my wife yesterday, she deserves it, she hasn't changed a bit in twenty-five years. Often that's followed up with your husband looks much older. But you, you haven't changed. I don't know why that's necessary. Can't they just offer her the compliment and the other part is obvious to everybody? It doesn't need to be said out loud. So even though some of us look like we were there at creation, we weren't. We weren't. Nobody was there at creation. No one's there. So does it mean anything to us? Not necessarily, because none of us were there. And it could be God created a world and then the same way, the same way that the painter painted the painting and moved on to the next project, has nothing to do with you just because you own the painting or have it hanging in your home. The same way the architect or the builder, they design, they build the building and they move on to the next project, they don't maintain a relationship. So the fact that God created a world wouldn't tell us anything about his ongoing relationship with us. What tells us? אנכי ה' אלהיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים. I am the Lord your God and the same way I took your ancestors out of Egypt, I'm going to take you out of the Egypt of your life. The exile in your life. The dark moments in your life. The feeling that the ceiling is caving in, that the walls are closing in, that you're in a constricted place, Meitzar, Mitzrayim. When you're going through your Galus, your Mitzrayim, the same way I took your grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents, I took them out. I took them out of Auschwitz and I took them out of the Inquisition, I took them out of expulsions and I took them out of Mitzrayim and I'm going to take you out too. That's experience that's familiar to us. That's a story that's been told to us. That's not history, what Rabbi Sacks says history is his story, that's memory that begins with me. That's our collective memory and our collective conscience is that our ancestors have ingrained in us those stories of having taken us out and he's taking us out now. And therefore, therefore the four languages of Geula, they matter. And that's what God says to our Avos, Hashem made a lot of promises, but he says שמי ה' לא נודעתי להם. I spoke to them, there was revelation, they knew me in the sense that they communed and conversed with me, but I didn't reveal myself in history. Hashem hadn't yet moved mounds of history. Only now he's telling Moshe, you're about to see I'm about to rock Paro's world. That's a loose translation of what Hashem says. I'm about to reveal myself in unprecedented and unparalleled ways. And therefore, what I didn't reveal Lahem to them, what they didn't know me in that way, you're going to get to know me. And Chevra my dear friends, we've gotten to know Hashem. The miracles we've seen over the last two years, I would argue if you see them accurately, and my good friend Rabbi Ari Pelcovitz, if you didn't see his viral video, he actually enumerates and goes through the miracles of these two years based on intelligence sources, based on facts, not conjecture, not fantasy. He enumerates, maybe we'll post it in the WhatsApp group, our Parsha WhatsApp group so you can see it. But he enumerates the miracles of these two years from the beeper episode and countless others, which to us seem natural and sure the Mossad and the Shabak and to us we we give them such credit that nothing surprises us anymore, but we should see it for the miracle that it is. No less miraculous than what we're reading now. And what our ancestors the Avos didn't get to know God in that way because they didn't see it, we are. We can know Hashem in that way. Not an intellectual cognitive knowledge, but an experiential one. He's choosing to give us access to reveal himself to allow us to know him in that way. The Tiferes Shmuel Berenbaum. Rashi. Here's a famous question. I think we may have discussed it in the past. וארא אל אברהם אל יצחק ואל יעקב. Our Parsha begins that Hashem says to Moshe, I previously revealed myself to to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov. First of all, it could just say אל אברהם יצחק ויעקב. Why to Avraham, to Yitzchak, to Yaakov? That seems unnecessary. Number one. Number two. Rashi. Rashi's great brilliant comment says Rashi, in case you're confused, Vaeira says Rashi, El... Rashi often opens our eyes when we don't know what the Torah is talking about. It's unfamiliar or it's not we don't understand exactly, so Rashi comes in and brilliantly offers insight, and his commentary lets us have understanding. What is Rashi getting at here? Hashem says to Moshe, I revealed myself previously to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and says Rashi, in case you forgot, in case you're confused, in case you skipped the whole first book and went right to the sequel, Shmos, I'll just fill you in that Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov are the avos. They're the avos. Yeah, I got that. I know. I've been following. What is Rashi adding with those two words? Asked the Tiferes Shmuel. Makshan ha'olam is a kasha, as a question the whole world asks. מה בא רש\"י לחדש כאן אלא אבות. וכי לא כולי עלמא ידע דאברהם יצחק ויעקב המה אבותינו. Do we not all know that already? Says Rav Shmuel Birenbaum שרש\"י בא לפרש הקב\"ה בא לחזק את משה רבינו המנהיג של כל ישראל. Hashem here is coming to give chizuk, he's coming to strengthen and give courage and conviction to Moshe כלפי מה שמשה רבינו טען מתוך ענוותנותו מי אנוכי כי אלך אל פרעה וכי אוציא את בני ישראל ממצרים. Moshe demurred when Hashem came to recruit Moshe to be the leader, the mouthpiece, the spokesperson. What did Moshe say? Absolutely! I always wanted to be an influencer. Will I have the most followers? Will I get free stuff in the mail? Will everybody will everybody retweet? Will I go viral? No, that's not what Moshe said. Moshe said, no thank you, no interest. I just want to influence the world; I don't want to be an influencer of the world. He demurred, he hesitated, he was very humble and modest. Who am I to go? And how will I get them out? ולזה אמר לו הקב\"ה שהסייעתא דשמיא של אברהם יצחק ויעקב לבנות את בית ישראל היה לא רק מצד גדלותם אלא גם מצד שהם היו האבות. Says Hashem to Moshe, you think Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov wanted to be influencers? No. They had the same humility and modesty; they asked the same question. Who are we? What are we? How will