Archive for ‘Moshe | Moses’

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February 8, 2012

Moshe’s Words to the Jews after the Splitting of the Reed Sea, part II

by Digital Maggid

Hashem Yisboroch (Gd), who knows the thoughts of every person, will get so angry with Gog Umagog that he will cast great stones down from heaven on him and on his army, killing them. Then kings will try to fight with the Israelites in the “End of Days” (Acharit haYamim), but all will fail and Gd will send Eliyahu haNovi (Elijah the Prophet) who will stand on Mt. Zion and herald the Redemption. All nations, including the wicked amongst the Jews, will greatly fear Gd in the End of Days because all the sinners will be punished then and only the righteous Jews and gentiles who respect Gd and his mitsvos will merit the Resurrection of the Dead and the days of Moshiach.

In the End of Days there will be a great light in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) that will shine from one corner to the other.  The residents of the world will see this magnificent light, they will walk toward it until they come to the city of Jerusalem, and there, Gd will send down the temple that Moshe saw when he was in heaven. In the temple, Gd will sit on his throne with the nation of Israel all around him. Each nation of the world will pass by Gd’s Throne of Glory and will be judged on those who served idols that had no reality in them. Gd will tell them that they should turn to their gods of wood and stone and ask for their help because today is the Judgement Day. And then no one will help the nations, and all will be burned in the fire. Also, the Jews will pass by Gd and he will ask them: Who is your Gd and to whom do you bow down? The Israelites will then answer in a loud voice: “You, Gd, are our father and only to You do we raise our heads, always.”

At that time will the Israelite nation merit complete redemption.

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February 7, 2012

Moshe’s Words to the Jews after the Splitting of the Reed Sea, part I

by Digital Maggid

Seeing the great miracles that were done for the Jews in the exodus from Egypt and in the splitting of the Reed Sea, Moshe was afraid that they would be proud of themselves and brag about their strength and wisdom, and that they would not remember that only with the will of Hashem (Gd) were the miracles done. And Hashem would get angry with them and would no longer help them in war. Therefore, Moshe prayed to Gd saying: “Gd, my Gd! When the Amalekites come to wage war on your children, cast a great fear on them so that they run away, and when the Emorites hide in the Arnon River and suddenly attack the Israelites, don’t let them kill your children. I beg of you that you be with your people until they cross over the Jordan. When they enter the land of Israel in front of their leader, Yehoshua (Joshua), they should inherit the land and settle in it just as you promised Abraham our Father!”

Moshe turned to the Jews and said: “My dear brothers, you should know and always remember that not with wisdom nor with power nor with wealth can one take over a state, but only with the  strength of the Creator and with His will will you win in war. And if you do the will of Gd and if you fulfill his mitsvos, he will always help you against your enemies.”

At the same time, Moshe told them a bit about what would be in the age of Moshiach (the Messiah).

Before Moshiach comes, there will arise a powerful king, Gor Umagog, who will gather 71 powerful nations and go up to the gates of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). This king will think to himself: “Pharaoh, the king of Egypt was a fool who wanted to annihilate the Israelites and issued an edict to throw into the river only the males and not the females, and so, a great portion of the Israelites remained and quickly increased rather than being annihilated.  Balak, the king of Moab, likewise did not act with wisdom when he wanted to curse the Israelites and forgot that their Gd always only blesses them. Evil Haman (from the scroll of Esther), who also wanted to annihilate the Israelites, did not take into account the power of the Jewish Gd to rescue them. I am not so foolish as they. Before I go out to war against the Jews I will wage war on their Gd who is in heaven.”

 

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February 3, 2012

The Jews between Pharaoh and the Reed Sea

by Digital Maggid

Gd was capable of drowning the Egyptians in the Nile and did need to bring them to the Reed Sea. He did so only in order to show the Egyptians and everyone else his strength and power. Gd also wanted to show his people, the Israelites, his wonders so that they would believe in him and obey him. So Gd introduced in the hearts of the Egyptians the boldness and the will to pursue the Jews and to boast of their ability to kill them, and ultimately, Gd would drown them in the Reed Sea.

So that the Jews would not flee from the Egyptians who were pursuing them, Gd placed wild animals across from the Jewish camp. The Jews were in the middle of these ferocious wild animals and from another side, Pharaoh’s army on powerful horses wielded swords and shot arrows. Pharaoh’s army set up opposite “Ba’al Tzifon” [in Hebrew, lit. Lord of the North] who was one of the Egyptian gods, and the king and his slaves offered sacrifices to the god and hoped that he would help them.

