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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