Shmooze News January 18, 2025
Please click here to view the Shmooze News.
With You Now and in the Future
In this week’s parashah, at the Burning Bush Moshe asks Hashem, when I come to the Children of Israel and say to them, “The Gd of your forefathers has sent me to you,” and they say to me, “What is His Name?” — what shall I say to them? (Shemos 3:12). That is, the people will seek to understand in which way Hashem is relating to them in this redemption (see Ramban, Malbim ad loc.). Hashem replied by revealing His Name to Moshe that related to the current and future redemptions. He said that His Name is, “I Shall Be As I Shall Be” (ibid. v. 13).
Our Sages explain that in effect this Name means, “I was with them in this suffering, and I will be with them in future sufferings as well” (see Berachos 9b). With this Name Hashem communicated to Moshe, His personal and eternal connection to the Jewish people.
The name א-ה-י-ה, I Shall Be, begins with the prefix א, meaning “I.” Through this Hashem declares His personal connection to the listener. In the words of Maharal, this Name indicates that “He is there for all who need Him” (Gur Aryeh, ad loc.) Moreover, this Name is structured in the future tense, “Shall Be,” to indicate that this personal connection is ongoing, and future focused.
The Egyptian saga, sadly, would not be the only time the Jewish people would suffer at the hands of a cruel oppressor. There would be other exiles, other enemies, and additional painful events. But throughout it all, Hashem’s Guiding Hand would be present, leading us forward to a future yet to see.
We are on the cusp of a ceasefire agreement that fills us all with conflicting emotions. On the one hand, we are happy for those hostages who will Gd willing be returning shortly; coming home from a captivity, the horrible pain and suffering of which we cannot even begin to imagine. We are happy for their families, for whom the long and difficult healing process can now begin. But, on the other hand, we remain pained for those who are not yet coming home. Broken over those who fell in battle and will never come home. And disheartened over the continued (albeit greatly weakened) existence of the evil enemy with whom we must continue to contend, and whose numbers will – to our great disappointment – likely swell through the addition of numerous terrorists (ימח שמם וזכרם) who are slated to be released.
However, much like the end of this week’s parashah, where the people were distraught because the promised redemption had not yet occurred, we too recognize that we are in the middle of an unfolding story. And the Name that Hashem shared with Moshe, I Shall Be as I Shall Be, speaks to us now as it did then. It reminds us that even in difficult times there is a Guiding Hand, leading us toward a future yet to see; one that despite the pain and suffering that is still ongoing, will someday be better, will somehow be brighter. May we please Gd merit to see that future speedily in our days.
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom / Good Shabbos
Rabbi Moskovitz
Shmooze News January 11, 2025
Please click here to view the Shmooze News.
Blessing for the Ages
In this week’s parashah, Yosef takes his two sons, Ephraim and Menashe, to receive a blessing from their ailing grandfather, Yaakov Avinu. Yaakov blesses them with numerous blessings and then concludes by stating,בְּךָ֗ יְבָרֵ֤ךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר , By you (singular) shall Israel bless saying, יְשִֽׂמְךָ֣ אֱלֹקים כְּאֶפְרַ֖יִם וְכִמְנַשֶּׁ֑ה, May Gd make you like Ephraim and Menashe (Bereishis 48:20). If Yaakov is addressing Ephraim and Menashe, why does he use the word, בְּךָ֗ , by you, in the singular, rather than the plural form, בכם, by you (plural)? Also, what was it about Ephraim and Menashe that future generations should emulate, saying, “May Gd make you like Ephraim and Menashe”?
R' Zalman Sorotzkin (1881-1966 in אזנים לתורה) suggests an interesting approach to answer the above questions. Yaakov, toward the end of his life, had an expansive prophetic clarity as to the unfolding of the Jewish story (הקץ בקש לגלות את, see Rashi to 49:1). In his mind’s eye, Yaakov saw the wandering of his future descendants from nation to nation. He saw centuries of persecution and assimilation, physical and spiritual challenges. He saw the loss of Jewish lives, and the loss of Jewish identity.
