Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parasha podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen. I hope you are well. This week we continue with the second of the five books of the Torah, the Book of Shemos, the Book of Exodus.
[00:00:16] And before we begin, as always, if you have any questions, comments, or just would like to say hello or to give some feedback, please don't hesitate to send an email to Rabbi Shlomo konkohnmail.com I'd love to hear from you.
[00:00:36] This week's parsha is also called Parsha Shemos. It's the first parsha in the book of Exodus.
[00:00:45] And it really takes us into the Jewish people's descent into slavery in Egypt, as well as the G D picking Moshe, picking Moses to be the leader of the Jewish nation.
[00:01:00] Just to give a quick overview of the parsha and all of its different details. To a limited extent, the parsha begins with the generation of the 12 tribes passing on and slowly. At that point, the attitude of the Egyptians, including Pharaoh, the leader of the Egyptians, starts to change towards the Jewish nation.
[00:01:23] At first when the Jewish people came to Egypt, they were welcomed. They were brought in to join the people, to be part of things. But once the Jewish people became too successful and too numerous, the Egyptians started changing their attitude towards them.
[00:01:43] And Paro devises a plot to sort of subjugate the Jewish people and, uh, to prevent them from getting too strong. And he decides that he will start the process of slowly getting the Jewish nation to become his slaves.
[00:02:02] And Paro slowly initiates this plan by first asking the Jewish people to work for him, then taking away their pay, then eventually just making them his slaves.
[00:02:13] The parsha continues with Paro's plan becoming more elevated, becoming more extreme.
[00:02:20] He sees from his astrologers that the savior of the Jewish nation will be born.
[00:02:27] And he decides at that point to throw all the babies, all the male babies into the Nile river to prevent that from happening. The parsha continues, uh, with the birth of Moshe, the birth of Moses, who his parents, wanting him to be saved from the Egyptians, who would check the houses of the Jews for newborn babies, took Moses, put him in a basket and sent him out. And the parsha tells us how ironically the daughter of Paro, Basya, sees him floating in the Nile and she takes pity on him, brings him in and raises him in the palace of Paro.
[00:03:14] The parsha continues with Moshe Rabbeinu growing up in the palace of Paro, him identifying with his people, and eventually he identifies with his people to such an extent that he sees an Egyptian taskmaster about to strike a Jewish person.
[00:03:35] And he kills that Egyptian and needs to flee the land of Egypt to prevent himself from being killed by Paro, the leader of Mitzrayim. The Parsha continues telling us about Moshe, how he married and how he becomes a shepherd for his father in law.
[00:03:54] In this week's Parsha, we also learn how God comes to Moshe through the burning bush.
[00:04:03] And it is at that moment that this bush, Moshe, while he's shepherding the sheep, he sees that this bush is burning, but it's not getting consumed.
[00:04:16] And from m there he receives a prophecy from God that he is to be the one to go to Mitzrayim, to go to Egypt to rescue the Jews from the hand of Paro, from the hand of the Egyptians.
[00:04:35] And G D gives him civic signs.
[00:04:39] And the Parsha goes through the back and forth between Moshe Rabbeinu and G D. Moshe doesn't want to be the leader, and he keeps asking to not be the one. And G D keeps telling him, you are the one to go down to Mitzrayim to give the Jewish people the signs that the salvation is coming and to take them out of the land of Egypt with miracles.
[00:05:01] The m first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parsha where Paro has decreed infanticide upon the Jewish people. He has made a decree that every Jewish male should be thrown into the Nile river.
[00:05:21] Because his astrologers see that this leader, there's a salvation from the Jewish people is going to be born.
[00:05:28] And to prevent that, he decrees that all Jewish males be thrown in the Nile.
[00:05:35] Now the verses start off with an interesting verse. It says, vayelech Ishmi Beis Levi, vayikach es ah bas Levi.
[00:05:44] And a man went from the house of Levi, and he took a daughter of Levi. And the verses continue with the birth of Moshe Rabbeinu, this man from the house of Levi, who took a daughter from the house of Levi, right? Levi is the tribe those that man and woman was Amram and Yocheved, who were the mother and father of Moshe Rabbeinu. And that's how the verses play out, that this man who married this woman gave birth to Moshe, who would turn out to be the leader of the Jewish nation who took the Jews out of Mitzrayim, out of Egypt.
