Netvort: Chai Edition

 

Beshalach 5775:         Seeing is Believing

By Rabbi Joshua (believably known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

 

  In memory of my mother, Yoninah bas Tzvi Hirsch, whose yahrzeit occurs this coming Sunday, the thirteenth of Shevat.  May her memory be a blessing.

 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  18  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

ד"בס Beginning our Eighteenth Year!

 

The people complain for lack of water at Refidim, and ask, “Is God in our midst or not” ? (Shemos 17:7).  Through God’s direction, Moshe provides them with water, but shortly afterward, they are attached by Amalek.  Moshe appoints Yehoshua to lead them in battle, and tells him that he will stand on top of a hill with the staff of God in his hand, as they fight.  The next day, during the battle, as the Torah describes it, when Moshe, standing on the hill, would raise his hands, Yisroel was stronger, and when he lowered his hands, Amalek was stronger.  When his hands grew heavy, they were supported by Aharon and Chur, standing on either side of him. This continued throughout the day of the battle.  As the Torah describes it, “And he was with his hands in faith (vayehi yadav emunah) until the setting of the sun” (Shemos 17:12). The use of the word “emunah” – faith – in this verse is interesting, and is explained in different ways by various sources, as we will see. 

 

Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra offers two explanations.  First, he says that the word “emunah,” as used here, means steadfast, or faithful.  Second, he explains it as related to the word “amen,” meaning to train or educate, as we find in Megillas Esther (1:27), “and he trained Hadassah.”  Rav Mordechai Ilan, in his Mikdash Mordechai, cites this second explanation of Ibn Ezra, and explains that Moshe’s hands, displaying his belief in God, trained his whole being to be permeated with this belief. Rav Eliezer Waldman, in a somewhat different explanation, said that the verse is telling us that Moshe put his faith in his hands, meaning, that he brought his inner belief into action.

 

The Targum Yonason ben Uziel explains that Moshe’s hands were stretched out in faith and in prayer.  Perhaps this understanding reflects the comment of the Mishnah in Rosh Hashanah (29a) which asks, did Moshe’s hands, then cause victory or defeat?  Rather, when Yisroel gazed upward and subjugated their hearts to their father in heaven, they were victorious, and when they did not look upward, they were not victorious.  In this sense, Moshe led the people in strengthening their faith in God.

 

My teacher, Rav Aharon Soloveichik, zt”l, noted that the word for “to believe,” “liha’amin,” is in the hifil, or causative form.  This is because someone who truly believes in God is able to bring others to believe, as well.  Rabbi Pinchas HaLevi Horowitz, in his Panim Yafos, points out that the reason Amalek attacked is that the Jews had a loss of faith at Refidim, as we have seen.  In order to defeat Amalek, then, that faith had to be restored.  Moshe, by putting his own faith into action, led the people to renew their lost faith, and, in that way, defeat their enemy.