Chasidut su Esodo 3:10
וְעַתָּ֣ה לְכָ֔ה וְאֶֽשְׁלָחֲךָ֖ אֶל־פַּרְעֹ֑ה וְהוֹצֵ֛א אֶת־עַמִּ֥י בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מִמִּצְרָֽיִם׃
Or dunque, vieni ch’io ti mandi a Faraone; e tu trarrai il mio popolo, i figli d’Israel, dall’Egitto.
Kedushat Levi
An alternate way of understanding the introductory words: ואתה תצוה את בני ישראל, “and you are to command the Children of Israel, etc.” When G’d told Moses in Exodus 3,10: לכה ואשלחך אל פרעה, “go and I will send you to Pharaoh,” the Ari z’al finds it strange that G’d had to spell out to Moses that He appointed him as His messenger. Every child reading this paragraph would have understood this without being told that Moses was the messenger. However, we have a rule that anything negative never originates directly from G’d. G’d does not even directly associate His holy name with something destructive, negative. It is even difficult for G’d to directly bring harm on those of His creatures who worship idols. Therefore, when the Torah introduces a chapter that introduces the harm that will befall Pharaoh and his people, G’d wishes to employ a “messenger” to be the harbinger of such news. The word לכה therefore is not to be understood as derived from לך, meaning: “please go,” but as derived from the word לך, “for you.” In other words, the primary purpose of Pharaoh’s punishment if and when it will occur, is “for your benefit,” it is not the destruction that is part of the Exodus which is G’d’s primary purpose in what will follow. The secondary meaning is that the destruction when it does occur, will be attributed to Moses who had warned Pharaoh about it, i.e. לכה, it will be perceived by him as originating with Moses. Moreover being punished by one of G’d’s creatures, Moses, instead of by the Creator Himself, is demeaning for a great King such as Pharaoh.
The considerations that we discussed right now, help us explain a statement in the Talmud that in the distant future, the time of the Messiah, the entire Jewish nation will be worthy to perform the service in the Temple which at this time only the priests are worthy to perform. If G’d has difficulty in bringing harm on any of His creatures however much they may have deserved this, how much more so does He have reservations about initiating what may be perceived as harm for a great part of His people. When Moses is commanded to single out the priests for service in the Temple, the priestly garments, etc., this too He prefers to do through a messenger rather than to exclude the other 99% of the people from such a distinction Himself.
The considerations that we discussed right now, help us explain a statement in the Talmud that in the distant future, the time of the Messiah, the entire Jewish nation will be worthy to perform the service in the Temple which at this time only the priests are worthy to perform. If G’d has difficulty in bringing harm on any of His creatures however much they may have deserved this, how much more so does He have reservations about initiating what may be perceived as harm for a great part of His people. When Moses is commanded to single out the priests for service in the Temple, the priestly garments, etc., this too He prefers to do through a messenger rather than to exclude the other 99% of the people from such a distinction Himself.
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Kedushat Levi
Exodus 3,10 “come, therefore I will send you to Pharaoh, etc.;” In order to understand the ensuing developments, i.e. interminably long negotiations between Moses and Pharaoh about the release of the Israelites, the author suggests that we look at psalms 117,1 הללו את ה' כל גוים שבחוהו כל האומים כי גבר עלינו חסדו ואמת ה' לעולם הללויה, “praise the Lord all you nations, extol Him, all you peoples; for He is great and steadfast toward us; the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.” The Talmud Pessachim 118 appears to understand David’s words as meaning that if the gentiles acknowledge the miracles G’d has performed for them, then they surely must acknowledge and praise the Lord even more for the miracles He has performed for the Jewish people, i.e. וגבר עלינו חסדו, “for great is His steadfast love toward us;” at first glance this line is difficult, as we would have expected David to refer to the miracles G’d has performed for us, the Jewish people. According to the Talmud, David meant that the nations are requested to acknowledge the miracles performed by G’d for His people. From this it follows that they must all the more acknowledge the miracles G’d has performed for them.
