And Mosha said to Joshua, "Choose for us men, and go out to fight with Amalek......(17:9)
Rashi comments that the Rabbis learn out that since Mosha used the words "for us", Mosha compared Joshua to himself. Hence, "let the honor of your student be dear to you as yourself (also refer to Pirkei Avot 4:12)....... A question can be asked, why is it so important for a teacher to honor his student as himself? In other words, what insight is Mosha teaching us about the "teacher-student relationship" that would warrent a teacher to honor his students? Remember, Mosha being the quintessential teacher........!!!!
Perhaps the answer is as follows: When a student learns from a teacher, a student primarily absorbs the teachers spirit into him or herself. Even if the student were to write volumes and volumes of Torah knowledge, a carefull study of these volumes would reveal the teachers definite influence on the student. The student in essence becomes the teachers voice, even after the teacher has departed from this world. The spirit and voice of the teacher lives on, namely through his students. Mosha understood this, and thus bestowed honor on Joshua in graditude for such a kindness. Perhaps this is the meaning behind the first Mishnah in Pirkei Avot when it states, "Mosha received the Torah from Sinai
פרשת בשלח - תשע"א
Although Miriam sang the whole שירה with the women, the torah only records that they sang one פסוק: "...שירו לה' כי גאה גאה סוס ורכבו רמה בים". Why is this פסוק particularly relevant to the women that it is used as the example for the שירה they sang?
Explains ר' צבי הירש פרבר as follows. מרים saw through רוח הקודש that the whole תכלית of יציאת מצרים was for קבלת התורה, and this made the women feel very disappointed because they have no חיוב in תלמוד תורה.
However, the horse and rider (סוס ורכבו) in this פסוק comes to teach the women a fundamental יסוד. What did the horse do wrong that it deserved to drown?
The Midrash records 10 songs spanning from the Shir sung upon leaving Mizrayim through to the Shiur Chadash song that will soon be sung by Klal Yisroel with Moshiach and the ultimate redemption. Songs in Torah are sung for 2 reasons alone, to give praise and thanks and as a method of striving towards something.
An ulternative opinion suggests that the 1st song was actually shir leyom haShabbos sung by Adam just before Shabbos as part of Adam’s teshuva for having sinned. The Midrash Tehillim 18 states that when someone sees a miracle and sings out in praise to HaShem that all their sins are forgiven.
The Sharreth Cohen on this week’s Parsah informs us that when Miriam led the women
In this week's Parsha, we can learn a fascinating interpretation from ONE single word. The Torah states, ". . .And the Jews went up from the land of Egypt chamushim" (Exodus 13:18). Rashi, explains that the word "chamushim" means that the Jews left Egypt armed.
Rashi continues and mentions a possible alternate explanation: The Jews left "mechamushim" meaning one out of every five Jews were taken out of Egypt, and the other four-fifths died during the plague of Choshech.
Both of these explanations are wonderful, but there is a problem. Usually, when Rashi brings a second explanation, the additional one is in some way related to the first explanation. However, in this case, the two ideas seem to be totally unrelated.
If we take a look at the Aramaic translation/commentary of Yonatan ben Uziel
A chassid once complained to his Rebbe that he was struggling financially and wanted advice on how accept his difficulties. The Rebbe sent him to see R’Zushe. R’Zushe was known as being the poorest man in town, his house was filled with illness and he was penniless and suffered even by the most serve criteria. The chassid told R’Zushe that the Rebbe had sent him to understand how to accept suffering with love. Imagine the chassid’s suprise when R’Zushe responded that he couldn’t understand why the Rebbe sent him to see him. ‘Pain? The Rebbe must have meant to send you to someone else.’
This Torah thought is being dedicated to my beloved father NACHMAN SHIMON ben YEHUDA MEIR HAKOHAN, Z"L.
"And the water was a wall for them, on their right and on their left." (14:29)
The Daas Zekeinim brings down a very interesting Medrash, as follows: In order for the Red sea to split, the Angel Gavriel declared, " Let the waters in front of the Israelites move aside for the nation that performs circumcision. The waters to the right of the Israelites should likewise defer to the nation that received the torah from G-ds right hand.The waters to the left should move for the nation that puts Tefillin on the left arm, and the waters behind them should move away before the nation that dons the Talis and thus casts the tzitzit over their shoulders." A question can be asked on this Medrash. The Israelites at this point in time have not as of yet received the Torah and Mitzvath,so how could Gavriel have used the Israelite's Mitzvath observance as a means to ellicit merits for the Israelites so that the Red Sea should part for them? We also know that G-d judges a person in the present, not what will be in the future as seen from Yishmael
BASHOLOCH
This Torah thought is being dedicated to my beloved father NACHMAN SHIMON ben YEHUDA MEIR HAKOHAN, Z"L.
"The Children of Israel were "Chamushim" when they went up from Egypt."(13:18)
Rashi comments that "chamushim" means that the Jews left Egypt armed with weapons. A question can be asked, as follows: Why did the Jews have to leave Egypt armed?
These people were slaves,not warriors.G-d promised to bring them to land ,why did they arm themselves?
I would like to propose the following original answer,Bezrat Hashem. When the Jews were slaves in Egypt,they had the slave mantality.They had no concept of free will.Slaves are only trained to follow their task masters orders without question. However, a free man knows and enjoys free-will
There’s a key line that Bnei Yisrael sang in the shirah after they crossed the Yam Suf; ‘ze keli ve’anveihu’ (5:2). The Targum translates this as ‘this is my God and I will build Him a Mikdash.’ Now why were the Bnei Yisrael suddenly committing to building a Beis HaMikdash at this point - did they not have enough miracles to sing about? The answer is given based on a Ramban in Shir HaShirim. The Ramban writes (based on Shir HaShirim 2:7) that in order to keep inspiration alive one must make a kli (physical vessel) for it before it flows away. In other words, in order to convert the inspiration from a transient experience to a life-affecting event, one must ground this inspiration by taking on a consistent spiritual practice to keep the inspiration expressing itself. Thus, Bnei Yisrael knew that they were experiencing earth-moving (sea-splitting) miracles and inspiration, but they wanted to make sure that they made it all part of them by making a physical vessel; a project to put their inspiration into - to build a Mikdash.
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This website is dedicated to the memories of
Moshe Shlomo ben R'Shmuel | Shlomo ben R'Chaim | Aryeh Leib ben Pinchas Tzvi
