From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 12:58 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Vaeira, 5764



                                                 Testing

          By Rabbi Joshua (correspondingly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


This week's parsha begins the recording of the ten plagues that were brought upon the Egyptians as a result of Pharaoh's refusal to release the Israelites from bondage. We have mentioned in the past the kabbalistic notion that these plagues corresponded to the ten statements with which God created the universe, and explained it based on the theory that the entire process of the exodus from Egypt constituted a kind of recreation of the universe (see Netvort to parshas Bo, 5760, available at Torahheights.com). There is another notion, mentioned in the Midrash Rabbah to parshas Bo (15:27), that the ten plagues corresponded to the ten tests that Avrohom withstood. Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Lunshitz, author of the popular commentary Keli Yakar, cites this midrash, in brief, in a lesser-known work that he authored on the Torah, Sifsei Da'as, at the end of parshas Vaeira. He then endeavors to explain the exact correspondence, plague by plague. According to his reckoning, however, the plagues seemed to have been tests imposed upon the Egyptians, just as the tests were challenges to Avrohom, with the difference being that while Avrohom passed the tests, the Egyptians did not. This explanation appears to be a bit strange, because why would there be need to test the Egyptians in the same manner that Avrohom was tested?

  A look at the text of the midrash seems to reveal that it explains the ten plagues as being directed against Pharaoh in correspondence to the ten trials of Avrohom as a punishment. God, notes the midrash, referred to Israel as His firstborn (Shemos 4:22). This appellation came as a result of the love God had for the Jewish people as a result of the ten tests that Avrohom underwent and withstood. Since Pharaoh did not recognize how beloved they were, he was afflicted by ten plagues to correspond with the ten tests of Avrohom through which they attained their beloved status. Rabbi Yitzchak Ze'ev Yadler, in his commentary to the Midrash Rabbah, Tiferes Zion, however, does not see this correspondence as being indicative of a punishment. Rather, he writes, that just as Avrohom sanctified God's name through the ten tests that he endured, so too did God sanctify the Jewish people through the wonders of the ten plaques, because through them they became His people, by recognizing His control over the universe. Based on our explanation, in last week's Netvort, of the midrash, cited by Rashi, concerning the donkey used by both Moshe and Avrohom, I believe that we can understand the correspondence of the plagues to the trials of Avrohom as being a message to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, as well as to the Jews.

The midrash, as we mentioned last week, says that the donkey upon which Moshe saddled his wife and children to take them with him to Egypt was the same donkey that was used by Avrohom at the akeida, and that will be used by the moshiach when he comes to bring the final redemption. We explained, based on Rav Kook, that one of the messages of the akeidah was that it is possible to infuse enthusiasm into the worship of God, just as idol worshippers had done in their service. This was what Moshe intended to teach the Jewish people, as well. The akeidah was, according to most commentators to Avos, the final test of Avrohom, and thus constituted the apex of his religious attainment. Therefore, when the midrash in parshas Bo tells us that the ten plagues corresponded to the ten tests of Avrohom, it can be explained, on one level, as meaning that the sum message of the akeidah was also delivered by the plagues, as Rabbi Yadler explains in a different way. This message, then, had meaning for both the Jewish people and for Pharaoh and the Egyptians. In fact, another midrash, cited by Rashi, teaches that the plagues destroyed the idols of Egypt. The Egyptians, who were rampant idolaters, needed, then, to learn the lesson of the akeidah as well, and perhaps this was one of the reasons why the plagues were brought in correspondence to the ten trials of Avrohom.       



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 message with subject line unsubscribe, to the same address.