There was much fear, shock and commotion in the Jewish camp. There were four groups in the nation: In one group were the people of Reuven, Shimon and Issachar, who said: “It’s better for us to go into the sea and drown than return to Egypt and be slaves.” To them, Moshe said: “You will not drown in the sea. Stay here and you’ll see the salvation that Gd will work for you today.” In the second group were the people of Zevulun, Benyamin, and Naftali, who wanted to go back to Egypt and beg the king’s pardon. To them Moshe said: “Do not fear the Egyptians. You are seeing them now for the last time.” In the third group were the people of Yehuda, the heroic ones who decided to wage war on the Egyptians and give into them. Moshe said sternly to them: “You must not wage war. Hashem will wage war for you, and you shall be silent. None of you will die.” In the fourth group were the people of Gad and Dan, who also wanted to raise up within the Egyptian camp and suddenly attack them. Moshe did not agree with them and told them to remain in their places and pray to Gd for help.

Meanwhile, the Jews remembered the words of their father Yakev who said not to wage war with swords and bows, but with prayer and supplication to the Creator of the world. The Jews stood and cried out with a mighty voice: “Ana Hashem, hoshi’ah na!” (we beg you, our Gd,  help!) Being in trouble, the entire people Israel repented and threw away every single idol they had brought with them from Egypt. They prayed with broken hearts to Gd for help. Hashem was pleased to hear their prayers and to see that they repented. Just as they cried out to Gd when they were slaves in Egypt, and their cries ascend to heaven, so also now did Gd hear their voices and he descended to rescue them from the hands of their pursuers.

 

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January 26, 2012

Pound for Pound

by Digital Maggid

The Plagues of the Egyptians were “Pound for Pound”

Every plague that Gd brought upon the Egyptians was “pound for pound.”

The plague of blood corresponded to Pharaoh’s statement: “The river is mine and I made it.” Therefore, Gd punished him with the plague of blood, which began in the river. The plague of frogs also came out the water in order to take revenge on the Egpytians who wanted to kill this people who would receive the Torah which is like water. The lice that came out of the earth came to oppress the Egyptians who wanted to annihilate this people, which is compared to the dust of the earth. The wild animals of the plague of beasts came to kill the Egyptians who wanted to annihilate a people whose children had been martyred. The boils came from the soot of the lime ovens in order to save the people whose father, Abraham, had been thrown into a lime oven to show the superiority of Gd at the time of the evil Nimrod. And in the future, so will many Jews do, for whom it would be better to die in the fire than to convert from Judaism. The plague of hail that was of snow and ice came to take revenge on the Egyptians who wanted to annihilate a people who, in the future, would make their sins white and pure as snow. The locusts that were like a great army came to destroy the food supplies of the Egyptians who wanted to kill the Israelites who were Gd’s army. The plague of darkness was to torment the Egyptians who wanted to kill a nation that different from the star-worshippers, who would be called “darkness.” And the plague of the first-born came upon the Egyptians because they wanted to kill the Jews whom Gd called “b’ni b’chori yisrael” (Israel my first-born).

Because of the ten trials with which Gd tested Abraham our Father and which he successfully withstood, Gd punished the Egyptians with ten plagues.

Posted in Aggodos | Sefer Ha-Aggadah, Agodes, Avrom | Abraham, Bo | בא, Moshe | Moses | 2 Comments »

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January 25, 2012

Yosef’s Bones, part I

by Digital Maggid

Eyder di Idn zenen aroys fun Mitsrayim hot Moshe-Rabeinu gevolt mekayem zayn di haftokhe fun di Idn az zey veln aroysnemen Yosef’s beyner un zey brengen tsu k’vure in Erets-Yisroel.
Before the Jews left Egypt, Moshe our Teacher wanted to make good on the pledge of the Jews to take Yosef’s bones and bring them to the land of Israel for burial.

Nokh zayendig fartun un tored mitn tsuzamennemen zeyer farmegn, zeyer shof un rinder, iz Moshe arumgegangen in gantsn land Mitsrayim un gezukht dem kastn vos in im iz geven Yosef’s kerper.
After being occupied and busy with gathering their possessions together, their sheep and their cattle, Moshe went around the whole country of Egypt looking for the box in which Yosef’s body was.

Moshe hot nisht gefunen dem aron khotsh er hot fil gezukht. Vos hot er getun?
Moshe could not find the coffin even though he did a lot of searching. What did he do?