we? It'll never happen. And you know what? I told them and I'm telling you, you're an av. They were avos. You have leadership; you are the beginning. ולפיכך הייתה להם הצלחה וסייעתא דשמיא עד מאוד. Because they sought and accepted that leadership role, because they understood that responsibility. You know, we think, we make the mistake of thinking if we start, if we begin and we rise, then we become we merit that siyata d'shmaya. But it's the opposite. When we take on a role or responsibility, when we're willing to play a position, then Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us the siyata d'shmaya. When we say, how will I? Will I? I don't have the skill, I don't have the time, I don't have the resources, I can't. Then you don't. But when you say, I don't think I have any of that, but if that's what the moment demands, if that's my mission, if that's my purpose, if that's what's needed, if this is where there's a vacuum, I'm in, then we merit siyata d'shmaya. Says the Tiferes Shmuel what Hashem is telling Moshe is the same way Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov who all thought that they were unworthy, inadequate, who none of them signed up to be influencers, but the moment they took the responsibility, they carried Klal Yisrael, they grabbed the achrayus of the moment, and therefore they merited; same with you. You have all these questions: מי אנוכי וכי אוציא את בני. Just take the responsibility and I'll be by your side and we'll get this done together. כמו כן אמר לו הקב\"ה למשה. Similarly, Hashem told Moshe כיוון שאתה מתמנה עכשיו להיות המנהיג של כל ישראל מצד זכותם של ישראל תזכה לכל סייעתא דשמיא. You think that you're going to merit because you wonder, you keep saying, who am I, what am I, how will I? You're right. You don't, and you can't, and you don't deserve. But you know what? In the merit of the people that you're leading, when you take responsibility to be a manhig, whatever deficiencies or faults, whatever shortcomings you have are more than made up for by the people that you are representing and leading, by those you're taking responsibility for, in the zchus, in the merit of the community, of the kehilla, of klal, therefore Hashem gives you all kinds of kochos, all kinds of competency and power and capacity you never dreamed or you never knew or you never thought you could. וסייעתא דשמיא זו שייכת לכל רב ומנהיג בישראל ולכל אב ואם שבונה משפחה. Some people say, how am I going to be a mother? How am I going to be a father? Who am I, what am I, will I succeed? I don't know. Hashem says first of all, read books and learn and ask and go to a vad and don't just assume that you know how to do it. But also, if you bring a child into the world, says Hashem, if you're my partner in bringing someone into this world, in merit of taking that Don't wait and then you'll do, start doing, and then Hashem will provide what we need in order to succeed, in order to play that role, and that, says Rav Shmuel Berenbaum, is what Rashi was getting at, el ha'avos, el ha'avos. They weren't avos before they started. They started and they led and they fulfilled their mission and because of that, therefore, they became, they became avos. Azoy zogt Rav Shmuel Berenbaum. There are other answers to this question. Rav Shol Alter, the, the Gerer Rosh Yeshiva, says something else, el ha'avos. See, Hashem comes to Moshe and he says, Moshe, you want to know how you'll do it, who are you to do it? I revealed myself previously to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. Now Moshe easily could have said to himself or to Hashem, yeah, but they're the greats, they're the GOATs, they're the Hall of Famers. Who am I? What am I? How do I measure up to them? What do I have to do with them? How are you reassuring me because you previously revealed yourself to them, what does that have to do with me? Comes Rashi and says el ha'avos. What Hashem is telling Moshe is, do you know where you come from? Do you know who you are? Do you know what DNA you have? Do you know from whom you descend? They're your avos, they're your patriarchs, these are your parents, this is what you come from. You think you don't have the resilience, the tenacity, the conviction? You don't have what it takes to be this leader, to rise to this moment? I revealed myself previously to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and they are not, they're not random people of history. They're not just people who are part of a past. They're your avos. They're where you come from, they're who you are, they're what's in your kishkas. You have this in you too. And that's el ha'avos, says Rav Shol Alter, el ha'avos. Moshe, don't think these are just three greats but they have nothing to do with you. These are three greats and they're inside you. The Sfas Emes says every day when we daven three times a day, Magen Avraham, Hashem, you shield Avraham. It doesn't just mean you protected Avraham in the past. It means you protect the Avraham in me, in me. That when I doubt myself, when I feel uncertain, when I feel unworthy, when I feel insecure, I remember Magen Avraham that Hashem, you preserve an Avraham in me. I have that courage and conviction. I have that capacity. I have an Avraham in me. That's my DNA. That's from whom I descend. That's where I come from. That's who I am. And that's what Rashi meant, el ha'avos. Rav Meir Premishlan has another answer. Number three. Says Rav Meir Premishlan, what is el ha'avos? What is Rashi adding, el ha'avos? We know who Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov are by now. We said the, we quoted the Rav Shmuel Berenbaum, we quoted the, the Gerer Rosh Yeshiva, and now Rav Meir Premishlan. Says Rav Meir Premishlan, el ha'avos means the following. Yitzchak might have thought, you know what? My father Avraham was so great. Who am I and what am I? What will I add to him? I'm just a role player. He's an av and I'm a ben. He's a father, I'm a child. He's an av in the world of hilchos Shabbos, in the world of nezikin, you'd say he's an av and I'm a, I'm a toldah. He's primary and I'm secondary. He's the core and I'm, and I'm an offshoot. He's the father and I'm a child. He's the great one and I, yeridas hadoros, I am, by definition, I am less. But Yitzchak didn't say that. Avraham was an av and Yitzchak says I'm an av and Yaakov says I'm an av. El ha'avos in plural. Avraham introduces chessed and Yitzchak introduces avodah and Yaakov introduces emes