Parshas Sh'mos

This week we begin the book of Sh’mos (the second book of Moses,) as we start it off with its title track; Parshas Sh’mos.

In this week’s Parsha Yosef (Josef) passes away. Around that same time we learn that a new pharaoh arose. There is great discussion about what really happened but for the sake of our discussion the “new” pharaoh realized the Jewish people were rapidly increasing and became frightened that they might overpower him. So he made a g’zairah (decree) that from that point on all Jewish boys that are born should be thrown into the river.

A woman named Yocheved gave birth to a boy and she was desperately hiding him. After three months she realized that sooner or later he would be found and killed. So she decided to place him into a basket and then place the basket into the river, so at least he would not drown and hopefully someone would rescue him and have mercy on him. Miriam the baby’s sister watched from afar as he floated down the river, to see what would happen. While she was watching, the daughter of the pharaoh went down to the river to bathe, and when she noticed the basket she had her servant bring it out of the water for her. When she opened the basket and saw a baby boy crying she assumed that he was Jewish and she kept him and named him Moshe (Moses).

As Moses grew up the Jewish nation was put into slavery for the pharaoh and his kingdom, forcing the Jews to do backbreaking labor, by building cities, and other forms of construction for the pharaoh. On top of all of their hard work they were beaten, and found themselves crying out to Hashem.

One day when Moses was already grown, Moses saw an Egyptian man beating up a Jewish man. Moses went over to him and looked around to see if anyone was watching and then he killed him. The next day Moses saw a Jewish man fighting another Jew, so he approached them and asked the wicked one why he was hurting his fellow Jew to which he replied, who appointed you a judge over me? Are you going to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? When Moses heard this he became frightened because he knew the “cat was out of the bag” and ran away to the desert of Midian. While he was fleeing the word about Moses striking down an Egyptian man got to the pharaoh and he became furious with him and was prepared to have Moses killed.

In Midian Moses stumbled upon a family with many daughters, one of which he took as a wife named Tziporah. While Moses was tending to Tziporah’s family’s sheep he saw on a mountain a bush that was burning but it was not being consumed. Out of curiosity, he went up the mountain and when he reached the bush Hashem called out to him and told him to take off his shoes because the ground he was on was holy. Hashem told Moses that he would need to go back to Egypt to free his fellow Jews for their misery and that he should take Ahron (his brother) with him, because Moses had a childhood accident that caused him problems with his speech and Ahron would serve as his mouthpiece.

When Moses and Ahron came before the pharaoh and told him that G-d had spoken with them and wanted the Jewish people to be set free, the pharaoh laughed at them and told them that because of their foolishness the Jews will need to continue to make bricks but no longer would the Egyptians supply them with the straw. Now the Jews would have to use every waking moment of the day to first gather in the straw then use it in the production of the bricks. When the Jews heard this they became very angry with Moses.

So Moses asked Hashem why He didn’t free the Jewish people, and Hashem told him, “Now you will see what I shall do to pharaoh…..”

With a promise from Hashem that the end of our bondage was imminent we should recognize the relationship between the Jewish people and The Creator of the world. We should be able to identify that many times Hashem places us in difficult situations so that we will cry out to him for help and this brings us closer to him which is what he wants. We should all be zocha (worthy) to pour out our hearts to Hashem in prayer and have him respond by ending our current galus (exile), bringing Moshiach (Messiah) speedily in our time, and rebuilding the Bais HaMikdash – Amen!

HAVE A GREAT SHABBOS AND WEEKEND!

Stay tuned for next week’s Parsha called, Parshas Va’eira.