From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 3:05 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Vayikra, 5766






                                                   Back to Basics

                      By Rabbi Joshua (basically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


  Parshas Vayikra begins with a call from God to Moshe to enter the tent of meeting : "And He called to Moshe, and God spoke to him from the tent of meeting saying" (Vayikra, 1:1). A number of midrashim (see, for example, Vayikra Rabbah, 1:3, and Yalkut Shimoni, Shemos, 166) tell us that Moshe had ten names. Yet, the Yalkut Shimoni on this verse cites an intriguing midrash which says that of all the names that Moshe had, God chose to call to him using the name that was given him by Bisya, daughter of Pharaoh, when she drew him out of the water, thereby saving his life. What is the connection between Bisyah's naming of Moshe and God's use of that name to inform Moshe of the laws of sacrifices? Rabbi Reuven Katz, in his Degel Reuven, suggests that the midrash is really referring to the fact that Moshe was raised in the house of Pharaoh, and received a good general education, as the apparent heir to the throne. This same Moshe was now being given the laws of sacrifices, which many ostensibly enlightened people look upon as being primitive, and not in conformity with more current, scientific thinking. Therefore, God alluded to Moshe's enlightened upbringing, to emphasize that there is, in fact, logic behind these laws, as Rabbi Katz demonstrates by presenting the views of Rambam, Ramban, and others concerning the sacrificial system of the Torah.


  Rabbi Katz's approach to the enigmatic midrash cited in the Yalkut, however, seems to go beyond the obvious point it presents. The focus of the midrash is on the fact that Bisya named Moshe after drawing him out of the river, not on the fact that, as a result of his rescue by Bisya, Moshe received a general education in Pharaoh's court. We need to understand, then, what is was about Bisyah herself that informed God's decision to begin the book of Vayikra with an account of His call to Moshe using the name that Bisyah gave him when she saved his life. I would like to offer another explanation, based on some sources included in a recent collection of sources concerning Bisya, Midrashei Bisya Bas Pharaoh, compiled by Yael Levine (Yerushalayim, 5764 - ylevine@netvision.net.il).


  Among the sources cited by Ms.Levine are comments by Rabbi Avrohom Gratti of Prague in his Haggadah commentary, Be'er Avrohom, which was published in Zulsbach in 1708. Rabbi Gratti writes that some of the items included in the order of the night of the Pesach seder are actually hints to Bisya, who was one of those in whose merit the Jews were redeemed from Egypt. For example,' rachtza,' the washing of hands before eating the festive meal, hints to Bisyah, who went to wash herself in the Nile, found Moshe there, and rescued him. Rabbi Chaim Pallage, in his Moed LeKol Chai, mentions this comment, and connects it with the rabbinic tradition (see Megillah 13a) that Bisya had gone to the Nile as part of a conversion process, to wash herself of the idolatry she had been raised on. In this way, Bisya's rejection of idolatry led to the rescue of Moshe, and the eventual redemption of the entire Jewish nation. This notion, that Bisya's rejection of idolatry played a vital role in the redemption of, the Jews from Egypt, was first advanced by Rabbi Chaim Vital, the prime student of the master of kabbalah known as Ari - Rabbi Yitzchok Luria - in his Peri Eitz Chaim. With this appreciation of the wider repercussions of Bisyah's act of saving Moshe, we can now return to the midrash cited in the Yalkut that we began with.


  According to the Rambam in his Guide for the Perplexed (3:46), the sacrifices were meant to wean the people away from idolatrous practices that were prevalent in their time. Ramban pointed out that, according to the rabbis, Adam brought sacrifices before these practices existed. Others point out that, in the future, as well, when the Temple will be rebuilt, sacrifices will be brought even though idolatrous practices they are geared to combat, according to the Rambam, will no longer exist. However, as one of the commentators on the Guide, Rabbi Moshe Narboni, points out (if I recall correctly) that idolatry is really a failing that lies at the core of man's being and it is this failing that the various sacrifices come to remedy. Any acknowledgment of a force in the world that supersedes that of God is, in a sense, a form of idolatry. Rabbi Moshe Shapiro, in his work Mima'amakim, which is a compilation of his teachings done by his student, Rabbi Alexander Simcha Mandelbaum, explains the Rambam's approach on the basis of that of the Maharal of Prague, who writes in many places (see, for example, Gevuros HaShem, chapter 69) that the fundamental idea of the sacrificial system is to acknowledge that the only force, and, indeed, the only real entity, in the universe is God. By offering sacrifices to God, we are really saying that all of existence ultimately is God's, in the sense of the concept of 'ein od milvado,’ or 'there is none other besides Him.‘ (Devorim 4:35). The Rambam, then, as explained by Rabbi Shapiro on the basis of the Maharal, is saying that sacrifices come not merely to eradicate idolatrous practices, but to eradicate the idolatrous thoughts that are their basis.


  When Bisya went down to the river to cleanse herself of idolatry, she found and saved the infant who later grew up to be the person who lead the entire Jewish nation in its rejection of idolatry, as well. The Torah tells us that when she named him Moshe, she said that she gave him that name because she drew him from the water (Shemos 2:10), since the word for ‘drawing out’ is similar to the name Moshe. Rav Ovadiah Seforno comments on this that she foretold that just as she saved him from the water, he, too, would save others in the future. It is therefore fitting that, in calling Moshe to enter the tent of meeting and receive instruction of the Torah's system of sacrifices, the name he was called by was that given him by Bisya, who began the process of the rejection of idolatry in Egypt.


  Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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