5777

ותפתח ותראהו את הילד והנה נער בכה ותחמל עליו ותאמר מילדי העברים זה

“She opened it and saw the boy, and behold! A youth was crying. She took pity on him and said, ‘This is one of the Hebrew boys.’” (2:6)

Sequentially, it would have made sense to write that the infant was a Hebrew child first and only afterwards (despite the child’s ancestry) that she took pity on him. One would think that the child’s Jewish identity was the most significant aspect of the pasuk – not her act of compassion. Horav Nissan Alpert, zl, feels that the reversed sequence teaches us an important lesson, one which (I feel) we should all apply to our personal lives. Upon seeing someone in pain, an organization in serious need, we are confronted with two immediate reactions: empathy, compassion to reach out and…

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ותפתח ותראהו את הילד והנה נער בכה ותחמול עליו

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In 5777, Shemos

She opened it and saw him, the boy, and behold! A youth was crying. She took pity on him. (2:6)

Horav Nachman Breslover, zl, teaches that everything has good and bad, positive and negative, aspects. Tears/crying are/is no different. Some tears emanate from atzvus, depression, despair, hopelessness, which are “motivated” by the sitra acharah, evil inclination, under the auspices of Satan. In such an instance, a person weeps for something entrenched in the yetzer hora – a passion, a desire, something that rightfully does not belong to him. Yet, he seeks to have it – and when Hashem is not forthcoming with filling his taavah, desire, he cries bitterly. When Eisav did not obtain his father’s blessing, he raised his…

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ותיראן המילדת את האלקים ולא עשו כאשר דבר אליהן מלך מצרים ותחיין את הילדים

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In 5777, Shemos

But the midwives feared G-d and they did not do as the king of Egypt spoke to them, and they caused the boys to live. (1:17)

Pharaoh had to stem the tide of the Jewish population explosion. Infanticide was his proposal. He could not prevent conception, but he could see to it that the infants never saw the light of day. The two Jewish midwives feared Hashem and rejected Pharaoh’s orders, claiming that, by the time they arrived, the children had already been born. These midwives were, like so many of the other Jewish women, nashim tzidkaniyos, righteous women, who placed their commitment to Hashem above everything. Their faith in the Almighty motivated their actions, despite the pressing question: To what kind of world and to…

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ויקם מלך חדש על מצרים אשר לא ידע את יוסף

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In 5777, Shemos

A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Yosef. (1:8)

When did the Egyptian exile begin? Most would have us think that the shibud Mitzrayim, Egyptian exile, commenced with the death of Yosef and his brothers. The Torah records Yosef’s passing and immediately adds that a new Pharaoh came into the picture who had no knowledge of Yosef – or the debt of gratitude the country owed him. It would seem that this was the early stirrings of the exile. Surely, during the golden era of Egypt, when Yosef was viceroy in charge of the entire country, exile was the farthest thought from the minds of the people. Chazal do…

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YEARS

ותפתח ותראהו את הילד והנה נער בכה ותחמל עליו ותאמר מילדי העברים זה

“She opened it and saw the boy, and behold! A youth was crying. She took pity on him and said, ‘This is one of the Hebrew boys.’” (2:6)

ותפתח ותראהו את הילד והנה נער בכה ותחמול עליו

She opened it and saw him, the boy, and behold! A youth was crying. She took pity on him. (2:6)

ותיראן המילדת את האלקים ולא עשו כאשר דבר אליהן מלך מצרים ותחיין את הילדים

But the midwives feared G-d and they did not do as the king of Egypt spoke to them, and they caused the boys to live. (1:17)

ויקם מלך חדש על מצרים אשר לא ידע את יוסף

A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Yosef. (1:8)

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