Parshat Shemot | Rabbi Baruch Taub | January 8th 2026

Bill Rain is in a lot. She's not here. And what's his name from South Africa? He's in Natana. See, he's not here this week. Okay. Okay. We have to start. It's time. Okay. Good morning everybody. Okay. So, first of all, we're we're the shear is being dedicated uh in loving memory, excuse [clears throat] me, of Donna Chanover Sandberg. uh Dina Razel Bas Rebesco Raya and dedicated by her sister Raa Berman uh who is here with Fivy her husband and uh also a uh a daughter is here >> and a granddaughter >> and a granddaughter. My gosh. Okay, welcome. I haven't seen you in I don't know how many years but okay Hashem. Um this is not about me but just a little bit. We are we were related. Uh my wife Allah Shalom was a was best friends with Donna and to the extent that that she would come to ouras in Toronto from New York which is uh which was very special for us. She was a very special person. Her husband I mim is a wonderful person also. And uh Donna is obviously missed by daughter, granddaughter, sister, family, and she was really someone who was a role model in just being a mench and an uh that's what she was. So uh and she should be a malitzia for the whole family. Should be more nas from the family. And now you really have to give her more as the of applies even now. So every mitzvah you do is going to send her higher closer and closer to okay. Although she's probably very close right now. Okay. Um let's start with uh I'm going to get to a piece from Rashol Alter the G Roshiva the Rashiv G who we've spoken about in the past become a worldwide uh uh figure um in in all Mahanot actually he gave a sheir a couple of months ago in the gush someone a very special person so something that he says but we're talking here uh Let's we'll start with number one. Here's the POS. There's so much in this para Elohim. So the uh the maldot the the nurses who were going to give birth to the children uh feared the rabbon shalola, right? What we know the story. they were told to by parro to kill all the the males and uh so they they obviously didn't and uh so they were rewarded with houses right what does it mean they were rewarded with houses for what they did from the raon shalam right the shakurum so here we have the guri this is the maral so the guri writes shakurim vatim what what what was it what we talking about um so first of all it's what does it mean batim so it's the levim because Miriam married someone from the mishbah of Davidid melik Israel so she had shvet malus right she had she had shvet mal so that was one house the house of kingship and yed we're talking about who were the nurses that was yed and Miriam, right? Mosha's mother and right and sister. So, and Yohvid was the mother of the the the dynasty, the the dominion of Kohuna. So, the house of Kohanim comes from the house of kingship comes from Miriam. That's that was their [snorts] but why are they called why is it called a lef is inclusive. It's not one-dimensional. It's it's multi-dimensional. And so too kahuna anything that the cohen does you know coin does a lot of things right um one of the things he does right he has to check a mitsur so he sees people in the worst conditions right a person who who has leprosy who's a mitsura and is banned from the camp in order to come back he has to examine these people right um something else the coin does is bhask kohhanim Right. A bit of a more pleasant for some of you are familiar with from this morning. Right in um but there's an interesting thing with it says it's the only bra that you conclude with the word commanded me to to do this mitzvah of of blessing the Jewish people with love. Why da this mitzvah? So I think the is exactly what we talked about. He because the co-ay has to his personality he has to see people in the worst of situations not only in the best of situations. So it requires a very special kind of persona and and the kohanim were individuals of ava. So davka ava was something very much a part of the kahuna. Okay. That's the children of Ha and also the house of Ley from Miriam eventually uh nikra. So kingship is also called bay. So he says because why then moral says ahu mole he he everybody everybody that he's the king over right you know when you're a leader you have to deal with all kinds of personalities. You've got all kinds of people in in Isusra that the king has to deal with, right? Uh he quotes a from another another dimension here is these three these three kingships, right? Um they they are forever. Um by the way he says three because the third one is is the the right the ram saysik tarim were g three crowns were given to cl Israel the crown of to of of malut is to David and his progeny the town of the the crown of um kahuna is to aon and his president and then crown of is the third but the crown of tora the crown the crown crown of Torah is given over to any Jew who wants the crown of Torah, he can he can get it, right? So that's what he's referring to. So he says like that, what is the what is the personality again? Uh or the dimensions of the multi the multiple dimensions of these crowns they're eternal. They're they're forever. They're they're constant and consistent and they are eternal, right? like a house, right? A house stands for a long time, right? Uh, right. Who who