MindFlex - Moshe: A Man on a Mission, with Harry Rothenberg

good to go you can start now okay hello everyone out in cyberspace um hopefully one of these days we will be liberated from zoom nothing against zoom it's very convenient but it'll be nice to uh see your smiling faces live again someday soon so um we're gonna talk tonight about the ten plagues uh for better or worse certainly the rabbis knew what they were doing when they came up with the text of the haggadah that we say at the seder but the ten plagues come and go awfully quickly you know we're we're we're dipping and we're singing and we're drinking and and we're you know dieno and we're telling the story and we're asking questions and answering those questions we get the ten plagues and we we quickly run through them you know we dip for each one and dip dip dip and we name them and we have the interesting mnemonic which is the first letter of each of them and that's the way we're supposed to remember them and then we move on um but it's important to realize that as we know the 10 plagues were not just historic uh in terms of what they represented in in the freedom of the of the jews the beginning of the process of befriending us but they were very specifically calculated each one was meant to um punish the egyptians in a manner in which they had afflicted us and each one was was very specific it wasn't god just randomly throwing out ten different things and pounding them they were for very specific reasons so um the commentators have gone through there are commentators on this that talk about what the purpose was of each one of the plagues i want to talk about something different which is not as well known and that is the pattern within the plagues and then try to tease out a lesson from those patterns and then talk about something else that's going on during the plagues so ten plagues we have um dom cipher day and keenan blood frogs and lice we have um our of devon shreem wild animals pestilence and boils and we have um varad and we have um we have hail we have um locusts and we have darkness and then we have the tenth one marcus bohoros those ten are actually three sets of three and the first nine are three sets of three with the ten is the the the coup de gras the the makaba the potish the the the final the final act so if you notice if you look carefully you'll see that there's a pattern within the first nine three sets of three as follows before the first one in each set god has moshe moses deliver a warning he tells paro he tells pharaoh what is about to happen and he tells them why so each one of those before the first of the set of three there's a what and a y before the second of each set of three there's a what god tells moshe go tell paro that the following thing is going to happen so there's a warning but there's no explanation there's no why it's just a what and then before the last one of the three there's no warning whatsoever it just happens so again you've got before number one four and seven that's the first of each set of three so that's blood wild animals and the hail you have god telling motion to tell paro this is what is going to happen and here's why before the second of each set of the three the second the fifth and the eighth frogs pestilence and locusts moshe is told by god to tell paro what is going to happen and then before the third of each three before the lice before the boils and before the darkness they just happen there's no warning before the tenth there's also a a um it repeats itself it is the first on its own and so there's a what and a y so let's go through what each of the y's is before the first of each one of the three before the first one god tells moshe to tell paro that there's going to be this plague of blood why so that you will know that i am god so this is moshe talking to pharaoh quoting god telling pharaoh that there's a plague coming the water's going to turn into blood why so that you will know that i am god not that moshe is god that god is god he's caught in motion so this is by way of um maybe outrageous analogy you'll forgive me and i'll try hard not to start singing the song there's a famous song from the rolling stones it's called sympathy for the devil and the song begins with the devil introducing himself he says please allow me to introduce myself i'm a man of wealth and taste and the song goes on it is a classic um don't don't leave to go start listening to it but it certainly is a classic in the history of rock and roll so by again ridiculous analogy and i hope i hope god doesn't doesn't take issue with this or get upset at me or i'll be in big trouble just trying to make the point god is introducing himself to pyro he's saying there's going to be this plague of blood so that you will know that i am god i don't know that's the word that god is using now it's it it fits perfectly because previously when moshe went to paro for the first time and said listen god said that you should let his people go paro said back to moshe pharaoh said to moses who is god that i should listen to his voice and let the jews go i don't know god and i won't let the jews go so god is not introducing himself hey how you doing please allow me to introduce myself i'm god that makes sense before the first play god said it's coming it's going to be blood and you wanted a reason so that you'll know that i'm god before the second as we see there is a warning moshe is told by god to tell what's coming frogs but not why and before the third one it just happens the lights just happen now we go to the next set of three so god's gonna tell moshe to tell part of what's gonna happen and why this time the why is different it's i'm going to bring wild animals why so that you will know that i am god in the midst of the earth so you see a progression here the first one is just hey just want to introduce myself i'm god the second one is oh by the way i'm god in the midst of the earth meaning don't think that i'm you have this different conception of god you may think that okay so there's another god i'm going to add this god to the pantheon of gods but he's probably up there in heaven not concerned down here god saying no no no all right i'm down here the caravarettes in the midst of the earth so realize i want you to have a little insight as to who i am i'm down here in the midst of the earth and then we have the fifth plague moshe is told to come down and tell para is going to be different it's going to be pestilence not y and then we have the sixth boils they just happen no warnings that's the third in the second set of three so there's never there's never a one or a y before the third and then before the seventh again the seventh is the first of the next set of three so we're going to have a what and a y this time the one is hail the why is that para was told so that you will know there is none like me in all the earth and he continues and explains that he let paro he could have killed him but he let him survive why so that my name