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Torah Portion -
Vayera
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Written by d fine
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Revelation of His Name :
The second pasuk of our sedra sees HaShem inform Moshe that ‘I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov with (the name) kel shadai, but my name HaShem (the four-letter Name) I did not reveal to them.’ What in the world does this mean? The Kuzari (2:2) explains this pasuk as highlighting that HaShem revealed certain of His miracles to the generation of Moshe, but the miracles that the Avos experienced were of a lower calibre. For the miracles that Bnei Yisrael experienced in the time of Moshe were more open and affected more people than any of the miracles that the Avos enjoyed. Why was this; were the generation of Moshe Rabeinu on a greater level than the Avos? The Kuzari says that just the opposite is true. The generation of Moshe were greater in number than the Avos and they had more emunah gaps that had to be filled; their emunah was less wholesome than that of the Avos. Thus, in order to strengthen the people’s emunah, HaShem performed miracles of a more open
, undeniable nature.
How can one remember if they can’t forget?
This is a more general idea; it just happens to pop up in our sedra. HaShem says (6:5) ‘I have heard the cries of Bnei Yisrael from their enslavement in the hands of the Egyptians, and I remember the covenant’ - referring to the covenant HaShem made with Avraham that HaShem would bring the Jewish People out of Egypt and exact retribution on the Egyptians for their enslaving us. The only problem is what exactly does it mean that HaShem remembered the covenant? HaShem does not forget anything; nothing is hidden from Him. So what does it mean that He remembers? Rav Dessler explains that ‘remembering’ in reference to HaShem means that He is acting on something. Thus, when the pasuk says that HaShem remembered the covenant, it means that HaShem decided to act (now) based on that covenant.
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