Parshas
BO – Jews and Egyptians in Egypt and Afterwards
Dovid
Eidensohn
Our
topic is Jews and Egyptians in Egypt and Afterwards. You may assume that our
topic is about the bad Egyptians and the good Jews. But you may be mistaken.
Let us begin with the arch enemy of Israel, Pharoah the King of Egypt. When
Moshe came to him to let the Jews go and worship HaShem, Pharoah refused
saying, “Who is HaShem that I should obey him?” When the Jews finally left
Egypt after HaShem made ten plagues against Egypt and killed the first born of
Egypt, Pharoah and the army pursued the Jews to bring them back to Egypt to
continue as slaves. HaShem then killed out the entire Egyptian army and saved
the Jews going through the sea with miracles. The Jews then sang a song of praise
to HaShem, the men under Moshe and Aharon, and the woman under Miriam, the
sister of Moshe and Aharon. One other person sang a song of praise to HaShem:
Pharoah. His army wiped out his, his firstborns killed, he now knew who HaShem
was, and he resolved to serve HaShem. In fact, Pharoah left Egypt and went to
Nineveh, an important city, and became its king. When the Jewish prophet Yonah
came to Nineveh and announced that anyone who did not repent in a short time
will see the entire city destroyed, Pharoah rose from his throne and announced
that anyone who did not obey the prophet would be killed. So much for the
Egyptians.[1]
Thus,
the Egyptians went from bad to good. The Jews, on the other hand, went from
good to bad. In Israel and in the earlier years in Egypt, Yaacov Yosef and the
sons of Yaacov obeyed the Torah. But as time went on the Jews declined. Perhaps
they wanted to be Egyptians, perhaps they obeyed certain Jewish basics, but the
good Jews of Yaacov, Yosef and his brothers they were not. The Egyptians
finally decided to destroy the Jews but HaShem saved most of those thrust to
death with miracles and they lived.[2]
When the Jews left Egypt these children joined in the song to HaShem who
rescued the Jews from the Egyptians.
The
end of the Parsha of Bo is the actual going of Jews and many non-Jews from
Egypt to serve HaShem and not return to Egypt but to go on to Israel. “And the
Bnei Yisroel travelled from Ramses to Succose with about six hundred thousand
the number of men plus children. And also a mixed multitude of non-Jews went
with them, sheep and cattle, a very large element.
“And
they baked the flour they brought forth from Egypt, flat matsose because they
did not rise to be chomets bread, because the Jews were driven from Egypt and
could not tarry, nor did they prepare food.
“And
the time the Jews lived in Egypt was 430 years. And it was at the end of 430
years, in the middle of this day, that the host of HaShem left the Land of
Egypt.” The 430 years begins in Israel when the Jews did not own the land, and HaShem
spoke to Avrohom and promised him the land of Israel for his progeny. Thirty
years later Yitschok was born to Avrohom and Sora. The 400 years period begins when the Jews
were strangers in another land, of Israel and then Egypt, until they left.
Our
topic today began with comparing Jews to Egyptians, and we went back and forth.
History is not simple. Bo is the end of the non-Sinaitic period of Jewry, which
began with Avrohom, Yitschok and Yaacov and his twelve sons, and led to the
Jews leaving Egypt and HaShem destroying the Egyptian army. The leading
personality in the Chumash at this phase is Moshe. The Torah ends with the
death of Moshe. What happens then with the Jews?
Sadly,
things were never wonderful with the Jews during the time of Moshe. And when he
passed on, his disciple Yehoshua did great things. But eventually many Jews in
Israel worshipped idols, were punished
by HaShem, and returned to HaShem. The prophets, such as Yechezkel, in their
biblical writings, have many complaints from HaShem about the Jews. This is
most painful. Allow me to conclude this page on a note of great hope.
Rabbi Yosef
Chaim Sonnenfeld was a disciple of the greatest Torah authority in the world,
Rabbi Yehoshua Leib Diskin, who appointed Rabbi Sonnenfeld to be the head of
his Beth Din at a very young age, and considered him a man of great wisdom.
Rabbi Diskin was an incredible genius who could glance at a brick wall and
immediately say how many bricks there were. When the major of his city forbade
Jews from celebrating Succose with their ceremonial material, Rabbi Diskin took
the mayor for a walk. He asked why the Jews cannot celebrate Succose properly.
The mayor replied that such ceremonies in a modern world have no place. Rabbi
Diskin then asked, “And if a house can fly, can the Jews have their
ceremonies?” The major thought and then said, well, okay. Rabbi Diskin said,
“Look.” He poked his finger at a house and lifted his finger, and the house
saled over the ground. “Okay,” said the major. “Keep your ceremonies.” That is
one story. Another story is as follow. It was Purim and Rabbi Diskin was saying
a lengthy Purim Torah. Little by little, his group of brilliant students fell
asleep, all except Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld.
When
the students finally began to wake, they noticed that Rabbi Yehoshua Leib was
exceedingly happy. They asked him why. He said, “We all know that Rabbi
Sonnenfeld is a great Torah scholar and master of the Talmud and the revealed
Torah. Now I know that he is also great in Kabbala.” It seems that Rabbi
Sonnefeld who had a good amount to drink like everyone else, had destroyed the
Purim Kabbala teaching of Rabbi Diskin.
Here
is another story about Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld. This was during the
British control of Israel. Originally, the British had favored Jews in Egypt,
but when the Arabs began slaughtering Jews the British cracked down heavily on
Jews coming to Israel. At that point the secular Zionists in Israel began to
realize that their dream of having a Jewish state was in danger. One of them
asked around for some hope and found nothing. He ended up going to Rav Yosef
Chaim Sonnenfeld. He told him how hopeless things were that the British were
completely backing the Arabs and the Arabs were slaughtering Jews with no
protection from the British. So how can there be a Jewish state in Israel?
Rabbi
Sonnenfeld asked him, “Do you know about Avrohom, Yitschok and Yaacov?” He said
he did. “And how many were there?” “Three.” “And how many are there today and
in how many countries? Let us have patience. HaShem will take care of our need
of a land in Israel.”
Rabbi
Sonnenfeld once explained about the spies who were senior rabbis of the Jews in
the time of Moshe. They were sent to Israel to examine it and the chance of
conquering it. They returned and said that nobody can help us succeed. HaShem
killed them. Rabbi Sonnenfeld said, “If they had patience, they would see that
HaShem will one day get us a land.” As the Messianic lights began to shine,
deeply religious Jews proliferate, and the future is hope.
[1] The
daughter of Pharoah was Basyo who later became Hager, the maidservant of
Avrohom, who many times spoke to angels from HaShem. She saved Moshe from being
drowned by the Egyptians and raised him. Her name Basyo means “the daughter of
HaShem.” Every day the image of Moshe comes to visit her and thank her.
[2] See
Pirkei DiRebbe Eliezar the Great chapter 42 in the beginning there.
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