And so, Yaakov looked for role models for his descendants living through those challenging times. He looked for role models that Jews, thousands of years later, surrounded by a dominant culture antithetical to Torah ideas and Torah ideals, could look to and emulate. He found such role models in these two young men, Ephraim and Menashe.
As the children of Yosef, Ephraim and Menashe grew up as royalty. The palace of Pharoah was their backyard. The sordid culture of Egypt was available to them and beckoned to them. But it was not there that they found their identity. It was running back and forth to Goshen, to learn Torah at the feet of their aged grandfather that they discovered who they were. When the enslavement began in the next generation, they did not seek to distance themselves from their brethren, by claiming some royal Egyptian pedigree. They were Jews, and they never forgot it. They were shining members of the house of Yaakov, no matter where they happened to be.
It was not only Ephriam and Menashe who were impressive, but Yosef as well. Yosef, after all, succeeded in raising them in such a fashion. Hence, Yaakov begins by turning to Yosef and says, By you (singular) shall Israel bless, i.e., they will want to raise children like you did. They too will want to succeed in having children like Ephraim and Menashe; children who no matter where they are never lose sight of who they are, and where they truly belong.
And so, we too bless our children, May Gd make you like Ephraim and Menashe.
Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom / Good Shabbos
Rabbi Moskovitz
Shmooze News January 4, 2025
Please click here to view the Shmooze News.
Time to Say Shema?
In this week’s Parasha, the Torah describes the emotional reunification of Yosef and his father, Yaakov, after they had been separated for twenty-two years. The pasuk notes that upon learning of his father’s arrival, Yosef harnessed his chariot and rushed to greet him, and appeared before him, fell on his neck, and he wept on his neck excessively (Bereishis 46:29). Rashi explains that while Yosef fell upon the neck of his father, Yaakov, and wept, Yaakov did not weep upon Yosef’s neck. For – as our Sages explain – Yaakov was preoccupied reciting the Shema (Rashi ad loc.).
The commentators ask that if the time for Shema had arrived, why was Yosef also not preoccupied with reciting it? Some suggest that he was exempt from the mitzvah of reciting Shema because he was preoccupied with another mitzvah, namely honoring his father (Sifsei Chachamim, ad loc.). Alternatively, since one may interrupt his recitation of Shema to greet someone in whom he is of awe (see Orach Chaim 66:1), Yosef was allowed to interrupt his recitation to greet his father (see Gur Aryeh, first approach).
Maharal, however, suggests that the reason Yaakov was reciting Shema was not because it was that time of morning. They did not simply meet up during the time of morning prayers when Yaakov happened to be davening. Rather, Yaakov specifically chose to say Shema at this moment of reunification, because of everything that the Shema expresses!
In the Shema we declare Hashem’s Oneness and our obligation to love Him. And at that critical junction, Yaakov’s appreciation for how Hashem runs the world, and makes it all comes together “just so,” made the words of Shema leap out of his mouth!
For twenty-two years, Yaakov, had mourned his son whom he thought was long gone. He cried an endless torrent of tears from a wellspring of pain that seemed to be of endless depth. And now all of that changed on a dime. Yaakov went from the depths of despair to the heights of joy in seeing his beloved Yosef not just alive, but the king of the most powerful country of the time! His love for Hashem Who brought him to this moment, burst forth from his heart in the form of Shema (Gur Aryeh, ad loc ד''ה אמנם).
Yaakov was not ignoring Yosef to “grab a quick Shema.” Rather, he was channeling what was arguably the most powerful and emotional moment of his life and directing it to the One source of it all; expressing his love for his Creator, Who brought him to experience this precious reunion! How better to express that than through the eternal words of Torah that state those very ideas! Yaakov wasn’t simply reciting Shema! It burst forth from his heart!
Wishing you all a Good Shabbos / Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Moskovitz