Translation of Tefilla Composed by Rav Yitzchak Yosef - By Rabbi Yehuda Rapoport

Translation of Tefilla Composed by Rav Yitzchak Yosef, The Rishon Lezion Chief Rabbi of Israel

Translation by: Rabbi Yehuda Rapoport

A Prayer for the Cessation of the Coronavirus, Hashem Should Guard us and Save Us

May it be Your will Hashem our God and the God of our fathers, that you should have abundant mercy upon all the inhabitants of the earth, and upon all the inhabitants of this land, and shield them from all harsh and evil decrees that are arising and coming upon the world. And save us from all affliction, plague, sickness and disease. And all those who are sick, who have been infected by the disease, heal them with a complete healing.

Yours, Hashem, are the greatness, and the might, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom and You are He Who is exalted over everything as the Leader.

And in Your hand is the life of every living thing and the spirit of the flesh of every man, and in your hand is power and might to make great and strengthen and heal every downtrodden individual, every oppressed soul. Nothing is too wonderous for you!

Therefore, may it be Your will, the Almighty, trustworthy, compassionate Father, who heals all of the illnesses of His people Israel. You, the trustworthy Healer, send cure and healing and arise with abundant compassion, mercy and caring for all of those who are sick, that have been infected with this illness.

Please Hashem, grant your kindness upon all the inhabitants of the earth, and upon all of your people Israel. Please rise up from your throne of judgement and sit upon the throne of mercy, and go beyond the strict law, and nullify from upon us all harsh and evil decrees. “And Pinchas stood and prayed, and the plague was stopped.”

Decree upon us decrees of goodness, salvation, and consolations for the sake of your kindness and tear the evil decree of our judgement and let our merits call before us: Raise up help for us and redeem us for the sake of your mercy!

Please hear the voice of our supplications, for you are the One who hears the prayers of every mouth, blessed is He who hears prayer.

May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be desirous before you, Hashem, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Let the words of the verse be fulfilled for us: “All of the diseases that were put upon Egypt, I shall not put upon you, for I am Hashem your Healer.”

Amen.

Cleaning for Pesach Refresher Course!

This year's Pesah is going to be like no Pesah we have had in living memory. Please read this refresher on how to clean Pesah and please try to stay calm I know this won't be as hard as you think it is.

Pesah cleaning doesn’t have to be a full spring cleaning and it doesn’t have to take from Purim just to get it all done. Here is a quick guide for Pesah cleaning which can be done with a medium of fuss.  It is incumbent upon us to clean before Pesah but we are not required nor is it recommended to arrive at the Seder exhausted.

In order to change our attitudes, we must know the halakha. There are so many Pesah preparations that are done unnecessarily, where if you want to do them for extra credit, that's fine. But it's important to understand what is necessity and what is voluntary.

Here is a guide based on Rav Aviner on How to get ready for Pesah in just one day!

If you are going away for Pesah and will not be at home during the entire holiday, you can be lenient and not clean for Pesah. You should sell all of the hametz in the house, including all of the crumbs - but not just the crumbs on their own, because that would have no halachic value. It is possible, however, to sell the food in the cabinets and closets including the "hametz dirt." If someone is staying in your house, you need to clean the rooms which will be used. The remaining unused rooms must be closed off with tape, and you must sell any hametz which is in them.

There is still the question of how to fulfill the mitzvah of Bedikat Hametz (the search for hametz). If you arrive at your Pesah destination by the fourteenth of Nissan, perform the search there. If you arrive on the morning of the fourteenth, you should clean well and check a small room, i.e. the entrance way and not sell the hametz in that room. You must also perform the search for hametz, with a blessing, in the rooms in which you will live during Pesah - if no one else has done so.

Hametz which is less than a "Kezayit" may not be eaten, but it is not included in the Torah prohibition.  Usually, only rooms in which children are allowed to bring sandwiches or cookies are likely to contain such big pieces of hametz. A room in which people do not walk around with food does not need to be cleaned at all.

Only search for hametz in places in which there is a reasonable chance of finding it. It is nearly impossible for hametz which is an inch square to be hidden inside a book! Everybody knows their kids' habits. Peek, and open here and there. Regarding crumbs in the corners of the house:

1. They are not a "Kezayit."

2. They are inedible to a dog. If there is bread behind a cabinet in an unreachable place, nobody will get to it on Pesah and it is as if it is buried - just as you do not have to search under stones or under the house's foundations, since nobody will take hametz from there.