[00:06:25] Now the question is, why does the verse need to tell us this? We know already.
[00:06:30] We knew that Amram and Yocheved were husband and wife. So if you look at Rashi, the great commentator, he explains as Vayikach, as bas Levi, that he took a daughter from the house of Levi Paresh Hayemimenam IBN Exeris Paro, he separated from her because of the decree of Paro. He divorced his wife because of the decree of Paro, uh, says, and this is what it means, that he went and took a wife, meaning he retook her as a wife. He went and married his wife again, and he took the advice of his daughter.
[00:07:11] Miriam was her name. Sha Amra. She said to him, amruloi gazaar ticha, uh, kosha misha para. Your decree that you've decreed that you divorced your wife is even harsher than Paro in Paro Ghazar al zecharim va' ata gam ken al na kebu. Because Paro just decided to kill the males, and you're deciding to kill the males and the females, meaning by you not being married and trying to have children, you're not going to have any children.
[00:07:41] So sure, Paro is killing the boys. And that's what your intent is. Why should we get married if there's this decree on the males, that all the males are getting thrown into the river.
[00:07:53] And his daughter said, you're decreeing on the boys and the girls.
[00:07:57] You're even harsher than Paro, you know. So on one hand, over here, if you think into the logic, I guess, of Amram, the father of Moshe, there's a decree going on over here. The ruler of Egypt is this dictator, and he's decided that any Jewish male baby born should be thrown into the Nile River.
[00:08:24] So maybe these parents could have in mind, like, you know, why should we have children at this point? It's such a dangerous time.
[00:08:34] The Paro is going to come, and if it's a boy, he'll throw the baby into the river.
[00:08:40] And his daughter comes to him and says, you know, you're worse than Paro because he only decreed on the boys, and you're decreeing it on the boys and the girls.
[00:08:51] And I think there's, you know, at one hand, you could relate, we all could relate to the thought process of Amram and Yocheved, the parents of Moshe Rabbeinu, who separated at this time because of the decree.
[00:09:04] There's craziness going on.
[00:09:07] Why should we be bringing children into the world at this time?
[00:09:12] But the point of his daughter was taken that Miriam, his daughter, was telling her father that we have a job.
[00:09:23] We have to do what we're supposed to do.
[00:09:26] And Hashem, uh, will take care of the rest.
[00:09:28] Right?
[00:09:29] In general, in life, many times we think we have a perception of things.
[00:09:37] How we want them to work out, how they should work out.
[00:09:42] And we think that maybe we know better than God.
[00:09:48] We know better.
[00:09:50] And maybe when things don't work out the way we want them to work out, we perceive them as bad.
[00:09:56] I think we have to. The message of the parsha, from specifically this incident of Amran and Yocheved, teaches us that we just have to do what G D commands us.
[00:10:12] And it's not up to us to think we're smarter than Hashem, to think that we're smarter than God.
[00:10:20] We only could see so far.
[00:10:23] We, as humans are limited.
[00:10:26] We don't know what was before us, and we don't know what's going to be after us. We have limited vision. We only could see what our eyes in front of us see.
[00:10:35] And God, in His infinite wisdom, he was always is and always will be. And he has a plan, he has a point where he wants everyone to get to. And a mission for the world, for society, for every single person.
[00:10:52] And all we know is that he gave us the Torah, he gave us the Mitzvos, and He told us how to implement that into our lives.
[00:11:04] And it's very easy for us to rationalize to ourselves how maybe we shouldn't do something that the Torah says, or maybe we think we should do something better. We have a better idea.
[00:11:15] The advice over here that Miriam gave her father, we see from. And that Amram, the father of Moshe took, was that we can't try to think that we're smarter than God.
[00:11:25] You know, I'm sure all of us can think of examples, um, where we had a decision to make and something seemed like a good decision, but it turned out as bad.
