Cytowanie Komentarza do Powtórzonego Prawa 33:8

When Jacob added אל תותר, he hinted that although Reuben had displayed haste in doing something which held no advantage for him, he had not displayed the same haste when it came to doing something useful, i.e. repenting his mistake. Our sages in Baba Kama 92 say that it was Yehudah who triggered Reuben's eventual repentance. Although Bereshit Rabbah 84,19 states that G'd complimented Reuben on being the first human being who had repented [without having been accused by anyone as yet, Ed.], Reuben had not uttered a confession of his sin until he had heard about Yehudah doing this during Tamar's trial. Perhaps Reuben's tardiness in confessing his mistake was the reason that royalty was conferred on the descendants of Yehudah instead. It was Yehudah's reward for being the cause that triggered the final stage in Reuben's repentance. Reuben may have lost the priesthood to the descendants of Levi as a result of later developments as mentioned in Deut. 33,8 לאיש חסידך אשר נסיתו במסה, "Be with Your faithful one whom You tested at Massah" (when that tribe did not complain). Regardless of when Levi qualified for the priesthood, Reuben forfeited his claim to it already during Jacob's time. The words אל תותר mean that Reuben was deprived of all his erstwhile advantages over his brothers. Jacob transferred one of his former distinctions to Joseph, a second one to Yehudah, and he left the third one pending until G'd eventually accorded it to part of the tribe of Levi.

Exile is as much an internal state of being as it is a physical state of the body. By enslaving their souls, the Egyptians were able to enslave their bodies as well
All their work which they made them do with hard labor: The Zohar explains that the real exile in Egypt was the exile of the soul (and not the body). When the Torah says, “The embittered their lives (hayeihem),” it means they embittered their life force (hiyyutam) and by embittering their life force, they enslaved their bodies as well. The tribe of Levi, on the other hand, was different from the other tribes of Israel. They were not enslaved by the Egyptians because they continued to practice Brit Milah, the covenant of circumcision and they studied Torah as well.¹⁴³That’s right – the children of Abraham Isaac and Jacob were studying Torah even before the Torah was given. This is a common idea in Midrashic literature. According to the sages, Isaac did not return home with his father after his binding; instead he attended the academy of Shem and Eber. The rest of the people of Israel rejected the teachings of their ancestors and as a result they were enslaved by the Egyptians. We learn from the sages of blessed memory, “Anyone who rejects the yoke of Torah receives the yoke of the kingdoms upon himself.”¹⁴⁴Pirkei Avot 3:8 We learn this from the following verse: “Of Levi he said, Let your Tummim and Urim be with your faithful ones; who you tested at Massa and challenged at the waters of Meribah.”¹⁴⁵Deuteronomy 33:8; The Urim and Tummim are a reference to the oracle device worn and used by the high priest to consult with God in matters of national importance. Here Rabbi Horowitz understands them as a reference to the two mitzvot which Levi performed in Egypt. Tummim refers to the commandment to circumcise the male children.¹⁴⁶God tells Abraham, “Walk in My ways and be blameless,” Genesis 17:1 Israel is not blameless until they are circumcised and therefore complete. Urim is a reference to their commitment to study Torah, even in Egypt.¹⁴⁷The word Urim comes from the word ohr, light, or possibly from the root word of Torah. Horowitz offers other biblical proofs to teach the unique status of the Levites which I have not included here.
The following is a continuation of the previous discussion as well as a side note regarding the women of Israel. Why weren’t the women persecuted as severely as the men? Horowitz offers a fascinating theory of anti-Semitism. All anti-Semitism grows out of jealousy.
We have seen that the other tribes were subjugated with the exception of the tribe of Levi. Pharaoh also could not subjugate the Israelite women because they were not obligated to observe the covenant or to study Torah. As a result they did not cast off these commandments since they were never obligated to observe them in the first place.
Another note about why the Israelite women were not persecuted: There were three advisors with whom Pharaoh consulted regarding the Israelites: they were Yitro, Bilaam and Job. Why did these three men hate the people of Israel? They were jealous! Yitro was a descendent of Midianites who were the offspring of Abraham’s relationship with Keturah. He was jealous because Moses gave all his holiness and possessions to Isaac and sent the descendents of Keturah away. Similarly, Bilaam was a descendent of Laban who hated Isaac because he married his sister Rebecca. He felt that by doing this, Isaac robbed him of the potential greatness he would have had since Rebecca took away all the divine sparks. Finally, Job married Dinah the daughter of Jacob and was extremely jealous because the sons inherited from their father and Dinah was completely disinherited! Yitro refused to participate in the persecution so he ran away. Job advised oppressing the male children (since he was jealous of the tribes) while Balaam advised oppressing and killing the female children (since he was angry at his sister as well as his two daughters who married Jacob and deprived him of the divine sparks). Bilaam was not powerful enough to convince Pharaoh against the advice of Job – so in Egypt the male children were oppressed by Pharaoh and not the female children.

קח את המטה והקהל את העדה, “take the staff and assemble the congregation!” According to Rabbi b’chor shor, the instruction to Moses to take the staff was meant in order for him to strike the rock with it which was meant to produce the water. [The instructions addressed to both Moses and Aaron in the same verse, were addressed to both Moses and Aaron who were to speak to the people first Ed.] This was similar to the instructions in Exodus 17,6, except that there the rock was called צור, tzur. At that time G–d was going to provide both bread (heavenly), meat, (quails) and water, each one of which was listed in detail shortly thereafter. The provision of water on both occasions is to be understood as the same miracle, and that is also why the first location was called מסה ומריבה, “trying and strife,” and on this occasion reference is only made to מי מריבה, “waters of strife” (verse 13) When Moses, in retrospect, refers to these events in Deuteronomy 33,8 he uses both expressions in the same verse. They are referred to also in Numbers 20,24:למי מריבה ”at the waters of strife.” Those waters were in the desert of Sin, near Mount Sinai, (during the first year of the Exodus) As far as the instructions here for Moses and Aaron to address the rock by word of mouth, ודברתם אל הסלע, is concerned, they were meant to speak to the people near the rock in order to watch the miracle about to be performed. On the first occasion, Moses took the elders with him, but the people stayed far behind and they did not even witness the striking of the rock. Those elders had long died so that the present generation had not even been told what they had witnessed. (Exodus 17,5) The water at that time formed into a small river and that was where the Israelites filled their buckets from. Moses and Aaron, instead of announcing the miracle about to take place, addressed the people by calling them rebellious, and asking if they really expected that they were worthy of G–d performing such a miracle for them. They should have known that it was not in Moses’ or Aaron’s power to get water out of a stone, so what was the point of accusing them of the shortage of water. Therefore, they should have prayed to G–d in a deferential manner, asking Him to help them in their predicament. If Moses and Aaron had explained all this to them without displaying anger with a thirsty people, the result would have been a great sanctification of the Lord’s name. According to the plain meaning of the text, Moses’ and Aaron’s sin consisted of using the word נוציא לכם מים, “We are going to produce water for you,” instead of saying that “G–d is going to produce water for you.”