who gets the kahun? If the coing gordal dies, his son, if he's if he's fit for the job, the son takes over. You don't have that in other areas that a son takes over, right? In fact, there are a lot of chuvas that discuss whether a rabb and it's very appropo today because the situation comes up very often that the son a push from the family the rabbi dies in the shul and the family pushes that their son should become the rabbi right so it's a actually a big discussion in the post game right whether he can whether he can take over um I'm not going to puskin I don't want to get into any maybe somebody has a situation going on in their sh but I will tell you is that I'll tell you something that Raf Cook says which is very special. There's another Coen Mishu the Mishu Mil the chief chaplain of the of the Jewish army right there's a special Cohen who goes out to the field and he exhorts them Israel he says to he makes he dovens with them he exhorts them you know to to do the right thing and this cohu is not a hereditary position so why isn't that why isn't that position a hereditary decision position and coordin he says because we have to have the best army in the world right which borashem we have we have to defend ourselves but a Jewish army is not a permanent state of affairs for Israel it's a temporary situation we long for the day that the only army will be the army of benetra who will be learning and all the soldiers can get back to learning, right? But the we there's we're not a we're not a nation of of warriors. We don't want to be warriors. So therefore, the position of the ko is not hereditary. Makes that statement, right? We're we're hoping that the next generation won't need him, which we can say a little bit of a today that that we hope that that day is going to come very soon after what we've been through over the years. Okay. So he says, Okay, the sonino is the son can inherit it, right? Okay, now let's see the this is the altar the and he's just he's going to bring the moral very quickly. We'll go through it again explains again we just said right he gave actually those are the three that he's talking about we're not was not talking about Torah here okay so he says right what the the import of that is their constant they're consistent They're eternal like a house. A house stands with, you know, a house, you know, stays foruna stays for generations, right? If the if the son is is like, if the son is fit, he he gets the position. Veroy is really comes before any other Jew. Okay. V. So here's he's going to say something. He's going to ask a question. We say in halal every month, right? We just said it. And on Khan B is boru and hashem. The house of Israel should bless God. Bonu and Hashem. The house of Aon bless God. Betu and Hashem. Hashem boru and hashem. But the fourth category, those who fear God doesn't say buy item, what's the what does it mean that people who fear God, people are committed to don't have a house. What's that all about? He writes it. Everyone says except those who fear God [gasps] can say one thing. You could say, right, they're constantly out of the house, right? They're they're very busy. So, they're they're they're out out there doing the mitzvah they're supposed to be doing. Okay. But that but he says, I want to say something else. Ah, I I I want to suggest something a little bit with a little bit more depth. a and a le has there's there's a house to the right they go from generation to generation it's guaranteed there's going to be a coen in this generation you're coen why are you a coen you know the old joke well my father was a coen right so you know everybody co is forever levie is forever malus could be forever also right but what about but he wants to say they don't stop a Jew also a Jew alpha pisha can be the worst Jew the worst Jew in terms of the Torah he can be so far away from Torah we see which we see unfortunately so much of it today he's still a Jew a Jew is a Jew right and by the way our task is not to look how far away he is but to look at the fact that he's a Jew and if given the opportunity to embrace them to whatever extent okay but you're there's no guarantee that the next generation is going to be a god-fearing Jew. The father and mother can be God-fearing Jews, but there's no guarantee that the children or grandchildren are going to be God-fearing Jews. They're going to be shayim is not a there's no guarantee of because up to the individual, right? fear of God which is you know just being a committed passionate religious what we say from Jew right this is this is up to the individual himself right it does not up to parents not grandparents and they have to make a decision on their own right a lot of times a kid you will tell will say well my parent my father did this and and my mother did that and I just had nothing to do with it or I had a bad teacher in school whatever whatever you want to say right there comes a time in a person's life that Edipus Rex blaming things on your parents right you have to grow up you can't blame things on your parents anymore take take control of your life and it's up to you so don't blame anybody else that's right even yesterday's fear of God oh an hour ago right now go under the line to the right hand column a minute ago you were you did Right. I had a good estray