Torah · Weekly Parasha VideoParashat VaeraRabbi Uri Nahum · June 19, 2017 · Vaera · וארא · 15 Min Parasha RoundupSave⌄ShareParasha class with Rabbi Uri Nahum, from BSD Productions’ 15 Min Parasha Roundup.Transcript0:05Parashat Vaera. This week's parasha has 121 pesukim,0:11and the parasha talks about the first seven makot, the first seven plagues that we have from the Aserah Makot.0:18As the Baal HaTurim points out, that the name of the parasha Vaera alludes to the seven makot.0:23The first and last letter are vav and aleph, which the gematria, the numerical value, would equal to0:30seven. We divide the parasha into just three topics,0:32even though it has many pesukim, but as far as subjects are concerned, there's only three parts.0:37The first part of the parasha Torah tells us about Hashem telling Moshe regarding the0:42geulah. The second part of the parasha Torah tells us about the second meaning that Moshe has with0:48Paro. And finally, the last and the longest part of the parasha, the Torah tells us about the makot,0:55where we have, like we mentioned, we have seven in this week's0:58parasha. No mitzvot in this week's parasha, but next week, be'ezrat Hashem, we'll continue with the mitzvot.1:05Let's get to the parasha in depth.1:07The first part of the parasha Torah tells us that Hashem tells Moshe about the1:10geulah. Now really, the beginning of the parasha is a continuation from the end of last week's1:14parasha. At the conclusion of last week's parasha, Parashat Shemot, Moshe sort of complained to Hashem,1:21and he says,1:23'Lamah hare'ota la'am hazeh?' Why have you done so evil to this nation? I came to save them and became worse.1:28So Hashem's response began in last week's parasha, where He tells him,1:33'Now you will see,' and here the Torah tells us, Hashem tells Moshe1:36that He will now fulfill the promise that He kept to the Avot, Abraham, Yitzchak, and1:43Yaakov, to bring their children back to1:47Eretz Yisrael, and Hashem is doing it because He heard the cries of the Jewish people.1:50They're ready for the geulah, they're ready for the redemption.1:53Hachamim explain that conversation with Moshe a little bit differently,1:56and Hachamim explain that the reason why Hashem mentioned the Avot, Abraham, Yitzchak, and2:01Yaakov, as you see in the beginning of the2:02parasha, is to show Moshe, look. HaAvot, even though I promised them,2:07and they've never seen in their lives my promise come true, they never complained.2:13I promised them that I'm going to bring them to2:16Eretz Yisrael, and they're going to inherit Eretz Yisrael. It's going to be theirs.2:19And yet, when Avraham Avinu had to bury Sarah Imenu, he had to buy it for a lot of money.2:24When Yitzchak was digging up the wells, he had fights with the Pelishtim, and he never complained.2:30And Yaakov Avinu, when he came back from Lavan's house, he wanted to settle in2:36Eretz Yisrael, and he had to buy land in order to settle, and he never ever complained.2:40However, the new generation, a small promise that I told them, already they're complaining.2:45That's how Chazal explain it on the Midrash level.2:47In any case, Hashem tells Moshe,2:50He tells him, Now I want you to go and deliver the message to the Jewish people.2:54I want you to go tell them that the time has come for the2:57geulah, for the time has come for the redemption.3:00And the Torah here tells us that Hashem told them about the redemption in four expressions.3:06There were four words that are mentioned that Chachamim tell us3:09these are four expressions of the geulah, which is the reason why we drink four cups of wine on the Seder,3:14and they are:3:15Vehotzeiti, I'll bring out the Jewish people from Mitzrayim;3:18Vehitzalti, I will save them from their enemies;3:21Vega'alti, I'll redeem them from their oppressors;3:23Velakachti, and I will take them as a3:25nation. However, Moshe comes to the Jewish people and he informs them of the3:30geulah, Torah says that the Jewish people couldn't accept it.3:33The slave labor was so intense that they couldn't even hear it.3:37They couldn't accept it from Moshe Rabbeinu,3:38and therefore they didn't seem to want to be redeemed.3:42At least they couldn't believe it.3:44And we move on to the second part of the parashah,3:46where we have the second meeting with Moshe and3:48Paroh. Now here it's very interesting.3:49If you read the pesukim, you might get very confused3:51if you don't know what Chazal tell us over here.3:54Hashem tells Moshe3:56that I want you to go and speak to3:58Paro and tell him directly this time to take out the Jewish people.4:01Moshe answers, he says,4:03You know, v'ani