From: JoshHoff@aol.com
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 2:50 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Cc: Netvort@aol.com
Subject: Netvort:parshas Beshalach, 5768
We Will Bury You
By Rabbi Joshua ( threateningly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!With
thanks to the Almighty,beginning our eleventh year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In memory of my mother,
Yonina bas Tzvi Hirsch, whose twenty - sixth yahrzeit occurs this coming
Sunday, the thirteenth of Shevat.May her memory be a blessing.
In the shira, the song, which Moshe and the bnei Yisroel sang after the
splitting of the Yam Suf,one of the sentences reads, You stretched out Your
right hand,- the earth swallowed them up " ( Shemos, 15:13). Ramban
mentions a Mechilta which says that this means that the earth opened up and
swallowed the Egyptians after they were washed ashore from the midst of the
sea. They merited to be buried, continues the Mechilta, because they had said.
earlier, in reaction to the plague of hail, through their mouthpiece Pharaoah,
" God is the righteous one and I and my people are the wicked ones
" ( Shemos. 9:27). This seems to be quite a dubious kind of reward
for acknowledging God's direction behind the events they were witnessing,and,to
an extent, rather than impressing one as a reward, brings to mind
images of the threats of a leader of the Former Soviet Union! If the
Egyptians did deserve reward for what thy said, why did that reward come in
such a curious way, in burying them after drowning at sea? I would like to
suggest an answer based on an explanation I heard of another instance in
which we find that being given a burial is considered as a reward for
someone whose actions were not on the highest of levels.
In parshas Noach, after
the flood, Noach plants a vineyard which produces fruit almost immediately,
drinks from its yield, and falls into a naked, drunken stupor. When
his sons Shem and Yefes see him in this condition, they take a blanket and
cover him up. Shem initiates this action, and Yefes joins him. The rabbis ( see
Rashi to Beresihis,9:23) tell us that each of the two sons received a reward
for covering up their father's nakedness, but the reward differed between the
two sons. Shem received the talis, the garment on which tzitzis are placed, and
Yefes was rewarded in that his ancestors, the children of Gog, would
receive burial after the battle of Gog and Magog that would occur in the end of
times. I once heard Rav Baruch Ezrachi explain the difference in rewards as
being a function of the alacrity, or lack of it, with which the two
respective brothers covered their father's nakedness. Shem, who took the
initiative in covering up his father, received as a reward the garment used for
attaching tzitzis, a mitzvah which reminds us of all 613 mitzvos. Yefes,
however, merely joined with Yefes after see father's disgrace, was
performed like a dead man, and, therefore , his reward was given in the realm
of death, so that he merited to be buried. this stark difference in reward,
said Rav Ezrachi, highlights the importance of doing mitzvos with enthusiasm
and energy.
Perhaps,then,we can
understand the granting of burial to the Egyptians as a reward for
acknowledging God's providence in bringing the plagues upon them in a similar
way. True,Pharaoh's servants convinced him that God was behind the plague
of hail,to the extent that Pharaoh told Moshe, I have sinned this time; God is
the Righteous One,and I and my people are the wicked ones."However,that admission
was short-lived,and after Moshe successfully prayed to God to have the hail
removed, Pharaoh and his people reverted to their previous refusal to allow the
Israelites to leave Egypt..Moreover, after they did set them free,pursued them
into the Yam Suf. Their words,therefore, outwardly impressive as they were,did
not express true conviction and repentance, and were,in truth ,dead words.
Therefore,their reward for saying these words came in the form of receiving
burial.
Three days after the
nation passed through the Yam Suf, they came to a place called Marah,where the
waters were bitter.They complained about this to Moshe,and God told Moshe to
take a tree and cast it into the water,which would cause the water to become
sweet. The Torah tells us that God then "established (for the nation) a
'statue and a judgment,and there he tested it.He said , ' If you will listen
diligently to the voice of the Lord, your God, and will do what is just in His
eyes, and you will give ear to His commandments, and observe all His statutes,
then any of the diseases that I placed upon Egypt I will not place upon you
because I am God , who heals you"" ( Shemos, 15, 25-26).Ramban, in
explaining Rashi's approach to these verses, writes that God informed the
people of some of the commandments they would eventually receive,to ascertain
if they would receive the commandments with joy and goodness of
heart.This was the test that the Torah refers to,and its goal was to bring the
nation to serve God with joy. Doing something out of joy reflects an inner
conviction,and acting in this way contrasts with the way in which the Egyptians
expressed their acknowledgment of God's workings in the world.This
acknowledgment,as we have see,lacked true conviction. Thus, in ths first
test after the splitting of the sea, the nation was charged to serve God as
living people, in contrast to the Egyptians buried at the shore of the sea, who
had spoken without conviction, and received their reward for those words
in a manner commensurate with their ultimate value.
Please address all
correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address -
JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
To subscribe to Netvort, send a message with subject line subscribe,
to Netvort@aol.com. To unsubscribe,
send message with subject line unsubscribe, to the same address.
Start the year off right. Easy
ways to stay in shape in the new year.