But who was Moshe Rabeinu's rebbe?

 

            Bad and Good Advice

Exodus 18:  Text

Commentators

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SHEMOT (Exodus) Chapter 18 : Before the Big 10, Moses gets advice

 

1) Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought Moses’ sons and wife to him in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God.  He sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Yitro, am coming to you, with your wife and her two sons.”  Moses went out to meet his father-in-law; he bowed low and kissed him; each asked after the other’s welfare, and they went into the tent.  Moses then recounted to his father-in-law everything that Adonai had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardships that had befallen them on the way, and how Adonai had delivered them. 

 

2) Now Yitro rejoiced over all the kindness that Adonai had shown Israel when delivering them from the Egyptians.  “Blessed be Adonai,” Yitro said, “who delivered you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh, and who delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.  Now I know that Adonai is greater than all gods, yes, by the result of their very schemes against [the people].”

 

3) And Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices for God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to partake of the meal before God with Moses’ father-in-law.  Next day, Moses sat as magistrate among the people, while the people stood waiting for Moses from morning until evening. 

 

4) But when Moses’ father-in-law saw how much he had to do for the people, he said,  “What is this thing that you are doing to the people? Why do you act alone, while all the people stand about you from morning until evening?”  Moses replied to his father-in-law, “It is because the people come to me to inquire of God.  When they have a dispute, it comes before me, and I decide between one party and another, and I make known the laws and teachings of God.” 

But Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “Lo tov ha’davar asher atah oseh!/This is not a good thing you are doing! You will surely wear yourself out, and these people as well. For the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.

                   

5)  “Now listen to me. I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You represent the people before God: you bring the disputes before God,  and enjoin upon them the laws and the teachings, and make known to them the way they are to go and the practices they are to follow.  You should accourdingly seek out, from among all the people,

Anshe Chayil/People Of Valor,

Yirei Adonai/Who Revere God,

Anshe Emet/Trustworthy People,

Sonei Batzah/Haters Of Bribes.

 

Set these over them as chiefs of [groups of[ thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and  let those judge the people at all times. Have them bring every major dispute to you, but let them decide every minor dispute themselves. Make it easier for yourself by letting them share the burden with you.  If you do this—and God so commands you—you will be able to bear up; and all these people too will go home not exhausted.”                             

 

6) Moses heeded his father-in-law and did just as he had said.  Moses chose Anshe Chayil out of all Israel, and appointed them heads over the people—chiefs of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens;  and they judged the people at all times: the difficult matters they would bring to Moses, and all the minor matters they would decide themselves.  Then Moses bade his father-in-law farewell, and he went his way to his own land. 

 

 

 

  

 

1.    What’s the Hebrew name for the Ten Commandments?

a.    Aseret Ha’pitot

b.    Aseret Ha’cheetot

c.     Aseret Ha’pflotzim

d.    Aseret Ha’Matzot

e.    Aseret Ha’Dibrot

 

 

2.   What color does some midrashim and mystical works suggest the two tablets  were?

a.    Grey

b.    Blue

c.     Plaid

d.    Yellow

e.    Red

 

 

3.    The stone from which the two tablets  is  suggested by many sources to be that color.  Which of the following  precious or semi-precious stones is not that color?

a.    Sapphire

b.    Aquamarine

c.     Turquoise

d.    Lapis Lazuli

e.    Onyx

 

 

4.   What is the first of the Ten?

a.    Don’t Steal

b.    Don’t Bear False witness in court

c.     Honor your mother and father

d.    I am Adonai Your God

e.    Don’t read this part out loud

 

5.   The sixth commandment is Lo Tirzach in Hebrew.  What does that really mean in English?

a.    Don’t wage war

b.    Don’t use weapons

c.     Don’t murder

d.    Don’t kill

e.    Don’t drink orange juice after you brush your teeth

 

 

6.   Which of the following kinds of creative work are specifically prohibited on shabbat by the Ten Commandments?

a.    Making food

b.    Making clothing

c.     Building shelter

d.    Making tools

e.    Dude, It just says not to do melacha-- reative work.

 

 

7.   Why do you think  the commandment to Honor your parents so important that it is one of the TC’s?

a.    Because your parents work so hard to raise you- you owe them.

b.    Because it’s the foundation of a just society- if you can’t respect your parents, who will you respect?

c.     Because God is a partner in your creation with your parents. To honor them is to honor God.

d.    Because it is very difficult as well as important, so God made it a commandment so we would not give up on honoring them.

e.    Because if you ever become a parent,  you know you will want your children to honor you.

