The Torah tells us that Pharaoh’s wise men and sorcerers were able to turn their staffs into taninim by means of their להטים. This word is unusual and Ibn Ezra suggests it may not be a Hebrew word. There are two main approaches to explaining how Pharaoh’s courtiers were able to perform the same miracle as Moshe. Rav Sa’adya Gaon and Ibn Ezra suggest that it was some sort of trick or optical illusion and that in fact no real change had occurred. This fits best with the interpretation according …
Archives for December 2018
Parshat Va’eira: ‘By my name HASHEM’
וַיְדַבֵּר אֱלֹהִים אֶל־מֹשֶׁה וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו אֲנִי יְהוָה׃ וָאֵרָא אֶל־אַבְרָהָם אֶל־יִצְחָק וְאֶל־יַעֲקֹב בְּאֵל שַׁדָּי וּשְׁמִי יְהוָה לֹא נוֹדַעְתִּי לָהֶם׃ Translated literally, God’s opening statement to Moshe here reads as follows. ‘I am HASHEM. And I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzhaq, and to Ya’aqov as El Shaddai and my name HASHEM I was not known to them.’ This statement is difficult to parse on a grammatical level and also presents a major interpretative problem because numerous …
Parshat Shemot: Lest he strike us with the plague or with the sword
Moshe and Aharon plead with Pharaoh that they be allowed to go three days in the wilderness to sacrifice to the God of the Hebrews, ‘lest he strike us with the plague or the sword’. Since, presumably, Pharaoh was not likely to be moved by compassion for the slave population, it needs to be explained why they thought this plea would be effective. Rashi claims that ‘lest he strike us’ is a polite euphemism for ‘lest he strike you’, which Moshe used out of respect since he did not want to …
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Parshat Shemot: ‘And this is your sign that I have sent you’
When God tells Moshe his mission, Moshe is sceptical that he is capable or worthy of going to Pharaoh or freeing the children of Israel. God tells him that he will succeed ‘For I will be with you, and this is your sign that I have sent you, when you bring out the children of Israel, you will worship [the] God on this mountain’. On first glance, this looks like God is telling Moshe that the sign that he is worthy will be the subsequent revelation on Sinai, but this seems illogical since this can …
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Parshat Shemot: Who were the midwives?
The vast majority of commentators accept that the midwives, Shifra and Puah, are alternative names for Moshe’s mother and sister, Yocheved and Miriam. However, there remains the question of why there are only two midwives for the entire Hebrew population. Answers to this problem include: Shifra and Puah were official representatives in charge of all the Hebrew midwives. (Hizkuni, Ibn Ezra)Shifra and Puah were the midwives in the Egyptian capital. After Pharaoh saw that he was unable to …
Parshat Shemot: Why did the children of Israel cry out when Pharaoh died?
The connection between the death of the Pharaoh and the children of Israel crying out is not clear. After years of suffering, why would they suddenly feel more desperate because their oppressor was dead? Ramban and Hizkuni argue that while the first Pharaoh was alive they retained hope that slavery would be a temporary decree limited to the lifespan of that king. Once a new king had come to the throne it became clear that it was permanent. Rabbeinu Bahya suggests that they were afraid that …
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