and Torah and none of them said I can't measure up to who came before, I'll just see myself as a toldah, as a ben, as an offshoot, as a child. Each said, I'm an av. I can introduce, I can initiate, I can contribute, I have something. And that's why it's אל אברהם אל יצחק אל יעקב even though it would have been more concise to say אל אברהם יצחק ויעקב. Why? Because each separate and apart, certainly they shared a relationship with Hashem, but simultaneously they forged their own destiny, they forged their own path, they made their own difference in their own way. Avraham and Yitzchak also made his own difference and Yaakov made his own difference. And that's what Hashem is telling Moshe, make your difference. el ha'avos. And every one of us, I said under a chuppah, I spoke under a chuppah on Sunday and I said both this Rav Shol Alter and the Rav Meir Premishlan and I said to the chosson and kallah and I say to all of you and all of us, whatever stage or age of life, that that combination means as we see ourselves as both. First of all, El HaAvos, know where we come from. If we doubt ourselves, know Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov are not just Hall of Famers that we study about in the past, they are inside all of us, it's who we come from, it's what we have inside of us. But lest we only think that we're offspring, lest we only think that we're offshoots, El HaAvos also means that we are progenitors of the next generation, that we are the Avos of the toldos who follow us, that we have what to add and contribute and who to be, to be the Avos of who will come after us as well. פרק ו פסוק ז, moving right along, we have the four expressions of geulah, the four cups of wine that correspond, women too, we said last week, אף הן היו באותו הנס. פרק ו פסוק ז: ולקחתי אתכם לי לעם, I will take them for me as a nation, והייתי לכם לאלוקים, I'll be a God to them, וידעתם כי אני ה' אלוקיכם המוציא אתכם מתחת סבלות מצרים. And they will know, you should know, I am the Lord your God who hamotzi, what tense is hamotzi? Who takes you out, and why is it takes you out in the present? Because it's true today. In our own Egypt, in our own exile, He took us out in the past and He's taking us out today, mitachas from under sivlos mitzrayim, from under the sivlos mitzrayim, from underneath the burdens of Mitzrayim. We've shared in the past sivlos, a beautiful Meshech Chochmah, sivlos is from the language of savlanus, savlanus! Sivlos means suffering, and it's the same word as patience. Why? Because to show patience is to be willing to suffer. I can endure the suffering, the sufferance, that is patience. I can't, which is why I'm not going to Orlando for Yeshiva week. But those who can, suffer on those long lines and that's suffering, I can't endure it, and that's why I don't go. But the suffering is savlanus. So the Meshech Chochmah says, mitachas sivlos means Hashem is going to take you out from under the burden, from under the suffering, and the way to do that is because you need to grow impatient. We have been too patient for too long for things we should be impatient about. And that's what Hashem says: Stop being patient for the things you should be impatient about. Martin Luther King I think day is coming up. He said in one of his famous speeches that we have to become maladjusted. Never be adjusted. He said it then against about racism, we say it today about antisemitism. No matter what's happening in the world around us, don't adjust, remain maladjusted. Don't become patient, be impatient for injustice, that's savlanus. But I want to share with you a different Sfas Emes, a heilige Sfas Emes. The Torah tells us later in Sefer Devarim that we have an obligation to remember, tizkor, remember the day we left Egypt all the days of our lives. Why? Why does it so much center around our leaving Egypt? All the holidays center around leaving Egypt. Every day, Shema centers around leaving Egypt. Shabbos, one of the two primary themes of Shabbos is zeicher liyetziyas mitzrayim in kiddush. Every part of davening, every part of Shabbos is that we left... What's this obsession with leaving Egypt? Okay, we got it, it was impressive, move on. Why are we so obsessed with leaving Egypt? So obsessed. So one answer that's given is hakaras hatov, gratitude. Because we're never done saying thank you. If you think when you said thank you you discharged your debt of gratitude, you fulfilled your obligation and you're done, that wasn't real gratitude. A real gratitude is endless and boundless. If someone saved your life, you had a heart attack, you were saved from a burning car, someone rescued you, saved your life, would not every single time you saw them for the rest of your life you say, and by the way, I just want to thank you again. I just want to thank you again. You wouldn't be like, I thanked you once! I said thank you once! I wrote you a card, gave you a bottle of wine, leave me alone, why do I have to bring it up again? If somebody did a CPR and saved your life, if someone rescued you from a dire circumstance, every time you saw them for the rest of your life you'd say thank you. So we are still saying thank you to Hashem for taking us out of Mitzrayim, that's one approach, that's the approach of the Haggadah. A second approach was taken by the Gerer Rebbe, the heilige Sfas Emes, and he said we're not just trying to recall cognitively, intellectually a piece of history, we're trying to internalize it, we're trying to live it and to feel it inside us. Listen to what the Sfas Emes writes, amazing, Va'eira Tarla\"d. This is what the Sfas Emes writes. He says, ויוצאתי והצלתי וגאלתי ולקחתי ראינו כי כל הרצון בגאולת מצרים היה לידע שהשם יתברך הוציאנו משם ולכן צריכים לזכור תמיד יציאת מצרים. The word that repeats itself over and over and over again is God says, you know why I am doing all this? And you know why I'm doing it so dramatically? You know why I'm doing it with such pomp and circumstance? You know why I'm doing it in this way? Because I want you to know. Vidata! Viyada, viyeda. I want you to know, I want Pharaoh to know, I want the Egyptians to know, I want the world to know. And we just said what is knowledge? Knowledge is not what you see in a book, knowledge is what you experience in your heart, in your life. Knowledge is what you feel, knowledge is what you went through, knowledge is the intimate experience. Says Hashem I'm doing it so dramatically, I'm doing it so extraordinarily, so