By the way, start "Bedikat Hametz" in a place where hametz was used, so the blessing will apply to it.

Children

There may be cookies in your kids' pockets. Even the crumbs must be removed, since a child may put his hand into his pocket and then into his mouth. Toys must also be checked. However, you may put some or all of the toys away, and buy new toys as a present for the holiday! This serves a double purpose of saving work and making the children happy.

Bathroom Cabinets: These may contain hametz, such as wheat germ oil and alcohol derived from wheat. What a waste to clean it. Close and tape the cabinets and include it in the sale of hametz.

Couches: You have to check between the pillows. It is an interesting experience to find lost objects.

Dining Room: You do not have to clean everything, just the place where people eat, i.e. the chairs and the table. Chairs: If the chairs are clean, there is no need to clean them. If the kids throw cereal or other things on them and they do not look clean, clean it with a wet rag. Table: Covering with tablecloths.

High Chair: If it is plastic, it may be immersed in a tub with boiling water and cleaning agents. Clean the cracks with a stiff brush. It is unnecessary to take the chair apart, because whatever is in the cracks and holes is inedible to a dog.

Kitchen: This room must be thoroughly cleaned and not one crumb of hametz left.

For all the appliances see the Vaad Guide pages 17-20

Refrigerator: Clean it, but it does not have to be a lot of work. It is best to eat up all hametz before Pesah, but if expensive hametz food products are left over, i.e. frozen foods, they may be wrapped up well, labeled "hametz," stored in the back of the freezer/refrigerator and included in the list of hametz sold before Pesah.

Food Pantry: Do not clean. It is a waste of time. Seal, put sign or sticker not to use and include it in sale of hametz.

Dishes, shelves, and drawers that will not be used on Pesah may be sealed, and need not be cleaned. There are those who are strict to clean even the things which are used for hametz, but one can be lenient on account of three reasons, each of which would be enough:

1. We sell all the crumbs together with the sale of hametz.

2. The dishes are clean - nobody puts a dirty dish away in the cabinet.

3. Even if there is "hametz dirt," it is definitely less than a "Kezayit."

Humrot - Being Strict

If you know that you are being stricter than Halakhah requires, and you choose to be strict, you deserve a blessing. If you have a strong desire to clean a lot, you deserve a blessing, especially for Pesah, "whoever is strict deserves a blessing." You should not, however, force a stricture on yourself, but accept it with love.

Pesah Allegre!

Laws of Purim

Shabbat Parshat Zachor, 11 Adar, March 7th

The Shabbat immediately preceding Purim is called Shabbat Zachor. It is very important that everyone comes to synagogue to hear the Torah reading of this special Maftir, since it is a fulfillment of a law found in the Torah. Please bear in mind that hearing Parshat Zachor is a fulfillment of this mitzvah.

Fast of Esther, 13 Adar, Monday, March 9^th

This fast commemorates both when the Jews fasted at the behest of Queen Esther in response to the evil decree from the Persian empire and when the Jews fasted on the 13^th of Adar in preparation for their defense against Haman's decree. There are leniencies for women who are pregnant, nursing or anyone not feeling well. If you have any questions about whether to fast, contact Rabbi Hassan.

Machatzit Hashekel: In remembrance of the half-shekel given by all males to the Beit Hamikdash in Adar, it is customary to give three coins with a denomination of half of the primary local currency. In the United States, the custom is to give three half-dollars. The machatzit hashekel is given in the synagogue after Mincha on the Fast of Esther or during Purim. 

 

Reading the Megillah

Both men and women must hear the reading of the Megillah at night and day. It is customary to bring children to the synagogue to hear the Megillah. However, they should be prevented from making a disturbance. One who is unable to go to the synagogue, should hear the Megillah from someone who is reading from a kosher parchment scroll. Each word of the Megillah must be heard to fulfill the mitzvah of listening to the Megillah. Even missing one word invalidates the mitzvah.

 

Mishlo'ach Manot

On Purim day (and not at night), men and women must send to a fellow Jew at least one food parcel containing two kinds of food or drink which are ready to eat without further preparation. Although one is required to send only one parcel, it is praiseworthy to send parcels to many friends. It is preferable that one parcel is sent via someone else and not delivered personally. Do not send a parcel to a person within one year of the death of a parent, or within thirty days of the death of other immediate relatives. However, one can send to the person's family members who are not in mourning.

