CHAMISHOH MI YODEI'A - FIVE QUESTIONS ON THE WEEKLY SEDRAH - PARSHAS B'SHALACH 5770 - BS"D

2) Ch. 13, v. 18: "Vachamushim" - Give as many translations for this word as you can.

3) Ch. 14, v. 2: "Lifnei baal tz'fone nich'cho sachanu al ha'yam" -How could Hashem use this Egyptian deity as a sign for a location? The gemara Sanhedrin 13b prohibits this."

4) Ch. 14, v. 21: "Va'yiboku" - Medrash Shocher Tov (T'hilim 114:3) on the words "hayom ro'oh VA'YONOSE," says that the sea should flee (split) upon seeing Yoseif's casket, since Yoseif also fled from the wife of Potifar, "VAYONOS vayeitzei hachutzo" (Breishis 39:12). What is the connection?

5) Ch. 14, v. 27: "L'eisono" - In the M.R. Breishis 5:5 Rabbi Yochonon says that Hashem stipulated with the Yam Suf at the time of its creation that it should split at the time the need would arise, when the bnei Yisroel will be boxed in at its shores with the Egyptians in hot (literally) pursuit. This is indicated by the unusual word used for "its strength - l'eisono." The word "l'eisono" is phonetically similar to "lis'no'o," to its conditional agreement. The difficulty in comprehending this medrash is obvious. Should this not have been pointed out in a verse dealing with the splitting of the Yam Suf rather than the verse dealing with the Yam Suf returning to its nature of flowing with its full strength?

ANSWERS:

#1

1) Paroh. A person merited to have the king's son as his guest for an extended period of time. The king sent a message to his son that he would like him to return home. The host cried out at having to give up such an honoured guest. Likewise, Paroh merited to have Hashem's children as his guests for many years. Now they were leaving. (M.R. 20:7)

2) Paroh. A person had a large tree trunk which he sold for a pittance. The buyer recognized its potential. He carefully sawed it into planks, created a beautiful piece of furniture from it, primed, stained and buffed it to a brilliant lustre. The seller visited the purchaser and was shown his "tree trunk." Upon seeing it he cried WOE to me for selling such a beautiful piece of wood for so little. Likewise, Paroh thought very little of the bnei Yisroel when they were so physically and emotionally broken of spirit. Coming upon them in the desert and seeing them organized, each tribe standing proudly with its flag and unique ensign, he cried out WOE to me for sending away such a distinguished nation. (Medrash cited by the Hadar Z'keinim)

3) Paroh. The king sent his servant to purchase fish. The servant brought back badly decaying fish for the king's consumption. The king was very displeased and gave his servant the choice of one of three punishments, to either eat all the fish, to receive one-hundred lashes, or to pay a very large fine. The servant decided that he surely did not want to pay the fine. He decided to eat the fish, hoping to regurgitate it shortly afterwards. Less than halfway through his ordeal he could no longer eat the disgusting fish, fearing he would die from it. He agreed to receive the lashes. Again, after having received about half the lashes he felt he would expire if he would be hit any further. He finally agreed to pay the heavy fine. He said WOE to me for eating the putrid fish and receiving so many lashes. I ended up paying the complete fine anyhow. Likewise, Paroh could have immediately freed the bnei Yisroel. In the end Paroh sent away the bnei Yisroel, but through his obstinacy he caused his nation and land to be devastated and also suffered much physical pain himself. (Medrash brought in the Hadar Z'keinim)

4) Paroh. A man found a bag of what seemed to him to be pebbles. He gave it as a present to a friend. This person realized that they were gems. He had them polished, and sold each one for a tidy sum. The first person came upon the second and found him selling even the smallest of the "pebbles" for an extravagant sum. He cried out WOE to me for giving away gems that are of such great value. Likewise, Paroh did not realize the vast number of bnei Yisroel until he saw them in the desert, and cried out, "Woe to me for releasing 600,000 people." (M.R. 20:9)

5) The Canaanites. An elderly king had an only son who was very young. He gave his vast estates to a loyal servant to be administered. As long as the estates were in the servant's hands, the servant felt very wealthy. When the son came of age to administer the properties, the servant cried WOE to me that I must now give up such great wealth. Likewise, the Canaanites inhabited Eretz Yisroel, but knew that the bnei Yisroel would return one day. Upon hearing that they left Egypt, the Canaanites cried out WOE. (Medrash brought in Hadar Z'keinim)

6) The Egyptians. They said that when Moshe was present and a plague came, he would pray and the plague came to an end. Now that Moshe is gone, WOE to us if Hashem brings another plague, since no one will be able to bring it to an end. (Medrash brought in the Hadar Z'keinim)