After all, we have proof of this in Deuteronomy 4,34. When Moses there extols the mind-boggling nature of the miracles performed by G’d for us, he compares these miracles to others that G’d, on occasion, has performed even for the gentiles. These mind-boggling miracles performed on behalf of His people have usually been predicted by a prophet announcing time and location of each miracle. They usually took the form of penalizing the enemies or oppressors of the Jewish people at the same time.
It is quite out of the question that in psalms 117 or elsewhere, David intended for the gentiles to salute and praise the Lord for miracles He had performed for them.
We will try therefore, with G’d’s help to explain what the Talmud had in mind when speaking of miracles G’d performed for the gentiles. In order to do this plausibly, let us remember a statement from the Haggadah shel Pessach, where the author refers to: והכיתי כל בכור בארץ מצרים אני ולא מלאך, אני ה' הוא ולא אחר; ”I will smitten every firstborn in the land of Egypt, ‘I and not an angel, I the Lord, it is I and no one else.’” [The author presents a slightly condensed quote, which does not detract from the point under discussion. Ed.]. Why was the killing of the firstborn carried out by Hashem personally, whereas for all the other plagues He employed “angels,” i.e. terrestrial phenomena, though all were G’d’s messengers, agents?
We must explain however, that harmful phenomena never originate with G’d. Only beneficial phenomena originate with G’d. When our eyes will be opened to see the great troubles that befall the wicked, we will realize that the wicked themselves have been the architects of their problems, or even destruction. If they would be intelligent enough to realize that all of these phenomena are warnings, they would, instead of cursing the day they had been born, turn to G’d in love, grateful to have been given such opportunities to improve their ways. These “disciplinary measures” by G’d are designed to lead to His name becoming sanctified and aggrandized throughout the universe, especially the part of it where His name had not been known previously. Not only will His existence be revealed to them by such disciplinary actions, but the fact that He is involved in the personal fates of all His creatures will also be demonstrated by His intervention in the affairs of man by means of miracles. [The plagues that the Egyptians were afflicted with had far-reaching consequences, so that 40 years later Rachav, the innkeeper in Jericho told Joshua’s spies that all her friends and acquaintances were still in awe of how G’d had split the sea to allow the Israelites to pass through, while at the same time drowning the pursuing Egyptians in it. (Joshua 2,10) Ed.]
An intelligent Jew or gentile, using his brain without prejudice, will, instead of being frustrated by misfortune, use same as a jumping off board to establish closer ties with his G’d, Who had been kind enough to alert him to His existence in heaven by inflicting harsh penalties on him instead of summarily condemning him to eternal perdition without warning. The Jewish people did not realize all this until after the plagues that G’d visited upon the Egyptians, they had not only been spared, but had seen how G’d had elevated them to become His עם סגולה, especially precious people.
Some leading personalities in our history used this concept to wish for the day when they could demonstrate that they had learned this lesson. The Talmud in B’rachot 61 relates a conversation between Rabbi Akiva (aged 120 at the time) in which the students are quoted as asking their mentor, who at that time was undergoing torture at the hands of the Romans for having publicly violated the decree not to teach Torah, “how long are you going to praise the Lord under such conditions?” He answered them that far from being disheartened, he had been waiting for a lifetime to be able to fulfill the commandment to love G’d בכל נפשך, “with your entire life force,” i.e. at the price of a painful death. How could he possibly allow himself to succumb now when finally this opportunity had presented itself for him? Rabbi Akiva’s final lesson to his disciples was to teach them to make use of adversity, even the most painful adversity, to rise to spiritual levels that would have remained in the realm of a potential only, had they not been able to fulfill this commandment publicly.
[It is doubtful, in my opinion, that we are obligated to wish ourselves such opportunities as Rabbi Akiva had deliberately invited by public disobedience of Roman decrees, as the sages tell us that when David wished to become one of the patriarchs, G’d warned him that in order to do so one had to successfully cope with difficult temptations. Since David had insisted, he was tempted by the matter of Bat Sheva, and, having been unable to resist the temptation, he did not wind up as one of the patriarchs mentioned in our daily amidah prayer at the very outset. (Sanhedrin 107) Ed.]