Er is gegangen tsu Serakh, di tokhter fun Asher, vos hot zukhe geven tsu arikhas-yomem tsulib dem zukhes fun Yakev’s brakhe ven zi hot im mevaser geven as Yosef lebt, vi Moshe hot ihr gefirt tsum taykh Niles, un zi hot im gezogt: “Tif in dem taykh hobn di Mitsrayem arayngevorfn dem aron in velkher di beyner fun Yosef-hatsadik gefunen zikh, der aron iz zeyer shver vayl er iz tsugebindn tsu shtiker  ayzer. S’iz nisht meglikh tsu efenen dem aron, er iz khasme’et mit kishef fun di Mitsrayem k’dey er zol nisht aroyf shvimen un m’zol im keynmol nisht gefunen. Di Mitsrayem hobn dos getun mitn bafel funem kenig vos hot gevust di tsavoe fun Yosef tsu zayne kinder un iz geven zikher az di Idn veln nisht aroys fun Mitsrayim on Yosef’s aron, vayl er hot nisht gevolt az azelkher getreye knekht vi di Idn zoln im farlozn hot er arayngevorfn Yosef’s aron in di tifenish funem taykh, kdey m’zol im nisht gefunen un zey zoln nisht aroys fun zayn land.”
He went to Serakh, the daughter of Asher, who merited longevity on account of Yakev’s blessing when she foretold that Yosef was alive. When Moshe led her to the Nile River, she said to him: “Deep in the river have the Egyptians thrown the coffin in which Yosef the Tsadik’s bones will be found. The coffin is very heavy because it is bound to pieces of iron. It’s impossible to open the coffin. It is sealed with Egyptian magic so that it won’t float and so no one will find it. The Egyptians did this on order of the king who knew about Yosef’s will to his children, and he was sure that the Jews would not leave Egypt without Yosef’s coffin. Because he didn’t want such faithful slaves to leave, he threw Yosef’s coffin into the depths of the river so that they would not find it and they would not leave his land.”

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January 25, 2012

Pharaoh Pleads with Moshe, part II

by Digital Maggid

With a heavy heart and full of trembling, Pharaoh did as Moshe said. He announced loudly in the streets: “Children of Israel! Get up and  leave my people, all of you, your children and your wives, and take your sheep and your cattle with you, as you will. Go and sacrifice to your Gd and bless me for your release. Until today you were my slaves. From now on, you will serve only your Gd.” The Jews heard Pharaoh’s announcement and rejoiced and loudly pronounced, “Halleluyah, hallelu avdei Adonai!” (Praise Gd! Praise, servants of the LORD!).

Moshe also heard what Pharaoh announced, but he didn’t want to leave Egypt at night. So he said to Pharaoh: “Are we then thieves that we should leave your land when no one can see? We will wait until tomorrow. Gd will send ‘clouds of glory’ to accompany us on our way, and we will leave your land with rejoicing and all will see.”

Pharaoh was fearful that he would die if the Jews didn’t leave right away, but Moshe reassured him, saying: “You will not die in the plague even though you are a first-born. Hashem (Gd) wants you to remain alive to show you his great power in the miracle that he will do at the Reed Sea (“Red Sea,” a common mistranslation of the Hebrew Yam Suf).

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January 24, 2012

Pharaoh Pleads with Moshe, part I

by Digital Maggid

Inmitn di nach, di nach fun makes-bkhoyres, hot zikh der kenig oyfgevekt funem kol fun di geshrayen vos hobn aroysgebrekhn fun yedn mitsrayishn hoyz. In the middle of the night, the night of the plague of the first-born, the king was awakened by the screaming voices that broke out from every Egyptian household. His servants told him about the death that prevailed in the houses of Egypt. Pharaoh gathered his servants and said to them: “Every time when Gd has afflicted us, I’ve called Moshe and Aharon and asked them to pray for us and the plague has ceased. But last time Moshe was in my palace, I got very angry with him and drove him out and forbade his entrance into my palace. Therefore, if I want the plague to stop, I must go looking for him myself and beg his mercy so that he might pray to his Gd and the death-curse might be lifted from us.”

Pharaoh and his servants left immediately with all the Egyptian ministers and together they set out to look for Moshe and Aharon. The king and his ministers, who had never been to the houses of the Jews, did not know where Moshe and Aharon lived. Jewish children, who saw the king and his frightened servants, made fun of the king and wouldn’t say where Moshe lived. They purposely fooled them so that might run from house to house looking for Moshe.  The king poured out his wrath on his ministers and servants and ordered many of them to be killed, claiming that had not allowed him to free the Jews from the land of Egypt, therefore he was in danger of being killed.

Meanwhile, Moshe and Aharon were celebrating the holiday of Pesach (Passover). They had eaten the lamb they had shekhted (ritually slaughtered), they had drunk wine, they had sat with purpose and praised Gd.

