VA'EIRA Stats

VA’EIRA Stats
14th of the 54 sedras;
2nd of 11 in Sh’mot
Written on 221.8 lines in a Torah; ranks 16th
16 parshiot; 8 open, 8 closed

VA'EIRA Stats

VA’EIRA Stats
14th of the 54 sedras;
2nd of 11 in Sh’mot
Written on 221.8 lines in a Torah; ranks 16th
16 parshiot; 8 open, 8 closed

The 6th of the 8 Terms

The official count of Terms of Redemption (L’SHONOT GEULA) is 5, with the first three related to Y’TZI’AT MITZRAYIM (the Exodus) - V’HOTZEITI, V’HI- TZALTI, V’GAALTI (see Towards Better Davening) for the review of proper syllable-accenting) - I will take you out, I will save you, I will redeem you. The fourth term is V’LAKACHTI - I will take you (unto Me as a Nation), generally understood to represent Revelation at Sinai, Matan Torah. And the 5th term is V’HEIVEITI,
I will bring you (to the land I promised to your ancestors). The Four Terms are matched to the four cups of wine at the Seder, and the Fifth Term is represented by the Kos shel Eliyahu, which points to the Complete Geula, still in the future.

Word of the Month

A weekly feature of Torah Tidbits to help clarify practical and conceptual aspects of the Jewish Calendar, thereby better fulfilling the mitzva of haChodesh HaZeh Lachem…

TTriddles

This week’s TTriddles:
[1] The bush contained a miracle
[2] most common long ending
[3] Final score: NIR 9 - THE PAGE 3

Parsha Pix

Pyramids under a hot sun = descent into Egypt… and are a symbol of slave labor, both ours and other enslaved people
Lettuce is MAROR from the Seder table. It relates to the pasuk which describes the Egyptian’s embittering the lives of Bnei Yisrael. Lettuce, explains the Talmud Yerushalmi, is a kind of vegetable that is tasty when picked ripe. The longer it stays in the ground, the more bitter it becomes. That is what happened to the people of Israel. They started out in Egypt with a good, sweet life. The longer they stayed in the “ground”, the more bitter their lives became. Lettuce, therefore, is the preferred choice of vegetable
That same pasuk continues to specify the work with bricks (see the trowel and bricks)
and the field work (the planting of the seedling)

Towards Better Davening and Torah Reading

SEE FEAR

VA-TI-RE-NA HA’M’YALDOT ET HAELOKIM

The midwives feared G-d; they did not see Him. The first word above has an ALEF with no vowel under it. The ALEF is totally silent and absent from the pronunciation of the word. The word is VA-TI-RE-NA, and they feared… If it is mispronounced VA- TIR-ENA, the meaning of the word is changed to and they saw… (which, of course they couldn’t and didn’t).
SEE FEAR

VA-TI-RE-NA HA’M’YALDOT ET HAELOKIM
An ALEF and a HEI in the middle of a word is not heard from at all. But note also, that an ALEF with a vowel sometimes loses it to the provious letter, when it (the previous letter) has no vowel of its own.
Firstborn of Yaakov is R’U-VEIN, REISH with a SH’VA and an ALEF with a SHURUK. You hear the REISH with the shortest of vowel sounds (which we usually indicate in English letters as a letter followed by an apostrophe) - R’. And the rest of that same syllable is an ALEF, which doesn’t have a consonantal sound, but does have the vowel sound of the SHURUK, U (as the oo of food). The whole syllable is R’U.

Divrei Menachem

Sefer Sh’mot opens with the statement that, “These are the names of the children of Israel who were coming to Egypt; with Ya’akov, each man and his household came.” The first phrase of this verse is identical to an earlier clause introducing those who went down to Mizrayim (B’reishit 46:8).
However, while the first phrases of both these declarations match, the latter phrase of the earlier statement differs by immediately recounting by name Reuven, the firstborn, followed by Reuven’s progeny.

Celery

When we are in the supermarket doing our Shabbos shopping, many of us will find ourselves automatically grabbing the bagged “bug free” celery and throwing it into our shopping cart. Often we receive inquiries from people how can’t find the “bug free” celery or from people who just don’t want to spend the extra money. The callers want to know: can they use regular celery or not?
The answer is most definitely yes. While sometimes celery can be infested by thrips or regular food flies, they are nonetheless extremely easy to clean and check.

MicroUlpan

Hebrew for bush is SIACH

A look at Sh’mot The Waters & the Blood

When Moshe was a baby, the waters of the Nile saved him. Later, when the water had to be turned to blood in the first of the ten plagues, Moshe could not be involved. It wouldn’t be fair for him, even indirectly, to bring suffering upon the waters that had done him a good turn.
There is a lesson to be learned from this episode - gratitude. One should not repay good with evil: “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
It’s a good rule, but what happens if the person you show gratitude to didn’t really mean to do you a favour?

The Knesset Kolumn

Moshe doubts whether he will be successful in convicing Par’o to let the Jewish people out of Egypt, so G-D provides him with miracles to perform. The first involves Moshe taking his stick, throwing it to the ground, the stick becoming a snake, and Moshe grabbing its tail and its reverting back to a stick.  What is the symbolism of this specific sign?
Perhaps we can explain it in the following way. Moshe doubted both the Jewish people’s accepting him as their leader and also Par’o's listening to his demand. Through the sign, Moshe reveals that if He, as God, were to completely let go of control over the world as symbolized by throwing the stick down, then it becomes a snake which means that things go badly. However, God holds it from its tail which captures it, giving people free will but guiding things from behind the scenes and certainly never letting go completely and that reverts it back to a stick and all is fine.