Shabbos Parashas Vaeira - 5775

Shabbos Parashas Vaeira - 5775 Rabbi Hal Miller

Hashem spoke to Moshe and Aharon and commanded them to the Children of Israel and to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to take the children of Israel out from the land of Egypt. Shemos [6:13] Our verse has the interesting numbering of 613, the number of commandments we find in the Torah. It also uses the word 'command', but it doesn't seem clear exactly what is being commanded here. Is this one of the 613? What is being commanded here? To whom?

Ramban looks at the previous episode. G-d commanded Moshe, Aharon and the elders to work with the people and with Pharaoh. One by one the elders slipped out until only

the brothers were left. According to Ramban, G-d is here recognizing the reality and

re-commanding the same thing, only this time expressly to Moshe and Aharon.

Rashi tells us that the command is coming up in a following section, after a brief interruption in the story to fill in some background information about Moshe's

ancestry.

The Talmud Yerushalmi [Rosh Hashanah 3:5] tells that "R.Shmuel ben R.Yitzchak said: In respect to what did He command them (with regard to the children of Israel)? In respect to the sending away (freeing) of the Hebrew servants (in the seventh year)."

This is cited by many commentators. The meaning appears to be that Pharaoh would not

listen to the Jews to free them from bondage since they themselves held slaves. They were not in a position to demand freedom, and must first renounce the practice themselves.

Shemos Rabbah [7:3] thinks that G-d is here commanding Moshe and Aharon to be gentle with the children of Israel, as they are both stiff-necked and fragile. Sifsei Kohen believes the command to be that Moshe tell the people to desist from idolatry.

Onkelos does not even think that this is a commandment, and says, "the Hebrew can be translated as 'gave them instructions' rather than 'commanded'."

Abarbanel says that our verse informs us that Aharon was to be Moshe's voice, not only to the people, but also to Pharaoh. Sforno says that 'commanded' means 'appointed', as in G-d appointed the brothers to lead the people out of Egpt.

Nechama Leibowitz gives us a couple of interpretations. After picking on each of the various

earlier explanations, she says that 'command' here does not mean to do something,

rather 'command concerning', in other words an intransitive part of speech. Her second explanation reads, "Not only Pharaoh had to be persuaded to let the children of Israel go, but Moshe and Aharon had to persuade the children of Israel to leave Egypt, to willingly accept freedom with all its responsibilities and submit to the yoke of heaven, rejecting the easier course of being ruled by others. This applied not only to the exodus from Egypt but to the exodus of the Jewish people throughout history from the countries of their dispersion." In other words, this command can be understood as calling on Moshe to lead all future generations out of their exiles as well as the one in his day. How was that fulfilled? If we study the Torah of Moshe,

we will be led by it out of our exile. Jews in exile now are as loathe to leave as the people were to leave Egypt. This command tells us that we have no choice.