supernaturally, so there is no doubt whatsoever, not a shadow of doubt, I'm involved in your life, I know what's going on, I'm intimately connected, I care, and nothing that happens is random or chance, it is all carefully curated and choreographed from above. כל הרצון בגאולת מצרים לידע all of Hashem's plan. What do you think he's flexing? He's showing off? No, he wants us to know. Asher hotzeisanu misham. He took us out. Va-emes writes Sfas Emes, כי בכל עת יש מצרים לכל איש ישראל. For all of us there are moments of Egypt, of Mitzrayim. לכן מזכירים בכל יום יציאת מצרים. Every day when we're down and out, helpless and hopeless, when we're despondent and depressed, every time we think we want to give up, Hashem says remember yetzias Mitzrayim. Remember I took you out. Remember it's never hopeless or helpless. Never give up, I don't give up, I'm here and I'm there for you. I didn't build a world and move on, and I didn't bring you into this world and pull back, I'm aware of, I'm involved in, and I care intimately and deeply about everything in your life. I took them out then and I can take you out now. וכפי מה שיודעים וזוכרים שהשם יתברך הוציאנו אין צריך להיות בפועל תוך המיצר. And the more we know and remember, the more we live and feel that he is and can take us out, the less we are in that place of constriction. Ki k'she-adam שוכח ומתגאה לומר כוחי ועוצם ידי. It's when we forget. It's when we start to believe the hype. It's when we start to think, I'm independent, I'm a part, I take care of myself, I take credit. God, God who? I don't need him. It's my ingenuity, my entrepreneurship, my hard work, my effort, my success. When we forget, אז צריכים להביאו במיצר. That's when Hashem says, oh really? It's all about you? You think you exist on your own? You think you're independent? You think you came to be without me? You think you can have anything without my partnership? It's time to remind you. It's time to put you back in Mitzrayim. It's time to put you in a metzar. שיראה כי הכל מהשם יתברך ויציאת מצרים היה הכנה לדורות. So that first historic leaving Egypt became the precedent in perpetuity, forever, for all of us to look back to and turn back to, to inspire and remind ourselves that wherever we are and whatever we're going through, he took us out then, he can take us out now. שיציאת מצרים היה לדורות וכפי מה שאדם זוכר ביציאת מצרים כן מעורר אצלו יציאת מצרים בכל זמן. The more that we remember yetzias Mitzrayim, the more we don't need to go through our own yetzias Mitzrayim. The more that we invoke it, the more we're involved in it, the more we remember it and we live it, the less we need to go through it again. השם יתברך ציווה להגיד זה לבני ישראל במצרים. And Hashem said tell them this in Egypt. כי היו צועקים מעבודה קשה בפועל because they're crying out from the pain. ואחר כך ששמע משה רבינו כי אחר הגאולה יהל עליהם. All of this is in the beautiful, beautiful Sfas Emes. That the word Mitzrayim comes from the word for straight, for narrow place, metzar, which is also the same root, tzaar, pain. Sfas Emes says everybody has their Mitzrayim moments. I'm taking you out. Rav Asher Weiss, מורינו ורבינו רב אשר וייס, quotes a beautiful insight from the holy Ropshitzer, Rav Naftali Tzvi Horowitz of Ropshitz. The Ropshitzer says we say in Shabbos Kodesh, in Shabbos Kiddush, we say the words, מקראי קודש זכר ליציאת מצרים. מקראי קודש זכר ליציאת מצרים. Says the Ropshitzer that the memory of yetzias Mitzrayim calls us to holiness. How do we get out of Egypt and get into a place of holiness? למקראי קודש זכר ליציאת מצרים. The way to get to a holy place is to always remember who took us out. That we don't live on our own, we're not independent, there's a Hashem, he's involved in our life, we love him, we care about him, we feel him, we turn to him, we surrender and submit to him. And the more that we know that and feel that, l'mikraei kodesh, the path to mikraei kodesh, the way to holiness is yetzias Mitzrayim to remember, to remember the yetzias Mitzrayim to get out of. My friend Rabbi Goldschneider in his beautiful sefer Torah United quotes this. And then he adds on about the Alter Rebbe whose yahrzeit is today. The Lubavitcher Rebbe once shared an anecdote of a farbrengen and he said the following about what it means to taste Hashem. The idea that when we get out of our own yetzias mitzrayim, we can feel the presence of Hashem tangibly. When the teachings of Chassidus were first being heard throughout Russia and Latvia, the Alter Rebbe, Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the Baal HaTanya, once passed through the city of Shklov. Shklov was then famous for its antagonism to Chassidus and for the rigorous hold exerted by the Misnagdim over the entire city. The Alter Rebbe entered the city and directed his steps to the main shul. He went to the bima and in a singular melodious tune, translated a pasuk from Tehillim into Yiddish. Where did I lose? Sorry. He said טעמו וראו כי טוב ה׳. He says my bubby aleha hashalom's favorite pasuk. Even at the end of her life, lying in her hospital bed, טעמו וראו כי טוב ה׳, taste and you will see that a God is good. These soothing words of emanated from his pure truthful heart pierced the hearts of his listeners. Scores of young people ran after him. They began to learn the teachings of Chassidus, soon they became prominent personalities in the Chassidic community. The Alter Rebbe expressed a profound idea in a simple uncomplicated way: one can taste, intimately feel God’s presence. That’s what it means. Viyadatem, to know is to taste God’s presence. Not academic, not intellectual, not conceptual, not distant and apart, but to know. Tamu u’reu, taste and you will see. Experience Hashem, talk to Him, feel Him, lean on Him, rely on Him. Experience Him. Taste and you will see that Hashem is good. That’s why we’re reading these parshios and psukim. That’s what this is all about. It’s getting out of our own mitzrayim, it’s finding our own way in this story. Perek Vav pasuk chaf vav. Moving right along. Moshe demurs the mission and its benefits. Moshe tries to get out of it again. Who am I? לא איש דברים אנכי כבד פה וכבד לשון ערל שפתים איך ישמעני פרעה. The people couldn't listen. How will Pharoah listen? Kal v'chomer, even though it's not really a good kal v'chomer. Why did the people not listen? Why did the people not listen? The Torah tells us: מקוצר רוח ומעבודה קשה. You know why they didn't listen? They were overwhelmed by the work. Rashi says kotzer