To sum up, the principal purpose of our existence on earth is to mobilize all our faculties to serve the Lord in the best way we know how. Fondness of the Lord cannot be better demonstrated than to walk through fire or water when necessary, and to see in this an opportunity to prove to Hashem that we love Him and are convinced that what He has decreed for us is for our ultimate benefit, even if we cannot realize this at the time when we are suffering the afflictions concerned.
Expressed slightly differently, we must train ourselves to view trials and tribulations not as “afflictions, attempts to make our lives uncomfortable or even unbearable,” but as medicines designed to cure our ills, especially the ones (like high blood pressure) that we were totally unaware of. Just as none of us would refuse to swallow a bitter tasting medicine prescribed by his favourite physician, so we must not refuse to accept with good cheer the medicine prescribed for us by the “Healer” of the universe, its architect. [The reader may have guessed that I paraphrased some of the author’s words. Ed.]
As to the plagues in Egypt, the Jewish people experienced this lesson by watching how G’d dealt with the Egyptians; we learned vicariously, instead of our having to learn this on our own bodies.
[As the author proceeds to describe the ideal Jew as eagerly looking forward to more yissurim, afflictions, and this editor recalls numerous prayers that include specifically the plea not to elevate us by means of painful yissurim, I will omit part of this chapter, as it is not addressed to the average reader like myself. Ed.]
The author, coming back to his original question of why the killing of the firstborn had to be orchestrated by G’d Himself, points to our opening statement that nothing bad ever originates with G’d Himself. If G’d therefore, personally carried out the killing of the firstborn, this too could not have been something bad, something negative, else He would have had to entrust it to one or more of His angels.
When G’d concludes with what appears as if a repetition, that it is He and no one else who has done this, He means that by orchestrating this “plague” Himself He achieved that His name became great and well known all over the inhabited parts of the globe. If the death of the Egyptians served the purpose of sanctifying the holy name of the Lord, they themselves had served a holy purpose, though unwittingly.
After all, we have proof of this in Deuteronomy 4,34. When Moses there extols the mind-boggling nature of the miracles performed by G’d for us, he compares these miracles to others that G’d, on occasion, has performed even for the gentiles. These mind-boggling miracles performed on behalf of His people have usually been predicted by a prophet announcing time and location of each miracle. They usually took the form of penalizing the enemies or oppressors of the Jewish people at the same time.
It is quite out of the question that in psalms 117 or elsewhere, David intended for the gentiles to salute and praise the Lord for miracles He had performed for them.
We will try therefore, with G’d’s help to explain what the Talmud had in mind when speaking of miracles G’d performed for the gentiles. In order to do this plausibly, let us remember a statement from the Haggadah shel Pessach, where the author refers to: והכיתי כל בכור בארץ מצרים אני ולא מלאך, אני ה' הוא ולא אחר; ”I will smitten every firstborn in the land of Egypt, ‘I and not an angel, I the Lord, it is I and no one else.’” [The author presents a slightly condensed quote, which does not detract from the point under discussion. Ed.]. Why was the killing of the firstborn carried out by Hashem personally, whereas for all the other plagues He employed “angels,” i.e. terrestrial phenomena, though all were G’d’s messengers, agents?
We must explain however, that harmful phenomena never originate with G’d. Only beneficial phenomena originate with G’d. When our eyes will be opened to see the great troubles that befall the wicked, we will realize that the wicked themselves have been the architects of their problems, or even destruction. If they would be intelligent enough to realize that all of these phenomena are warnings, they would, instead of cursing the day they had been born, turn to G’d in love, grateful to have been given such opportunities to improve their ways. These “disciplinary measures” by G’d are designed to lead to His name becoming sanctified and aggrandized throughout the universe, especially the part of it where His name had not been known previously. Not only will His existence be revealed to them by such disciplinary actions, but the fact that He is involved in the personal fates of all His creatures will also be demonstrated by His intervention in the affairs of man by means of miracles. [The plagues that the Egyptians were afflicted with had far-reaching consequences, so that 40 years later Rachav, the innkeeper in Jericho told Joshua’s spies that all her friends and acquaintances were still in awe of how G’d had split the sea to allow the Israelites to pass through, while at the same time drowning the pursuing Egyptians in it. (Joshua 2,10) Ed.]
