From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2006 4:03
AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Shemos,
5766
Room Service,
Please
By Rabbi Joshua (accommodatingly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
In
memory of Mr. Bradley Jacobs, a former student of Yeshivas Brisk of Chicago and
Yeshivas Gush Etzion, and ardent worker for Eretz Yisroel, who passed away in
Chicago last week. May his memory be a blessing.
Moshe, on his
way from Midian to Egypt for the purpose of delivering God’s message to Pharaoh
and to the nation, stops off at an inn, with his wife Tzipporah and their
two sons. While they are at the inn, the Torah tells us, "God encountered him
and wished to kill him" (Shemos 4:24). What was the nature of this encounter?
Rashi cites the explanation of the Talmud (Nedarim, 31b) that an angel in the
form of a snake came and partially swallowed Moshe up. Although there are two
opinions in the Talmud as to whether it was Moshe or one of his sons who was
swallowed up, Rashi brings the opinion that it was Moshe. The angel swallowed
Moshe up from his head until his thighs, and then from his feet until the place
of his circumcision. Tzipporah, understanding that Moshe’s life is threatened
because of the requirement of circumcision, takes a sharp stone and circumcises
their son. We can assume, from the fact that an instrument that was fitting to
be used for this mitzvoh was readily available, that Moshe had actually planned
to circumcise his son while at the inn. Why, then, was his life in danger? The
rabbis explain that Moshe had been exempt from the mitzvoh of his son’s
circumcision until now, because he could not perform it before leaving Midian,
as the journey would have been dangerous for his son. However, once he reached
the inn, he was no longer exempt. Instead of attending to the bris milah
immediately, he first took care of his accommodations at the inn. We need to
understand why such a seemingly minor offense evoked such a severe divine
reaction, since, as we have shown, Moshe did intend to circumcise his son at the
inn.
Rabbi Aryeh Leib Bakst, in his Kol Aryeh, writes that,
most probably, just as Moshe was exempt from seeing to his son’s bris milah
while he was traveling with his family, so, too, was he also exempt during the
time that he was arranging his lodgings. Still, a person’s character can be
discerned more accurately from the way he acts when he is exempt from his
obligations than from how he acts when obligated in them. For example, we do not
judge the dedication of a yeshivah student so much by the fervor with which he
learns during the regular hours in which he is obligated to do so, but by what
he does with his time during his vacation period. Does he use this time to sleep
all day, or does he use it to study areas of Torah which he does not have time
for the rest of the year? Someone who is truly committed to Torah learning will
take advantage of every opportunity he has to occupy himself in studying it.
Similarly, someone who is truly committed to performing a mitzvoh will make sure
to do so at the earliest opportunity, even if he can, technically, delay it.
God’s reaction to Moshe’s delay in having his son circumcised, then, was
generated by his failure to comply with what Rabbi Bakst refers to as the
Shulchan Aruch of exemption, or the guide to proper conduct at a time when one
is exempt from obligations. Although Rabbi Bakst’s approach to Moshe’s failing
carries an important message, it seems rather difficult to accept the notion
that God was about to take Moshe’s life for a failing of this nature. I would,
therefore, like to suggest another way of understanding this enigmatic episode.
The Midrash Rabbah to parshas Shemos relates that after Yosef
died, the nation stopped practicing circumcision. As a result of this, continues
the midrash, God converted the love that the Egyptians had for the Jews into
hatred, and, as a result, the Egyptians began to subjugate them. Why was
the practice of circumcision so important ? The Rambam, in his Guide for the
Perplexed (3:49) writes that the major function of circumcision is to curb
one’s sexual appetite. We may add that when the Jewish nation was in Egypt, this
function was especially important, because the Egyptians were noted for their
promiscuity. In addition, the Egyptians were also idol worshippers, and the
Jewish nation had already adopted some of their idolatrous practices, as pointed
out by Rabbi Ovadiah Seforno, in his introduction to the book of Shemos
(included in his general introduction to his Torah commentary), based on a verse
in the book of Yechezkel (20:8). Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, zt"l, pointed
out, albeit it in a different context, that the combination of these two kinds
of transgressions on a regular basis constitutes a life style that is
fundamentally in contradiction to that of the Torah. Thus, when the Jews
abandoned bris milah, they were loosening their control over their libidinous
desires, and, combined with the idolatrous practices they had already adopted,
going down a road that could lead to the adoption of the Egyptian life style.
This explanation of the significance of the nation’s abandonment of bris milah
can be applied to the other function of that mitzvoh, as explained by the Rambam
in his Guide. He writes that milah serves as a bodily sign that unifies all
those who share the belief in the unity of God. Rabbi Dovid Tzvi Hoffmann, in
his commentary to Vayikra, in parshas Tazria, writes that this is really the
main function of bris milah, to serve as a sign of national identification.
According to this explanation of the function of bris milah, as well, when the
nation, in Egypt, abandoned its practice, they started on the road of losing
their distinctive national identity, and Moshe needed to divert them from that
road.
We now understand why it was so important for Moshe to
come to Egypt when he did. The nation no longer practiced circumcision, and, as
a result, was in danger of losing its national identity. Since the nation’s
laxity in performing bris milah was the catalyst for his mission to the nation,
any laxity in it on his part was especially egregious, and, for that reason, God
reacted to it in the way that He did. Moshe needed to understand how important
the message of bris milah was for the nation at that time, so that he could
properly influence them in absorbing it. Apparently, the experience he went
though at the inn accomplished this purpose. The Jews, with the exception of the
tribe of Levi, which was not enslaved in Egypt, did not resume the practice of
bris milah until the eve of the Exodus, because the northern wind, which brings
healing, did not blow and it was therefore dangerous for them, while still
enslaved in Egypt, to expose themselves to a weakening of their bodies in
this way. Still, the people learned the message of bris milah, and did not adopt
the promiscuous practices of the Egyptians. As we mentioned in Netvort to
parshas Miketz, not a single Jewish man, and only one Jewish woman, had illicit
relationships with Egyptians during the entire period of the enslavement in
Egypt. While Yosef implanted this ability in the nation, after he died, they
abandoned the practice of bris milah, and Moshe then arrived on the scene to
reinstate it. Moreover, the rabbis tell us that the Jews maintained their
distinctive identity in Egypt by retaining their names, their language, and
their way of dress. Here, too, even though they did not practice bris milah, the
function of milah, to preserve the distinctive identity of the nation, was
accomplished through these other means.
On a different level,
perhaps we can suggest another reason for the severe treatment Moshe received
when he arrived at the inn. When the time to bring the Pesach sacrifice came,
Moshe had to command the nation to perform bris milah, as a necessary
prerequisite to this mitzvoh. Although the performance of bris milah at that
time entailed a certain amount of self-sacrifice, considering that many of those
who needed to be circumcised were already adults, Moshe had his own harrowing
experience at the inn to offer as an example of self-sacrifice in convincing the
people to perform the mitzvoh under difficult circumstances. Perhaps, then we
can say that an additional reason for God’s encounter with Moshe at the inn in
the form of an angel who almost killed him in connection with the performance of
bris milah was to establish a precedent of self-sacrifice in the performance of
this mitzvoh. In this way, Moshe served as an example to the nation when the
time came for them to perform bris milah, as well.
Please address all
correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address -
JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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