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For my fellow Yidden: how about let’s share insights on the parsha this week. Parshas Bo seems as good a place to start as any. When is the best time to begin learning Torah? Why now, of course.
In Parshas Bo, we see the Jews were enslaved for only 210 years instead of the 400 that Hashem told Abraham. Did Hashem make a mistake, G-d forbid, or did Moshe write it down incorrectly? Our sages tell us that we really did serve the full 400 years, only we did it in 210 years.
A G-d fearing Yid believes in hashgacha pratis, loosely defined as devine providence. This means that Hashem is involved in every single aspect of the world. If a rock is thrown, it lands in the place it was pre-destined to be. If a blade of grass withers and falls to the ground, it’s because He willed it to be so.
So too our Egyptian enslavement was hashgacha pratis. Hashem had us enslaved because he loves us. The 210 years of slavery gave us full credit for the promise of 400 years. Because we worked so hard and for such long hours each day, we were given full credit for the 400 years in only 210.
This idea is very very far from the wicked. But we G-d fearing Jews know that Hashem runs every aspect of the world. And when “bad” happens to us, we must remember that it was ordained and delivered by Hashem for our benefit.
I hope you all have a great Shabbos this week and I’d love to hear any insights we all may be able to share at the Shabbos table this week.
In Parshas Bo, we see the Jews were enslaved for only 210 years instead of the 400 that Hashem told Abraham. Did Hashem make a mistake, G-d forbid, or did Moshe write it down incorrectly? Our sages tell us that we really did serve the full 400 years, only we did it in 210 years.
A G-d fearing Yid believes in hashgacha pratis, loosely defined as devine providence. This means that Hashem is involved in every single aspect of the world. If a rock is thrown, it lands in the place it was pre-destined to be. If a blade of grass withers and falls to the ground, it’s because He willed it to be so.
So too our Egyptian enslavement was hashgacha pratis. Hashem had us enslaved because he loves us. The 210 years of slavery gave us full credit for the promise of 400 years. Because we worked so hard and for such long hours each day, we were given full credit for the 400 years in only 210.
This idea is very very far from the wicked. But we G-d fearing Jews know that Hashem runs every aspect of the world. And when “bad” happens to us, we must remember that it was ordained and delivered by Hashem for our benefit.
I hope you all have a great Shabbos this week and I’d love to hear any insights we all may be able to share at the Shabbos table this week.
Question for you all: wed all agree observing Yom Kippur is of huge importance, yet we do so only 1 time per year. Shabbos is also a giant, but we only observe it once per week. So why do we observe yetzias mitzrayim (remember the exodus) every single day? Twice a day, for that matter. Could it be that this mitzvah is 365x more important than Yom Kippur? And if so, why?
yetziyas mitzrayim is a zechira, not an observation as such (except for pesach). The underlying question is why is this particular memory so important and I think the answer is in its formative nature. It is the moment which identified us as a people being extracted from the midst of another -- a trial by fire and demonstration of faith that set the stage for everything else. There could be no Y"K or Shabbat had we not left Egypt. There would be no future redemption if we didn't demonstrate that we were willing to follow Hashem into the desert (Yirmiyah, 2:2).
yetziyas mitzrayim is a zechira, not an observation as such (except for pesach). The underlying question is why is this particular memory so important and I think the answer is in its formative nature. It is the moment which identified us as a people being extracted from the midst of another -- a trial by fire and demonstration of faith that set the stage for everything else. There could be no Y"K or Shabbat had we not left Egypt. There would be no future redemption if we didn't demonstrate that we were willing to follow Hashem into the desert (Yirmiyah, 2:2).
I sometimes wonder what I would have done before makas bechoros. Would I have paraded a calf in front of the Mitzrim and splashed the blood on my doorpost - proof I had sacrificed an Egyptian “god?” Would fear of man overrule Hashem’s promise? Get it wrong, and you’re in the 80% who do not make it out of mitzrayim and perish along with their “hosts.”
It’s good to think about these brave Yidden who put it all on the line for their love, fear and trust in Hashem.
i sometimes wonder what i would have done before makas bechoros. Would i have paraded a calf in front of the mitzrim and splashed the blood on my doorpost - proof i had sacrificed an egyptian “god?” would fear of man overrule hashem’s promise? Get it wrong, and you’re in the 80% who do not make it out of mitzrayim and perish along with their “hosts.”
it’s good to think about these brave yidden who put it all on the line for their love, fear and trust in hashem.
During the plague of darkness, chazal tell us 80% of the Jews died, and the extreme darkness allowed the Jews to bury their dead without the Mitzrim seeing, in order that they wouldn’t say the “secularized” Jews were as iredeemable as the the Mitzrim.
It’s not lost on many that this ratio of Jews today is roughly the same. Or that when the Jews returned to Jerusalem after the destruction of the first Beis Hamigdosh, only 20% returned and the rest were assimilated in Bavel and forever lost.
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