 

Matanot La'evyonim

All men and women must give gifts to the poor on Purim day. The minimum requirement is to give gifts (money or food) to at least two poor persons. Those who are liberal with their giving on Purim will be blessed. The Nathan Etkin Chesed Fund distributes Matanot La'evyonim to local poor people on Purim day.

 

The Purim Feast

Men and women are obligated to have a festive bread meal on Purim day. It is preferable to have a meat meal. A man should drink a little more than usual at the Seudah. 

Purim Allegre and Purim Sameach

Shabbat Zachor Short Reflections

This Shabbat we read Parashat Zachor – 3 pesukim which command us to remember what Amalek did to us after we left Egypt and to utterly destroy their memory. This has to be one of the hardest mitzvot in the Torah to understand from a moral/ethical standpoint. Hashem is asking us to commit genocide. For sure Amalek committed a heinous crime by attacking the old and the young but how can we justify the killing of an entire nation – men, women and children? Not to mention this law doesn’t apply to the Egyptians or the Greeks or the Romans who caused great harm to the Jewish people over the years.

So what was so bad about their attack? The nation of Amalek were descended from Esav. Although Esav made a tentative peace with Yaakov, Esav still passed on to his children and grandchildren a hatred for the Jewish people. A hatred so severe that they were willing to travel hundreds of miles from their home to kill innocent Jews. Amalek were unlike any other nation because they attacked us for no reason other than pure hatred. We weren’t looking to conquer their land and we didn’t stand in their way either.

The Rambam in his Mishneh Torah (Hilkhot Melakhim 6:1-4) explains that the commandment to wipe out Amalek is only applicable when Amalek refuses to keep the 7 mitzvot that Noah was commanded (Not to murder, not to steal, not to commit sexual immorality, not to worship idols, not to blaspheme the name of God, not to eat an animal while it is still alive and to set up law courts.) In a way, the Rambam is saying it is the behavior of Amalek that is the problem, if we were to re-educate them, they would no longer be Amalek.

Amalek also had another problem other than their lack of moral behavior and hatred of the Jews and that was that they didn’t believe in God. The verse states that ‘he did not fear God’. This was the very reason that Amalek attacked the way they did when they did it. All the other nations were terrified of the Jewish people and Hashem but Amalek said we don’t fear God and went off to attack us. Amalek failed in their mission to destroy us but they did succeed in their audacity to attack God. Hashem said the problem with Amalek was they were the moral opposite of us. That is the reason we have to blot out their way of life completely. However, if they change their ways then the mitzvah no longer applies.

Shabbat Shalom,

Geniza Day - Yevar La Ley

Our Sifrei Torah do not last forever. We have several Sifrei Torah that are too old and worn out to be used, the writing is too cracked and faded and the parchment too fragile. In Jewish Law and tradition, we bury Sifrei Torah that are too old to be used. Al Maimon pointed out to me in his father’s writings an old custom called Yevar La Ley which means burying holy objects. Every two to three years the Sephardic community would go to the cemetery and bury old prayer books and Rabbinic works.

It is our desire to bring the whole community together to take part in this noble endeavor of burying our holy Sifrei Torah together with old Humashim, Siddurim and the like. Please save the date of May 3rd at 11:00 AM at the Seattle Sephardic Brotherhood Cemetery for this auspicious occasion.

Please note Shabbat programs, photocopied sheets, synagogue newsletters and Jewish magazines etc. do not need to be put in geniza and should be wrapped in a paper bag and recycled. 

Burying Holy Objects (Yevar La Ley) by Sam Bension Maimon

Aside from the burial, there are several other occasions at which time Jewish people go up to the cemetery, referred to as Beth Hahayim (house of the living).  For example, such as going to unveil a tombstone, or going to make a “visit” to our dear departed, or going to say prayers on Erev Rosh Hashanah or Erev Yom Kippur.

One such special event that was prevalent in the early days of our Seattle Sephardic community was the custom of making a pilgrimage to the cemetery for the purpose of yevar la ley, literally “to carry the law.”  This was done probably once every three years, and most often coincided with the Sunday or the week of Lag La Omer.

