Parshat Vaera
This week is in the merit of my grandmother, Esther bat Mazal. May she have a complete and speedy recovery.
Question:
The letters signify the chiastic structure. What is its' significance?
God spoke to Moses and said to him:
A 'I am Hashem.
B I revealed Myself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as Kel Shakkai, and did not allow them to know Me by My name Hashem.
C I also made My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, where they lived as foreigners.
D I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves, and I have remembered My covenant.
Therefore say to the Israelites, 'I am Hashem.
I will take you away from your forced labor in Egypt
And I will free you from their slavery
and I will liberate you with a demonstration of My power, and with great acts of judgment.
I will take you to Myself as a nation, and I will be to you as a God. You will know that I am Hashem your G-d,
D the One who is bringing you out from under the Egyptian subjugation.
C I will bring you to the land regarding which I raised My hand, that I would give it to
B Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I will give it to you as an inheritance.
A I am Hashem.' '
(Exodus 6:2-8)
------
The Lord said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, stretch forth your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals, and over the ponds, and bring up the frogs on the land of Egypt." And Aaron stretched forth his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frog came up and covered the land of Egypt. (Exodus 8:1-2)
Rashi: and the frog came up. Heb. וַךְתַּעַל הַצְפַרְדֵעַ, literally, and the frog came up. It was one frog, and they [the Egyptians] hit it, and it split into many swarms of frogs. This is its midrashic interpretation (Tanchuma, Va’era 14)…
On this midrash, we must ask why the Egyptians kept hitting the frog and splitting it. (Mind you, the Egyptians were extremely smart, to this day we have no idea how they built the pyramids with what they had and I also read somewhere that they even had developed primitive batteries!) Why did they not ketch on and figure out that hitting frogs did not solve anything?
I heard as tape from Rabbi Raymond Beyda where he cited Rav Yeruchum Levovitz zzt"l with an explanation.
He said that it is clear that the Egyptians became quite furious in their unsuccessful attempts to kill the frogs and their anger blinded them to their ever growing problems.
While the Rambam (Hilchos Deot 1:4) advocates balancing our character traits, he later (2:3) says this does not apply to arrogance and anger, both which must be completely eliminated.
King Solomon wrote:
"Rage is cruel and anger is overwhelming and who can withstand the jealous rage?" (Proverbs 27:4).
"He who is in great wrath shall suffer punishments; if you come to his rescue, you merely add aggravation" (Proverbs 19:19).
Rav Hirsch comments "Once a person is caught in the throes of a towering rage, he can hardly be helped anymore; and he will have to bear the consequences, which may pay prove unfortunate. A neighbor may try to save him and his victim by persuasion, but he will only succeed in incensing him more" (From the Wisdom of Mishlé, page 194).
Somebody enraged literally looses their senses and the Ramchal (chapter 11 of Mesillas Yesharim) compares such a person to an animal!
These are all rational reasons, understandable to all, why to keep calm but our tradition gives us even better reasons.
"You tear up your soul in your anger…" (Job 18:4)
Rabbi Beyda understood this to mean that when one gets angry, they loose any level of spirituality that they had achieved. I can attest to this. Any inspiration is replaced with rage and after I calm down, I feel quite far from G-d. I believe this is what the Ramban in his famous letter was alluding to when he said one who gets angry experiences hell in this world. Anger is literally hell and we have good reason to fear getting mad. For me, preserving my soul is the primary motivation for me working on developing patience.
Our sages in Shabbas 105b say regarding a person who got angry "it is as if he worshipped idols"! The common (and in my opinion correct) explanation is that when one gets angry, it is because he is expecting for something to turn out one way and it does not. In truth, there is no basis for this expectation since G-d runs the world but in our arrogance, we forget about Him. Thus, it is comparable to idolatry.
Bottom Line
King Solomon also stated "Do not befriend a quick-tempered person, neither shall you go with a wrathful man lest you learn his ways and ensnare your soul" (Proverbs 22:24-25) and the Rambam decides this as halacha (Hilchos Deos 2:3)!
When we get angry, we need to hold it in and let it go. Eventually, things simply will not bother us.
"The way of the righteous is to be humble without being humbled, not to answer back when disgraced, to do things out of love and to be joyous in suffering" (Rambam: Hilchos Deos 2:3).
