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 “
The theme of this week’s Parsha is, “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 more mind boggling is that the Jewish people themselves are, relatively speaking, little impressed by the miraculous plagues. In today’s time, we see a card trick and we are fascinated by it! 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 all these supernatural events, at the time of the exodus, some Jews still didn’t want to leave! They needed persuasion! They still didn’t have enough faith in Moshe?! So the fundamental question is why? Why did the greatest miracles of all times had little impact on the Jews? When we read the story of the 10 plagues after 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 appreciation and their 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 “free time” for themselves to think, to look around them and to see the hand of G-d. But because of the hard labor, they couldn’t appreciate the wonderful miracles taking place around them! 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 a slave and he won’t even notice it. Although B”H, we live as a free nation today, but unfortunately the slave mentality has remained with us to this very day. Everyday we see miracles happening around us, but unfortunately, they have little impact on us. Most of us are so busy with our work that we don’t notice the miracles around us. In Judaism, a miracle does not necessarily need to be an extraordinary event, but any act of G-d that we benefit from, should be considered a miracle! When we wake up in the morning and we are still alive, is a miracle; when we see our spouse and our children being healthy and running around us, is a miracle; when we live in a luxury of a home and we have enough food 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 in putting on the tefillin and taking them off quickly in order to run to work?! How many of us spend quality time with our families everyday?! And above all, how many of us truly appreciate what our spouse do for us and thank them for what he or she does?! If you ask me, we may think that we live a free life, but we are still slaves to our work and to the society we live in!
So my friends, let us enjoy our freedom by creating the time to appreciate the miracles around us. Miracles don’t just happen in fairy tale stories, it happens in our everyday life! All you need to do is to open your eyes and see the hand of G-d!
Shabbat Shalom & Regards;
Martin