To understand this practice, we would do well to review, in short, the rabbinical rule that anytime any religious object got worn out or became unusable, rather than throw it in the junk heap, we are bid to put it away in the geniza (a small storeroom or a cupboard).  This is done to avoid the desecration of the name or names of God that these objects might contain.  A torn out page from a Bible, or an old mezuza contains the name of God.  It’s our duty to treat these names of God with dignity and respect and not to discard them wantonly, without regard to its sacred contents.

Every synagogue has a geniza, where members bring in their worn out leaves from tefilah (prayer) books, old talets (prayer shawls), mezuzot (small parchment with biblical passages affixed to doorpost), tefilin (phylacteries), etc.  When these storerooms or cupboards get too full, all the contents of the geniza were gathered and taken to the Beth Hahayim to be buried in a special grave set aside for this purpose.

In our Seattle Sephardic community, when the men in charge had determined that there was enough ojas de ley (torn pages from sacred books, etc.) to warrant such a pilgrimage to the cemetery, this geniza material was filled up in several gunny sacks.  The general public also accompanied this procession, which included singing and dancing.  People today still talk about this as a very unusual and happy occasion.

When the people reached the cemetery, the chairman then would announce that there were so many gunny sacks filled with la ley and that each gunny sack was to be auctioned off, the highest bidder thus acquiring the privilege of accomplishing the mitzva of enterar la ley, or burying that particular sackful in the appropriate “grave,” and so the chairman would sing, “Kuanto dan por el primer saco de la ley?” (“How much is offered for the first sack of the law?”) Each gunny sack that was sold was accompanied to the place while the audience would sing appropriate songs including Bar Yohay, a song which Jewish people usually sing on Lag La Omer in tribute to the memory of the saintly Tanna Rabbi Shimon Ben Yohay who died on Lag La Omer.

Is God in Our Synagogues?

In this week’s Perasha, God tells Moshe to “make for me a sanctuary and I will dwell in their midst” (Shemot 25:8). Note that God plans to dwell among the Jewish people and not in the sanctuary. The Ohr HaHaim (17^th Century Moroccan Rabbi) explains that this refers not only to the mishkan – Tabernacle and Batei Mikdash – Temples but also to our synagogues when we are in exile. This means that when we show our devotion to God by praying to Him in kal, he will rest his divine presence upon us. As Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch (19^th Century German Rabbi) explains the true meaning of the verse “is the proximity of God in our midst”.

The Ohr HaHaim bases his explanation on a verse from Yechezkel (11:16) “Thus said the Lord God, ‘Although I have removed them far away among the nations, and although I have scattered them among the lands, yet I have remained for them a small sanctuary in the lands where they arrived.’” Rashi explains that the small sanctuary, the mikdash me’at is the synagogue.

The Gemara in Masekhet Megillah (29a) explains that the mikdash me’at can also refer to Batei Midrash – study houses. Indeed, when the Mashiach comes, these mini sanctuaries will be uprooted and transported to the land of Israel. In Masekhet Berakhot (6a) the Gemara tells us that prayer is only truly heard in synagogue as that is where God is found. The Gemara (Berakhot 8a) also tells us that one who spends long hours in the synagogue and study houses will have length of days – a blessing reserved for one who lives in Israel as the verse states “that your days mays may be multiplied and the days of your children, upon the land”. The Gemara explains that the synagogue is an extension of the Land of Israel.

The Ramban in a long passage to Shemot 13:16 explains “the purpose of synagogues and the merit of praying with a congregation is this: that people should have a place they can gather and acknowledge to God that He create them and caused them to be, and where they can publicize this and declare before Him “we are Your creations” This the intent of Chazal in what they said “and they shall call out mightily to God”. From here you learn that prayer requires a voice, for boldness can overcome evil.” From the Ramban we see the significance of synagogue as actualizing our ability to pray to God.

However, if we aren’t truly calling out to God in prayer, does God really rest his divine presence in our synagogues? Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo argues that God is preparing to leave our synagogues as we aren’t fulfilling their purpose. It is only when we use the synagogues as they are intended that we can hope to have Hashem’s divine presence upon us. It is a call to challenge us to not only build the synagogue, not only visit the synagogue, but to call out fervently in prayer to our Father in heaven.