[00:11:37] And on the flip side, as well, things that turned out, as you know, that we thought were bad turned out good. So the point is that human beings are very fallible. We're fallible in an emotional way. We're very biased.
[00:11:50] We don't always make the best decisions. Sometimes we have ulterior motives for why we do things.
[00:11:56] And when those, uh, ulterior motives could sometimes sway our decisions of what we're supposed to be doing.
[00:12:03] So when it comes to us, all we can fall back on, to rely on to make those correct decisions is what G D gave us, which is the Torah. And he told us how to conduct ourselves, and he told us what to do. And it's our job to just follow it, to do our best, to stay as close as possible to that.
[00:12:24] And it's our job to follow the rules and the commandments that he set out for us. And ultimately we do that. Things turn out for the best. Because think about it. If Amram didn't listen to his daughter or, you know, any, and he didn't get remarried to his wife, the Jewish people would have never been redeemed. Because Moshe Rabbeinu would have never been born.
[00:12:51] And there's other examples like this, you know, where quote, unquote, accidents happen. And, you know, because of the accidents, great salvations come about.
[00:13:01] And I think that's why it's important for us to know that we just have to do our part and God will take care of the rest. The second idea I want to share with you today takes us to the story of the burning bush. So as I mentioned earlier, Moshe is out shepherding the sheep of his father in law.
[00:13:21] And he comes and one of the sheep run off. And Moshe Rabbeinu follows the sheep, and he comes to a point where there's a burning bush. But this burning bush is unique. Because even though the fire is burning within the burning bush, the bush is not getting consumed.
[00:13:42] It is still staying whole.
[00:13:45] And from that bush, God speaks to Moshe Rabbeinu, to Moses, and commands him to become the leader of the Jewish people, to be the redeemer, to be his agent, to take the Jews out of Mitzrayim, out of Egypt.
[00:14:04] And the sages tell us that the place that this prophecy occurred was on Mount Moriah, was in Harhamaria, where the temple would eventually be built.
[00:14:17] And the verses tell us the back and forth between God speaking to Moshe Rabbeinu and Moshe speaking back to God. And in the beginning, the pesukim say, the verses say that Hashem told Moshe Hamokum, uh, hashe' omida love admas kodeshu, that the place upon which you are standing is sacred land. That G D tells Moshe Rabbeinu to take off his shoes as a sign of respect. That this spot that you're standing on right now is a holy spot.
[00:14:47] And therefore you take off your shoes and then the parsha goes into the back and forth of Moshe Rabbeinu, uh, of God speaking to Moshe Rabbeinu and telling him, giving him the signs to take the Jews out of Egypt, so on and so forth. There's a very beautiful idea that the Chavitz Chaim brings down about this verse. Specifically that what does God tell Moshe Rabbeinu, he says, the place upon which you are standing is sacred land.
[00:15:19] Ha. Uh, mokom asher ata omedmas kodeshu. This is a sacred spot.
[00:15:25] And there's a very fundamental lesson I believe, that we could take out of this. You know, a lot of times in life, we have our, uh, ups and downs.
[00:15:37] Life is always busy.
[00:15:39] There's challenges. There's things that happen. You know, we raise children, we have a job, we have parents. Uh, you know, there's so many moving parts.
[00:15:50] Things get overwhelming.
[00:15:52] We don't feel like we have times for the things that we want to do, the things we want to accomplish.
[00:15:59] Maybe we'll say, if I would be in a better situation, I would be able to accomplish X, Y, and Z. If I would be making more money, I could be doing this, that, and that. If the kids would be taking care of themselves or they'd be older, I'd be able to have more time for my studying, for my learning. And we could all fill in the blanks according to our situation in life. We all know the different, uh, scenarios that keep us busy.
[00:16:25] And it's very easy for us to rationalize and say that, you know, I'm too busy to learn right now. I'm too busy to increase my connection to Hashem, my connection to God. I'm too busy to daven. I'm too busy to do any of these things because I'm just too busy.
[00:16:43] Or maybe it's not the opportune time or the opportune place for me to have this service in God. Uh, you know, I'm just not in the right place in my life right now, or the scenario that I find myself in, or the circumstance or the people that I'm around are not conducive for me for spiritual growth or for any type of growth.
