91 Chumash Midterm Review

Even though Hashem counted them in their lifetime by name, Hashem returned and counted them in their deaths to make known His love for them because BN"Y are compared to stars that Hashem takes them out and brings them back in by number and name

It called the 70 sounds one soul to hint there was peace amongst them b/c within them they did not speak לשון הרע and slander. They functioned like one person. This the way they guarded the thing (speech) all 12 months of the year. And also for this reason it says they came out of the thigh of Yakov. To say to you just like the thigh was hidden (tznius) the לשון הרע was hidden.

Outside Info - Summary

Rather to make known the righteousness of Yoseph, he is the same Yoseph that shepherded his fathers sheep

Questions:

1. Why is it singling Yoseph out, isn't he included in the 70?
2. Don't we already know he was in Mitzrayim?

The same Yoseif who tended his father’s sheep. That is to say: since Yoseif was so lowly and humble, perhaps he sinned, since poverty induces a person to sin. Or since Yoseif was a king, perhaps he sinned as a result of his high status. But since this count (of B’nei Yisrael) is after their deaths, it tells here of Yoseif’s righteousness. For our Rabbis of blessed memory say (Avos 2 :4): “Do not trust yourself [that you will not sin,] until the day of your death.”

(6) Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation. (7) But the Israelites were fertile and prolific; they multiplied and increased very greatly, so that the land was filled with them. (8) A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

פרו וישרצו, after the last of the original 70 migrants had died, their whole lifestyle became more like that of creeping insects, creatures headed for destruction. This is why when

Q: Why does it use the word וישרצו? b/c after the generation died BN"Y's level was as low as bugs

-8. וימת יוסף…ובני ישראל פרו, And Joseph died…and the Israelites were fruitful, etc. Why did the Torah have to repeat again that Joseph died? We have heard this at the end of פרשת ויחי. Why do we have to be told that all the other brothers and that whole generation of Israelites who had come to Egypt died? What is the connection between the respective deaths of the brothers and that of the generation and the proliferation of the בני ישראל in the next verse? If this was only a description of the manner in which the Jewish population explosion in Egypt occurred, the Torah should have written: ויפרו וישרצו בני ישראל, instead of ובני ישראל פרו וישרצו. The grammar is wrong here.

(8) A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

COME, LET US DEAL WISELY WITH HIM. Pharaoh and his wise counsellors did not see fit to slay them by the sword, for it would have been a gross treachery to smite without reason a people that had come into the land by command of a former king. The people of the country also would not give the king consent to commit such perfidy since he took counsel with them, and all the more so since the children of Israel were a numerous and mighty people and would wage a great war against them. Rather, Pharaoh said he would do it wisely so that the Israelites would not feel that it was done in enmity against them.

It is for this reason that he placed a levy upon them, as it was customary that strangers in a country contribute a levy to the king, as it is mentioned in the case of King Solomon. Afterwards he secretly commanded the midwives to kill the male children upon the birthstool so that even the mothers should not know it. Following that, he charged all his people, Every son that is born, ye — yourselves — shall cast into the river. Essentially, Pharaoh did not want to charge his executioners to slay them by the decree of the king or to cast them into the river. Rather, he said to the people that whoever would find a Jewish child should throw him into the river. Should the child’s father complain to the king or to the master of the city, they would tell him to bring witnesses and then they will exact vengeance [for the crime]. Now once the king’s restriction was removed, the Egyptians would search the houses, entering them at night, and indifferent [to the cries of the parents], would remove the children therefrom. It is therefore said, And when she could no longer hide him.

It appears that this [decree to drown the Israelite children] lasted but a short time, for when Aaron was born [three years before Moses], the decree was not yet in existence, and when [shortly after] Moses was born, it appears that the decree was revoked. Perhaps it was through Pharaoh’s daughter, who, in her compassion for the child Moses, said to her father that he should not act in that way. It may be that when it became known that this decree was enacted by the king, he revoked it, or again it may be that it was revoked on account of the astrologers, as is the opinion of the Rabbis, since it was all done dexterously by them in order that the crime not be known. This is the meaning of the complaint made to Moses our teacher [by the officers of the children of Israel], Ye have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us, meaning, “Now they will increase their hatred of us and find justification for saying that we rebel against the government, and they will then openly slay us by the sword without the necessity of doing it slyly.”

The midwives, fearing God, did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.

A certain man of the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.

