To Feel for Another Jew: The Untold Story of a Sea Splitting for Two Sinners
Empathy Is Never Forgotten
- February 5, 2017
- |
- 9 Sh'vat 5777
Rabbi YY Jacobson
8643 views- 5Comment
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Leilu Nishmat Reb Eliyahu Tzion ben Reb Chananya Niasoff ז"ל
And in the merit of our partner in Torah Yigal Yisroel ben Sofia שיחיו
Class Summary:
This class was presented on Sunday Parshas Beshalach, 8 Shevat 5777, February 5, 2017, at Ohr chaim Shul, Monsey, NY
The opening of our portion related how Pharaoh had a change of heart right after he let the Jewish people go. "He said to the Children of Israel: They are lost in the land, the desert closed in on them." Rashi raises the obvious difficulty with this verse. Pharaoh did not speak to the children of Israel, for they had left Egypt already. How could he be talking to them?
The Targum Yonasan ben Uziel gives an astonishing explanation. There were two Jews, Dassan and Aviram, who remained in Egypt. They refused to leave. Pharaoh spoke to them, reassuring them that the Jews are lost, stranded, and stuck in the desert. Their choice to flee the country was an ill-conceived one.
Yet here is where the story becomes mind staggering. If they chose to stay in Egypt, how do we discover them journeying with the Jews in the desert – complaining about the manna, revolting with Korach? The answer is plain if absurd. They must have tagged along with Pharaoh when he went to pursue the Jews by the sea. And when the sea split, they too were spared. They too crossed along with the Jews, and got to the other side safe and sound.
This is absurd. These two fellows who were absolute atheists, it seems, fighting Moses and G-d at every step of the way, choosing to remain in Egypt, are saved with their brethren. They have linked their fate and destiny to Egypt, not to the Hebrew. Why were they spared at the red sea while all of the Egyptians drowned?
What is more, the Midrash teaches that many Jews who did not want to leave Egypt, died during the three days of darkness. Yet Dathan and Aviram who also did not want to leave, remained intact. Why? It was the “Saraf” of Brisk and the Beer Maim Chaim who presented an astounding answer.
We explore the conversation between Reb Shmuel of Shiniva and the Chidushei HaRim about the Talmudic expression “Krias Yam Suf.” We delve into the story of Miriam bas Bilgah and the “rectification of a soul” by the Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1975. We discover the power of empathy, of taking a blow for another Jew, something that placed Dasan and Aviran on a lofty spiritual pedestal.
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Rabbi YY Jacobson
- February 5, 2017
- |
- 9 Sh'vat 5777
- |
- 8643 views
Leilu Nishmat Reb Eliyahu Tzion ben Reb Chananya Niasoff ז"ל
And in the merit of our partner in Torah Yigal Yisroel ben Sofia שיחיו
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Moshe -4 years ago
Dosan and Aviram apparently didn't want to leave Mitzrayim
Yet they alone were spared from the death that befell two thirds of the yidden who perished in the plague of choshesh because they didn't want to leave after the slavery was over.
[And how many of those comfortable now in golus wouldn't want to leave those comforts when this longest and darkest golus will end?]
Hashem spared them for reasons known only to Him but obviously these two trouble makers had a role to play in all the acts of defiance in the mid bar so had to be saved.
Notice that it is said that 3 million people were present at Har Sinai inclufing the erev rav. If 80% perished in makka choshesh (and who buried them all so quickly?) . Mathematically that means there were about 15 million yidden before the makka.
Strangely that is close to the number of yidden alive in 1939. If 6 million, one third, perished then there were about 18 Million before. The holocaus was one third of our people.
Makka choshesh was 80% a far greater number number than one third. The "crime" for which 80% perished was not wanting to leave after slavery was over. What are the implications?
Can there be some absolute number of yidden beyond which He does want us to grow regardless of the percentage we are in the world (1939 6 million was a much smaller percentage of the world than we were in Mitzrayim)?
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mendel -5 years ago
שמעתי ממך פירוש יפה (תוך כל הדברים המאלפים) על דתן ואבירם, שבגלל שהוכו על אחיהם זכו שיקרע להם הים.
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isaac -5 years ago
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Anonymous -6 years ago
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Anonymous -6 years ago
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Sammy -6 years ago
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Anonymous -6 years ago
1. Why did they leave Egypt? They left Egypt because they joined Pharoh and his 600 chariots to pursue the Jews to BRING THEM BACK TO MITZRAYIM. They were hoping to see all their friends and relatives back.
2. Where were they exactly in the Yam Suf when it split for them? We do not know. Maybe they were in the back of everybody, and then it split after drowning the Egyptians. Maybe they were in the front, trying to persuade their brothers to return, and the sea split for them for a moment. Maybe they were in the middle and a path was created for them. I do not know.
3. The insight of the 50 gates of impurity is wonderful.
4. I think the Chasam Sofer states that Jews viewed Dasan and Aviram like Moshe and Aharon; that is why they obeyed them by the Korach story. Now why would they have such a view of Dasan and Aviram? But if they had their own Krias Yam Suf it is clear!
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