An intelligent Jew or gentile, using his brain without prejudice, will, instead of being frustrated by misfortune, use same as a jumping off board to establish closer ties with his G’d, Who had been kind enough to alert him to His existence in heaven by inflicting harsh penalties on him instead of summarily condemning him to eternal perdition without warning. The Jewish people did not realize all this until after the plagues that G’d visited upon the Egyptians, they had not only been spared, but had seen how G’d had elevated them to become His עם סגולה, especially precious people.
Some leading personalities in our history used this concept to wish for the day when they could demonstrate that they had learned this lesson. The Talmud in B’rachot 61 relates a conversation between Rabbi Akiva (aged 120 at the time) in which the students are quoted as asking their mentor, who at that time was undergoing torture at the hands of the Romans for having publicly violated the decree not to teach Torah, “how long are you going to praise the Lord under such conditions?” He answered them that far from being disheartened, he had been waiting for a lifetime to be able to fulfill the commandment to love G’d בכל נפשך, “with your entire life force,” i.e. at the price of a painful death. How could he possibly allow himself to succumb now when finally this opportunity had presented itself for him? Rabbi Akiva’s final lesson to his disciples was to teach them to make use of adversity, even the most painful adversity, to rise to spiritual levels that would have remained in the realm of a potential only, had they not been able to fulfill this commandment publicly.
[It is doubtful, in my opinion, that we are obligated to wish ourselves such opportunities as Rabbi Akiva had deliberately invited by public disobedience of Roman decrees, as the sages tell us that when David wished to become one of the patriarchs, G’d warned him that in order to do so one had to successfully cope with difficult temptations. Since David had insisted, he was tempted by the matter of Bat Sheva, and, having been unable to resist the temptation, he did not wind up as one of the patriarchs mentioned in our daily amidah prayer at the very outset. (Sanhedrin 107) Ed.]
To sum up, the principal purpose of our existence on earth is to mobilize all our faculties to serve the Lord in the best way we know how. Fondness of the Lord cannot be better demonstrated than to walk through fire or water when necessary, and to see in this an opportunity to prove to Hashem that we love Him and are convinced that what He has decreed for us is for our ultimate benefit, even if we cannot realize this at the time when we are suffering the afflictions concerned.
Expressed slightly differently, we must train ourselves to view trials and tribulations not as “afflictions, attempts to make our lives uncomfortable or even unbearable,” but as medicines designed to cure our ills, especially the ones (like high blood pressure) that we were totally unaware of. Just as none of us would refuse to swallow a bitter tasting medicine prescribed by his favourite physician, so we must not refuse to accept with good cheer the medicine prescribed for us by the “Healer” of the universe, its architect. [The reader may have guessed that I paraphrased some of the author’s words. Ed.]
As to the plagues in Egypt, the Jewish people experienced this lesson by watching how G’d dealt with the Egyptians; we learned vicariously, instead of our having to learn this on our own bodies.
[As the author proceeds to describe the ideal Jew as eagerly looking forward to more yissurim, afflictions, and this editor recalls numerous prayers that include specifically the plea not to elevate us by means of painful yissurim, I will omit part of this chapter, as it is not addressed to the average reader like myself. Ed.]
The author, coming back to his original question of why the killing of the firstborn had to be orchestrated by G’d Himself, points to our opening statement that nothing bad ever originates with G’d Himself. If G’d therefore, personally carried out the killing of the firstborn, this too could not have been something bad, something negative, else He would have had to entrust it to one or more of His angels.
When G’d concludes with what appears as if a repetition, that it is He and no one else who has done this, He means that by orchestrating this “plague” Himself He achieved that His name became great and well known all over the inhabited parts of the globe. If the death of the Egyptians served the purpose of sanctifying the holy name of the Lord, they themselves had served a holy purpose, though unwittingly.