[00:17:04] We learned something very powerful from this week's parasha hamakom, uh, hasher ato omeida love ad mas chodeshu. The place upon which you are standing is sacred land.
[00:17:16] That this moment, the place where you are, where you find yourself now, that's where you're supposed to be.
[00:17:23] And if that's where you're supposed to be, that means the situation you're finding yourself in, uh, is the place where God wanted you to be put. That's where he wants you to be. And if that's where he wants you to be, that means you could be. You could reach your potential at that moment from the situation you find yourself in. There's a famous story that they asked the great Ramendel Futurfas, and he was a great chassid, and they asked him, you know, what's the holiest time? Or maybe he asked rhetorically to one of his students, said, what's the holiest time? And where's the holiest place?
[00:18:04] And who's the holiest person?
[00:18:07] So the student thought, and finally the teacher, teacher Rabindel Futerfaaz answered. He said, the holiest person is you.
[00:18:17] The holiest place is here, and the holiest time is now.
[00:18:24] And I think it's imperative for us. You know, sure, we.
[00:18:28] If we're in a bad situation, we have to, you know, try to get out of it.
[00:18:33] But we have to realize at the same time that whatever situation we do find ourselves in, we're supposed to be there.
[00:18:42] And sometimes it's embracing that and realizing this is what we're supposed to be and there's a reason for it. And I could gain something out of it. I could become something because of it, and I could use it for my spiritual growth.
[00:18:58] You know, uh, I'm sure if I, you know, I personally could think of my own situations in life, which were tough moments.
[00:19:08] And I remember thinking and speaking to a, uh, close relative about the situation, and he's like, you know, we just could experience this experience.
[00:19:20] That's something we could do. Maybe we can't change it, but we could use it to become better people and to use it going forward in our life, in our lives.
[00:19:30] And I could tell you now, you know, thank God, getting past those tough times, that I feel like I am who I am because of the experiences I've gone through and the way that I was able to utilize that time, whether it be pushing myself, you know, to study or whether it be working on my character development, this is what it means, that the place you're standing is sacred land. In our lives, we're at different points, we're in different places, we're in different scenarios.
[00:20:05] But every place we find ourselves in, it's sacred, and we could use it for positive growth, to get closer to Hashem, to strengthen our commitment to mitzvos and become more connected. And just to remember that if we do face difficulties in life, we should know that it's through those difficulties that Hashem that God wants you to serve him in. It's not just the way we picture how we will serve God, how, uh, we're gonna come closer to him in the scenario that we depict in our mind. It's a situation that is. And if it's challenging. And I'm not taking away from the challenge and doesn't mean that we can't take action to try to change the situation.
[00:20:52] But it's in that way that he wants us to serve him, that through those challenges, to become who we are. And actually, in fact, this ties very well into the whole concept of the Book of Shemos, because the question is asked, why was it necessary for the Jews to go into Egypt to begin with?
[00:21:17] Right. Why did God, you know, have to take, you know, why did God have to put the Jews into slavery to take them out? Just don't put them there in the first place.
[00:21:27] And there's different answers that are given, but one answer is that Mitsrayim Egypt was the kura barza was the, uh, smelting pot. It made us into who we are as a people.
[00:21:39] That through the experience of being slaves in Egypt, if forever etched into the psyche of the Jewish people.
[00:21:48] What it means to be, um, a slave, what it means, you know, to be an alien in a foreign land. All these ideas and concepts, it became etched into our essence of who we are as a people that we should be able to serve God the way we do. There's been no people that has gone through so much the Jewish nation. The reason that we, that we're still here is because of the experiences that we've had in our history and it only because we went through a, uh, mitzrayim, because we went through experience of slavery in Egypt.
[00:22:26] That's why we are who we are now.
[00:22:29] And I think this is similar on a personal level, that when we do find ourselves in this challenging situation, we have to realize that that's where Hashem wants us.
[00:22:37] And through those, you know, pushing through and serving God through those challenging moments, it will forever keep us and make us even stronger and stronger people. So that I'm going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email@rabbishlomokon Koh chanmail.com have a great day.