An Eye for an Eye

This week’s Torah portion contains one of the most misunderstood passages in the entire Torah. In Shemot (21:22-25) we have the following section of verses: “And should men quarrel and hit a pregnant woman, and she miscarries but there is no fatality, he shall surely be punished, when the woman's husband makes demands of him, and he shall give restitution according to the judges' orders. But if there is a fatality, you shall give a life for a life. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot. A burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise.”

Throughout the centuries many have misunderstood “an eye for an eye” to be revenge punishment. In the 20^th Century, Martin Luther King said “The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.” And Mahatma Ghandi said “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” Even Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof says “The whole world will be blind and toothless.”

But our Oral Tradition has always understood these verses to be talking about monetary repayments. As Rashi citing the Talmud writes “If a person blinds his neighbor’s eye, he must give him the value of his eye, which is how much his price to be sold in the marketplace has decreased without the eye. So is the meaning of all of them i.e., all the injuries enumerated in the following verses, but not the actual amputation of a limb, as our Rabbis interpreted it in Perek Hahovel” (commentary to Shemot 21:24).

Many think that this means that our written Torah was humanized by the Rabbis centuries later. But this is not the case as we know that God gave Moshe not only the Torah Shebichtav – The Written Torah but also the Torah Sheba’alpe – The Oral Torah.  Rabbi Shmuel Goldin writes in his excellent work Unlocking the Torah Text “Why doesn’t the Torah simply say what it means? Over the ages, the “eye for an eye” formula has been cited by critics as proof of the vengeful, primitive nature of Mosaic Law. If the Torah never meant to mandate physical punishment in cases of personal injury, why wasn’t the text more clearly written? A great deal of misunderstanding, misinterpretation and trouble could have been avoided had the Torah simply stated, ‘The court shall levy the appropriate compensatory payment in cases of personal injury.’”

Rabbi Goldin explains “the Torah confronts a serious dilemma as it moves to convey its deeply nuanced approach to cases of personal injury: using the tools at its disposal, how can Jewish law best reflect the discrepancy between ‘deserved’ and ‘actual’ punishment?

“The gravity of the crime is such that, on a theoretical level, on the level of ‘deserved punishment,’ the case belongs squarely in the realm of dinei nefashot (capital law). The perpetrator truly merits physical loss of limb in return for the damage inflicted upon his victim. Torah law, however, will not consider physical mutilation as a possible punishment for a crime. The penalty must therefore be commuted into financial terms. Had the Torah, however, mandated financial payment from the outset, the full gravity of the crime would not have been conveyed. The event would have been consigned to the realm of dinei mamonot (monetary crimes), and the precious nature of human life and limb would have been diminished. The Torah therefore proceeds to express, with delicate balance, both theory and practice within the law.”

Shabbat Shalom

Dvar Torah on Parashat Yitro

Amalek and Yitro: Non-Jewish attitudes towards Jews

At the end of last week’s Torah portion we read about Amalek’s attack on the Jewish people. This week we read about Yitro’s arrival in the Israelite camp to reunite Moshe with his wife and children. According to rabbinic tradition Yitro came to convert to Judaism. So at first glance there doesn’t seem to be many similarities between these two stories. However, our Rabbis have used the two stories to learn about the different attitudes that the non-Jewish world can have for us.

Amalek responds by trying to exterminate the Jewish people. Because Amalek is represented as the paradigm of an evil nation that fears and negates the presence of God, the Jewish people is enjoined to wage a war against Amalek, and all of those who are like him throughout the generations. Yitro on the other hand represents the righteous gentile, who upon hearing of the wondrous events of the Ten Plagues and the splitting of the sea comes to visit the Jewish people in the desert. Indeed Yitro praises God for all the goodness that befalls the Jewish people.

The Ibn Ezra notes that the Torah chooses to place the two stories together to contrast Yitro and Amalek.  On the one side we have the evil that Amalek perpetrated against Israel and on the other the goodness of Yitro and his kind counsel.  Unlike Yitro, the Amalekites seek out Israel not to attach themselves to their exalted destiny, not to embrace the word of God that they journey towards Sinai to receive. Quite the contrary, Amalek brutally attacks in order to emphatically dispel those very truths that the people of Israel represent. 

However, if we take a deeper look at Yitro, there are some interesting things to be learned. The Torah says that Yitro was חד. This is a very difficult word to translate. The most common translation is that he rejoiced coming from the Hebrew word חדוה. Rashi also brings a Midrashic interpretation too. He writes that “Yitro’s flesh became prickly with goose bumps חִדּוּדִין חִדּוּדִּין because he was upset about the destruction of the Egyptians.