7) Moshe. The king appointed a caretaker to carry out all the arrangements for his daughter's royal wedding. The caretaker saw through astrology that he would only live long enough to bring the king's daughter from the royal palce to the wedding hall, but would not live to see the actual wedding take place. Likewise, Moshe knew that although he was successful in bringing the bnei Yisroel out of Egypt, he would not bring them into the promised land. (Medrash brought in the Hadar Z'keinim)

8) Hashem. WOE that Paroh did not retain the bnei Yisroel for longer and allow me the opportunity to show more of my mastery to him and to the rest of the world. (Medrash brought in the Hadar Z'keinim)

9) Hashem. WOE that the bnei Yisroel attribute their departure from Egypt to Paroh, as stated, "Vy'hi b'shalach PAROH," and not "b'shalach HASHEM." Even Bilom realized that HASHEM took them out of Egypt, "KEIL motzium miMitrayim" (Bmidbar 24:8). (Sifri parshas R'ei #128)

#2

1) ARMED for war. (Rashi, Targum Onkelos, M.R. The word indicates five weapons, as per Yechezkel 39:9.)

2) One FIFTH of the bnei Yisroel, as four fifths died during makas choshech. (Rashi, Mechilta 14)

3) One FIFTIETH. (Mechilta 14)

4) One FIVE-HUNDRETH. (Mechilta 14)

5) Targum Yonoson ben Uziel says the bnei Yisroel left with FIVE children per family. The Holy Admor of Belz explains that since four fifths of the bnei Yisroel died during makas choshech, there were orphans of four families. The survivors adopted the orphans, so each family had FIVE families of children, its own, plus those of four other families.

6) PREPARED with FOOD, as in Breishis 41:34, "v'chimeish es artzo." (Chizkuni)

7) Grouped into FIVE CAMPS. Degel macha'neh Yehudoh in the east, Reuvein in the south, Efrayim in the west, and Dan in the north, as enumerated in Bmidbar ch.2. The fifth camp is macha'neh Levi which was situated in the centre. (Trumas Ha'deshen)

8) Another possible interpretation: The bnei Yisroel were one FIFTH of those who left. The Targum Yonoson ben Uziel says in 12:38 that 2,400,000 "eirev rav" left with the bnei Yisroel. This makes a total of 3,000,000, of whom the bnei Yisroel were one fifth.

#3

The Daas Z'keinim asks this in the name of Rabbi Yehudah. The Daas Z'keinim gives two answers. Hashem is not bound by the mitzvos He places on people. We find that Hashem sits in judgment on Shabbos, Rosh Hashonoh, and Yom Kippur. (This is found as well in Rashi on gemara Rosh Hashonoh 30a d.h. "Ee nami".) His second answer is that the Torah was not yet given, although Hashem obviously knows what it will contain. I find difficulty with the second answer. The Daas Z'keinim himself just said that Hashem judges on Shabbos, R.H., and Y.K. This is true even after Matan Torah. Sitting in judgment is a Rabbinical restriction only. An even greater question arises. How may Hashem cause rain to fall on Shabbos? This is a Torah prohibition of Zorei'ah.

#4

The K'sav Sofer explains the connection. The Ibn Ezra asks: Why was a miracle necessary? Why not have the bnei Yisroel battle with the oncoming Egyptians? The Ksav Sofer says that this would have entailed standing up against the Egyptians with physical force. Although the Egyptians deserved no mercy, nonetheless there is a certain appreciation the bnei Yisroel should have, as the Egyptians were their hosts for many years. The Torah says, (Dvorim 23:8) "Do not hate an Egyptian, since you were a sojourner in his land." Only if the bnei Yisroel had the characteristic of being grateful to their host, would Hashem be willing to perform the miracle of splitting the sea, rather than subjecting them to do war with their former host.

This was demonstrated by Yoseif. When he ran away from the enticements of Poti Phera's wife, she grabbed his garment from him (Breishis 39:12). Logically, he should have turned around and forcefully taken it back, so that she should have no incriminating evidence against him. (This question is raised by the Ramban). The Ksav Sofer answers with the above concept. Yoseif did not want to turn against his hostess with physical force, even at the cost of leaving incriminating evidence in her hands. This act implanted this positive characteristic into future generations of bnei Yisroel. When the "yam suf" saw the casket which held Yoseif, the person who demonstrated and implanted the middoh of "hakoras tovah," gratefulness, into the bnei Yisroel, it was willing to cooperate, even against its nature, and split. This avoided having the bnei Yisroel engage in combat with their former hosts, thus enabling them to show their gratefulness.