Have a good Shabbas,
Mordechai
This week is in the merit of my grandmother, Esther bat Mazal. May she have a complete and speedy recovery.
Question:
The letters signify the chiastic structure. What is its' significance?
God spoke to Moses and said to him:
A 'I am Hashem.
B I revealed Myself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as Kel Shakkai, and did not allow them to know Me by My name Hashem.
C I also made My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, where they lived as foreigners.
D I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves, and I have remembered My covenant.
Therefore say to the Israelites, 'I am Hashem.
I will take you away from your forced labor in Egypt
And I will free you from their slavery
and I will liberate you with a demonstration of My power, and with great acts of judgment.
I will take you to Myself as a nation, and I will be to you as a God. You will know that I am Hashem your G-d,
D the One who is bringing you out from under the Egyptian subjugation.
C I will bring you to the land regarding which I raised My hand, that I would give it to
B Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I will give it to you as an inheritance.
A I am Hashem.' '
(Exodus 6:2-8)
------
The Lord said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, stretch forth your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals, and over the ponds, and bring up the frogs on the land of Egypt." And Aaron stretched forth his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frog came up and covered the land of Egypt. (Exodus 8:1-2)
Rashi: and the frog came up. Heb. וַךְתַּעַל הַצְפַרְדֵעַ, literally, and the frog came up. It was one frog, and they [the Egyptians] hit it, and it split into many swarms of frogs. This is its midrashic interpretation (Tanchuma, Va’era 14)…
On this midrash, we must ask why the Egyptians kept hitting the frog and splitting it. (Mind you, the Egyptians were extremely smart, to this day we have no idea how they built the pyramids with what they had and I also read somewhere that they even had developed primitive batteries!) Why did they not ketch on and figure out that hitting frogs did not solve anything?
I heard as tape from Rabbi Raymond Beyda where he cited Rav Yeruchum Levovitz zzt"l with an explanation.
He said that it is clear that the Egyptians became quite furious in their unsuccessful attempts to kill the frogs and their anger blinded them to their ever growing problems.
While the Rambam (Hilchos Deot 1:4) advocates balancing our character traits, he later (2:3) says this does not apply to arrogance and anger, both which must be completely eliminated.
King Solomon wrote:
"Rage is cruel and anger is overwhelming and who can withstand the jealous rage?" (Proverbs 27:4).
"He who is in great wrath shall suffer punishments; if you come to his rescue, you merely add aggravation" (Proverbs 19:19).
Rav Hirsch comments "Once a person is caught in the throes of a towering rage, he can hardly be helped anymore; and he will have to bear the consequences, which may pay prove unfortunate. A neighbor may try to save him and his victim by persuasion, but he will only succeed in incensing him more" (From the Wisdom of Mishlé, page 194).
Somebody enraged literally looses their senses and the Ramchal (chapter 11 of Mesillas Yesharim) compares such a person to an animal!
These are all rational reasons, understandable to all, why to keep calm but our tradition gives us even better reasons.
"You tear up your soul in your anger…" (Job 18:4)
Rabbi Beyda understood this to mean that when one gets angry, they loose any level of spirituality that they had achieved. I can attest to this. Any inspiration is replaced with rage and after I calm down, I feel quite far from G-d. I believe this is what the Ramban in his famous letter was alluding to when he said one who gets angry experiences hell in this world. Anger is literally hell and we have good reason to fear getting mad. For me, preserving my soul is the primary motivation for me working on developing patience.
Our sages in Shabbas 105b say regarding a person who got angry "it is as if he worshipped idols"! The common (and in my opinion correct) explanation is that when one gets angry, it is because he is expecting for something to turn out one way and it does not. In truth, there is no basis for this expectation since G-d runs the world but in our arrogance, we forget about Him. Thus, it is comparable to idolatry.
Bottom Line
King Solomon also stated "Do not befriend a quick-tempered person, neither shall you go with a wrathful man lest you learn his ways and ensnare your soul" (Proverbs 22:24-25) and the Rambam decides this as halacha (Hilchos Deos 2:3)!
When we get angry, we need to hold it in and let it go. Eventually, things simply will not bother us.
"The way of the righteous is to be humble without being humbled, not to answer back when disgraced, to do things out of love and to be joyous in suffering" (Rambam: Hilchos Deos 2:3).
Have a good Shabbas,
Mordechai
posted by Mordechai18 at 11:16 AM
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