Rabbi Gabe Pransky, a fellow graduate of Yeshivat Hamivtar writes on the significance of Yitro’s goose bumps. “This Midrash teaches us something about the complexity of the human heart. Although consciously and overtly identified with the Jewish people, Yitro cannot, apparently, simply erase who he was and how he once felt. On a visceral level, he still retains his feelings for the Egyptian nation. His newer relationship with Moshe, God, and the Jewish people does not erase his old personality, or his old sensitivities. We are complex beings. We can consciously choose and espouse one set of values and beliefs, while at the same time, on a deeper, more intuitive level, harbor within us very different, even opposing, emotional connections and responses.

“It is not an accident that the Rabbis see Yitro’s body – his flesh – as the thing that gives him away, and reveals to us, and to him, who he really is, underneath. In addition to the conscious, intellectual choice which Yitro has made to praise God and recognize the miracles He has done for His people, he also has a set of deeply felt emotional commitments which he cannot simply decide to undo. Like the rest of us, Yitro lives somewhere in between who he is, and who he would like to be.”

Dvar Torah on Parashat Bo

Dvar Torah - The Jewish People Ask for Gold and Silver Vessels – by Rabbi Hassan Based on the teachings of Rav Hirsch

Our Parasha has all the highlights of Pesach. The last three plagues, the laws of the Korban Pesach, Yetziyat Mitzrayim and … the Jews asking for gold and silver from the Egyptians. Why is this detail mentioned in the climax of the redemption of our nation?

When Hashem foretold to Avraham the exile of his descendants, He said “You shall surely know that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them, for four hundred years. And, the nation that they will serve I will judge, and afterwards they will go forth with great possessions.” (Bereshit 15:13-14) Hashem promised to Avraham that we would leave with great wealth but as slaves we didn’t have any possessions. Everything belonged to Pharaoh.

Hashem commands Moshe to tell the people “Please speak in the ears of the people. Let each man request of his fellow and each woman from her fellow silver vessels and gold vessels. Hashem granted the people favor in the eyes of Egypt. Moreover, the man Moshe was very great in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of the servants of Paroh, and in the eyes of the people.” (Shemot 11:2-3) How did former slaves become so great in the eyes of their former masters?

Hashem provided the Egyptians with a powerful demonstration of the character of the Jewish people. For three days, the Egyptians were immobilized by the plague of darkness. Everything they possessed was available to the Jews for the taking. Moreover, they themselves were fair game to anyone seeking vengeance and reprisal for all the horrors inflicted upon the slave-nation by their Egyptian masters.

When the Egyptians began to see again, it was not only with a sense of relief at having survived their ordeal, but of disbelief that they and their possessions had emerged unscathed and unmolested. Their dwellings were fully in order; nothing at all was missing. The Jews, free to help themselves of whatever they pleased – and with good reason to do so – had taken nothing at all. In an instant, they comprehended the moral nobility of the people with whom they had dealt so unjustly. Moshe, the leader of that people, achieved stature in their eyes for guiding them to moral greatness. This – not all the plagues he had visited upon them – made him great in their eyes.

Why does the Torah say “please speak” surely the Jewish People would have been happy to carry out this command? The Jews must have sensed their triumph, and understood that they had laid firm and unambiguous claim to the moral high road. Once in possession of it, they would not part with it easily. This is why they had to be urged and cajoled “please speak” to ask their newly-found admirers for gifts. Having tasted the sweet taste of moral significance, they were unwilling to trade away any part of it for money. Accepting money – blood money – from their erstwhile oppressors would buy some atonement for the Egyptians, and narrow the moral gap between the two peoples.

Why, then, did Hashem want them to accept the reparations? The Jews stood on the threshold of genuine peoplehood. They would cross the border of Egypt as a nation, not a huge collection of individuals. Hashem was already looking towards the future, shaping their future well-being at the very moment that he was sculpting them into a complete nation. He was concerned about their future. Their material prosperity was no small part of it. The foundation of that prosperity should be strong, and He wanted the first deposit into their account to be made by outsiders who had recognized the moral greatness of Hashem’s chosen people. The first installment in their savings plan should be elevated above the ordinary by linking it to a Jewish success in spreading awareness of Hashem and His teaching.

Shabbat Shalom