Dear Community,
BringThemHome – Day 468
״בחר בנו מכל עם״ – He Chose Us From All the Nations (numerical value: 468)
As I write these words, on Thursday morning, we are hanging onto every moment in the tense hours and days to the hoped-for and prayed-for release of our hostages.
There is a prevailing belief in Judaism that everything happens for a reason and that, beyond that, the weekly parasha (Torah reading) – despite reading the identical words every year – always holds within it a prescient connection to world events. If not, how would a communal Rabbi have any material for his sermon?!
In these moments, my attention is drawn to the verse that has been occupying my thoughts for many months:
וְכַאֲשֶׁר֙ יְעַנּ֣וּ אֹת֔וֹ כֵּ֥ן יִרְבֶּ֖ה וְכֵ֣ן יִפְרֹ֑ץ וַיָּקֻ֕צוּ מִפְּנֵ֖י בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, so that the [Egyptians] came to dread the Israelites. (Ex. 1:12)
We will return to this.
Pharaoh and, by extension, the elites and the general population of Egypt, started to look at the Children of Israel in a new and very unfavourable light.
We must remember that it was Joseph, a Child of Israel, who successfully and skilfully navigated the entire Egyptian empire through a crippling and potentially catastrophic famine. It was so bad that surrounding nations, also running out of food, were journeying to Egypt to buy food. If it was not for Joseph and his meteoric and divinely-guided mission, huge swathes of the population may well have died of starvation.
The turning point arrived earlier in the chapter:
וַיָּ֤מׇת יוֹסֵף֙ וְכׇל־אֶחָ֔יו וְכֹ֖ל הַדּ֥וֹר הַהֽוּא׃
Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.
וּבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל פָּר֧וּ וַֽיִּשְׁרְצ֛וּ וַיִּרְבּ֥וּ וַיַּֽעַצְמ֖וּ בִּמְאֹ֣ד מְאֹ֑ד וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ אֹתָֽם׃
But the Israelites were fertile and prolific; they multiplied and increased very greatly, so that the land was filled with them.
וַיָּ֥קׇם מֶֽלֶךְ־חָדָ֖שׁ עַל־מִצְרָ֑יִם אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹֽא־יָדַ֖ע אֶת־יוֹסֵֽף׃
A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. (Ex. 1: 6-8)
Rashi comments on this last verse that two reasons could be advanced for the apparent “ignorance” of Joseph’s contribution. (After all, how many subsequent British prime ministers would not know of Churchill’s contribution to Britian’s survival and victory in WWII?) He comments:
ויקם מלך חדש NOW THERE AROSE A NEW KING — Rab and Samuel (two Amoraim or Talmudical teachers) differed in their interpretation of these words. One said that he was really a new king; the other said that it was the same king but he made new edicts (Sotah 11a).
With this new and negative approach to the Israelites, the Torah tells us that the more they experienced oppression, the more resilient they became.
The Netziv (Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin, 1816 Mir, Belarus – 1893, Warsaw) offers the following powerful insight into our previously quoted verse 12:
כן ירבה. אנשי חיל. וכן יפרוץ. בכח גבורתם:
“SO THEY INCREASED – as heroes (lit. men of valour/soldiers); AND SPREAD OUT – in the power of their heroism.”
We are seeing our people, both militarily across the Middle East, and globally in our internal resilience, growing and deepening our convictions and belief in the correctness of our path (‘Tzidkat HaDerech”).
We hope and pray that all of our efforts to weaken our enemies and the enemies of peace, and increase the opportunities for peace and stability across the whole region, but especially in Israel, will hold open this window of Divine grace, and see the hostages returned safely, and our people rest after the exhaustion of 15 months of conflict.
May this be His Will, and let us say Amen.
Shabbat shalom uMevorach