aral sefatayim. I cannot do it. You know, I'm speech impaired.4:08I cannot. Even the Jewish people couldn't hear me.4:11Even the Jewish people couldn't accept.4:12How could Paro, who is from a different nation, the4:15enemy, how could he accept?4:16At this point, Hashem commands Moshe and he tells him,4:19You are commanded to go to4:21Paro to demand that the Jewish people should come out,4:24and you will go with Aharon,4:25and Aharon will deliver the message.4:27And here the Torah interrupts,4:28and the Torah all of a sudden tells us the lineage of Aharon and Moshe,4:32and how come the Torah interrupts over here in the middle?4:35And many, many reasons are explained. On a simple level,4:38Torah wanted to tell us now about the redemption4:40and the people who are going to bring about the redemption,4:44the first redeemers of the Jewish people, the4:47Go'alim, Moshe and Aharon.4:47So therefore the Torah had to tell us where they came from.4:49And Torah starts, though,4:51even though Moshe and Aharon came from Shevet Levi,4:53it starts telling us the lineage of Reuven first, and then Shimon,4:58and then finally we get to Levi and his children.5:01And many explanations on the simple level.5:03Since the parashat Vayechi, we find that5:05Yaakov Avinu rebuked these shevatim, Reuven, Shimon, Levi.5:09So therefore the Torah wrote them over here5:11and it traced their lineage5:13until we finally get to Moshe and Aharon.5:15And after this whole lineage that the Torah tells us over here,5:21the Torah comes back to the narrative,5:22and here Torah tells us that Moshe will speak the words of Hashem5:29and Aharon will deliver them to5:32Paro, and Hashem tells him about His plans,5:33that Paro will harden his heart.5:36And because he will harden his heart,5:38Hashem is going to use that as an excuse5:41to show His miracles in Mitzrayim, that everybody should know5:44that Hashem is the one who controls the world,5:47who runs the world, who has created the world,5:48and is still running the world now.5:51And then the Torah tells us about the meeting with5:53Paro, the second meeting this time.5:55Remember, Moshe left for three months,5:57and now he came back5:58because the first time he came,5:59they just increased the labor.6:00Torah tells us that Moshe was 80 years old at the time,6:03and Aharon was 83 years old.6:05And they walk into6:07Paro, and they show him the miracle.6:09Which miracle?6:10Aharon had the stick,6:11and he throws the stick on the floor,6:12and the stick, the staff, turns from a stick,6:15it turns into a snake.6:16Paro laughs at it. He mocks them.6:18Says, What, you're coming to show me your little card tricks?6:21The small young magicians can do the same thing.6:23Paro calls the magicians.6:25Say that the Torah says6:26that was Bilam and his children,6:27and they come. They also take their sticks,6:29and they also throw them on the floor,6:31and the sticks turn into snakes.6:33At this point,6:35Aharon's stick turns back from a snake into a stick.6:39Remember, it was a snake, right?6:40It turns back to a6:41stick, and as a stick,6:43it swallows all the other snakes of the other magicians.6:45And clearly it was a miracle.6:47And yet Paro was stubborn.6:50He didn't want to accept it,6:51and he ignored it completely.6:53And now we get on to the last part of the6:56parashah, the makot.6:57And here the Torah tells us already7:00about all the makot,7:01and Hashem tells Moshe exactly the plan7:02of how the makot will come.7:03Now, as an introduction to the makot,7:05we'll say what the Haggadah7:07we say on every night of the Haggadah.7:09Rabbi Yehuda hayah noten bahem simanim. Rabbi Yehuda used to give simanim, signs,7:13or a way to remember the makot,7:15and he would say,7:16Detzach adash7:18be'achab. Detzach adash7:19be'achab are the first letters of each of the makot,7:22of each of the plagues in Hebrew.7:24Dalet is dam, etc., and so on and so forth.7:27And many wonder,7:28what's the remez all about?7:30And the mefarshim explain,7:31many, many mefarshim explain,7:32if you want to see it in depth,7:33you look in the Maharal,7:34in Sefer Gevurot Hashem.7:36He has a beautiful, lengthy discussion7:38of all the different7:40remazim. You look in all the7:41mefarshim, they all explain this.7:42I believe the Ramban also,7:44Rabbeinu Bechaye. In any case,7:46the reason for this acronym,7:48detzach adash7:50be'achab, is because to teach us7:51that the makot came in groups.7:54Each three were one category,7:56were one group.7:57And for our simple level7:59over here, for the—8:00Fifty minutes, we'll say that the first two makot came with a warning.8:04That means the plague of blood and