He had lived apart from her in consequence of Pharaoh’s decree that the children should, on their birth, be drowned. Now he took her back and entered into a second marriage with her, and she also physically became young again. For really she was then 130 years old — for she was born “between the walls” when they were about to enter Egypt and they (the Israelites) remained there 210 years, and when they left Egypt Moses was 80 years old; consequently, when she became pregnant with him she was 130 years old — and yet Scripture calls her בת לוי a young daughter of Levi

*this is drash

AND THERE WENT. Because of their great number the Israelites lived in many cities. All of the latter were called the land of Rameses. Perhaps this woman was in another city.

AND THERE WENT A MAN OF THE HOUSE OF LEVI. Our Rabbis have said that he went after the advice of his daughter. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra said that the Israelites dwelled in many cities, and this woman Jochebed lived in another city. [This would explain the term “went” in the above verse, i.e., he went to another city for his wife.] But what need is there for Scripture to mention this?

In my opinion Scripture uses the term “went” because this man paid no heed to Pharaoh’s decree and took to himself a woman to beget children. Such is Scripture’s way of speaking of anyone who prompts himself to do something new. Thus: And Reuben went and lay with Bilhah; So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites; Come, and let us smite him with the tongue; Come now, and let us reason together. Similarly this man Amram alerted himself and married a daughter of Levi.
The reason Scripture does not mention the name of the man nor the name of the woman he married is to avoid tracing their genealogy and mentioning who their fathers and their fathers’ fathers were up to Levi. At this point, Scripture desires to shorten the subject until the birth of the redeemer takes place, and after that, in the second seder, He traced the genealogy even of other tribes on account of Moses.

In line with the simple meaning of Scripture, i.e., that this was a first marriage [and not a remarriage as stated above], there is no significance in its being mentioned earlier or later in the chapter. This marriage took place before Pharaoh’s decree [that all male Hebrew children be killed], and she gave birth to Miriam and Aaron. After that, Pharaoh decreed, Every son that is born, ye shall cast into the river, and then she gave birth to this goodly son Moses. Scripture did not mention the birth of Miriam and Aaron inasmuch as there was nothing new about them. However, in the opinion of our Rabbis, this was a remarriage, since Amram separated from his wife in consequence of Pharaoh’s decree and then took her back on account of his daughter’s prophecy. He made her a wedding and placed her in the litter, while Miriam and Aaron danced about them in their joy because through this marriage, Israel would be redeemed [from Egypt]. Even though Aaron was young [at that time], G-d put gladness in his heart for this occasion, or possibly his sister Miriam taught him.

The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw how beautiful he was, she hid him for three months.

כי טוב הוא THAT HE WAS GOODLY — When he was born the whole house became filled with light (Sotah 12a).

*spiritual light - drash

And she saw that he was good. That the house was filled with light, as it says "And God saw the light, that it was good" (Bereishit 1:4). And for this reason, she hid him, because she was scared that the Mitzrim would see this light, and through the light see the boy also. For this reason, she hid him more than all the other boys [were hidden]. And further, [she worried] that they would sense through the excess of light that this [boy] was the redeemer who would bring "from darkness to light, and from subjugation to redemption" (Siddur Ashkenaz, petitionary prayer before returning the Torah to the Ark on a weekday). And perhaps she thought that the light was created with him in order for her to learn from it to conceal him, just like the Original Light which was stored away for the righteous in the future to come (see Rashi on Bereishit 1:14).

When she could hide him no longer, she got a wicker basket for him and caulked it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child into it and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.

בחמר ובזפת — with pitch (זפת) outside, but with slime (חמר) inside, in order that that righteous child might not smell the disagreeable odour of the pitch (Sotah 12a).

Q) What was the placement of the clay and tar?

And his sister stationed herself at a distance, to learn what would befall him.

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile, while her maidens walked along the Nile. She spied the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to fetch it.

When she opened it, she saw that it was a child, a boy crying. She took pity on it and said, “This must be a Hebrew child.”

AND BEHOLD A BOY THAT WEPT. Moses’ limbs were as large as if he were a fully developed boy. Pharaoh’s daughter noticed that Moses was circumcised. She took pity on him because of his beauty. This is the meaning of that he was a goodly child.

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a Hebrew nurse to suckle the child for you?”

מן העבריות OF THE HEBREWS — She expressly said, “shall I call a nurse of the Hebrews?” because she (Pharaoh’s daughter) had handed him to many Egyptian women to suckle him and he had refused to take suck — this was because he was destined to hold converse with the Shechina (Exodus Rabbah 1:21 and Sotah 12b).

And Pharaoh’s daughter answered, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother.

And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it.

היליכי (the word may be explained as a compound of two Aramaic words, הי, here is, and ליכי, that which belongs to thee — thine own) — she prophesied without knowing what she was prophesying (unconsciously she stated the actual fact) — here is thine own (Exodus Rabbah 1:21 and Sotah 12b).