In the middle of the celebratory feast, Moshe heard Pharaoh calling to him with supplications. Moshe asked through the window: “Is this how a king behaves? Leaving his palace in the middle of the night looking for people?” The king answered: “I come to you so that you will plead with your Gd to be merciful to me and my people, for we will all be dead soon.” Moshe said to the king: “I can’t leave my house on this guarded night.” Pharaoh asked to speak with Moshe and he approached the window and from there, Pharaoh’s daughter said that she had come with her father to look for Moshe: “Don’t you remember the great kindness I did for you when you were a baby in a basket on the river? I saved your life and raised in my own home and now you bring such trouble on my father?” Moshe replied: “Ten plagues has Gd brought upon the Egyptians and not one of them has affected you, because Gd remembers the kindess that you have shown me.” Pharaoh’s daughter said: “I have, indeed, not been effected until now. But it does me woe, seeing as my people and my brothers suffer.” Moshe said to her: “I have clearly warned your father before every plague that he would receive a severe punishment if he did not listen and obey what the Gd of the Jews said. Your father did not listen to me, he did not obey me. Therefore, the whole nation has been punished.”

Pharaoh, who heard his daughter speaking with Moshe and knew that Moshe was right, said to him: “All that you have said has come to pass. This time you’ve said that the first-born of Egypt shall die, and now I see that almost all the Egyptian people are dying.” Moshe answered him: “Only one possibility remains for you, if you would save your people from death. Go out into the streets of the city and shout with a loud voice to all the Jews and them to leave this land immediately — they and their wives and their sons and their daughters together with all of their possessions.”

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January 22, 2012

Locusts – Arbeh

by Digital Maggid

The Plague of Locusts

Before the plague of locusts, the eighth plague that Gd brought upon the Egyptians, Moshe and Aharon were not detained for long in Pharaoh’s palace. The king had called them on account of his frightened servants who said to the king: “How long will we suffer on account of the Jews? Send them to the place they want to go. Let them serve their Gd, for in the end we will die and in the end the whole country will be annihilated if you don’t do their will.”

When Moshe and Aharon came to him, Pharaoh said: “I agree that you should leave Egypt to make sacrifices to your Gd, just tell me who all is leaving.” Moshe answered: “We’re all going. Old and young, women and children, and also we are taking our sheep and cattle.”

“Why are you taking the children too?” Pharaoh asked. “They obviously don’t make sacrifices. If the children are going too, does that mean you won’t be returning to Egypt? The men are allowed to go, but if they leave their wives and children in Egypt, then I will know that they will return.”

Moshe and Aharon did not agree to Pharaoh’s words. The king was angry and his advisor, the wicked Bil’am, said that the brothers should be driven out of the palace. The king, who saw that his honor would be tarnished by their not having listened to him even though he did concede to permit the men to leave,  did as Bil’am advised and drove Moshe and Aharon out of the palace in shame.

In the plague of locusts, Gd showed the Egyptians “measure for measure.” Pharaoh had ordered the Jews to plant vineyards and orchards and to sow their grain in Egyptian fields. Therefore, all different species of locusts came and ate up all that the Jews had sown and planted with their hard, crushing labor.

Hashem Yisboroch (Gd) said: “The Egyptians wanted to annihilate the Jews who are ‘Gd’s army’ so they shall suffer from locusts, which are like a great army that annihilates everything.”

The locusts covered the entire country of Egypt and ate up what little remained after the plague of hail that destroyed the fields and the gardens. The many bugs in the plague of locusts also bit the people and touched their eyes, making them blind. There was a great famine in Egypt after the plague of locusts, because there was nothing left in the fields, nothing worth eating.

After seven days the locusts amazingly disappeared. Even the bugs that the Egyptians had caught and put in jars to eat suddenly vanished, so that the Egyptians derived no benefit from the plague.

During the plague of locusts, the Jews saw the difference between Hashem Yisboroch (Gd) and a flesh-and-blood king. A flesh-and-blood king who goes out to a battle has to have a lot of money and food and drink for his solidiers who go with him to distant places to wage war, as opposed to Hashem-Yisboroch (Gd) who took locusts for his soldiers, creepy-crawlies that devoured and needed no food or drink. With an order from Gd they came to the place where he said they should go and they did his will.

Soldiers of a flesh-and-blood king can succeed when they fight on level ground, but on hills and walls they do not succeed in climbing and waging war. The locusts, Gd’s army, were up on the hills, they climbed on high walls, they entered houses through windows and they easily reached every place, to carry out the will of the Creator.