will be declared throughout all the earth now this is obviously a much bigger deal because now it's not only my god and not only am i down here you may think oh okay so he's down here there are a couple other cars that are down here i don't know which gods of pharaohs were down here his invented gods his god of denial and his son god his sheep god god's saying there is no god there's no entity like me no one like me and i want my name declared throughout all the earth so this is so it's moving each one is moving forward teaching an addition an additional lesson before the eighth play god does something differently he's not giving a warning to pharaoh because it's the second of the of the uh of the set of three so there's no warning to pharaoh but god says to moshe though i'm gonna bring this one so that you'll know the jewish people will know you'll you'll relate to your sons so that you will know that i am god this one's for us so we so we get this insight like in case we didn't realize god started hinting to moshe by the way you know these plagues that i'm bringing and of course they're carefully calibrated to exactly specifically punish the egyptians for what they've done and there are these lessons that i'm teaching from teaching power but by the way you know they're also for you guys they're for the jews because i want you to know that i'm gone and then before the tenth one this is now the now it's a first because we've already had the three sets of three so now there's a new one coming new sets there's going to be a what and a lie and god through moshe warns pharaoh about the striking of the firstborn and he says so you'll know that god distinguishes between the egyptians and the jews now that has got to really hit pharaoh where he lives that god distinguishes between egyptians and the jews isn't this distinguished he's playing favorites because he's gonna he's been hitting smiting to use that old fancy word the egyptians and here is the king of the egyptians being told oh by the way god god very powerful who's down here in the earth and there's no one like him and his name spread throughout the world you better spread it out there he distinguishes between the egyptians and the jews oh and by the way the jews are his firstborn to take it out the egyptian firstborn choosing his jewish firstborn to save to protect and to free so what exactly is going on there you have to you have to wonder there is god suddenly acting like one of the one of the villains and james bond movie like he's he's suddenly um telling um he's he's gloating to pharaoh like yeah you know i'm god i'm down here in the earth there's nobody like me and i like the jews not you chump like he's he's you know where they the end like when that whenever bond is caught and the villain is is walking around and telling bond about how his plans for a world domination how he's going to slowly but surely kill bond and of course he could be using bond gets free while the while the villain is away like the old batman cereal and that would happen they'd leave him off then walk away the joker the riddler whoever was that captured him like is that what's going on i doubt it but let's compare the following earlier in the torah there's a there's a very very difficult scene painful scene a weird scene to understand what happens is that yaakov jacob has taken the blessings that were meant for his brother asa his father isaac yitzhak had planned to to give the blessings the blessings of physical prosperity to the older twin brother and instead at his mother's bidding is bidding yaakov jacob has impersonated his brother and he has intercepted the blessings and now asap has come back he's realized what has gone on what he would call yaakov's treachery what we would call yaakov's important critical necessary preservation of the jewish people because what's going on is that is the father his father plans to give him the physical blessings so that he'll be successful and give a few dollars to the jews so they can sit and learn torah and asa is not planning to do that and his mother realizes that it's like an anticipatory breach of a contract as i as a lawyer would say so you should realize with no choice you got to get those blessings says is so upset and in a genuine moment as as as difficult as he is and his implacable an enemy as he is he's sincere he's really upset he didn't get his father's blessings his fathers and he says spouses i i don't have anything left for you he says dad you don't have anything you can give me his palace is okay and he gives him this this blessing basically saying that your brother's gonna rule over you but you'll be able there are times when you'll be able to to push off his yoke and the commentators explain to what that means is that when we stray he's going to be able to pound us now thank you very much isaac thank you yitzcock our patriarch wonderful blessing when we stray ace of amalek our enemies get to pound us like why'd you have to do that i get it he was sincere and i get it he was crying and i get it you know your father loves his son but come on just just give him a blessing that you'll you'll have a lot of bitcoin i don't know like you're right you won't have as much money and you don't have as much as you have but just he when we stray he's going to promise but you have to wonder from that blessing what your talk is doing you have to wonder and it's a painful question to ask i'm just throwing it out for discussion we can we can talk about this offline for those of you who want to reach out to me was yitzchak looking into the future and realizing i i need a prod because i'm worried that if the host countries when we eventually go into exile are too nice to us and they're too welcoming well there are ever builder jews left do we need that prod of of people starting up with us to stop assimilation is that what he was doing was he setting up a situation where there's gonna be some persecution when we stray and that's gonna bring us back one path difficult painful to suggest but i don't think we should shy away from discussing that who knows if there was never any persecution and every time we were guests in a host country we're accepted with welcome arms you guys are you're great you're successful and you're smart and you're and you're funny and you're inventive and you're a credit to our society we're welcoming you with open arms would it be assimilation rather than than 20 or 50 or 85 percent but it'd be 100 would there still be jews in the world you have to wonder that and so you have to wonder whether when god is telling para that you'll know that god distinguishes between the egyptians and the jews is that really a stage whisper to us is that what's going on uh remember after the before the the eighth plague when god had said to moshe so that you'll know and so you'll relate to your children um that that that um that i am god and i wonder if this isn't similar to a there's a story told about a young boy who was a member of a family