When Pharaoh Sent Out the People
STUDENT SUMMARIES OF SICHOT OF THE ROSHEI YESHIVA
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RUTH – NEW VBM COURSE: The VBM is pleased to announce a new series on Megillat Ruth taught by Dr.
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Parashat BESHALACH
SICHA OF HARAV YEHUDA AMITAL ZT"L
"When Pharaoh Sent Out the People"
Translated by
"And it came to pass, when Pharaoh sent out the people…" (Shemot 13:16)
Why does the text attribute the sending out of the people to Pharaoh? Was it really Pharaoh who was responsible for their departure? Was it not God Who brought Am Yisrael out of
The midrash asks the same question, and explains the phrase as follows:
"Was it then Pharaoh who sent them out? Bil'am said, 'God brought them out of
The matter of "sending out" is a central motif in the story of the Exodus from
But the message in the Torah is different: "Shalach et ami" means "Send out My people." Pharaoh is asked to actively send them out. "Send out My people, that they may serve Me" means that Pharaoh must send Bnei Yisrael to serve God; moreover, we read, "You, too, shall give us offerings and sacrifices that we may offer to the Lord our God" (10:25). (This also appears to be the message of the midrash above.) This is an event of historical significance:
In our days, too, there are important processes that bear some resemblance to this. Some years ago the
The historical significance of the recognition of Am Yisrael and its country on the part of the nations of the world cannot be ovestated. (Another event in contemporary times whose full historical and spiritual significance we fail to grasp is the fall of Communism: the downfall of an ideology which tried to manage without God and to build a system of justice and social good not based on the fear of Heaven.) Admittedly,
"… the mountain of the Lord's House shall be established as the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. And many peoples shall go and say: 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Yaakov; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.' For teaching shall emerge from
(Yishayahu 2:2-3)