From: JoshHoff@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 7:11 PM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort: parshas Bo, 5769
Meals on Wheels
By Rabbi Joshua (eagerly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11`!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
With thanks to the Almighty for sustaining me, and a prayer that He
continue to do so, this week's message marks the completion of eleven years of
Netvort. Thanks to my readers for their questions, comments and criticisms, and
a special tip of the Hoffer hat to my editor/ gabbai for his continued
assistance.
God speaks to Moshe in Egypt and tells him to command the Jewish nation to take
a sheep on the tenth of the month, bring it as a sacrifice to Him on the
fourteenth, and eat it on the night of the fifteenth. He also tells Moshe how
they must eat from the sacrifice: " ... your loins girded, your shoes on
our feet, and your staff in your hand: you shall eat in haste- it is a pesach-
offering to the Lord" ( Shemos: 12: 11). What was the purpose of eating
the korban pesach in such a hurried fashion, if the nation was ordered not to
leave Egypt until the morning. Rav Moshe Tzvi Neriah, zt'l, in his Ner LaMaor,
writes that there was a dual message in this command. First, in order to show
that they were now servants of God, they were to act as God's army, His
soldiers, girded and ready to follow His command. Second, even though they were
ready to leave at any time, they were only to leave when God gave the command
to do so, even though the Egyptians were urging them to leave as son as
possible, and they did not have the excuse that they had to get dressed or
prepare themselves in some other fashion. They told the Egyptians that
they would only travel when God them to, as true servants, who follow the
will of their Master.
Rav Moshe Sternbach, shlitah, in his Ta'am Vada'as, takes a different approach
to this question. He writes that the nation was to eat the korban pesach in a
hurried state to demonstrate their eagerness and desire to leave Egypt
and its environment of idolatry. The slaughter and the eating of the korban
pesach, as we know, was a
way of negating the idolatry practiced by the Egyptians, who worshipped
their sheep as idols. Rav Dovid Feinstein, in his commentary Kol Dodi,
additionally pointed out that the mazal, or charm, of the month of Nissan, when
the korban peasch is brought, is the sheep, and the Egyptians believed that
their idol, the sheep, also brought them good fortune and wealth. By
slaughtering the sheep and using it as a sacrifice to God, the Jewish nation
was demonstrating what constitutes true wealth. Perhaps, by viewing Rav Dovid's
explanation in the context of Rav Neriah's comments, we can further say
that the nation was demonstrating that true wealth and good fortune consists in
submitting oneself to God's rule, always ready to follow His command. I would
like to suggest, however, a slightly different understanding of the need to
generate a sense of eagerness and desire to leave Egypt, beyond the
factor brought out by Rabbi Sternbach.
The last stage in the exodus from Egypt was actually the entrance of the nation
into Eretz Yisroel as expressed by God to Moshe when He told him that He would
soon redeem the nation.we read, in parshas Vaeira, that God told
Moshe to tell the people, " ...I am the Lord, and I shall take you put
from under the burdens of Egypt: I shall rescue you from their service:I shall
redeem you...I shall take you to me as a people and I shall be a God to
you" ( Shemos, 6: 6-7). These verses contain the four expressions of
redemption which the rabbis often refer to as being behind some of the
practices we follow on the night of the Pesach seder. . However, there is also
a fifth expression of redemption, in the next : " I shall bring you to the
land which I have raised My hand to give it to Avraham, Yitzchak and
Yaakov" ( shemos, 6:8). My teacher, Aharon Soloveichik, zt'l,
explained that this element s not really a separate expression of redemption,
but an accompaniment to the other four expressions, because no stage of
redemption is complete unless the nation is in Eretz Yisroel. In any case, we
see from this verse that the ultimate redemption can only be realized in Eretz
Yisroel. In the Pesach Haggadah,in the song of Dayenu, we see that
even after the nation enters Eretz Yisroel, there is the further step of
building the Beis HaMikdash there which brings the redemption to its final
stage. entering the land is then the beginning of this final stage.
:
Based on this explanation of the redemption process, we can understand why it
was necessary for the people to generate a sense of eagerness and desire in the
process of eating the korban Pesach. By putting on their shoes and taking
their staffs in hand, they were demonsrtrating that they were eager
and desirous to begin their journey to the Holy Land, where they would build
the place where they would bring sacrifices to God on a permanent basis. Rabbi
Eleizer Akiri. in his Sefer Haredim, or Book of the Pious, explains the
opinion of the seder Olam, brought in Daas Zekeinim to parshas Lech
Lecha, that Avraham traveled to eretz Yisroel twice, once when he was
seventy, and again when he was seventy-five, when God told him to leave his
homeland and move to Eretz Yisroel. why did he make the first trip? The Haredim
explains that the first trip was made because God wanted Avraham to build up a
desire to move to the land, and, in order to do that, he had to see it first.
After he saw the land and returned to his homeland, his desire to return on a
permanent basis built up, until, when he was seventy- five , God told him to
make that return trip. and complete his journey. Perhaps, then, that was also
the purpose of the Jewish nation eating the korban pesach In egypt in a hurreid
state, to demonstrate that they were eager and desirous to comtinue the process
of redemption by beginning their journey to the Holy Land, where,
ultimately, they would build the Beis HaMikdash and be able to worship God in a
complete way.
archives
are temporarily available at http://www.yucs.org/heights/torah/bysubject/
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
**************
A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1215855013x1201028747/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072%26hmpgID=62%26bcd=DecemailfooterNO62)