a well-known family that that had been in the u.s for generations and generations and services still around and just with a with a great retention rate like each one just with the program with the program with the program nobody strayed um from the the the torah true path and somebody once asked one of the kids like how do you do that like how is it that you never have anybody you know go off and the kids said um who was that this time older uh when in his i don't know about 40s 50s he said i'll tell you the only thing i could i can remember is that when i was eight years old or so my father took me aside and he pointed to a to a non-jewish kid across the street and he said just just don't want you to look at him and i want you to know that we are different now that's a loaded term and it's a specific term he didn't say i want you to look at that non-jewish boy and i want you to know that we are better different doesn't have to be better and this is something that we sometimes lose sight of oh we're the chosen people so we are therefore born better i don't think we're supposed to look at ourselves like that we must look at ourselves as being different chosen means chosen to represent something and we're meant to represent god's presence in the world that's what we're supposed to do when we're god says so that you'll relate to your children so that you will know that i am god that's an important mandate we're supposed to be the ones that are passing it on generation after generation that god exists and he's down here in the world and there's no one like him and we're modeling that behavior that's what we're here for as the chosen people we're not we're not we're not chosen and therefore that makes us better or chosen that makes us different because we've got this mantle of leadership and and you see this also coming back to our story that there are two more messages at the sea when the when the jews are are between the rock and the hard place between what what the homer would later say is uh scylla and charybdis the rock and the hard place they have the advancing egyptian army behind them and they've got the sea in front of them and and it's um that's a fine mess they've gotten themselves into and god splits the sea and god tells them two more times he says so that the egyptians will know that i am god the egyptians will know that i'm god you're splitting the sea and then you're and then you're bringing it back in on the egyptians and killing them so that they'll know that i'm god or again is that meant as a stage whisper it's meant for us like oh right it's not just that they'll know it's that we'll know that we're different and maybe that's what's going on and it's interesting too that before i before i leave this this section of the talk the many years ago the new york times i think was the times it's probably the times did this article scholarly scientific article just in time for passover explaining why each of the templates and the parting the sea were not miracles they are all explainable through scientific phenomena and they went through in detailed fashion they had a different scientist for each one a different guest uh who was interviewed i don't know if maybe it was one scientist did more than one i don't remember and they went through how the blood could have been caused by this reaction in the water and how the frogs could have been caused by this rare thing that can happen with with with frogs and how the the darkness could have been in an eclipse and how the the firstborn they could have died through this and how the sea could have split through this different phenomenon on the scene they went through how they weren't miracles they just this is a way it's a it's a it's a natural phenomena after natural phenomena missing the point that that's possible maybe god used these natural phenomena in order to make these miracles but the miracle could have been in the timing think about the last one right the jews are at the edge of the city and the egyptian army is about to catch up to them and oh right then there's this natural phenomenon and the sea splits and the jews start walking through it oh wait it gets better the natural phenomenon ends and the sea collapses back on itself when when the last jew makes it the dry land and the entire egyptian army is in the same suddenly the waters come back and they drown the egyptians wow how about that timing what up what an interesting coincidence that that natural phenomenon occurred right exactly then right when the jews were in had had no hope boxed in and it ended right when the last one got out when the entire egyptian army's inside the miracle can be in the timing but that miracle all those miracles of course they were meant to teach para to teach pharaoh that lesson but they were also certainly meant to teach us all those lessons sometimes god will do something and it's a and it's it's it's look carefully i'm whispering to you i'm doing this but it's really for you and so now i want to transition and go back into the plagues and point out to you something that is absolutely stunning i noticed this a number of years ago and when i first noticed it it was i i i went through and realized these patterns i realized how how incomprehensible it is because we went through these exact specific patterns god is telling moshe exactly when to speak and exactly what to say he is scripting this for him i want you to warn him before the first two of every threat i want you to give an explanation before the first one of every three over the second just a warning no explanation before the third of each three not a word nada each time it's an exact pattern and the whys are also very specific it's not the same one each time it's so that you know i'm god first of it's so that you know i'm glad i'm here in the middle of the earth it's so that you'll know you'll you'll know that there's no one like me so once you know that after some of the plagues some of them really get to to to pyro not all of them and after some of them he calls moshe back to the palace he summons him back to the palace and he asks him to to to stop that's it you have to you have to stop these plagues so the first time that he does this is after the second plan and moshe says to paro okay when do you want to make it stop possibly the most ridiculous question in history let's see mo uh when do i want to stop why don't you make it stop next tuesday what are you talking make it stop right now i summoned you in the palace because i cannot handle any more rivets i got frogs coming out of my out of my head make it stop and paro answers moshe with an answer that's even more ridiculous than the question moshe said why would you like to stop and the answer obviously is going to be right now and paro says tomorrow tomorrow you called the guy in because it's driving you crazy you him to stop the plague meaning tomorrow so what's going on is that as follows is that paro is thinking oh i get it this magician he knows it's about