In the beginning of the Parshah, Hashem is talking to Moshe and tells him to come to Pharaoh “…For I have hardened his heart…” My Rebbi pointed out that this pasuk says that Hashem hardened Pharaoh’s heart in order to bring upon him all these miraculous blows. Based on this, if Hashem would not have hardened Pharaoh’s heart, He would not have been able to bring these miraculous blows on Pharaoh. My Rebbi said, “What’s the p’shat in that?”
In this week’s parshah, we encounter the yetzias Mitzrayim. Pharaoh will tell you, Moshe and Aharon, to show him some miraculous proof that you are agents of Hashem and you are not just saying it on your own. Say to Aharon, take your staff, throw it down before Pharaoh, and this stick will turn into a serpent, a type of a snake. Interesting, the choice of words that Hashem uses, tanin, a word that is also used to refer to sea serpent. This was similar to the miracle that Moshe performed for the Jewish nation when he first came to see them but over there the staff became a nachash. In front of Pharaoh it didn’t become a snake. It became a tanin.
This week’s parshah begins by discussing the galus Mitzrayim, followed by the yetzias Mitzrayim. Every time you learn a sugya, you have to know its essence. Yetzias Mitzrayim has so many lessons, but you have to understand what is the essence of yetzias Mitzrayim. If somebody would ask you, what does yetzias Mitzrayim mean to you, you’d first have to know what galus Mitzrayim means in order to answer that question.
There are a lot of hints that Yaakov Avinu foresaw the future of Klal Yisrael, and he mentioned them in the birchas Yaakov. Chazal tell us that Yaakov Avinu foresaw how Shimshon Hagibor will defeat the enemies of Klal Yisrael in an unbelievable way and Yakov thought that Shimshon was going to be the Moshiach, but since he saw that Shimshon was going to die, Yaakov Avinu realized he’s not going to be the Moshiach. So, what did Yaakov Avinu say next?
In this week’s parshah, we encounter a life challenge that many of us will face to some degree. Most people lose themselves completely when they face such a challenge. The Torah says that when Yosef finally meets his brothers and he tells them, “…don’t be angry at yourself that you sold me.” Could you imagine if you had a brother or brothers that sold you into slavery?! And then that sale ended you up in jail, in the papers? You’d be very, very upset. But Yosef tells his brother not to be sad…
Many times in our lives, we face different series of challenges, and many times the challenge is not a direct challenge to our Yahadus,but one that sneaks up on us. During yemei haChanukah, we need to understand what the challenge of the Yevanim was.
The big sugya in this parshah is the marriage of Yaakov Avinu to Rachel and Leah. There are many things that we need to learn and study and analyze from Yaakov’s marriage because they could be very relevant to us.
In this week’s parshah, Yaakov Avinu is encountering his brother Eisav. And Eisav was quite upset with Yaakov. Eisav came to kill him. And the emes is, you know, that Chazal tell us what really happened. The malachim that Yaakov sent to greet Eisav had to teach Eisav a lesson that he wouldn’t forget. It says they began to beat him up. Eisav wasn’t used to getting pushed around, and they pashut beat him up and he was pleading with them to stop and to have rachmanus.
In this week’s parshah, the Torah tells us about Yaakov Avinu, who found himself in double jeopardy. Number one, he hadn’t yet gotten married. He was no youngster anymore. He was in his sixties. So he was an older gentleman already and he was not married. His father had gotten married at the age of 40. So Yaakov Avinu was way over the top. That was one situation he was facing. The second challenge that he was facing was that…
The parshah begins with a story out of the life of Yitzchok and Rivkah. It tells us that they – who had gotten married in such a wonderful and miraculous way through the hands of Hashem – had a difficulty with having children. At the time, Yitzchak was 40 years old, and his bride, Rivka, was a young girl. Yitzchak understood he wasn’t going to have children right away, but then “right away” became a longer period of time. The Torah tells us “Yitzchak pleaded with Hashem” because his wife was barren.