the plague of frog,8:10and then also in the second set, arov, which is the wild animals, and dever, which is the epidemic.8:17And the third makah was done without a warning. Hashem just told Moshe, Go ahead, you'll do it.8:22For the first makah, Hashem tells Moshe, Go meet Paro and warn him.8:25Let the Jewish people out, or else you're going to get a makah.8:27The second plague in the set, Hashem tells Moshe, Tell Paro that this plague is coming.8:34Not a warning, but tell him that it's coming.8:36And for the third makah, Hashem just tells Moshe to do it.8:40And if Hashem explained, because that's like witnesses.8:43We know that when a person is warned by two witnesses, already we could execute the punishment.8:47The first two plagues in each set, Paro was warned,8:52and when he did not heed to the warning, therefore he was punished later on without any prior warning.8:58Now, another thing that we need to know about the makot, a little bit of the background,9:01is a big discussion exactly when the makot started.9:04We all know that the last plague, the plague of striking, of killing the firstborn,9:09took place on the night of Pesach, the first Pesach in history, which was Tet Vav Nisan, the fifteenth of Nisan.9:15That's clear. That's in the Torah. That we all know about.9:17The question is, when did they begin?9:19And there's a little bit of a machloket between the Ramban and Rabbi Chayim and others.9:23But we want with the approach of Rabbeinu Bechaye, Rabbeinu Bachya in the Torah,9:27and it's brought down, Parashat Bo,9:29perek yud, pasuk hey. And he says that the plagues began in Rosh Chodesh Av.9:33And the reason for that is because Moshe spoke to Hashem,9:36last week's parasha, for the first time on Tet Vav Nisan, the fifteenth of Nisan.9:40He spoke for seven days, which is the duration of the holiday of Pesach.9:43Then he went to get permission from Yitro to go back to Egypt.9:46He went to Egypt, and the decree became worse, the slavery became worse.9:51He went away for three months, which is the months of Iyar, Sivan, and Tammuz,9:58and then he came back by Av, and the makot started on Rosh Chodesh Av.10:02Also, the Torah tells us that the plague of blood took seven days and it finished.10:08And Chazal explained that each plague took seven days.10:11The duration of the plague was seven days, with minor exceptions, we'll explain.10:16And then there was a three-week period where Moshe would warn about the next plague coming.10:22And let's begin with the makot.10:23So when we speak about the makot, we'll list what the makot were, each plague by itself,10:29and we'll discuss four things in very, very short.10:31Number one is how it came about.10:33Number two is when the plague started,10:36meaning which month did it start.10:38Number three, a little description of what the plague was all about.10:41And finally, we'll explain in a very short answer based on the Midrash of why the plague happened,10:48why this specific plague.10:49The first plague is dam, which is blood.10:51According to the Ramban, the way it happened is10:53Aharon was told to lift his hands to all the waters10:56and then to strike only the Nile, the Nile River, which turned everything into blood.11:02And this took place on Rosh Chodesh Av.11:05All the waters in Egypt, all the waters in Mitzrayim turned into blood everywhere, even what they dug up.11:10And the reason why Hashem brought this plague is because the Egyptians did not allow the Jewish women11:15to purify themselves of nidah by dipping in the mikveh.11:20Next, the plague of frogs,11:22tzfardea. The way this happened is Aharon extended his hand over the water,11:26and this plague took place on Rosh Chodesh Elul.11:29And what happened is that one frog came out,11:32and different explanations in the Midrash of what this frog actually did,11:35but it brought about millions and millions of frogs11:39that just raided all the Egyptian homes11:41and even went to their food and to their stomach.11:44According to the Rabbeinu Bechaye, he says that after the end of the plague of11:48tzfardea, there's one tzfardea that still lives by the water that attacks people,11:53and he calls it11:55el timsach. Now, I don't expect you to know that word, but el timsach, if you speak Arabic,11:59ask anybody who speaks Arabic, el timsach means alligators, crocodiles.12:03In fact, there's, I believe, one of the Geonim, Rabbeinu Hai Gaon, I believe,12:07or some of the Geonim explain that the makaf tzfardea was actually alligators,12:12not necessarily frogs.12:13So that's the way Rabbeinu Bechaye explains it, and it's very, very interesting,12:17and that could answer