Sneak Preview: Sefer Shemot
Ari Bar-Shain
This
Dvar Torah is based on a Sicha given
by Rosh Yeshiva, HaRav Baruch Gigi shlita last year.
ספר
שמות is crammed with exciting episodes. If
one were to write a preview of the book it would be incumbent upon them to
include life-threatening decrees, Heavenly plagues, liberation, flaming
revelation and the construction of a transportable Divine home.
When
the רמב"ן takes his stab at introducing the volume, he makes a
puzzling remark.
“ונתייחד ספר ואלה שמות
בענין הגלות הראשון הנגזר בפירוש ובגאולה ממנו.”
ספר שמות deals with גלות and גאולה from this גלות. This is consistent with what we know from
the first four פרשיות of the ספר.
בני ישראל are enslaved, given painstaking labor, and liberated by
ה'.
But why would the רמב"ן emphasize such an all-encompassing purpose if it
seemingly leaves out seven additional פרשיות? After פרשת בשלח
we’re done with מצרים.
בני ישראל were taken out of servitude and actively praised God
for His miraculous method of doing so. The rest of the ספר occurs
entirely in the מדבר.
In
שמות ו:ו-ז we see the famous ארבע לשונות גאולה:
ו לָכֵן אֱמֹר
לִבְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, אֲנִי ה', וְהוֹצֵאתִי
אֶתְכֶם מִתַּחַת סִבְלֹת מִצְרַיִם, וְהִצַּלְתִּי
אֶתְכֶם מֵעֲבֹדָתָם; וְגָאַלְתִּי
אֶתְכֶם בִּזְרוֹעַ נְטוּיָה, וּבִשְׁפָטִים גְּדֹלִים.
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ז וְלָקַחְתִּי אֶתְכֶם לִי לְעָם, וְהָיִיתִי לָכֶם לֵאלֹקים;
וִידַעְתֶּם, כִּי אֲנִי ה' אֱלֹקיכֶם, הַמּוֹצִיא אֶתְכֶם, מִתַּחַת סִבְלוֹת
מִצְרָיִם.
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The
first two talk about release and salvation from physical enslavement. The last
two introduce a second aspect to גאולה that helps answer our question. Part of גאולה is being taken as a nation and accepting a mission. מתן תורה is an essential extension of the redemption process. If
we lack purpose and don’t have a national undertaking, then we aren’t really
free.
Then,
the question arises, what’s the difference between slavery to פרעה and slavery to ה'?
Before we engaged in strenuous work for the מצרים and
now we toil over God’s commandments?
ר' יהודה הלוי helps us distinguish between the two types of bondage.
As opposed to acting according to the will of your master as you did in מצרים,
".עבד
ה' הוא לבדו חפשי" When ה' gives us מצוות they are for our good. דברים ו:כד spells this out:
כד וַיְצַוֵּנוּ
יְהוָה, לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת-כָּל-הַחֻקִּים הָאֵלֶּה, לְיִרְאָה, אֶת-ה' אֱלֹקינוּ--לְטוֹב לָנוּ כָּל-הַיָּמִים, לְחַיֹּתֵנוּ
כְּהַיּוֹם הַזֶּה.
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24 And the
LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our
good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is at this day.
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When
we are עבדי ה' we help ourselves. This isn’t to say the job is
easy-it’s still difficult to worship ה'-we just have to understand that it is for
our good.
Our
query on the רמב"ן still lingers. We slightly solved our conundrum as what
we’ve said explains how פרשיות
יתרו ומשפטים fit into the greater scheme of
things, but we are still left with five פרשיות that
thematically don’t fit!
To
find our answer we can look within the רמב"ן’s words. As we know, the ensuing פרשיות detail various aspects of the משכן. The רמב"ן claims that the משכן is a
recapitulation of מעמד
הר סיני and מתן תורה. ה' wants the גילוי
שכינה to be perpetuated within עם ישראל.
“ועשו לי מקדש
ושכנתי בתוכם,” after assembling the משכן, ה' won’t dwell בתוכו,
within the משכן,
rather he will dwell בתוכם,
amongst בני
ישראל.
גאולה is not just about leaving מצרים and
מתן תורה doesn’t suffice either, for we also need ה'’s Presence within our
camp. שמות is not a book of Exodus, of exiting somewhere. The
English name is extremely flawed. Rather it is a ספר of
entering. A book in which we enter our pact with ה' and
are charged with our mission. This explains how each and every פרשה fits with the רמב"ן’s
statement.
ספר בראשית told us how to live our lives. ספר שמות tells
us how to live our lives as עם
ישראל. Let us internalize this message of being עבדי ה' and recognizing our national purpose as we begin the next
chapter of the תורה.
שבת שלום!
