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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