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January 20, 2012

The Ten Plagues

by Digital Maggid

Hashem brought ten plagues upon Pharaoh and his people. He knew that of the plagues, from the first to last of them, it would be the last plague, the plague of the first-born, that would have Pharaoh immediately letting the Jews leave his country. Yet because Hashem wanted to punish the Egyptian people with much punishment and show the people of the world his power and his might, he did not bring the plague of the first-born to begin with, but started out with lighter plagues and from time to time pressed them so that they suffered more and more until they submitted fully and sent the Jews out of their land.

The ten plagues that came upon the Egyptians were like a serious war that is waged between a powerful king and his people who have disobeyed him. This is comparable to a flesh-and-blood king who has an uprising leveled against him. First, he sends his army to surround the state and stop up the water wells. After that he frightens the rebels with shofar (horn) blasts and the shooting of arrows at them. If they don’t give up, the king comes at the head of a great and powerful army and kills  their animals, pours scalding matter on them, throws heavy stones at them, fights with them with a powerful army, detains and jails them until he orders the capture of the main rebels and kills them.

The moral of this is: Hashem Yisboroch (Gd), the great king, set out to humble the Egyptians, the people who did not listen to his orders. In the beginning Gd transformed the waters in Egypt to blood. In the plague of the frogs, he made them hear powerful and frightening voices.   The plague of lice was like stabbing arrows. The plague of wild animals and the plague of pestilence killed off the animals of Egypt. The plague of boils burned them like kerosene. The plague of locusts was like soldiers who obliterated the fields and gardens. The plague of darkness was like captives being locked up in jail. And finally the plague of the first-born, which had the most significant impact of all.  Pharaoh, who was a first-born, was afraid that he would be killed and therefore quickly sought out Moshe and Aharon and begged them to leave his land along with all the Jews.

 

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January 19, 2012

Signs and Wonders for Pharaoh

by Digital Maggid

In order to show Moshe and Aharon that in his land there were greater sages than they, the king, Pharaoh, sent for the magician Bil’am and all the magicians of Egypt. Bil’am, who had heard that Moshe and Aharon had entered the Pharaoh’s palace and that the ferocious beasts had not attacked them, thought that the brothers were magicians too, and he said to Pharaoh, let’s call on them to prove their powers of magic.

Moshe and Aharon came into the Pharaoh’s palace holding their wonderful staffs. Also this time, they entered the palace accompanied by Gd’s angel and none of the guards who saw them standing by the entrance of the palace succeeded in detaining them.

Moshe and Aharon stood before the king, before his important noblemen, and before Bil’am, the greatest of magicians, and they cried out loud and strong: “When a friend comes as the guest of his fellow, he generally merits a being treated well. The people of our nation, the Israelites, came here many years ago as good friends. Your ancestors treated them beautifully. As opposed to you, who works them at crushing labor, and you make slaves out of wealthy and honored men. Therefore, our Gd has sworn to bring upon you trouble and plagues like he has never before brought upon any nation of the world. You, who calls yourself “crocodile” and “almighty,” you should know that you will be humiliated and beaten to the ground.”

The king was not frightened by the words of Moshe and Aharon and said to them: “So that I might believe you, give me a sign that Gd has sent you.” Aharon threw his staff on the ground and it transformed into a snake.

The king laughed and said mockingly: “You think that such a sign will frighten me? Does such a sign demonstrate the power of your Gd? Even Egyptian school children can do that for me, making a staff become a snake!”

The king immediately ordered his magicians to do what Aharon had done, and they threw their staffs which they were holding, and all of them became snakes.

When Moshe saw this he said to the king: “I have seen what your learned ones have done. I mock you not, nor do I mock them. But I say to you that what men can do cannot be compared to what Gd can do.” Aharon’s staff, which was lying on the ground in the form of a snake, immediately sprang up and gobbled up the snakes that the magicians had made with their magic. Bil’am the magician said to Moshe: “Your snake has indeed gobbled up our snakes, but that’s nothing special because it is usual for snakes and crocodiles to eat one another. Let us see if you are able to transform the snake you made back into a staff, and we will transform the snakes into staffs also, and then we will see if your staff is able to gobble up our staffs. Moshe agreed. Aharon’s snake became an ordinary staff and the snakes of the magicians also became staffs. Gd did a miracle and Aharon’s staff gobbled up all the staffs and remained in its previous form without any change. Seeing this wonder, the king got frightened and feared that the staff might gobble him up along with the throne he sat on. But the evil Bil’am did not give up and was not afraid. He promised the king that he would protect him from the Gd of the Jews and make sure that he would not have to free the Jews or let them leave Egypt.

 

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