 

 

8.    What happened with this set of two tablets?

a.    They went into the ark of the covenant

b.    They were smashed and then went into the ark.

c.     They were smashed and ground into dust which was sprinkled on every one.

d.    They were smashed and ground into dust, which was put into the drinking water of the Jewish people at Sinai.

e.    They were smashed and ground into dust, steamed, flavoured with sesame seeds, simmered in Sauce Bordelaise, and garnished with citrus supremes and a raspberry gastrique.

 

 

9.   The Sages of our tradition said that “Don’t steal”  meant a specific kind of theft, which was not to steal

a.    People

b.    Houses

c.     Poor people’s garments

d.    From the Temple

e.    Stuff in your brother or sister’s room

 

 

10.                   The last of the ten is about NOT Coveting. What does it mean to Covet?

a.    to feel inordinate desire for what belongs to another

b.    to feel extreme pride in one’s self

c.     to go without bathing for long periods of time

d.    to ignore one’s spiritual life or religion

e.    to borrow or mooch stuff from one’ friends constantly

 

 

SHEMOT (Exodus) Chapter 19 and 20: Take

Two Tablets and call me in the morning.

On the third day (at Sinai), as morning dawned, there was thunder, and lightning, and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the shofar; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.  Moshe led the people out of the camp toward God, and they took their places at the foot of the mountain. 

 

Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, for Adonai had come down upon it in fire; the smoke rose like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled violently.  The blare of the shofar grew louder and louder!

 

 As Moshe spoke, God answered him in thunder.

Adonai came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and Adonai called Moshe to the top of the mountain and Moshe went up.

 

God spoke all these words, saying:

 

·      I Adonai am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery!

 

·      You shall have no other gods besides Me.

 

·      You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I your God Adonai am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me, but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

 

·      You shall not swear falsely by the name of your God Adonai; for Adonai will not clear one who swears falsely by God’s name.

 

·      Remember the day of shabbat and keep it different.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work,  but the seventh day is your God Adonai’s shabbat: you shall not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements.  For in six days Adonai made heaven and earth and sea—and all that is in them—and then rested on the seventh day; therefore Adonai blessed the shabbat  day and made it different.

 

·      Honor your father and your mother, that you may long endure on the land that your God Adonai is assigning to you.

 

·      You shall not murder.

 

·      You shall not cheat on your spouse. 

 

·      You shall not steal.

 

·      You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

 

·      You shall not covet your neighbor’s house: you shall not covet your neighbor’s spouse, or male or female servant, or ox or donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

 

All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they fell back and stood at a distance.   “You speak to us,” they said to Moshe, “and we will obey; but don’t have God speak to us, it’s too much!”  Moshe answered the people, “Be not afraid; for God has come only in order to test you, and in order that the respect of God may be ever with you, so that you do not go astray.”

 

 

What’s with the coveting?

Chizkuni, Exodus 20:14:1

לא תחמוד אשת רעך, “Do not covet your fellow man’s wife!” Do not scheme to how bring about her divorce so that you can marry her. 

 

 

Rabbeinu Bahya, Shemot 20:14:1-8

לא תחמוד, “do not covet.” It is known that coveting something is a matter for the heart. The principal warning contained in this commandment is that one must train oneself to absolutely renounce all hope of ever acquiring unique things belonging (legally) to another person, be it real estate, livestock, inert objects, etc. One must not even think of these and wish for them in one’s heart. Were one to covet them one would ultimately commit murder in order to own them oneself!

…still, there are occasions when coveting is a character trait which is permitted. Coveting the opportunity to perform certain commandments of the Torah is not only permissible but is praiseworthy…. This kind of jealousy and coveting, that of the knowledge possessed by another,  is not only permissible but is rewarded by God.  Also included in this type of permissible desire is the desire for one’s friend’s (unmarried) child to be married to one’s eligible child.

 

Rav Sampson Raphael Hirsch on Torah, Exodus 20:14:1

The Mechilta  distinguishes chamada/coveting from ta’avah/lusting.  While ta’avah/ strong desire means an inner longing, chamadah means a lust that turns into action.   That’s why Rambam in The Laws Regarding Robbery 1:9  explains: whoever covets his neighbor's acquirable goods and torments him by harassing friends, or in some other way brings pressure until he receives it from him, even if he gives him a lot of money for it,   the ban is violated: Lo Tachmod/Do not Covet!

 

The sea was not split. It was torn.