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Kedushat Levi
Exodus 17,16.“for as long as a hand is raised against the throne of G’d, Hashem will continue to wage war against Amalek.” We need to understand why the “war” against Amalek is so extraordinarily difficult and long drawn out for G’d, Who could create the universe with merely 10 verbal directives. This question is also posed by the author of the Zohar, when reflecting on the ongoing struggle, מדור ודור, “from generation to generation. (Zohar II 133)
It appears to me that without a doubt the Creator Who had created all the various universes could have disposed of Amalek with a single breath of His mouth. This is especially so, in light of what G’d had already demonstrated at the sea of reeds, when He drowned a far mightier army than was at the disposal of Amalek, in a single hour. The point we must consider is that G’d at all times- even when apparently acting destructively- does in fact act for the good of mankind. The Ari z’al stresses this already in his commentary on Exodus 3,10 when G’d first appointed Moses by saying to him: לכה ואשלחך אל פרעה והוצא את עמי בני ישראל ממצרים, “come, I will send you to Pharaoh and you shall free My people the Children of Israel from Egypt.” It is clear from this wording that G’d had hoped to accomplish the Exodus without having to impose judgments on Pharaoh and his people. It is simply not in the nature of G’d to inflict harm even on the gentile peoples of the world, if His purpose can be achieved by avoiding this.
If it becomes necessary to perform miracles which at the same time afflict the people who made these miracles necessary so that they suffer from them, it is because G’d sees ultimate good in these very afflictions that He decrees on the victims. The author refers to an article of his on the general subject of miracles where he dealt with this subject.
One of the “good results” from such miracles is the fact that some of the people who are the victims will choose of their own free will to convert to Judaism and to become servants of the only G’d. In the case of Amalek, in spite of this people having witnessed the miracles which had so profoundly impressed all the other nations, no such positive outcome as people converting to Judaism resulted. On the contrary, as Rashi had described, the Amalekites decided to put an end to such “repentance movements” among the idolaters by even risking suicide to show that G’d was not invincible and could be opposed. By doing so they threw down a gauntlet to the Creator by daring Him to destroy them immediately and thereby becoming known as a G’d Who was overly cruel to a nation that had not even harmed His people for hundreds of years as had the Egyptians, who had survived, except for their army. [Some of the words are my own, but they reflect the tenor of the words of the author. Ed.]
Amalek’s conduct had shown that regardless of how many more miracles G’d would perform, this would not result in at least some of these people realizing the error of their ways and converting to monotheism after repenting. G’d’s only recourse then was to make the judgment of Amalek look like His avenging Himself. The problem with this was that it would reflect negatively on G’d’s image as the Merciful One.
The Ari’zal also writes that when G’d does decide to apply His judgments to such sinners as a form of revenge, He does not do so in a manner that directly involves any of His attributes. He entrusts this tasks to messengers, so that in this instance the first stage was waging war on the battlefield. “War” is always perceived as an action initiated by human beings, not by G’d. This war was to be fought without G’d directly intervening in its outcome, or raining down a hail of stones as in the war for the capture of the land of the Canaanites. (Joshua 10,11) When G’d tells Moses in verse 14 כי מחה אמחה את זכר עמלק “for I will utterly destroy any remembrance of Amalek,” the word מחה has been repeated to tell us that memory of Amalek will not only be wiped out in the lower part of the universe, the area inhabited by man, but also in the celestial regions there will not remain any residue of that nation. This absolute destruction is not found with any other nation concerning which the prophets in the Bible predict disaster at one time or another. Among all the other nations Divine judgments had resulted in some positive developments, so that their continued existence in one form or another could be justified.