to stop so he's asking me when would you like it to stop because he knows i'm going to say right now and it's going to stop i'm going to trick him i'm going to say tomorrow and so what happens after that is you'll you'll see fascinatingly is that is that is that is that as the plagues continue god starts telling motion to say to pardo starting now oh by the way this is what's gonna happen tomorrow like right back at you buddy okay so that i get but here's what i here's what's what took me a long time to try to figure out i want to suggest an explanation in a few minutes for this is that when moshe answers parvo he says okay as you wish it'll be tomorrow he says fine it's going to stop tomorrow so that you will know that there's none like god what what is going on what is moshe coming up with another explanation that god as far as we can tell did not tell him no the easy answer would be yes god must have told him off-screen oh by the way he's going to summon you or if he summons you this is what you should tell him but we don't get that and you'd think that we would get that because you see god being so careful each time to tell moshe what to tell paro what why don't we hear about this before it seems like moshe's freelancing not only that but take a look at what this message is it's after number two so that you will know that there's none like god that is almost verbatim the message that god gives before number seven so that you will know that there's none like me in all the earth it's almost like moshe figures or is assuming that that's the ultimate message so it's like he's advancing it forward moshe what's going on if god didn't tell you to say that he told you oh oh no it's just so that you'll know that that i'm god we didn't even get to so that i'm gone down here in the earth let alone there's no one like me so moshe seems to be jumping the gun and advancing along this later message an earlier time without apparently without having been told to do so by god and then again after number seven moshe gets called into the palace and asked to stop it emotion says he's going to do that why so that you will know that the earth belongs to god that's even stronger than god's later message it's almost like saying resistance is futile give it up you have no chance the entire earth belongs to god so what is going on this now sounds again like moshe is freelancing this one's a different message it's different than any of the messages that that god gave it arguably is even stronger like a way to try to convince pyro to surrender and surrender right now surrender early don't keep this up what's going on how could he possibly be freelancing particularly when god has been so careful to script exactly what he should say and when he should say it so if you take a look you say that earlier we were told that the king of egypt died this is when moshe was a fugitive let's go back and remember that moshe had been in egypt earlier in his life and was the overseer in the palace and saw an egyptian taskmaster beating a jew and he looked this way and that saw that there was no man there which according to the commentators means he looked this way and that not that he was looking for for witnesses he looked this way and then saw that there was no man there meaning he didn't see a man where he was he's like what am i am i an egyptian or am i a jew i gotta make a decision and decide even though i'm the overseer of the palace i'm a jew he knew about his heritage he knew where he came from and so he decided that i'm a jew and he stepped in and he killed the egyptian and buried the body and then word got back to pharaoh and he had to flee and we're told that while he's a is at the fugitive before he comes back that the king of egypt died okay the king of egypt died but there's actually a debate the commentators explained that according to one opinion he did not die it's the same king what happened he got saras he got what's what's often misinterpreted as as or mistranslated as leprosy it's not leprosy but it's a it's some some divine punishment that people used to get uh when we don't have it anymore and they got serostats who was considered as if he was dead so according to that commentator this is not a new king it's the same king which means that moshe is going back to the palace to the palace where he was raised as a kid and he's going back to the palace to confront his foster father this is not somebody that he doesn't know this is the guy who who brought him up or at least allowed him to be brought up in his house because remember what had happened he was a baby and was in the nile he was discovered by pharaoh's daughter and she brought him back to the palace that's where he brought up that's where he was brought up so perhaps moshe's confronting his foster father or maybe the king of egypt had died if the king of egypt had died the most likely person who had succeeded him would have been his son and maybe his son was a decent guy we don't know in fact we know that pharaoh's daughter was a decent girl she's the one who saved moshe so is it crazy to think that maybe her brother who would have been moshe's whatever you want to call him foster brother after he's adopted by by fair by by pharaoh's daughter maybe he was a decent guy and maybe i have to give some credit maybe spielberg was right spielberg in his in his uh his animation prince of egypt about this story has scenes where moshe is as a youngster you know buddies with pharaoh's son who later grows up to become the ruler to become pharaoh so maybe when moshe goes back he's confronting his foster brother again somebody that he knew really well and somebody with whom he may have been close growing up maybe even closer than with his brother aaron because he had very very little time spent with his brother air and his brother iran because he was sent back home to be nursed by his mother how long did he did his mother nurse him at a very young age he was sent back to the palace and so he may have had a much closer relationship with much more familiarity with that foster brother that he did with his own blood brother with ajar and so it could very well be that when moshe is going back to the palace he's confronting either his foster father or his foster brother now think about this when he leaves the palace for the last time we're told that he leaves in great anger why makes absolute sense because he has been pleading and pleading and pleading with pharaoh whether it's foster father foster brother pleading with him whoever he is let my people go and it's no no no no no no no and finally pharaoh sends him out of the palace and he's in a rage oh is he angry so make sense he's angry because he just will not let the people go rashi greatest of the biblical commentators says something stunning he says you know why moshe was so angry because paro had said to him get out of the palace you'll never see my face again what so that's why he's upset do you imagine you were the the the delegate to go meet