 

Micrography by Menachem Boas. Uses entire book of Shemot. 

עברית

 

Exercise: https://www.studystack.com/picmatch-3362462

https://www.studystack.com/picmatch-3132102

Amidah

  fried whaaa? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANADcsaNzxI

Ivan Aivazovsky  (1817–1900) Passage of the Jews through the Red Sea

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqCTq3EeDcY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX83ed0Tg6g   at 1:26

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzRrEgkfhG8

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c3QvBYx6qI

and part two

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCIbQ3BSvJk

 

 They don't just happen on Lake Eire

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ-9FpISSls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYI1zIjJr4g

The Chief!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xo7Y1nn1cE

SHEMOT CH. 14: THE TEARING OF THE SEA OF REEDS

The king of Egypt was told that the people fled,
and Par’oh’s heart and [that of] his servants changed regarding the people, they said:  

“What, just what  have we done, that we have sent free Israel from serving us?”

He had his chariot harnessed,
while his fighting people he took with him,  and he took six hundred selected chariots and every [kind of] chariot of Egypt, teams-of-three upon them all….

As Par’oh drew near, Bnei Yisrael lifted up their eyes:
right here! Egypt marching after them!
They were exceedingly afraid.
And Bnei Yisrael cried out to Adonai,

they said to Moshe:
“Is it because there are no graves in Egypt
that you have taken us out to die in the wilderness?
What, now, have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt?

Is this not the very word that we spoke to you in Egypt,
saying: Let us alone, that we may serve Egypt!
Indeed, better for us serving Egypt
than our dying in the wilderness!”

 

Moshe said to the people:
“Do not be afraid!
Stand fast and see
Adonai’s deliverance which he will work for you today,
for as you see Egypt today, you will never see it ever again!

Adonai will do battle for you, and you—be still!”

Adonai said to Moshe:
Why do you cry out to me?
Speak to Bnei Yisrael, and let-them-march-forward!

And you—
hold your staff high, stretch out your hand over the sea
and split it,
so that Bnei Yisrael may come through the midst of the sea upon the dry-land.

While I,
here, I will make Egypt’s heart strong-willed,
so that they come in after them,
and I will be glorified through Par’oh and all his army,
his chariots and his riders;

and the Egyptians shall know that I am Adonai,
when I am glorified through Par’oh, his chariots and his riders….

 

Moshe stretched out his hand over the sea,
and Adonai caused the sea to go back
with a fierce east wind all night,
and made the sea into firm-ground;
thus the waters were torn.

 

The Children of Israel came through the midst of the sea upon the dry-land,
the waters a wall for them on their right and on their left.

But the Egyptians pursued and came in after them,
all of Par’oh’s horses, his chariots and his riders,
into the midst of the sea.

 

Now it was at the daybreak watch
that Adonai looked out against the camp of Egypt in the column of fire and cloud,
and he panicked the camp of Egypt;

he loosened the wheels of his chariots and made them to drive with heaviness.
Egypt said:
“I must flee before Israel,
for Adonai does battle for them against Egypt!”

Then Adonai said to Moshe:
Stretch out your hand over the sea,
and the waters shall return
upon Egypt—upon its chariots and upon its riders.

Moshe stretched out his hand over the sea,
and the sea returned, at the face of daybreak, to its original-place,
as the Egyptians were fleeing toward it.

And Adonai shook the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

The waters returned;
they covered the chariots and the riders of all of Par’oh’s army that had come after them into the sea,
not even one of them remained.

But Bnei Yisrael had gone upon dry-land, through the midst of the sea,
the waters a wall for them on their right and on their left.

So Adonai delivered Israel on that day from the hand of Egypt;
Israel saw Egypt dead by the shore of the sea,

and Israel saw the great hand that Adonai had wrought against Egypt.
The people held Adonai in awe;
they trusted in Adonai and in Moshe his servant.

 

 

 

 

Questions on the Tearing of the Sea (the Hebrew means tear, not split).

 

1.    Our Ancestors complained “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt  that you have taken us out to die in the wilderness?”   What do you know that is famous about Egypt ( when it comes to graves) that would make this complaint very sarcastic?

 

2.    When in the Torah did our ancestors actually tell Moses “Let us alone, that we may serve Egypt!  Indeed, better for us serving Egypt  than our dying in the wilderness!” ?

 

3.    What is different about the tearing of the sea here in the Torah that differs from the presentation in the movies?

 

4.    What else does God do that slows the Egyptians down?

 

5.    What did our ancestors see on the other shore of the sea that let them know they were not going back to Egypt and finally free to serve God? 