ruach means shortness of breath. When someone's out of breath, they can't hear. If someone's running and racing and caught up in the hamster wheel of life and they're out of breath and they have no margin, no space, they can't think. What are you going to come, paint a picture of the life they could have? They could barely survive. They're treading water just to stay above, just to breathe. And you're going to come, paint a picture, give them a vision of what could be? Says Rashi, you know why they couldn't hear? Kotzer ruach, they couldn't breathe. The אור החיים הקדוש says kotzer ruach doesn't mean they couldn't breathe. Ruach doesn't mean breath as in the ability physically to breathe. Kotzer ruach means they had no vision. They were so down and out. You go to somebody and you say, you know, just take control of your life. Come, let’s go for a walk every day. Let’s take on your health and wellness. Let’s take on your emotional well-being. Let’s study Torah and they say, ah, it's all farfallen, it's too late for me. It's never going to happen. It can never change. Nothing good's going to come of it. They have no ruach. There's no breath to their vision. They can't see, they can't imagine, they can't dream. Because when there's so much noise and we're so overwhelmed and there feels like there's so much work, then how can we breathe? How can we have a vision? Says the אור החיים הקדוש, Pharoah understood that. You know who else understands that? This world. The technology overwhelms us. There is constant noise, noise, relentless information, noise, activity. We don't have time to think. And when you can't think, you can't dream, you can't picture, you don't have a vision of who you could be. You don't know how you're going to get there. So when we're addicted and when we're obsessed and we're consumed and there's noise always being pumped into our lives, our heads, we can't dream, we have no vision. Kotzer ruach. So the people had a very good reason why they couldn't hear. Could you imagine Moshe comes and he says to them, I know you're suffering, I know you're persecuted, but I have good news. Hashem sent me. Ot ot, almost, we're getting out. And they say, ah, get lost. We don't have time for you. We got bricks we got to make. Get lost. He goes back to Hashem, he says, I tried, what could I do? So now Hashem says, okay, I'll tell you what. Go to Pharoah and tell him to let them out. He says, what are you... the people won't listen to me, certainly Pharoah's not going to listen to me. And Rashi quotes, this is one of the kal v'chomers in the Torah. Kal v'chomer means in a fortiori, I think whatever the Latin is in the Soncino translation of the Gemara. How do you translate kal v'chomer not in Latin? If this, then certainly that. It's one of the arguments of logic. If this, certainly that, kal v'chomer. So the world asks, what kind of kal v'chomer is this? So they freged the pircha in the Kal Vachomer. It's a kasha, it's a question. It's a question. I'll leave it for you as a question. But moving along. So Perek Vav, Posuk Chaf-Vav. So what happens now? We give the lineage. It's time for the two stars to rise. Moshe and Aaron, the mouthpiece spokespeople of Hashem. It's time for them to bang down the door of the palace and come and make that famous demand to Paroh, let, let my people go. So first we remind everyone who they are, where they come from, what is their lineage, and it concludes הוא אהרן ומשה אשר אמר ה׳ להם הוציאו את בני ישראל מארץ מצרים על צבאתם. We're on page 322, chapter six, verse 26. Says Posuk Chaf-Vav: This was Aaron and Moshe, to whom Hashem said \"take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt according to their legions.\" Says Rabbi Sacks, Aaron and Moshe: the names are given here in the chronological order. Aaron, who's older? Aaron. By how much? Three. Three years. Aaron's three years older. How old is Aaron here? 83. Moshe's 80, Aaron's 83. If you're in your 80's, know you're just getting started on your mission. I'm not, I'm dead serious. If you're in your 80's or approaching it, no, you're not retired. You may be retired from your profession, but you're just getting started in your calling, in your mission. Because this is the beginning of Aaron and Moshe on their mission and there's so much redemption the world needs. There's so much leadership the world needs. And the same way Aaron and Moshe's leadership first got started at 80 and 83, your leadership, what we need, could first be getting started at 80 or 83. You're allowed to also if you're, you know, 38. You don't have to wait till 83, but know and find chizuk in the fact that Aaron and Moshe are 80 and 83, you could just be getting started at 80 and 83. So here the Torah is giving the names in what order? Chronological. As opposed to their leadership positions, where they're given in what order? Moshe and Aaron. Sometimes Moshe Aaron, sometimes Aaron Moshe. The Netziv, רב נפתלי צבי יהודה ברלין, the Netziv suggests that in this Posuk which speaks about the Jewish people, Aaron takes priority. Why? He is more well known and beloved by the people. Aaron is more of a people person than Moshe. Moshe is the leader from a distance, Aaron is the peacemaker. Aaron knows the people. Aaron gives the hug after minyan, Aaron knows everybody by name, Aaron makes peace between the people. And Moshe is this academic, this giant, this great. Moshe who spent much of his life in the Egyptian palace and in Midyan, so Moshe is relatively unknown to them. The next Posuk however, look at the next Posuk, is when they come to Paroh. So when it's talking about speaking to the Jewish people, the Posuk says Chaf-Vav: Hu Aaron u-Moshe. When it comes to the next Posuk, המה המדברים אל פרעה הוא משה ואהרן. So points out Rabbi Sacks quoting the Netziv, when it's speaking to the people, Hu Aaron u-Moshe because Aaron's more familiar, Aaron's more beloved. When it comes to speaking to Paroh, who goes first? Hu Moshe ve-Aaron because here Moshe takes precedence. He is well known to the court and respected for his Egyptian ways. Chazal, cited by Rashi, comment the Torah's emphasizing both brothers were equal in their worthiness, in their stature, in their rank. This again signals the end of the sibling rivalry that preoccupied much of the book of Bereishit. It's an incredible moment. הוא משה ואהרן הוא אהרן ומשה. Two brothers separated by three years, who each have their own greatness. Moshe is the greater leader