Friday, January 30, 2009

makkas arbeh: torah sheba'al peh

Anonymous commented on my near oversight of not posting a Sefas Emes on his yahrzeit, so let me try to correct that!

There are a number of interesting points in the opening to parshas Bo:
1) Hashem tells Moshe to go to Pharoah and warn him, but the text interestingly does not contain any reference to the makkah which will be brought (see Ramban).
2) Why does the text use the word "bo" instead of "leich"?
3) When Pharoah gives him he admits "chatasi la'Hashem v'lachem" -- this is the only occurance of an admission of sin not just against G-d but against the Jewish people as well.

R' Simcha Bunim of Peshischa (Kol Simcha) explains that in fact Moshe was not told in advance what the upcoming makkah would be. Therefore, the Torah does not say "leich", implying shlichus, but rather uses the term "bo". Moshe was given free reign to choose what makkah to inflict on the Egyptians and based on his understanding of midah k'neged midah arranged for the plague of arbeh. Hashem wished to show that the purpose of the makkos stemmed from his love for the Jewish people and his responsiveness to their needs and not just for the abstract goal of punishing the Egyptians. When Pharoah begs for mercy he must confess that it is not just G-d who he has wronged and is subservient to, but also the Jewish people, who have within their power to ellicit punishments from G-d upon those who wrong them.

The Imrei Emes quotes the Sefas Emes as explaining that this makkah represents the revelation of torah sheba'al peh in the process of the makkos. One means of Hashem communicating with the world is the direct revelation of His will that occurred at Har Sinai and to the Nevi'im. However, there is another means of Hashem's will becoming known, and that is the process of torah sheba'al peh -- what the chachamei hador intuit and infer to be the ratzon Hashem, what the chachamei hador declare to be the ratzon Hashem, is the ratzon Hashem. Moshe did not need a revelation of the details of the makkah of arbeh in advance; it was his intuition of the ratzon Hashem that lef him to understand that this is the ratzon Hashem.

It is no coincidence that this process is revealed during arbeh, the eighth makkah in the series of makkos. In the list of sefiros and midos the lower seven midos all represent action, while the upper three represent knowledge -- chochma, binah, da'at. Each of the makkos was a revelation of some new aspect of Hashem's relationship and control over the world. This eighth makkah of arbeh is the start of the revelation of chochmas haTorah, and therefore it contains the germ of torah sheba'al peh, the ability to use chochma to reveal the ratzon Hashem.

The Maharal frequently writes that the number seven represents the order of the natural world, e.g. seven days in a week, but the number eight represents transcendence beyond those boundaries. The midos beyond seven are the vehicles that allow us to transcend our own physical limitations, as the mind has no boundaries as to what is can conceive of or imagine.

The Sefas Emes explains that this is why the Torah here stresses not just the goal of "v'yedatem ki ani Hashem" as a reason for the makkos, but also stresses the need "lma'an saper b'oznei bincha", the transmission of the story from generation to generation. Torah sheba'al peh is the mesorah of klal yisrael, the blueprint of Judaism that is not reducable to a chiddush or shita that can be formulated in a book or in an explicit command, but must be given over as a way thinking and living that allows us to see the ratzon Hashem using our chochma so that generations after Sinai we still feel Hashem speaking to us and making his will known.

19 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:34 AM

    Thanks,and just for fun let me answer one of the questions Biderech Remez.
    2) Why does the text use the word "bo" instead of "leich"?
    בא=3Becuase there where 3 makkos in this weeks Parsha much like last week in ואראthe first 2 letters add up to 7 because there where 7 makkos in last weks Parsha- Baal Haturim

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous9:38 AM

    By the way very impressive article are you sure you just realized it was the Sfas Emes Yahrtzeit?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11:07 AM

    Why does the text use the word "bo" instead of "leich"?

    I heard in the name of the Gaon that 'bo' was used instead of 'leich' because Moshe was talking to Hashem 'Un fun Abishter gait men nit avek' (one doesn't go away from Hashem.-This vort can be reconciled with the places Hashem does seem to send people away form him V'ain Kan Mokom L'haarich)

    ReplyDelete
  4. There are certain seforim that trigger a keyword association, e.g. R' Chaim = 2 dinim or gavra/cheftza, R' Shimon=sibah. The Sefas Emes = nekudah pnimis and the torah sheb'ksav / torah ba'al peh dialectic. Would you agree?

    ReplyDelete
  5. There are certain seforim that trigger a keyword association, e.g. R' Chaim = 2 dinim or gavra/cheftza, R' Shimon=sibah. The Sefas Emes = nekudah pnimis and the torah sheb'ksav / torah ba'al peh dialectic. Would you agree?

