Dear friends;

I hope you’ll enjoy the following parsha summary followed by a Dvar Torah;

” Parsha in a Nutshell ”

G-d reveals Himself to Moshe. He promises to take out the Children of Israel from Egypt, deliver them from their enslavement, redeem them and acquire them as His own chosen people at Mount Sinai; He will then bring them to the Land He promised to the Patriarchs as their eternal heritage.

Moshe and Aaron repeatedly come before Pharaoh to demand in the name of G-d, “Let My people go, so that they may serve Me in the wilderness.” Pharaoh repeatedly refuses. Moshe’s staff turns into a snake and swallows the magic sticks of the Egyptian sorcerers. G-d then sends a series of plagues upon the Egyptians.

The waters of the Nile turn to blood; swarms of frogs overrun the land; lice infest all men and beasts. Hordes of wild animals invade the cities, a pestilence kills the domestic animals, painful boils afflict the Egyptians. For the seventh plague, fire and ice combine to descend from the skies as a devastating hail. Still, “the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he would not let the children of Israel go; as G-d had said to Moshe.

” Dvar Torah ”

Miracle! Oxford dictionary defines it as: ” An extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause “. However, in Judaism it’s defined as ” a supernatural event which is an act of G-d “! From children to elderly, everyone is fascinated by miracles. Its’ effect is so powerful that it can change people’s belief, religion and ideology. Although we don’t see a lot of miracles happening these days, and we mostly read about them in fairy tale stories, but most of us Jews, we believe in miracles!

Well, the theme of this week’s Parsha is also “Miracle”. It is packed with miracles, plagues and supernatural events. Sticks transforming into snakes; water turning into blood; hail pellets with a core of fire; dreadful plagues of frogs, lice, wild beasts, pestilence and boils. G-d through Moshe, performs miracles for the Jews, for Pharaoh and all the Egyptian population. He brings plagues upon the Egyptians that have never been seen before. But as you read carefully through the text, it seems that the miracles made little impression on Pharaoh, the Egyptians and above all, on the Jewish slaves. Towards the end of last week’s parsha, Moshe was performing miracles for Pharaoh and his people and they seemed to pay no attention to his feats. And Moshe got frustrated and started to complain to Hashem: “Why have You done evil to this people… From the time I came to Pharaoh … he has harden the situation for the Jewish nation”.

Even in this week’s Parsha, Pharaoh is not impressed by the plagues because his own professional miracle makers were able to replicate the first three plagues. He therefore attributes all of the later plagues to forces of nature or superior professional magical powers that Moshe has somehow employed.
But what is so mind bugling is that the Jewish people themselves are, relatively speaking, little impressed by the miraculous plagues. You would have thought that by seeing all these miracles, the Jews should have believed in Hashem and his servant Moshe, wholeheartedly. But the Chachamim say that after the 10 plagues, at the time of the exodus, some Jews still didn’t want to leave! They needed persuasion! They still didn’t have faith in Moshe?! So the question that bothers the Chachamim is why did the greatest miracles of all times had little impact on the Jews? By seeing all these wonders, why did the Jews still have lack of faith in Hashem and Moshe? When we read the story of the 10 plagues which took place more than 3000 years ago, we still get mesmerized by it! So why didn’t it have the same effect on the Benei Yisrael? How can you explain their lack of emotions and lack of faith?!

Rabbi Berel Wein gives a beautiful explanation. He says that the Jews were too busy thinking about their slavery and their harsh living conditions that they hardly took notice of the miracles which took place around them. A slave mentality is the feeling of hopelessness, which is so hard to change even by performing supernatural miracles! When you are a slave, your work becomes your whole life. You don’t have time for anything else. That’s why when Moshe tells the Benei Yisrael that G-d had sent him to save them, they did not listen to him because of the shortness of breath and from the hard labor. In order to strengthen their belief, the Jews didn’t need miracles, but rather, they needed “time” to themselves to think, to look around them and to see the hand of G-d, but because of the hard labor, they didn’t have the luxury of spare time! And this is why the miracles had little impact on the Jews; because they were too busy being slaves!

Yes my friends, slavery can blind a person! The greatest miracle can pass right by you and you don’t even notice it. But thank G-d, we are not slaves anymore; we live as free people…… or do we?! Everyday we see miracles happening around us, but unfortunately, they have little impact on us. Most of us are so busy with work that we don’t notice the miracles around us. Unlike the Oxford dictionary, a miracle doesnot necessarily need to be a extraordinary event, but any act of G-d that we benefit from, should be a miracle! When we wake up in the morning and we are still alive, is a miracle; when we see our spouse and children being healthy, is a miracle; when we live in a luxury of a home and we have enough money to feed our family and live a comfortable life, is a miracle! But do we have the time to acknowledge all these and be grateful to the Almighty?! How many of us in the mornings, rush to put on our tefillin and take them off, and run to work?! If you ask me, we think that we live a free life, but we are slaves to the society and to our lifestyle!

So my friends, try to find the time to take off and see the miracles around you. Miracles are not just for fairy tale stories. Miracles do happen; you just need to open your eyes and see the hand of G-d. Let’s live a free life; a life that sees and appreciates “Miracles”!

Shabath Shalom & Regards;

Martin