of the people, Aaron is the priest, the Kohen, and Moshe really wanted to be the Kohen. And you know what? They're not jealous and they're not envious and they're not resentful and they have no rivalry. All there is is love and happiness and excitement for one another. One of the things we didn't get to last week's Parsha is ve-ra-acha ve-samach bilvavo. Last week's Parsha it says that Aaron will be happy for Moshe, Moshe's happy for Aaron. They have this incredible capacity to feel נושא בעול עם חבירו. We usually translate נושא בעול עם חבירו as to feel empathy when someone's going through something bad. But there's a Jewish concept, almost uniquely Jewish, I say that because it has a Yiddish word that doesn't appear in any other language, ferginn, which modern Hebrew has lifargen. What does it mean to ferginn, lifargen? Just to be happy for someone, to be happy. The Alter of Kelm points out, is it, is it easier to feel sad and feel the pain with someone? or to be happy with someone. The Alter of Kelm writes it's easier to feel the pain with someone. You know why? Because when someone's suffering, when someone's going through something hard, you say I'll make a meal, I'll say Tehillim, I'll cry with them, I feel bad for them, you know why? I'm just thankful it's not me. Thank God it's not me, I feel so bad for them, I'll feel for them and with them. But when someone goes through a good time, when someone has a simcha, a bracha, nachas, success, you say why isn't it me? Why isn't it me? It's harder to be happy for them because you say why isn't it me? But the same way that there's a concept נושא בעול עם חבירו, to carry the burden with a friend, to feel the pain of a friend, there's a concept of to fargin, to be happy for someone, to be joyous, to dance with them like it's your simcha. Moshe and Aaron are the ones who introduced that concept. And here the rivalry of Sefer Bereishit, Moshe and Aaron demonstrate they continue what Ephraim v'Menashe had, which is brotherly love and the capacity to not be jealous or envious, to not have a rivalry, but to be able to feel a happiness. How could Rashi say Hu Aharon u'Moshe, Hu Moshe v'Aharon, we switch the order because they're equal in greatness. That they're equal. How are they equal? The Rambam, Yud-Gimmel Ikkarim, in Maimonides' 13 principles of faith, one of the principles of faith is to know that there's nobody as great as Moshe. How could you say they're equal? We've mentioned this in the past, Rav Moshe Feinstein says equal doesn't mean they're on the equal level. Equal means each achieved their potential. We all have different and separate potentials and Moshe had the greatest potential of any human being. Aaron was equal to him in that he fulfilled his potential as much as Moshe. And we need to know that we are role players and we each have different roles and the roles are equal, one perhaps is more prominent and one is more quieter and behind the scenes, but they're equal roles as long as each is equally fulfilling who they're meant to be, what they're meant to be. פרק ז פסוק טו, we gotta move a little quicker to cover a little bit more ground. Page 326 because as always we're running out of time. Lech el Pharaoh, Hashem says to Moshe, go to Pharaoh in the morning. Where will you find him? Hinei yotzei hamayma, he's out by the river. Which river? The Jordan, the Yarden. ונצבת לקראתו על שפת היאור be waiting for him there on the bank of the river. והמטה אשר נהפך לנחש תקח בידך and that staff that you had turned into a snake take it with you. Bring it, carry it in your hand. Says the Tiferes Shmuel quoting Rashi. Why is Moshe Rabbeinu meant to go find him near the river? Why is Pharaoh at the river? Why is that where he's going to find him? Why is he at the river? Because Pharaoh sees himself and wants to practice himself that he is a deity. Pharaoh acts like he's a god, he's a deity. And that's what he convinces the Egyptians. Worship me, I'm powerful, I'm great, I'm God's gift to the world. So instead of having a bathroom in the palace, he sneaks out to the river to relieve himself so no one will know that what? He's human. Because what is the great equalizer of all of humanity? I don't care who you are and I don't care if you are the leader of Dubai and you go on a golden toilet, but you need a toilet. It doesn't matter who you are. The great equalizer of all humanity is that you gotta go when you gotta go. When nature's calling, God's calling to remind you that you're human. So Pharaoh thinks that he can pull the wool over the Egyptians' eyes, I am a god, and God says no you're not because gods don't have to go and you've gotta go. So he goes to the river. And says Rashi לנקביו שהיה עושה עצמו אלוה ואמר אינו צריך לנקביו ומשכים ויוצא לנילוס ועושה שם צרכיו, he'd wake up before anyone else was up and he'd go to the river where no one would see, and this was before satellite imagery and cameras and paparazzi and stalkers, and he would take care of his business. Tzarich iyun, wonders Shemen Hamor, listen to this insight. Why was Moshe Rabbeinu need to go specifically to a place of bizayon to levazez Pharaoh? Is God not going to punish Pharaoh enough with these ten plagues? Blood and frog and everything. He's gotta really humiliate him and embarrass him. He's gotta go catch him at the river relieving himself. ולא חלק כבוד למלכות? Can't Moshe at least approach if not Pharaoh the person but the position with dignity and honor and respect? Leilech elav lepalatin, go set up a meeting in the palace like a proper person, כדרך הנפגשים עם המלכים, just like those who meet with a king. Go set up a proper meeting in the palace. You gotta go meet him and find him in a place where you could humiliate him and embarrass him? And there is to say, says Shemen Hamor, כיון שמשה רבנו בא להשרות האמונה במצרים היה צריך לילך תחילה ולעקור שורש הכפירה שמצרים שהוא הנילוס. Before he was going to plant the seeds of faith and belief in Mitzrayim, he first had to uproot the doubt and uncertainty, the idolatry and the heresy. of the Nile River. שהיא עבודה זרה של מצרים, the Nile was the source of idolatry of the Egyptians. They all believed in it, they all turned to it, they all sought to be blessed by it. How would he do that? By going and exposing that Paroh exposes himself and relieves himself in the Nile. When I saw this comment this morning I thought to myself is this not exactly what we need to do right now? The way to confront our enemies is to