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's worth remembering that the appearance of the word "Bo" is not specific to this week's parsha. There is a very clear pattern here which repeats in threes. The first of each set begins with “hisyatzeiv”. The second of the set with “Bo”. The third is not preceded with any instruction to meet with Pharaoh. This is true with every single one of Dtzach Adash B’ach: Dam-Hisyatzev; Tzefardei’ah-Bo; Kinim-nothing. Orov-Hisyatzev; Dever-Bo; Shchin-nothing. Borod-Hisyatzev; Arbeh-Bo; Choshech-nothing.
    Many mefarshim, including the Zohar, do wait until this week's parsha to remark about the Bo that appears here, and it needs some thought as to why they waited, and what surprised them more about this Bo than the previous two. But in any case, it is Rabbeinu Bachaya or whatever his name is that addresses the sequence in 10:1, and it helps to read it with Chavel.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous12:53 PM

    I think you meant Reb Shimon:siman Versus Siba and of course everyone had an approach and they used it unversally across all there learning I heard the Netziv in a Letter or maybe in a Will to his children said dont learn Chemistry meaning not the Brisker Derech of breaking things down and Making DAKISDIK(cant think of english word for that sorry)Nafka Minas because the Derech is not Emes.And the Sfas Emes you refer too would only be AL Hatorah he does not say it much if at all on gemara.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous12:53 PM

    I think you meant Reb Shimon:siman Versus Siba and of course everyone had an approach and they used it unversally across all there learning I heard the Netziv in a Letter or maybe in a Will to his children said dont learn Chemistry meaning not the Brisker Derech of breaking things down and Making DAKISDIK(cant think of english word for that sorry)Nafka Minas because the Derech is not Emes.And the Sfas Emes you refer too would only be AL Hatorah he does not say it much if at all on gemara.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous5:42 PM

    A great Halacha Parsha Inyan for Bishalach everyone gets involved the Magen Avrhom, Aruch HAshulchan,Chazon Ish in Hanhagos. Feeding the Birds on Shabbos Shira Minhag shtus or Minhag Yisroel Torah.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous5:42 PM

    A great Halacha Parsha Inyan for Bishalach everyone gets involved the Magen Avrhom, Aruch HAshulchan,Chazon Ish in Hanhagos. Feeding the Birds on Shabbos Shira Minhag shtus or Minhag Yisroel Torah.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous6:03 PM

    I missed your response to me in the thread on lev melachim byad hashem. Im going to quote your response and answer it here b/c the other thread is off the page and I'm pretty sure you dont see old comments. sorry for the off topic

    "The Meshech Chochmaa in his intro to Sefer Shmos writes that Moshe Rabeinu had no bechira. What if Hashem told Moshe to ascend to Har Sinai to get the Torah and Moshe exercised his bechira and refused - do you mean that klal yisrael would miss kabbalas haTorah through Moshe Rabeinu (and davka his neshoma was capable of kabbalas haTorah in the way it happened; for someone else to step in would be a different animal completely)? You mean the tzibur would lose because of the bechira of the yachid? That cannot be.
    That is what lev melachim refers to. Hashem would not let the country slip into war based on the bechira of a yachid against the tzibur.
    However, you have to distinguish between bechira and consequences. If the klal exercises their collective bechira and elects someone like Olmert who is willing to give away anything for the promise of peace, his acting on that platform is not a surprise move that goes against the tzibur, but is simply a fulfillment of the platform which the klal chose in the first place. His action is not contrary to the bechira of the klal - it is a fulfillment of their bechira"

    Who says everything is comparable to kabalas hatorah. 1. I'm pretty sure even you are distinguishing. For example, i doubt you are saying that every decision, say prescription drug coverage for seniors, is lev melachim byad hashem. only some important things like war?? 2. you must concede that first of all, the melech is not elected, so that the whole business of the klals bechira is a modern issue, and not one that exists with a melech.
    So what are you saying. That every important decision that jewish kings ever made was lev melachim byad hashem? On the contrary. We see some are good and some are bad- we see they have bechira. This does not chalila mean that the rbs"o doesnt forsee what they will do, but it implies that not every decision is one where god intervenes and makes the king do what he'd otherwise not do. When shaul doesn't kill agag is this lev melachim byad hashem, if so why is he punished? Yet we do suffer from his decision in the purim story. Still, whatever role hashgacha plays, who says that shaul did not exercise his bechira, because if he did not, why is he punished? There are any number of wars in melachim that are against god's will acc to posuk - amitzyahu's war against yisrael, yoshiyahu's war against egyptians, yehoshaft's venture with achav etc How can this be lev melachim do we see that that god hardened their heart as with paroah? yet we see that these are called sins.

    The point is that you have somehow taken lev melachim etc to mean that every single decision of import is controlled by God against the bechira of the person in power. Who says this? Can you show me any source that says lev melachim etc means that every war is out of the king's control and determined by God, or any decision that affects am yisrael there is lev melachim? I think this can't be correct, and all that lev melachim means is that SOMETIMES God interferes and causes a king to do something he wouldnt otherwise do. NOT that this is always happens or that every decision like going to war is such a decision. If you think otherwise, what basis or source do you have for the claim?

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  12. >>>Can you show me any source

    My source is the Malb"im on that pasuk.

    I have to think about the rest.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous7:01 PM

    I see what you mean - i should not have tried to guess at the malbim earlier in the discussion - but i'm still unsure that the malbim means that this happens for every decision and not just some of them.

    ReplyDelete
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