with one of the great enemies of the jews i don't even like to say that it had that hormone hitler wiped out his name or or one of our other great enemies and that enemy said one of the one of the one of the rulers in iran says do you get out of here you'll never see my face again like my reaction is like dude i don't ever want to see you i didn't want to see your ugly mug in the first place you think i'm upset that i'm not going to see your face again you got it all wrong pal see ya say lovey i'm not enjoying this so why what is rashi talking about he's angry because paro said you'll never see my face again so maybe maybe if it's his foster father or foster brother throwing him out remember god knows what he's doing when god chose moshe he chose the one jew that wasn't just familiar with the palace he was familiar with all of roger's rules of parliamentary procedure he's familiar with every nook and cranny of the palace it used to be the overseer of the palace and he had a prior relationship with para either his foster father or his foster brother so i don't want to say that that i'm not gonna i don't think it's appropriate to say that moshe was angry because it was because psychologically it was his foster father or brother saying you'll never see my face again i don't want to say that but i do want to say this maybe he feigned the anger maybe he was showing anger to try its one last ditch effort to try to convince this pharaoh save yourself before it's too late okay let's consider his his prior tests let's go back right his first test was there's an egyptian taskmaster beating a jew i'm not gonna get involved i could just sit back and you know i i didn't see it look the other way go back into the palace because if i get involved this could be the end of my career in the palace i may have to flee which is what ends up happening yes i'm gonna get involved he kills the egyptian his next test is when it's jew versus jew it's got two jews fighting you know do i really want to stick my my neck into that yes i do they're fighting and i gotta get involved in that his next text his test is when he has to flee for his life as a fugitive after unfortunately one of the jews tells on him and pharaoh is looking to kill him and he flees from the executioner and he makes it to midge and he's a fugitive so as soon as he gets the what's going on you've got to fight between non-jew versus non-jew because the the the midjianite shepherds are harassing the daughters of the of the priest the high priest of midja or maybe the deposed high priest of midjin depending on the measure of yisro's daughters and he gets involved and he shoots away the shepherds and he frees up the girls so that they can go and and and get and get water his next test after he marries one of israel's daughters and he becomes the shepherd for the israel is that he takes we're told specifically the passage tells us that he takes israel's shepherds way out and hinterland to graves why because he's worried that those sheep might eat the nibble on the grass of someone else so now it's a test of are you going to be careful about the property of others property of non-jews yes i'm going to be careful i'm going to take those cheap away so they don't they don't steal from the property of others and then the next test is when one of the animals gets sick when the sheep gets sick and he's kind of struggling he's straggling in the back and he's not keeping up with the rest of the flock and moshe goes over to that sheep he says what's wrong he sees it sick and he picks up that sheep and he puts it over his shoulders and he's carrying it back and that's when up in heaven god says that's the guy that's the guy that i want to lead my flock that guy who has shown the sensitivity to get involved it was egyptian versus jew jew versus jew ninja versus jew the property of a nine gene now it's an animal he's getting involved with all those tests that's the guy i want to leave my flock and so that's when god appears in the burning bush now i'd like to think that we would have done the same thing i worry whether we would have because there's a bush on fire and moshe's walking past and if it were us back then or now we might say you know i see peripherally out of the corner of my eye there's a bush that's on fire and it's not being consumed now that's a little scary because that could mean that god is in that bush and if god's in that bush he might start asking me to do things so you know what maybe i didn't see anything and maybe i should keep waltzing and whistling along my merry way instead motion turns and he says the bush is not being consumed i have to go in and investigate i have to go see what that is and so i'm wondering is this another test remember the following moshe was not allowed to hit the water before the first and the second plague first and second plague required hitting the water and moshe was not allowed to hit the water why because the water had saved him when he was a baby when his mother placed him in a little basket that water the nile had saved him not allowed to strike the water he is a debt of hakara satovis the debt of gratitude so he can't hit the water third plague he's not allowed to hit the ground why can't he hit the ground because the ground that saved him not for a long period of time what happened he had buried the egyptian in the ground so over a short period of time in between the time when he buried him and when word got back to pharaoh the ground had saved him for that temporary period of time hey but that's enough even if it was a short period of time the ground had temporarily saved him he was a debt of gratitude to the ground so therefore he cannot hit the ground so it's interesting also that god had told moshe to be respectful to para when he went back to egypt he had said that very specifically i don't want you to embarrass him you would think come on the guy is this guy's torturing tormenting the jews it's time let's go we're getting out of here you know whatever you got to do of course you got to keep it on no i want you to be respectful to him now some say the reason this is wild is that if moshe had embarrassed paro that would have been the full punishment and it would have just been that the embarrassment would have been would have been so great in his position that god wouldn't have been able to bring plagues because that would have been overdoing it and so there's a there's a story told a wild story i don't know where this is i've heard different versions of this of people who are in a bomb shelter and there was a woman in the bomb shelter who was very difficult like really death like really really really difficult non-stop-heaping invective and abuse and insult on the other people in the shelter and finally it was intolerable and so they went to a rabbi who was also in the show and we said listen we can't take anymore we have to send her out i mean you know it's going to be obviously very very dangerous right but we can't live like this