delegitimize the delegitimizers. Moshe goes to the Nile because step one before even bringing the first plague, step one is delegitimize the delegitimizers. Reveal, expose, pull the cover off of and show who these people are, the grifters and the gropers. Show who these people are and why they're doing what they're doing. Delegitimize the delegitimizers. Rav Sholom Berenbaum didn't have that language because he didn't need it then, but we have it now and that's our mission and purpose now and that's essentially what he's answering. The reason he had to go to the Nile was if the Nile was the place of idolatry... I'm just asking questions, Paroh's at the Nile saying I'm just asking questions. You know, delegitimize the delegitimizers, go to the place where that heresy is happening to begin with. פרק ז פסוק יז. כה אמר ה' בזאת תדע כי אני ה'. With this plague, the first plague now, the plague of blood, you will teida, you will know I am Hashem. הנה אנכי מכה במטה אשר בידי על המים אשר ביאור ונהפכו לדם והדגה אשר ביאור תמות ובאש היאור ונלאו מצרים לשתות מים מן היאור. This is all that's going to happen. You'll know. I'm turning it into blood. Says Rabbi Sacks about these plagues. You know what actually I'm skipping this. The three aims, look for yourself page 425. Rabbi Sacks has a beautiful idea: the curriculum of the makkos. The makkos aren't just random 10. He doesn't say this outright. Maybe he does, I don't think he does. You know when you come to the Pesach Seder and you sing the makkos, 10 makkos, makkos 10, and you dip your finger in the wine you take it out, you got your props and your toys, you wake the kids back up, this is the exciting part. And then afterwards it's ר' יהודה נותן בהם סימנים. Rabbi Yehuda, he divided the plagues into three: Dtzach, he divided into three. He gave acronyms and divided into three. Okay. What did he add? The fact that you can take the 10 plagues and divide them into three in such a way you could give them an acronym, what was he adding? What was he saying? We have Rabbi Sacks' Chumash on the back in a bookcase, page 425. Look inside and you'll see he outlines that there was a curriculum, three aims. There were three classes, three lessons that Moshe, Hashem through Moshe was trying to teach Paroh, by extension the Egyptian people, and by extension all of us. And they can be grouped into three things. Three of them are given at the river. Three of them are given in the palace. You'll see exactly the way they're grouped and that's what this was a reference for and that's what he was showing him and look at it on your own. פרק ז פסוק כג. Sorry, little teaser there. Top of page 328. ויעשו כן חרטמי מצרים בלטיהם ויחזק לב פרעה ולא שמע אליהם כאשר דבר ה' ויפן פרעה ויבא אל ביתו ולא שת לבו גם לזאת. If you listen to nothing else today, I want you to hear this because this is what Parshas Va'eira's all about, this is what these first few parshiyos of Shmos are all about, and chevreh, this is what our lives are all about. The necromancers of Egypt, Paroh's magicians did the same thing by means of their incantations, so Paroh's heart was strong and he didn't listen and Hashem that Hashem had spoken. What did he do? He turned away and he just went home. He went back to the palace. Why? לא שת לבו גם לזאת. Translate those words. Third line page 329. He did not take this to heart either. Lo shas libo. He didn't place his heart, he didn't take to heart, he didn't listen, he didn't care, he didn't heed. Velo shas libo. He turned around and he went straight home. Why did he go home by the way? In his Ish Tamid, Rav Druck says vayavo el beiso. Who cares? Why does it need to tell us he went home? Just tell us his magicians imitated what Moshe and Aharon had done, therefore he didn't heed the message. He went home? Okay, that doesn't seem so relevant, so necessary. Says Paroh, says Rav Druck, you know what it's telling us? He quotes a Meshech Chochma, beautiful Meshech Chochma. The makkah of Dam, the plague of blood, did not impact the palace. It impacted outside the palace, but the flow of water or the bodies of water, the vessels of water inside the palace were not affected as blood. Why not? This is a theme we saw with other makkos. Why not? Who grew up in the palace? Moshe. So in gratitude to the palace for having hosted Moshe, it wasn't impacted by the plague of blood. Good. That's a Medrash, that we know. Says the Meshech Chochmah, now we understand the significance of the Torah telling us ויבא הבית אל פרעה went home. When Moshe who grew up in the palace saw the suffering of his people, where did he go? Lirois besivlosam, he leaves the palace to be with his people because he can't bear that they're going to suffer and he won't be with them. Paroh in contradistinction sees the people suffering and where does he go? Into the protection and security of the palace. Exactly the opposite of Moshe. Moshe, vayar besivlosam, Moshe leaves the palace to go empathize, sympathize, feel the pain and the suffering of his people. Paroh leaves the suffering and pain of his people to go hide in the protection of the palace. That's why the Torah is filling us in, vayevoa habeiso, to draw that contrast to tell us the difference between Paroh and Moshe. Rav Druck, the same Rav Druck in his next sefer, Lavoasei Esh, also says what's going on here in this posuk, velo shas libo, and he quotes Rav Yerucham. Rav Yerucham says, lo shas libo, פרעה לא שם לב ולא התבונן. Paroh didn't see the bigger picture. Paroh said, okay, the beeper episode, they pulled it off. It was technology, they had a big idea, some of them got it done, they all these coincidences. When a person doesn't zoom out the lens and look at the big picture and contemplate and think and meditate and focus and analyze and absorb, then they miss the big picture. Here, a plague fell on Paroh's head and on his house and instead of getting the message, lo shas libo. Lo shas libo. The message we in our lives what we're meant to live, the way we're meant to live, the whole Parsha of Va'eira and next week's Parsha, Bo, the ten plagues all together were a curriculum in וידעת כי אני השם. Hashem says, you don't know. It's interesting by the way, last week's Parsha, last week's Parsha we spoke about it, vayakam melech chadash, there was a new Paroh, אשר לא ידע את יוסף. He didn't know Yosef. He didn't continue to feel gratitude to Yosef. And the commentary say it began with not knowing Yosef and that led to not knowing God. In