tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20173285.post5790433181766655956..comments2024-03-28T21:21:02.777-04:00Comments on Divrei Chaim: win them over with kindnessChaim B.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02231811394447584320noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20173285.post-49313921266587758382019-01-04T14:17:40.909-05:002019-01-04T14:17:40.909-05:001. My son in law used RYEibshutz to answer the que...1. My son in law used RYEibshutz to answer the question they ask on הן בני ישראל לט א שמעו ואיך ישמעני פרעה. Pshat is that the reason Pharaoh didn't enslave the Leviim is because he knew that revolutions originate from within the oppressed, and by leaving their natural leaders free, they would neither be willing to be martyrs nor would they have the connection to the suffering of the common man such that they could ignite a revolution. If so, Moshe said to Hashem, if Klal Yisrael didn't listen to me, that means that Pharaoh's plan is working. If his plan is working, he'll laugh at me when I come to him.<br /><br />3. Sivan Rahav Meir - never heard of her, but now I see she's a fascinating person - definitely worth keeping track of. Kind of reminds me of Chaim Sabato, or Samuel Johnson's bipedal dog.<br /><br />Eliezer Eisenberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16036989084122930226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20173285.post-76409503833948174942019-01-04T06:36:14.454-05:002019-01-04T06:36:14.454-05:001) "The Egyptians knew" (up front, at 1:...1) "The Egyptians knew" (up front, at 1:11)<br /><br />we see here a precedent for a later tax-exemption of the Rabbis, in that tax-masters/sarei mee'seem (1:11) did not burden the Levites ("that kept the mesorah" = Rabbis); we see that Egypt was unable to check Hebrew population growth by the imposition of taxes [taxes with which Egypt built Pisom and Ra'am'ses], and so resorted to physical enslavement (1:13-14) to at least check Israel's freedom of action [lest the people go up from the land (1:10)]; more to the point: only between 1:14 and 1:15 did Paro learn that he had the early* warning of a go'el wrong: a redeemer would NOT come from a necessarily enslaved Levite tribe, but from the 'free' group of talmidim; so Paro resorted to targeted killing of newborn >Levite< males {in this regard, only Levite mothers used a birthstool/av'na'im (1:16); mothers of the other tribes had no such luxury, but delivered their babies squatting in the fields (where they labored til they labored)}.<br /><br />*Rashi to 1:16**. The astrologers told Paro at 1:11,13 of a presumably enslaved Levite go'el, but later (at the time of 1:15) offered a correction [tipped-off this second time by the Satan, rubbing his wingtips in anticipation?], and offered it sternly: 'as to the free go'el's birth, nachon ha'davar mei'im ha'Elokim, u'm'ma'heir ha'Elokim la'a'so'so!'<br /><br />**why, at 1:16, did Paro speak of Iv'ri'os/Hebrew women, rather than in particular of Levite women, or wives of Levites? because by this time the slavewomen of Israel were mere chattel to him, unworthy of the name nashim [the wives of the kollel members were the only Iv'ri'os out there]... {Paro later diplomatically changes his tune, to speak of the slaves as 'people', 5:4-5}<br /><br />2) "we were zocheh...in our parsha"<br /><br />ha'churtumim of Egypt tried to "draw" lice out of the "dust" [of Goshen?]-- and, b'law'tei'hem, even said "PLEASE"* --but they could not (8:14)<br /><br />*(said 'please') to the dust, and to their powers-that-be<br /><br />3) "Moshe had kotzer ruach...so he struggled to...translate it down"<br /><br />then if at 6:12 & 6:30 'closed lips' means "kotzer ruach", how would Aharon's speech to Paro indicated at 7:1-2 be a more effective power-point presentation? could it be that both Aharon and Paro were on a higher[!] level than Moshe in active theological discourse, that they were on something of the same wavelength? Aharon, Levite educator on long sabbatical, the nation Israel's de facto leader, ever watchful for G-d's hidden hand in the world of his people, and Paro, a man at the national center of supernatural speculations and rites [however misguided]-- two peas in a pod?? {it was only Paro's Specially-induced hardheartedness that prevented his agreement with Aharon's high-minded colloquy, after all, not his obtuseness}alonzo maccabihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13177738305527364094noreply@blogger.com