many, many questions.12:19In any case, the reason why Hashem brought this makah, this plague,12:23is because the Egyptians decreed on all the Jewish people to collect worms and bugs for them.12:27And therefore, Hashem brought this plague.12:29The next makah, the third makah, is kinim, which is lice,12:33where in this plague over here, Aharon again takes the stick and he strikes the ground,12:38and this took place on Rosh Chodesh Tishrei, what we call Rosh Hashanah.12:41And here the ground turned into lice,12:43and the lice went all over the animals and all over the people,12:45and you can imagine the itching.12:47And the reason why Hashem brought this on the Egyptians12:49is because they made the Jewish people sweep the streets of12:52Mitzrayim, and now they saw that all their streets are full of lice.12:54The fourth plague is makah of arov, the wild animals.12:58Here, Hashem brought the wild animals from all corners of the world,13:02and as Chazal tell us, they each came with the earth from their own place,13:07from their own home territory, so this way they feel comfortable.13:10And the plague took place on Rosh Chodesh13:12Cheshvan, and the wild animals came and they attacked all the Egyptians.13:16And the reason why Hashem did this13:18is because the Egyptians used to make the Jewish people hunt lions and wild animals,13:22not because they need them, but just out of pure entertainment13:25and because they wanted to endanger the Jewish people's lives.13:29In the fifth makah, the makah dever, which is epidemic,13:32which is a plague that just killed the animals,13:36Hashem brought the plague a day after Moshe13:40warned Paro. Hashem, Moshe tells Paro, Tomorrow you'll have this plague, and that's exactly what happened13:43on Rosh Chodesh Kislev. The makah came, the plague came,13:45and all the Egyptian cattle that was left outside was killed with the plague.13:49And some mefarshim, the Radbaz explains13:51that this happened, that they were struck,13:55the disease came on that first day of the plague,13:58but throughout the next six days, the people died from this plague, from this epidemic.14:03And the reason why Hashem brought this14:04is because the Egyptians used to make the Jews work instead of the animals.14:09When they needed animals to plow the ground, they used to use the Jewish people.14:13The sixth plague is the makah of boils, shechin.14:17Moshe and Aharon each took two handfuls of ashes from an14:21oven, and then miraculously they opened in one palm of Moshe Rabbeinu,14:25which he threw towards the heavens, he threw upwards,14:29and this happened on Rosh Chodesh Tevet.14:32And what happened is there were boils all over the Egyptian bodies14:36and over their animal bodies, the bodies of their animals as well.14:40And this happened because they used to make the Jewish people bathe them,14:44and now they saw that they derived no benefit from all these showers and baths14:48because they were full of boils.14:51The last makah in this week's parashah is makah of barad, of hail.14:56Where over here the Midrash tells us that Moshe was lifted up in the sky, above the sky even,15:01and Hashem told him, Lift your hand upwards.15:03Moshe lifts his hand upwards,15:05and follows it with tremendous sounds of thunder and hail coming down.15:10This took place on Rosh Chodesh15:12Shvat, and the hail was big blocks of ice, huge blocks of15:17ice full of fire inside.15:18It would strike a person, he'd freeze,15:21and then the fire would burn him.15:22He would die from the freezing cold and then would burn him.15:25And this caused tremendous destruction in Mitzrayim.15:28And the reason why Hashem brought this plague15:30is because the Egyptians used to make the Jewish people plant gardens and vineyards for them,15:35and here they derived no benefit from the gardens that the Jewish people planted for them.15:39And that's how we conclude the parashah with the makah of barad,15:42and we come to the lesson of15:44the parashah. And the lesson is very simple.15:45The parashah begins where Hashem tells Moshe,15:47Ani Hashem. Everybody will know that I'm God.15:50And we ask the question, How can people see seven plagues and still not believe in God?15:54The answer is very simple, but very important.15:57If a person does not want to believe something,16:00He will not believe it.16:02No matter what you see with your eyes,16:03if you're convinced otherwise, you're not believing.16:05The only time proof works is a person who's16:09open-minded. So anytime you demand proof,16:10make sure that you demand of yourself16:12to be at least a little bit open-minded to hear the proof.16:41Shabbat shalom.