the rabbi said and what are you talking about she's the one saving you they said what do you mean that she's the one what do you mean she's the one saving us how is it possible that she's that she's the one that she's the one saving us and so they so the rabbi explained that what's going on is that you're being embarrassed by her and that embarrassment may well be what's saving us in the bomb shelter from the bombs not just a shelter so she's our security blanket don't send her out and so that's why god maybe had said you can't embarrass para and and also you have to wonder is this in consonance with the same reason that he could hit the water and he couldn't hit the ground he can't embarrass paro because he owes a debt of gratitude this is the dude that either raised him if he's his foster father or befriended him if it's his foster brother and so maybe similarly he's got to be respectful and he has to be careful and so maybe what's going on when he's giving these extra reasons these extra warnings the the after number um two where he says so that you'll know that there's no one like god and after number seven so he says you'll know that the earth belongs to the god maybe he's trying to repay that debt of gratitude by trying to convince pyro this is it you can't you you you gotta give in i owe you a debt of gratitude and i'm trying to explain to you that resistance is futile and you're gonna you're first born you have a first born son you're gonna die he's gonna die i i'm trying to make it up to you but you did for me so i'm doing everything that i can and so maybe that can explain the following there is a measure now realize i will tell you what this measure is but i will introduce it by explaining that the rabbi said that if you take every medrush literally you're full they're not all meant to be taken literally but if you take none of them literally then you're a heretic you're not picaras just got to be somewhere in between can't take them all literally you can't take none of them literally so there's a measure and i don't think it matters how literally we are meant to take this because if it's actually happened or if something light can happen it's mind-blowing given where we where we're up to right now and explaining moshe's being told he couldn't hit the water couldn't hit the ground god tell him you gotta be respectful the measure says that the last thing moshe did before he left the palace in in a burning anger which maybe was real maybe he was feigned also if it was fame for the same reason to try to show power this is how serious i am you gotta give in i'm trying to save your life here the last thing he did according to the metric was he slapped paro across the face slapped him upside the head before he left for the final time how in the world was he allowed to do that how could he slap pardo couldn't hit the water couldn't hit the ground the water in the ground are inanimate not only are they inanimate but they're probably saying hit me kidding me on the nile i get to be part of the ten plagues on the ground let's go hit me hit me hit me hit me i'm playing raising your hand to strike an object something that helped you out can't do it so here he's taking his hand and he's slapping his old foster father foster brother across the face when god said you have to be respectful so maybe it's one of two things maybe it's his last ditch effort to try to convince that person to whom perhaps he feels there might be some debt of gratitude to try to save that person's life save pyro's life or maybe that's slap because of the embarrassment how can you even imagine the level of embarrassment pharaoh the the the effectively the ruler of the world getting slapped across the face that slap may have saved his life meaning that it means now he's leaving and he's seen he has not been able to convince him he's given him these extra warnings and still didn't work and he's feigning this burning anger it's not working and maybe by slapping him and embarrassing him like we said before had he embarrassed pyro by the way he spoke to him that might have been the full punishment such that god i can't pile on anymore like that is the full punishment so maybe the embarrassment of the slap ends up saving paro's life because we're told that in egypt from the firstborn that there was no one left not a single one remains which the commentators tell us can be read as ade echad one witness and which was pyro paro even though he was the firstborn son ended up surviving he survived the ten plagues he survived the sea even though he was the first one he was leading the charge in his chariot but someone who survived the measures tells us that not only do you survive but he went on to a successful career as the king of nineveh he's the king that when jonah yonah gets spit out of the the the big fish and he and he eventually makes it to ninven tells him to repent the king of ninja i says all right guys let's go we're going to repent because why he's para he's not starting up with god again and so it could well be that moshe actually ended up saving para's life maybe through that slap and so you have to wonder in this week in debate and i've spoken about this before and i've gotten some some very spicy reactions and that's fine i just think it's it's worth the debate does a debt of gratitude disappear if the grantor is wicked if an unbelievably weak i remember who pyro was i don't need to take a thing away from his from his evil when i suggested oh it was moshe's fair foster father foster brother you know not such a bad guy how bad a guy could he had been maybe he was younger he was a good guy guy was a monster he's a monster he's the guy who ordered the jewish babies killed thrown in the nile a monster a hundred times over but if moshe had a debt of gratitude to him which he presumably would have had and because he was brought up in the palace does that debt of gratitude get canceled out is it wait one second i have a personal debt of gratitude but you're a monster so now i'm free i don't know and it may well be that we might be seeing here that motion may feel that to the extent there is still a debt of gratitude or even if there isn't one hollow highly but if he feels one like you you're wait come on man i raised you or i was your buddy how could you do this to me right then maybe motion feels that if he feels that way even if it's his feeling and he's wrong i have to be careful about that there's another example of this by the way that as follows um after sarah after sarah the matriarch dies her son yitzhak isaac goes and brings hagar sarah's maidservant back to avraham to remarry her now remember what had happened avraham had cast hogger out of the house along with her son ishmael avraham and hawker's son why because sarah had told him to so the reason one of the commentators says why yitzhak went back to bring hoggar back to remarry abraham is that yitzhak was worried that hogger still had a kapeta she still had a claim a taina she still was upset