1. You have to be the Sefas Emes could ask the following question: What was the zechus that Pharoah had that allowed him to merit having a daughter like Batya and gave him the privilege of raising young Moshe Rabeinu in his house? He answers that this merit stemmed from the bracha that Ya'akov Avinu gave Pharoah when he met him. (We see the bracha of a tzadik can effect even the life of a rasha in ways that the rasha may not appreciate or even be aware of.)
2. The Sefas Emes and many others are bothered by Moshe's challenge to Hashem, "V'hein lo ya'aminu li," that Bnei Yisrael will not believe in him. Time after time after each cheit in the Torah Moshe Rabeinu comes to the defense of Klal Yisrael -- why here is he so reluctant to give them the benefit of his trust, even after Hashem promises him that they will listen?
My wife suggested that once Moshe accepted his role of manhig, he never gave up on "his" Klal Yisrael. We were like Moshe's baby -- our problems were his problems. However, at this point, before Moshe accepted his mission, there was not yet that relationship. When Moshe jumped into the job, he gave it 100% forever after, but that jump had to first occur to create that bond.
Interested name, Batya. I never ran into her in Tanach. In דברי הימים there is a daughter of פרעה mentioned by the name of Bisya. Did she have a sister called Batya?
ReplyDeleteAs far as the relevant זכות, we are required לא תתעב מצרי because of their הכנסת אורחים at our time of need. As flawed as it was with self-interest, and as poisonous as the relationship ultimately became, we are to this very day obligated in הכרת הטוב to them.
It could be that the זכות of this הכנסת אורחים was the factor. Recall that in the זכות of the קרבנות that were brought by בלק he was זוכה to be an ancestor of רות and דוד המלך. And those were hardly לשמה.
Note that an overriding theme in שמות is הכרת הטוב. The water and sand were not smitten directly by משה because of his הכרת הטוב to them. Indeed, the name he used, of all the ten names he had, was that given him by בתיה (punctuated as you will), out of הכרת הטוב to her.
I heard from Rav Bulman זצוק"ל that משה was the tikkun for the כפיית הטוב of אדה"ר.
Indeed, his most powerful criticism of the בני ישראל in his final exhortation to them was: כפויי טובה בני כפויי טובה.
I just wanted to present a מוסר approach as opposed to the חסידישה one of the שפת אמת. I am much much comfortable with a person earning their own reward as opposed to having it come through the mechanism of a צדיק.
I like your approach because there is a midah k'neged midah aspect -- because Pharoah welcomed Ya'akov into his "home" of Mitzrayim (whatever the motivation), he had the zechus (albeit unwittingly) of also serving as host to Moshe.
ReplyDeletemore midah k'neged midah:
ReplyDeleteBatya's (great?)grandfather (if the Pharoah whom Ya'akov blessed was any relation to her at all) sent no scouting party* to report back on the desirability of the newly arrived Hebrew daughters/
wives & granddaughters(46:7); he had not even a hava amina about taking one of them to himself (as Sarah was taken, or Rivkah by Avimelech)-- how do we know? by the ways of Batya!
since the Office of Pharoah once protected the virtue of the daughters of Ya'akov from prying eyes, & had at one time further respected that virtue even in thought, from that same Office would a virtuous daughter** in due time emerge...
* &/or told his Custom's Officers to suspend their ever-alert screening for beauty at the border
** & one on the look-out at the river
What about the opinion that a truly new Pharaoh caused the oppression, not just the old one with real or fake amnesia?
ReplyDeleteIf this was the old Pharaoh (and how old would he have been by the time of the oppression??), wouldn't Yaakov Avinu's beracha have prevented him for instigating atrocities against the Jews?
Basya Bisya:
ReplyDeleteGenerally, the source for Basya, as opposed to the pronunciation Bisya as found in Divrei Hayamim I 4:18 is Pirkei DRebbi Eliezer 48 and the Yalkut Shimoni there in Divrei Hayamim, in which her conversion or her selfless act of saving the child earned her a new name.