We have mentioned earlier that when G’d performs overt miracles His 4-lettered name י-ה-ו-ה is involved, whereas here the Torah makes a point of describing Amalek’s provocation as aimed at the throne of י-ה, i.e. not at the tetragram, as that name of G’d had not become involved with the fate of that nation. The word יד in that verse, as always when it appears in connection with G’d is an allusion to G’d’s loving kindness. The word כס describes the Divine chariot, or “throne.” While G’d is involved in the ongoing war against Amalek, מלחמה, His attribute of חסד remains totally uninvolved.
It appears to me that without a doubt the Creator Who had created all the various universes could have disposed of Amalek with a single breath of His mouth. This is especially so, in light of what G’d had already demonstrated at the sea of reeds, when He drowned a far mightier army than was at the disposal of Amalek, in a single hour. The point we must consider is that G’d at all times- even when apparently acting destructively- does in fact act for the good of mankind. The Ari z’al stresses this already in his commentary on Exodus 3,10 when G’d first appointed Moses by saying to him: לכה ואשלחך אל פרעה והוצא את עמי בני ישראל ממצרים, “come, I will send you to Pharaoh and you shall free My people the Children of Israel from Egypt.” It is clear from this wording that G’d had hoped to accomplish the Exodus without having to impose judgments on Pharaoh and his people. It is simply not in the nature of G’d to inflict harm even on the gentile peoples of the world, if His purpose can be achieved by avoiding this.
If it becomes necessary to perform miracles which at the same time afflict the people who made these miracles necessary so that they suffer from them, it is because G’d sees ultimate good in these very afflictions that He decrees on the victims. The author refers to an article of his on the general subject of miracles where he dealt with this subject.
One of the “good results” from such miracles is the fact that some of the people who are the victims will choose of their own free will to convert to Judaism and to become servants of the only G’d. In the case of Amalek, in spite of this people having witnessed the miracles which had so profoundly impressed all the other nations, no such positive outcome as people converting to Judaism resulted. On the contrary, as Rashi had described, the Amalekites decided to put an end to such “repentance movements” among the idolaters by even risking suicide to show that G’d was not invincible and could be opposed. By doing so they threw down a gauntlet to the Creator by daring Him to destroy them immediately and thereby becoming known as a G’d Who was overly cruel to a nation that had not even harmed His people for hundreds of years as had the Egyptians, who had survived, except for their army. [Some of the words are my own, but they reflect the tenor of the words of the author. Ed.]
Amalek’s conduct had shown that regardless of how many more miracles G’d would perform, this would not result in at least some of these people realizing the error of their ways and converting to monotheism after repenting. G’d’s only recourse then was to make the judgment of Amalek look like His avenging Himself. The problem with this was that it would reflect negatively on G’d’s image as the Merciful One.
The Ari’zal also writes that when G’d does decide to apply His judgments to such sinners as a form of revenge, He does not do so in a manner that directly involves any of His attributes. He entrusts this tasks to messengers, so that in this instance the first stage was waging war on the battlefield. “War” is always perceived as an action initiated by human beings, not by G’d. This war was to be fought without G’d directly intervening in its outcome, or raining down a hail of stones as in the war for the capture of the land of the Canaanites. (Joshua 10,11) When G’d tells Moses in verse 14 כי מחה אמחה את זכר עמלק “for I will utterly destroy any remembrance of Amalek,” the word מחה has been repeated to tell us that memory of Amalek will not only be wiped out in the lower part of the universe, the area inhabited by man, but also in the celestial regions there will not remain any residue of that nation. This absolute destruction is not found with any other nation concerning which the prophets in the Bible predict disaster at one time or another. Among all the other nations Divine judgments had resulted in some positive developments, so that their continued existence in one form or another could be justified.
We have mentioned earlier that when G’d performs overt miracles His 4-lettered name י-ה-ו-ה is involved, whereas here the Torah makes a point of describing Amalek’s provocation as aimed at the throne of י-ה, i.e. not at the tetragram, as that name of G’d had not become involved with the fate of that nation. The word יד in that verse, as always when it appears in connection with G’d is an allusion to G’d’s loving kindness. The word כס describes the Divine chariot, or “throne.” While G’d is involved in the ongoing war against Amalek, מלחמה, His attribute of חסד remains totally uninvolved.
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