Shabbos Parashas Vaeira - 5776

Shabbos Parashas Vaeira - 5776

Rabbi Hal Miller

These are the sons of Levi in order of their birth: Gerson, Kohas, and Merari; the years

of Levi's life were a hundred and thirty-seven years. [Shemos 6:16]

Our parsha describes one of the most compelling parts of the entire story. G-d tells

Moshe to confront Pharaoh and demand the release of the Jews. In the middle of the

story, suddenly we have a dozen or so verses listing some of the leaders of three of

the tribes, and a declaration of the length of Levi's life. What is the purpose of this

interruption? Why are only Reuven, Shimon, and Levi listed?

Rav Hirsch notes that Moshe and Aharon were ordinary men. Judaism is the only

religion in world history in which all of the founders were in fact ordinary men who did

not claim to be divine in any way. They were not capable of performing miracles, but

could only be a conduit through which G-d performed miracles. Rav Hirsch understands

this interruption as showing that had G-d wished, he could have chosen others higher

on the precedence scale than these two. Levi was the third son, not the first. In Hirsch's

understanding, once we run down the list and get to G-d's choice here, the Torah

would have no need to continue listing the other tribes.

Rashi and Rashbam explain that these three tribes were ones that had been chastised

by Yaakov, and the Torah is here showing that those tribes were still considered

distinguished.

According to Ramban, these verses show the equality of all Jews. G-d had selected

Moshe and Aharon individually for a mission. Their parentage had to be understood,

but to have begun with tracing Levi's descendants would have been a slight to the

two tribes of Levi's older brothers. All of the descendants of all of the brothers could

have been chosen.

But why is this here, in the middle of the action on a different topic?

Rashi give us an answer: "To tell us how many were the days of enslavement. For all

the while that one of the twelve sons of Yaakov was alive, there was no enslavement.

Levi lived longer than all the others." Rashi's answer puts a time frame to the events

in our parsha, but still does not fully explain why it comes up at this point.

We return to Rav Hirsch. He writes, "Up till now Moshe's and Aharon's efforts had been

completely frustrated. But, from this point onwards begins their triumphal mission, so

that then it became a real necessity to first establish their parentage and relationships

so that for all time their absolutely human origin and the absolutely ordinary human

nature of their beings should be firmly established." Rav Hirsch tells us why our verses

are necessary, and why they appear in this place: this is a moment of major change

in the history of Moshe and Aharon, and consequently for our people.