I don't find that convincing, because it's more likely to me that Bisya WAS her new name, and that it somehow means the same as Basya. In fact, the Aruch Hashulchan in EH 129, Women's Names, beginning of Beis, says that Basya is an error, because, as gu pointed out, we only find the name Bisya.
Not that I would question the Aruch Hashulchan, but I don't know why we are beholden to old or biblical names. Basya sounds like a name, and Bisya sounds more like a snack or a goodbye salutation.
See Radal #52 here:
ReplyDeletehttp://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=21858&st=&pgnum=260
I know the name thing is a trivial distraction from the main discussion. I just wanted to deflect gu's assault.
Seems unlikely that Divrei Hayomim would use her shiksa name in lieu of her Jewish one, especially when it discusses her marriage to a Jew.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, it could well be that the כתיב is indeed basya, for the reason given in the PDR"A, but for reasons that have been obvious for the past 2011 years, it would be dangerous to pronounce it that way, in that it might lead to a feminist version of christianity. Especially when her biological father claimed divinity. Thus, the kri.
I brought it up because one is to have true הכרת הטוב it is nice and respectful to know the proper name of the benefactor.
I will also admit that I have a granddaughter who for some reason gets upset when I call her Bissie as opposed to Bassie.
Don't say shiksa, unless you're talking about Rachav's first profession (Megilla 14b-15a). Apparently, now, to call someone a shiksa is actionable in Israel. It used to be that a shiksa was just a sheigitz in a dress, and a sheigitz was just a low life.
ReplyDeleteIn Israel, for a Chareidi to call a chiloni anything but "lord and master" is actionable.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm glad you went out of your way to deflect my assault, but be aware that taking a bullet for the team can be dangerous since I am in the habit of using a Barrett .50 cal M82A1. Those things sting.
I think the pronunciation Basya began to be used for homiletic reasons, even though it was not accurate in its original context. We have a granddaughter Basya, too.
ReplyDelete"In fact, it could well be that the כתיב is indeed basya"
In the written form there are no vowels at all. כתיב has to do with the "spelling without vowels" that suggests a certain pronunciation. I don't see the spelling here as suggesting one pronunciation of the first vowel over the other. (and put down that peashooter)
"2. The Sefas Emes and many others are bothered by Moshe's challenge to Hashem, 'V'hein lo ya'aminu li,' that Bnei Yisrael will not believe in him. Time after time after each cheit in the Torah Moshe Rabeinu comes to the defense of Klal Yisrael -- why here is he so reluctant to give them the benefit of his trust, even after Hashem promises him that they will listen?"
ReplyDeletea. I don't understand: what does his[ lack of] trust in their acceptance of him have to do with his willingness to defend them against God's wrath?
Parents are willing to do a lot to protect their children( even to the point of breaking the law), sometimes even knowing full well that, Lo 'Aleinu, their children will show no gratitude, to say nothing of accepting their authority, for their troubles.
The question( of Sefat Emet and others) would be more in place, had Mosheh claimed Benei Yisra'el were unworthy to be saved( and his experience with the Shenei Anashim 'Ivrim Niṣim could have given him good reason to say so), but just because he didn't trust them to believe him, seems like a lousy reason to refuse the job, let alone to refrain from saving them in their times of need.
b. The way I read it, the problem was not one of Benei Yisra'el trusting a Navi coming to tell them that God has sent him to take them out of Egypt, but rather one of Mosheh being able to convince a people, even as believing as Benei Yisra'el were, that he was such a Navi. He claimed to simply not be up to the task.
This would also fit with his next two responses( "Lo Ish Devarim Anokhi", and "Shelaḥ Na be-Yad Tishlaḥ"), were he also voiced his inappropriateness for the task given.
Also, if Benei Yisra'el were the problem, what would the Otot God gave him avail him( they could still claim he used magic, like the Ḥartumim did, in Shemot 7:11 and 7:22)?
