From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 2:19 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Bo, 5767





                                            The Table of Brotherhood

                 By Rabbi Joshua (celebratorily known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


                           !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 9 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


  With gratitude to the Almighty for sustaining me, and in prayer that He continue to do so, this week's message marks the completion of nine years of Netvort. Thanks to my readers for their comments, questions, criticisms and suggestions, and a special tip of the 'Hoffer cap' to my editor/distributor for his continued help.


  In memory of my mother, Yoninah bas Zevi Hirsch, a"h whose twenty-fifth yahrzeit occurs this coming Thursday, the thirteenth of Shevat. May her memory be a blessing.


  In last year's Netvort (newly available at Torahheights.com), we discussed the significance of the Pesach sacrifice, and the formal meal in which it was consumed, as part of the redemption process. I would like, however, to suggest an alternative approach from the one we presented last year, in light of some sources that I have seen since then. These sources served as the basis for an idea developed in a recent Netvort, which I would now like to develop further.


  We noted, in Netvort to parshas Mikeitz, 5767 (a corrected version of which is available at Torahheights.com), that when Yosef spoke with his brothers in Egypt, before he revealed his true identity to them, he invited them to a meal, and gave Binyomin a five-fold portion. Later, in parshas Vayigash, after Yosef revealed his identity to his brothers, he sent them back to Canaan in order to bring back their father Yaakov and the rest of the family. On that occasion, he gave one change of clothing to each of the brothers besides Binyomin, but he gave Binyomin five changes of clothing. In regard to the extra clothing Yosef gave to Binyomin, the Talmud (Megillah16b) asks how Yosef could make the same mistake as his father, favoring one brother over the others? The Talmud (Shabbos 10b), in fact, says that the jealousy generated by this action of Yaakov led to their descent into exile in Egypt. How, then, could Yosef do the same thing?


  The answer the Talmud gives is that Yosef was hinting to them that, in the future, Mordechai would descend from Binyomin, and he would be given a set of five royal garments by the king. Rav Dovid Feinstein explained that Yosef was hinting to them that what they had done causing his descent to Egypt was ultimately for the good, just as the events that would occur in the time of Mordechai ultimately turned out for the good, even though, in both cases, they appeared at first to be bad. In light of this explanation, we can further say that Yosef spoke with his brothers in the context of meals, both in parshas Mikeitz and in parshas Vayigash, because the brothers sat down to a meal after throwing him into the pit. We suggested that the five-fold portion of food that Yosef gave to Binyomin during the meal was a hint to the five shekolim  for which Yosef was sold. Although the Torah in parshas Vayeishev says that he was sold for twenty pieces of silver, the twenty  pieces were also equal to five shekolim.. In fact, Rashi in parshas Bamidbar (3:47) writes that the reason the first-born were redeemed for five shekolim is because Yosef was sold for that amount of money. His source is the Yerushalmi in Shekolim (2:3), which says that since the brothers sold Yosef, the first-born of Rochel, for twenty pieces of silver, every man must redeem his first-born son for twenty pieces of silver. Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, in his commentary Meshech Chochmah to parshas Shemos, explains that the entire process of Yosef’s sale down to the slaying of the first–born of the Egyptians and the saving of the first-born of the Jews on the night of the exodus from Egypt, was one long process of divine providence, and this is what the redemption of the first-born for twenty pieces of silver comes to remind us of. The work Kinyan HaTorah BeHalacha writes that the reason the mitzvoh of pidyon haben, redemption of the first-born, is done in the middle of a meal is to allude to the sale of Yosef, of which the redemption comes to remind us. Perhaps, then, the five-fold portion that Yosef gave to Binyomin was an allusion to the five shekolim for which he was sold, and, thus, a reinforcement of the message that the process they precipitated when they sat down to eat a meal, although seemingly bad, was in fact guided throughout by divine providence, and meant for the good. In light of this explanation for Yosef's arrangement of a meal with his brothers while they were in Egypt, we can find a further reason for the consumption of the Pesach sacrifice in the context of a meal on the night of the redemption from Egypt.


  The Israelites were commanded to take a young lamb on the tenth of Nissan, slaughter it on the night of the redemption, and eat it in a group in their homes, while the first-born of the Egyptians died. I would like to suggest that the consumption of the animal within the context of a group, which, we can assume, would primarily consist of members of a family, represents the coming together of the family unit, in contrast to the rending apart of the family unit generated by the actions of Yosef's brothers which caused them all to descend to Egypt. Since Yosef's brothers partook of a meal at the time Yosef was sold, the family unit must now come together in the context of a meal, as well. Thus, the process that brought the family down to Egypt was now coming around full circle, perhaps to underscore Yosef's message to his brothers, that what they had done to him was, in retrospect, all guided by God's providence, and part of His larger plan  for the development of the Jewish nation.



  Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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