The Ksav Sofer says that now we have an understanding of the Rashi at the beginning of parshas Yisro (18:1). On the words "Va'yishma Yisro," Rashi (gemara Z'vochim 116a) says that Yisro heard about the splitting of "yam suf" and the war with Amoleik. It is obvious that Yisro heard all that had happened. If so, why point out only these two happenings? The Ksav Sofer answers: Yisro was reluctant to come to the bnei Yisroel as he had been a priest for idol worship in Midyon. He thought that he might be rejected. However, upon seeing a diplay of gratefulness on the part of the bnei Yisroel, he knew he would not be rejected, as he had given Moshe refuge at the time of his need. Upon hearing of the splitting of the sea he wondered why a miracle was necessary and came to the same conclusion as above, that the bnei Yisroel did not want to forcefully stand up against their former hosts. This could indicate their gratefulness, although not conclusively. Perhaps they were unable to wage war. (Indeed this is the answer given by the Ibn Ezra.) When he also heard that they had successfully battled against the powerful Amoleik nation, he knew that they were capable of waging war, and the only reason the sea split was because the bnei Yisroel were imbued with the middoh of "hakoras tova." If so, they would not reject him either, and therefore he came to the bnei Yisroel.

#5

To answer this, another question will be posed. The gemara Chulin 7a relates that Rabbi Pinchos ben Yo'ir was on his way to attempt to fulfill the great mitzvoh of redeeming captured people, "pidyone shvuyim." He came upon the River Gino'i and was unable to cross it. He needed to be on the other side to accomplish what he set out to do. He spoke to the river and demanded that it split for him. The river refused to cooperate, saying that if it would continue to flow it would SURELY be fulfilling the will of its Creator, as Rashi there explains that in Koheles 1:7 it says, "Kol hancholim holchim el ha'yom," all rivers must flow into the sea. However if it were to stop flowing to accommodate Rabbi Pinchos ben Yo'ir, he is DOUBTFUL if he will be successful in freeing the captured people, thus the fulfillment of Hashem's will is not a sure thing. Rabbi Pinchos ben Yo'ir responded that if the river would not cooperate he would pray to Hashem that the river should permanently dry up and thus cease to exist. Upon hearing this threat the river promptly split.

The splitting of this river is not recorded anywhere as being a condition set into motion at the time of its creation. (See the commentary of Rabbi Shlomo Kluger "Y'ri'ose Shlomo," printed in the Rabbi Yaakov Emdin prayer book, on the words of the Amidoh for Chanukah, "Ulcho osiso t'shuoh g'doloh ka'yom ha'zeh" where he differentiates between miracles that were stipulated at the time of creation and miracles that were not.) If Rabbi Pinchos ben Yo'ir was able to cause a river to split, Moshe could surely do the same, so why was it necessary to stipulate this at the time of the creation of the Yam Suf? To answer this question we have to analyze the details of the above-mentioned story. Why with the demand to split did the river not cooperate and yet with the threat that Rabbi Pinchos ben Yo'ir would pray to Hashem to have it permanently dry up did it cooperate? The answer is that the river was right in stating that it had the priority over Rabbi Pinchos because of its SURELY fulfilling the Creator's will. However, if the river would cease to exist there is no contravention of the verse in Koheles, as only a river is commanded to flow into the sea, but if there is no river existent there is no command to flow. This was the intention of Rabbi Pinchos when he threatened to cause the river to permanently dry up.

However, Moshe was unable to do the same. To ask the Yam Suf to split wouldn't work, as per the response of the River Gino'i to Rabbi Pinchos ben Yo'ir. To threaten to have the Yam Suf totally dry up was also not an option, as Hashem had ordained that the Yam Suf continue to exist so that it may later drown the Egyptians. Only Hashem could cause the Yam Suf to split. Indeed the M.R. says that the Yam Suf did not split at the bidding of Moshe and only did so when the Divine Presence demanded that it split.

This is the intention of the M.R. in parshas Breishis. It states that HASHEM stipulated a condition with the Yam Suf. If you will ask why it is necessary to have HASHEM make this pre-condition since Moshe could have caused it to split with the threat of causing it to dry up totally, as did Rabbi Pinchos ben Yo'ir, the answer is that Hashem also required that the Yam Suf return to its strength and flow again to drown the Egyptians. Moshe was therefore unable to cause the Yam Suf to totally dry up. To demand the Yam Suf to only split was also impossible, as it was SURELY fulfilling the will of Hashem by flowing, while Moshe taking the bnei Yisroel successfully through the Yam Suf was NOT A SURE THING. Indeed, we find that while they were in the middle of the Yam Suf an angel complained to Hashem that the bnei Yisroel and the Egyptians should be treated equally, as there were idol worshippers in both groups. (Likutei Shoshanim)

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