( At least in my scenario, if the people were willing to believe a real Navi, the Otot would boost his believability in their eyes.)
c. Even if he was saying that Benei Yisra'el were the problem, from the whole conversation it seems like Mosheh was looking for excuses not to go( and God saw right through them), so much of what he said might not reflect on what he believed, or was willing to act on.
By כתיב I meant the immediate reflex reading of the word, as implied in the פדר"א and the רד"ל, since it has some logical meaning - i.e., your "homiletic" reason. I didn't use the term in the strict technical sense.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't shoulder fire that "peashooter" in any case; I use a bipod. Otherwise, anywhere over 100 meters, it gets hard to reach out and touch someone. Also, fully loaded it comes in at about 15kg. When a weapon gets to be 10% of my body weight, I let the ground support it.
In any case, as E suggested, this is becoming more than a bit[ya] of topic.
Some things need to be addressed, and I ask Reb Chaim's indulgence.
ReplyDeleteThis Basya/Bisya business is not unique; consider Yehoshua BIN Nun, whose father was Nun or Non, and whose BIN clearly means BEN. The Radak in the beginning of Yehoshua says that the segol was changed to chirik to simplify pronunciation. The Ramban says that the change was intended to highlight Yehoshua's status as Moshe Rabbeinu's most outstanding disciple. The modified name, Binun, sounds like a form of "navon." This, he says, is also why Non is changed to Nun.
The point is that it appears that Bas/Bis and Ben/Bin are simply local variants of the same word, expressions of contemporary dialect and changing with the change of the local usage. This is why we now use Basya instead of Bisya.
OK, GU, pick up the nice automatic and its bipod and put them into into cold storage.
ReplyDelete>>>What about the opinion that a truly new Pharaoh caused the oppression, not just the old one with real or fake amnesia?
ReplyDeleteYou have to say the bracha was given to the office of the Pharoah (like the office of the presidency), whomever filled the position.
>>>wouldn't Yaakov Avinu's beracha have prevented him for instigating atrocities against the Jews?
A bracha cannot deprive you of bechira. (See previous post on why Ya'akov switched his hands -- why not just give Menashe a bracha that he be greater?)
>>>but just because he didn't trust them to believe him, seems like a lousy reason to refuse the job,
If I felt my boss didn't trust me I would have a very, very hard time doing my job, and I'm not the manhig hador. How can you lead people who don't trust you?
>>>but rather one of Mosheh being able to convince a people, even as believing as Benei Yisra'el were, that he was such a Navi.
Hashem's answer = they are ma'aminim = indicates that the question was BN"Ys's ability to believe, not Moshe's power to convince them. Otherwise, he, not they, should have been the subject of Hashem's reply.
>>>Even if he was saying that Benei Yisra'el were the problem, from the whole conversation it seems like Mosheh was looking for excuses not to go
And it is inconceivable that Moshe should throw BN"Y under the bus and claim they are the problem simply to bolster her efforts to weasel out of the job. Hence the question.
My father ztz'l said something that dovetails into this. There seem to be contradictions as to whether Moshe Rabbeinu was a member of of independently equal to Sanhedrin. My father said that his status changed when he said האנוכי הריתי, את כל-העם הזה--אם-אנוכי, ילדתיהו: כי-תאמר אליי שאהו בחיקך, כאשר יישא האומן את-היונק. The point is that if he felt like a father, he would do the impossible. Prior to that, he judged Klal Yisrael as a father would. Once he refused that status, he was demoted to mere membership in Sanhedrin.
ReplyDeleteNice.
ReplyDeleteRYBS has a whole shiur on that parsha (sorry, I wasn't able to find now where it is written up) with the similar idea that until that point Moshe had thought of his role as that of a rebbe -- a teacher / student bond with BN"Y built around giving over certain intellectual ideas. This parsha shows a new dimension -- he has to be like a father. It's more than an intellectual bond. I don't think RYBS tied this nekudah to Moshe's role in Sanhedrin, but IIRC both RYBS and the GRI"Z deal with that issue elsewhere. Your father's approach ties both topics together into one nice package.