” Dvar Torah “

I would like to dedicate this week’s Dvar Torah to refuah shelemah of my  dear father, Reuven Ben Bilha, who is undergoing an important surgery next  week.  May Hashem protect him, heal him and help him with fast recovery. EL Na  Refana  Lo! Your prayers and thoughts are greatly appreciated;

In this week’s Parsha, we read about the birth of Moshe Rabeinu, the savior  of the Benei Yisrael. After the Jews have been enslaved by Pharaoh for  many  years, Hashem finally decides to rescue them from the hands of the  Egyptians by  sending Moshe to lead them out of Egypt. But there were other  heroes involved in  the rescue operation, who risked their lives in  order to save the Jews. Two  of these heroes were the two midwives who  delivered the Jewish  children, Shifrah and Puah. The Torah says:Now the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, and he said, “When you  deliver the Hebrew women, and you see on the birth stool, if it is a son, you  shall put him to death, but if it is a daughter, she may live.” The midwives,  however, feared G‑d;  so  they did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but they enabled  the  boys to live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them,  “Why  have you done this thing, that you have enabled the boys to live?” And the  midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian  women, for they are skilled as midwives; when the midwife has not yet come to  them, they have already given birth.” G‑d benefited the midwives, and the  people  multiplied and became very strong. Now it was because the midwives  feared G‑d,  that He made houses for them.There is an obvious difficulty in understanding G-d’s reward to the   midwives. The phrase “and the people multiplied and became very strong”   seems totally out of place in these verses. It appears to  interrupt the  description of the reward with which G-d benefited the  midwives by making them  houses.

Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetsky has an interesting observation that  explains the sequence of these verses. He believes that by telling  stories,  it always helps to understand the Torah better. Accordingly, he  says the  following story: A couple had a  premature child. The baby was in  the  hospital for a couple of months and  came home after several weeks of  intensive  care in the hospital. The  parents were very grateful to the doctors  and  especially to the nurses in  the Neonatal Care Unit. The father  of the  baby called his Rabbi and asked him  how he could show his  appreciation to the staff in the hospital. The Rabbi advised the  following: Every year on the child’s birthday, he  should take the child back  to  the Neonatal Care Unit and show the nurses and  the doctors how much he  has  grown. “See the actions of your hands. Look  who you allowed to live and to  grow  up.” The greatest reward for the people working in that unit is seeing  that   their efforts paid off, that their labors resulted in a very significant   accomplishment.

Rabbi Kamenetsky says that the same interpretation should be read in  these  pasukim: G-d rewarded the midwives with what? And the answer is: “The  people became  many and very mighty.” The greatest reward for the midwives was  that the Bnei Yisrael grew. Pharaoh wanted to kill off all the Jews  and destroy the  possibility of a future Jewish nation. The “houses” that G-d  made for  Shifra and Puah were only a secondary reward. Their main reward  was  seeing the fruits of their labor: Pharaoh’s decree failed. Their work to   save the Jewish people succeeded. The people became many and very mighty!

Yes my friends, because of the will of G-d and the sacrifices of many  heroes, we are a free nation today. Although, the Egyptian regime was  destroyed and we are not slaves anymore, but unfortunately, there  are still Pharaohs in every generation. And our today’s Pharaohs are  the enemies of the State of Israel, who want to destroy the Jewish  nation and wipe out Israel from the face of the map. But once again,  Hashem has not abandoned us. He has send us the midwives too. And our  today’s midwives are our dear Israeli Soldiers who risk their lives in order to  protect the lives of our brothers living in Israel. Don’t think for a  moment that their rewards are the medals or any benefits that they  might receive from the State of Israel. But rather, their true reward is  to  see the Bnei Yisrael “increase and become very strong”. May Hashem bless  them,  protect them and make them houses in this world and the world to come,  just like  he did for Shifrah and Puah.

 

Shabbat Shalom & Regards;

Martin