fact, when Moshe and Aharon first knock on the door of the palace and they say, shalom aleichem, we're here on behalf of God, we're not here to collect money, we're just here to collect our people and let the people go. And Paroh says, I'm sorry, who are you? Do you have a laminated card? Are you endorsed? Does it say where you're from? Who are you? They say, we're here on behalf of the God Almighty, Hashem Elokeinu. And Paroh says, אנכי לא ידעתי את השם. I don't know God. I don't know God. Paroh says, you don't know me? Let me introduce myself. דם צפרדע כנים ערוב. God says let me introduce myself. And if you look at that comment by Rabbi Sacks, you'll see, it's a three-part curriculum in how you can get to know me. First I created the world, second I continue to interact with the world, I interact through nature, through history, read and you'll see what is that curriculum that he's teaching. That's why the emphasis is over and over again, that word, know. Oh Paroh you don't know? The Egyptian people you don't know? The Jewish people you have no margin and no space, you can't think to get to know me, let me introduce myself to the world. To the world. And that's what's going on over here. And Paroh doesn't pick up on the message. Why? לא שת לבו גם לזאת. He's not picking up the message, he's not paying attention, he's not thinking, he's not feeling. Later in sefer Devarim we say it every day in Aleinu, וידעת היום והשבת אל לבבך. Hashem says I gave you the Torah and I appeared to you and I revealed myself to you why? So that you can know today, know me, know me, to know is to have an intimate ongoing connection and relationship. And relationship. So let me finish, let me finish with this. A beautiful Rav Shol Alter. Let me finish with this. That's what this repetition. Hashem says, למען תדע כי אין כהשם אלקינו. The frogs. There's seven of the ten makkos appear in our Parsha. Seven of the ten. But the aliyos are not broken up by the makkos. Instead they each stop and end, if you look, pay careful attention as you do shnayim mikra this week, and I'll make another plug for the Florida campaign for שנים מקרא ואחד תרגום, reviewing the Parsha twice every week with Onkelos or Rashi, and if you sign up on this new campaign you join the WhatsApp group they'll send you for free, ears just perked up, they'll send you for free a copy of Artscroll's new שנים מקרא ואחד תרגום Chumash with the logo of the free state of Florida on the cover. So sign up and you get that beautiful free shnayim mikra Chumash. So if you look as you're doing shnayim mikra or wait till this Shabbos and listen carefully that the aliyos are not broken up by the makkos they each stop and end with a lesson. Frogs ends with the word, leman... So you know there's none like God. Kinnim ends ויאמרו החרטמים אל פרעה אצבע אלקים היא ויחזק לב פרעה ולא שמע אליהם כאשר דבר ה'. The magician priest said to Pharaoh, \"This is the finger of God,\" but Pharaoh's heart stiffened and he wouldn't heed. Dever ends למען תספר שמי בכל הארץ, in order that my fame resound throughout the world. Says the Gerer Rosh Yeshiva Shlita, we end each Aliya on a thought so it gets etched into our consciousness, it's embedded in our heart and mind. This is how we read the story. These aren't natural occurrences, these aren't ordinary events, these aren't headlines and news reports and alerts. Each one is Hashem showing His hand, so every Aliya ends with \"And God made Himself known,\" \"so that you will know,\" \"so that it will spread,\" \"so that you will see.\" That's the reason He did this, and Pharaoh fails, and he fails miserably, and it's exactly where he goes wrong. The Parsha itself ends off: Pharaoh's heart became hard, he was callous and distracted and disconnected. How does the Parsha end? ויחזק לב פרעה ולא שילח את בני ישראל. Pharaoh's heart was hard, it was stiffened, and he didn't let the people go, just as Hashem told Moshe. And that's what's happening around us. It's easy to live and look around and say what's happening in Iran, and we don't know in the Parsha class itself maybe the regime fell. Every day we wake up and the world is changing, and what it takes for it to happen, all the things and variables that have to come together. And you could look at it and you can read it and you can get the headlines and say, \"Chance,\" \"random,\" \"coincidence,\" \"it's the effort of people,\" \"the American military who captured Maduro,\" \"the Israeli brilliance and genius,\" it's the Americans and Israelis who probably are helping the end of the regime fall. Or you can and should do what Pharaoh didn't and missed out on, which is to see the hand of Hashem. He is allowing and inviting us to intimately know Him through the world events that are unfolding. And much of, if not most of, my life was ordinary. You went to school, you went to work, you lived life. We're living extraordinary times where every day, every week, every month of these last couple years, Hashem is inviting us to see His hand in the unfolding of history. Don't be like Pharaoh and fail to pick up on the message. Don't fail Velo Shas Libo, don't not put your heart, don't not pay attention. See it. We say every morning in our Davening לעולם יהא אדם ירא שמים בסתר ובגלוי. A person should always be fear of God privately and openly, publicly, admit the truth. Why does it say Leolam? Just say יהא אדם ירא שמים בסתר ובגלוי. Why do we start Leolam? Says the Gerer Rosh Yeshiva, because one can never rely only on the inspiration from yesterday. Leolam means every day find inspiration, every day search and seek the hand of Hashem. Every day Leolam Yehei Adam. Every day be a person of Yiras Shamayim and Yiras Hashem and search and feel and see and you will find Hashem. ויפן פרעה ולא שת לבו. He failed to see. Notes Reb Yeruchom, he says Pharaoh's mistake and failure and for too many of us ours as well is all captured in those three words: Velo Shas Libo. He didn't pay attention. Pay attention, be contemplative, be thoughtful, look, interpret, seek, understand. Pay attention, be somebody who Shas Libo. Leolam see His hand. We're out of time, we'll pick up with next week. Anything more to announce? Shiurim are on for the next couple weeks. If you're here for Yeshiva Week or you're coming down for Yeshiva Week, BRS is your home. Minyanim, R' Shaya's Cafe, Beis Medrash, Wi-Fi, slushies and pastries, Parsha class, Emuna, Tanya and more. Till next time, stay happy, stay healthy and stay holy.