6.   What does it mean that as the sea returned to it’s place, the  Egyptians fled toward it?

 

COMMENTATORS:

Rashi on Exodus 14:27:3

נסים לקראתו FLED TOWARDS IT — because they were thrown into confusion and were so bewildered and on that account ran towards it.

 

Rabbeinu Bahya, Shemot 14:27:4

ומצרים נסים לקראתו, “and the Egyptians were fleeing towards it.” We would have expected the Torah to write that the Egyptians were fleeing מפניו, “on its account,” or “from it.” However, the meaning of the words is that they were fleeing on account of the sea in order to escape it. The water kept coming at them in spite of their attempts to run away from it.  

 

Chizkuni, Exodus 14:27:2

נסים לקראתו, “fleeing toward it;” at the beginning the waters of the sea had frozen; when the Egyptians saw that the solidity of the water offered them a chance for escape they tried to use it as a route of escape seeing that climbing to the shore was too strenuous. When the waters started to melt, they realised that they had been fleeing in the direction of where the waves came from.

 

Or HaChaim on Exodus 14:27:4

ומצרים נסים לקראתו, while the Egyptians were fleeing towards it. Although the Egyptians were fleeing from the onrushing waters, they found that the sea was coming towards its original place. As a result they found themselves fleeing towards the waters regardless of which direction they were headed for.

 

 

 

  

Shemot 16-  Hamotzi Lechem Min Hashamayim

Adonai said to Moshe,  "I've heard the B’nei Yisrael complaining. Tell them, 'At dusk you will eat meat, and in the morning you will eat all the food you want. Then you will know that I am Adonai your God.'"

That evening quails came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.  When the dew was gone, the ground was covered with a thin layer of flakes like frost on the ground.  When the B’nei Yisrael saw it, they asked each other, "Maan Hu?/What is this?" because they didn't know what it was. Moshe said to them, "It's the food Adonai has given you to eat.  This is what Adonai has commanded: Each of you should gather as much as you can eat. Take an omer[1]  for each person in your tent."

 So that is what the B’nei Yisrael did. Some gathered more, some less.  They measured it by the omer. Those who had gathered more didn't have too much. Those who had gathered less didn't have too little. They gathered as much as they could eat.  Then Moshe said to them, "Don’t keep it overnight until morning."  But some of them didn't listen to Moshe. They kept part of it until the next morning, and it was full of worms and smelled bad. Moshe was angry with those people.  Each morning everyone gathered as much food as they could eat. When the sun grew hot [i.e. when it got closer to noon], it melted away.

But on the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, two omer per person. All the leaders of the community came to Moshe and told him about it.  He said to them, "This is what Adonai said: tomorrow is a day of resting, Shabbat Kodesh to Adonai. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil. Save all that's left over, and keep it until tomorrow morning."  So they saved it until the next morning as Moshe had commanded, but it didn't smell or have worms in it.  "Eat it today," Moshe said, "because today is Shabbat for Adonai. You won't find anything in the field today.  You can gather food on six days, but on the seventh day, Shabbat, you won't find any."`

On the seventh day some people went out to gather food, but they didn't find any.  Adonai said to Moshe, "How long will you refuse to do what I have commanded and instructed you to do?  Remember: Adonai has given you the Shabbat. That's why he gives you enough food on the sixth day for two days. On the seventh day you do not need to leave your place. Nobody should leave their place on Shabbat."  So the people never worked on the Sabbath day.

 

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[1] Around 3 liters by volume. Some say less, some say more. 

 

TALMUD BAVLI, YOMA, 75a

(במדבר יא, ה) את הקשואים ואת האבטיחים רבי אמי ורבי אסי חד אמר טעם כל המינין טעמו במן טעם חמשת המינין הללו לא טעמו בו וחד אמר טעם כל המינין טעמו טעמן וממשן והללו טעמן ולא ממשן

The Gemara returns to the same verse, in which the Jewish people said about life as slaves in Egypt: “We remember…the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic” (Numbers 11:5). Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi debated the verse’s meaning. The first  said: They tasted the flavor of almost all types of food in the manna, but they cried because they could not taste the tastes of these five foods that they mentioned. And the second said: They tasted the flavor of all types of food, as well as their textures. The sensation was so strong that it seemed to them like they were eating those very foods. However, with the foods they listed, the people tasted only their flavor but not their texture, and so they complained about the manna.

 

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[1] Around 3 liters by volume. Some say less, some say more.