Parashat Sh'mot
Tevet 25, 5784 / January 5-6, 2024
Torah: Exodus 1:1 - 6:1
Haftarah: Isaiah 27:6 - 28:13; 29:22-23 (Ashkenazim); Jeremiah 1:1 - 2:3 (Sephardim)
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This d’var torah is offered in memory of long-time TBH member Ann Signett, who passed away on Wednesday, January 3. Funeral and shivah arrangements are pending.
This d’var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for all who have been wounded in the terrorist attacks and in fighting against the terrorists, as well as innocent non-combatants caught in the crossfire.
This d'var torah is offered in memory of all the victims of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah. Y’hi zikhronam liv’rakhah – May their memories be a blessing. And may the memory of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah and all their supporters be forever erased.
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Lunch and Learn meets Mondays at 12:30 PM on Zoom and Facebook Live. On Monday, January 8, we'll be at BT Shabbat 121a, page 197 of Ein Ya'akov (Glick edition) Volume 1 – "...ת'ר מעשה ונפלה דליקה" - "Our Rabbis taught that a fire once broke out ....”
Ein Ya'akov (Glick edition) is available for on-line reading or as a downloadable PDF at:
A pointed Hebrew text version with different pagination is available at Sefaria:
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Check out our wonderful community, and get lots of info about our various programs and becoming a Member at: https://bnaihayim.org/
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Rabbi Van Leeuwen has a blog which you should read at:
Dr. Steve Pearlman writes up the "Midrashim of the Week", which you should read at:
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Please feel free to pass this on to a friend, and please cite the source.
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INHUMANE HUMANITARIANS
“And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown,
that he went out to his brethren, and looked on their burdens; and he spied an Egyptian
man smiting a Hebrew man, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that,
and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and buried him in
the sand.” Exodus 2:11-12
Here is a cautionary and totally relevant for today explanation
of these verses from The Rav, Yosef Ber Soloveitchik, z'l (1903-1993), as found in the
English-language version of “Itturei Torah”:
‘There were Jews in Egypt who
deluded themselves into believing that there were Liberal Egyptians, who were
first and foremost humanitarians. These assimilationists believed that the Jews
had, first and foremost, to be “people”, without any special mark identifying
them as Jews – that all had to assimilate and adapt to the environment. Yet
here Moses saw an Egyptian “man”, a “liberal” – whenever the Torah uses the
word “man”, it refers to a lofty individual – beating a person. And whom? A
Hebrew “man”, one of his brethren, one of the assimilated Jews who had removed
all signs of his Jewishness and had remained only a “man”. Nevertheless this was
“a Hebrew man, one of his brethren” – when it came to being beaten, the man was
one of his brothers, without the Egyptian differentiating between the loyal Jew
and the assimilationist. “And he looked this way and that, and when he saw that
there was no man” – he realized that when the liberal deals with the Jews, the
humanitarian feeling suddenly disappears. Therefore, Moses “slew the Egyptian” –
we are not told “the Egyptian man”, but just “the Egyptian”, a heathen like all
the heathens.’
This is not easy to read, for it contains a kernel of truth
that many of us do not wish to acknowledge. I do not fully agree with The Rav –
I believe one can adapt without fully assimilating; I believe one can (and
must) maintain liberal values and practices even when one is shunned by other “liberals”
(a position he does not explicitly reject) – but, to be honest, I do feel quite abandoned by “humanitarian” liberals and liberal institutions amidst their increasing tolerance and actual expressions of antisemitism. How about you?
Something to ponder. Your mileage may vary.
Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Richard A. Flom
Rabbi Emeritus, Temple B’nai Hayim/Congregation Beth Meier
הַלּוֹמֵד מִכָּל אָדָם ?אֵיזֶהוּ חָכָם
Who is wise? The one who learns from every person.
Ben Zoma - Pirkei Avot 4:1
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