at the fact that sarah had insulted her now sarah had already died so yitzchak's still worried about sorry his mother's soul up in heaven it's number one number two think about that story avraham did not want to send hunger and ishmael out sarah had said you gotta send them out avraham the paragon of hussey did not want to send them out god himself said listen to your wife so here we have a yitzchak showing us that even if god said you're right we know sarah was right god said listen to your wife if someone else is upset and they may have no right to be upset remember it's god said she was right but if someone else is upset you got to go and try to appease them so maybe even if if hollackly the the actual debt of gratitude dissolves based on the wickedness of the grantor but if the granter feels hey you used to loan me a debt of gratitude maybe that's still an issue it's something to to think about and it's also worth considering that the the lesson for us if there is if if my if my my suggestion my hypothesis is right that a debt of gratitude still may exist even if the grantor is a monster then how much more so how obvious what an unbelievable lesson how obvious it is how we have to have a car sometimes but we have to have a karasuto gratitude to our parents who birthed and raised us to anyone who has helped us we see this it's interesting when god tells moshe at the bush after a week of argument back and forth back and forth and back and forth and back and forth took a week but there was not clear from the passages but the sages tell us that was a weak motion you know i don't speak that well i'll send our own to be your spokesperson they're not going to believe me i'll give you signs finally he says sends whom you'll send which the commentators explains means send our own i i don't i don't want to use serpent he's the leader now and i'm not going to do that it's going to embarrass him no aaron's coming to you he's coming to greet you and he's happy you got to go okay you're gonna go he goes to yisro to ask permission to go wait to ask permission to go just go to your throne and say listen father-in-law um i love you very much and i'm so thankful for everything you've done for me for for giving me your daughter and for housing me and my and my children it's been unbelievable but god himself has just appeared to me in a burning bush and he's told me that it's time he's tabbing me as the leader to go back to egypt to to take my people out save them so i just wanted to do to do i just wanted to give you a big hug and say goodbye and say thank you now what he does he asks israel his father for permission to leave professor says no what if you're just you know actually it's um i really like having you around and i don't know i was in egypt previously i think the jews can last another give me another six months let me come on you gotta give me more notice i mean any job people give two weeks notice you're leaving now you gotta hang out here a little while longer but what happens so i don't know what would have happened but i do know that moshe felt that it was obvious he doesn't say to god at least there's no record of moshe saying to god okay listen i'm gonna do this you satisfied you've answered all my questions i just need permission first let me just make sure that i have permission from yesterday so moshe was obvious that i owe such a debt of gratitude to israel that even though there's a possibility of delaying the redemption that debt of gratitude is so obvious that it needs to be repaid that god he doesn't even have to tell me he understands this i have to ask him for permission that is built in it's i want you to do this but of course you have to ask permission from israel because you have a debt of gratitude what a what a lesson for us and it's interesting also this fits because the entire book of shemos the second book that has the the passover story the exodus story the story of our redemption starts off with a passage telling us that there was a king and the king did not know joseph didn't know yossi like are you kidding me i mean seriously look at the king of egypt how could the king of egypt now not know who yosef was i mean come on we've all seen the uh or heard about the play or read the story but back then so soon after what yosef had done for that country and the king didn't know him i mean he didn't know him because he knew who yosef was what it meant is that he was refusing to recognize any debt of gratitude to yosef and his people to jewish people which means that the book starts off with a with an example of a cuffoy toe that somebody who rejects denies the good that was done for him denies a debt of gratitude that's why the whole rest of the book is filled in a time to go through it a topic for another class but the entire rest of that book is filled with example after example of their example of gratitude akara satov and the need to show and passover pesach is the perfect holiday because that's the holiday we get to recognize our incalculable debt of freedom from slavery and freedom to serve god and the two go the two go hand in hand i i talk about this all the time it pains me tremendously that you can talk to such an incredibly high percentage of our jewish brethren brothers and sisters and ask what they're planning for passover religious not religious passover going to a seder i'm getting some matzah four cups getting some wine and then if you ask somebody you're just the same person what are you doing for schweiz they say what's that i remember i was in front of a uh a judge a number of years ago and he said okay we're picking a trial date took out my old blackberry and calendar on there said okay you're on or uh what date he says a date i said oh i can't do that it's uh it's jewish holiday and he says to me says listen mr rothenberg i'm not jewish um but i've been on the bench for 30 years in new york so i know there's passover in the spring and there's the high holidays in the fall there's nothing in between what are you talking about let's say your honor it show us he said what's that i said we thought you know the jews good day they were in egypt and then god made old plagues and then they crossed the sea and they were freed and then and then 50 days later moses went up on the mountain remember he hit the tablets he brought them hey and he said well then i mean and they you know they and they they got that they got the the torah and he says like i said there's a holiday there's a holiday representing when they when he first went up on the mountain at the beginning and they heard god's voice they received the torah does the holiday represented that he said i never heard of it before now why is it that he heard of pastor reheard of the high holidays and the answer is that most jews religious not religious jewish jewish alienated whatever whatever whatever stripe you're celebrating passover in the high elites but not just folks we don't know about trolls and that's a shame and and the reason maybe is that passover is like you open up an envelope you weren't expecting it you're like oh what's the sample i i gotta check i don't know you got you got some unexpected check from somewhere refund to something it's very exciting you open up another envelope it's like oh great it's a bill so passover is like getting a check we're free let's have a save here let's eat schmooze is like the bill comes oh by the way there's 613 commandments i am not i'm not so into not so into that holiday but we have to be we have to be celebrating those those twin things it's we're freed from slavery but we're simultaneously free to serve god and i'll give you one last example this one of the many many examples from the from the book of schmos in the in the at the end we just just finished the book last week we're told in the very last um section very last um partial day where there's a listing of the total amount of all of the the donations to the mishka all the donations to the tabernacle and all of the voluntary donations are listed as well they should be right we we know that like if you go into a into a synagogue right and you you there and there's a list and so there's a there's a building campaign all the donations are often listed they're published i mean you know some people say oh it's unseemly you're showing what people gave and people are doing the fundraising campaign say yeah if we didn't we would collect less money we have to show people because that's that that motivates people to give more money and so they're listed and everybody's thanked big donations small donations often lists are published other campaigns etc but but it's not common or at least i hope it's not common because it would be it could be awfully embarrassing to publish the lists of people who paid the synagogue to do's publishing a list like that's mandatory if you're a member you've got to pay the dues you can shame somebody who wasn't able to pay the dues or forgot to pay the dues that's not something we typically will list and list the mandatory um checks that come in in pekude in that parsha all of the donations are listed the voluntary donations i get that and the mandatory donations the ones they had to give there was a certain amount that every single person had to give there were others god said whatever whatever your heart you know tells you to give you should give and i'm gonna list it i'm to thank you oh and by the way there's some other amount everybody everybody has got to give and god listens to show us you've got to thank someone even if they had to do something for you somebody it was their obligation it was their job so what it was their job you got to thank them you got to show that gratitude and so we see just to sum up we see this fascinating pattern within the plagues where god is is carefully calibrating it not just to punish but to send the message to the egyptians and in so doing to send a message to us and then you've got this fascinating possible seeming seemingly i want to say possible i think it's probable maybe you could argue but at least in the text it sure looks like moshe's freelancing and giving these additional warnings to paro that's in the text that's for sure he gave those warnings we do not see that god told them what to say and they're different from the ones that god told them to say at different times maybe advancing them maybe he's trying to convince power to give in we see him getting angry for reasons it doesn't seem to make sense because connor said you're not going to see my face again maybe he's feigning anger and the measure is telling us that he slapped power across the face which is so difficult to understand that the same guy who couldn't hit the water and couldn't at the ground was able to slap his foster father or brother across the face and maybe all of that was that moshe was trying hard to the extent that either there was or maybe pardo felt or would have argued that there was a debt of gratitude that he's trying to repay that and maybe that slap alone because of that embarrassment is what freed paro and i and i'm realizing and plan to mention this but i i think i still have a minute or so and so i will think about that for a second that a slap maybe saved his life and think about the fact that god told moshe be nice to him because if you embarrass him like i'm not gonna be able to bring the ten place that's gonna be the full punishment we have to think about that both ways in other words you have to realize just how devastating it is when you embarrass somebody that's one of the biggest no-nos there is is don't embarrass i see this all the time to people when you're on a group whatsapp chat you're in a group email you gotta restrain yourself somebody says something a little saucy or spicy you gotta respond just take the extra second hold on the message you'll have an optional what's that reply privately obviously an email you don't have to reply all you comply to that person you said something it was i was very insulted i really think you should apologize i'm giving you the benefit of doubt say it privately rather than publicly blasting them you'll say it's me publicly yeah great so now you're embarrassing them probably and you're taking revenge say it's a it's a double no-no so we've got to be so careful about embarrassing someone else and from our side we have to remember that when you're embarrassed instead of spending that time just hating on and and staying up late at night thinking about ways you're gonna get back at that person or what you like done to them is instead saying that i'm i'm not only going to forgive them because that's very important because now when you get the young kipper you can tell god you know how upset that i wasn't that person but i forgave them now i want you to forgive me but just as importantly you realize that maybe they shouldn't have done it i'll have to work through my feelings about that give them benefit of doubt i have to forgive them but at the end of the day i was embarrassed and that wouldn't happen and god didn't want it to happen and so what i want that to do is i want that to count to the extent that i was supposed that i did something wrong and and heaven was was giving me uh you know posh giving me a you know some kind of a consequence i want that to count because that can count worse than any type of physical or financial injury there are a few things more painful than embarrassment so if you've suffered through that instead of hating on and think of ways to take revenge forgive that person that'll give you incredible amounts of power in your prayers throughout the year and on your purpose and say to god let this count because nothing nothing makes up and and and atones for sins better than embarrassment and so think that through and so thank you again for listening and everybody should have a happy and healthy pesach and as i said hopefully someday soon we'll be able to see each other live in the coming weeks months etc be well thanks for tuning in