this morning, you know, but when I come out of maybe, you know, I'm going to have a fight with somebody. I'm going to speak lot, right? I'm going to do that, right? There's no guarantee, right? Every day, every moment person has to work on himself, right? To hold on to his. Okay. And um you know they they they write about um they write about that um before he went to sleep at night he would do chuva. You know the balm say actually the mishnab brings us down the at the end of the day a person should go through his day right do chuva for things that he might have done wrong and strengthen himself and so on. So the they heard Rafady go and the students heard him doing chuva for the mitzvah that he did today. I'm doing chuva for the mitzvah I did today. So they asked him rabbit what what are you talking about? He says listen or yesterday the mitzvah I did yesterday. I'm a different person today than I was yesterday. So whatever the mitzvah I you know every day I've come closer to I've learned more Torah. I've done more mitzvot. So I've come closer. I'm a I'm I'm I'm more elevated in my spirituality. So I what I did yesterday was not good enough. So I'm doing chuva for those that's the idea here, right? Okay. But that's not everybody's go. But this is the idea he's he's bringing out here. Okay. That's what he that's what he wants to focus on in the at the beginning of our para is a fascinating balaturator always brings gimatria things. So the first words of the parot is that what do those words stand for? The initials of them are to learn the para every week. You have to go through the para twice the text and once the tarum the tarumulus right in fact you know we live in a day today there's so much learning going on you have daily dyomi yomi now there's so unbelievable thing but the mother of all of these yomies right is right and and by the way I saw recently someone just published in English a set onarum with tremendous explanation and whatever. Okay, just throwing that out. Um >> that's the only required >> right that's the that's what we're supposed to do right so um specific learning that we're supposed to do. That's correct. Um and the question is why is there a hint to that? That's what he's going to ask. So again you have this whole statement everybody should learn. you have a you will have a long life for doing it. That's what this is. And it's the of the first. So, why isn't this mentioned in the beginning of right? So, he wants to say there's a watershed moment here from Beria to Schmote. We're now preparing ourselves for gal. We're going to meet right is going to be traveling, right? And we began to speak a foreign language. We spoke Aram Aramaic, right? So therefore, the Jews needed that's why it's based on the fact that at a certain serious moment time of the Bikas Jews were that's what they spoke in. They spoke Aramaic, right? But by the way, you can fulfill the mitzvah with rashi also. It doesn't have but but the basic mitzvah is with tarum. So so so what's that? He says there's something very special about why it's so so important especially of Israel. In the Torah, Jews are called Hebrews, right? Right. You'll see that the term of says, right? So, you'll see it. You'll see it, right? But there's a change in the target was a is a brilliant commentary, and you have to look at the words very carefully. He translates it into Aramaic as I right a Hebrew right in he call he translates it Jew right I is a Jewish Right. Right. You call your all of your brothers the Yehuda. Right. We we just had this last week's para got a the going to be called your brothers are going to be called after you. What does that mean? Nobody says I'm I'm a Revenuvenite. I'm I'm a Reuben. I'm Right. I'm a I'm a I'm a Jew, right? Yehuda. Everything is Yehuda. Until the end of until this point were much more important, right? Each individual shvit was how we identified ourselves. That was our two, right? But the Schmote was again a watershed moment, right? Right. Great moment. We're all now a collective called Yudim. A great watershed moment. There's something deep here. Power of Yehuda was necessary in to survive Gul right Yehuda Shakaya Yehuda who was Mikar Shmayim right. So how was he Mikares Shamayimaria? So first of all with Yehuda and Tamar, right? He he he he that whole story that he in public, right? He answered that the the staff is mine. I'm it's my cloak. It's my staff, right? But not only but that's not the example that Kazal give in the um in the Gmorra that Yehuda was Shamsia. He made a keshm in public but goes to a grandson alam bes that who was the first person when they were standing by the red sea you know there was a whole makus like you know Jews make maklo there were four camps what are you going to do you going to go into the sea not go into the sea go back to mitim until non benaminadav who was from Yehuda went into the red sea and he went in and then everybody went in right nikra Therefore, we're called Yehuda. Right? So, that's a little bit strange. Also, he doesn't ask the question, but why da by the grandson, right? Because that that's the whole point. If you have to pass this on that that it's passed on that that commitment of Msus Neph going the extra mile, going nine yard the nine yards, right? That's that's something we are challenged to pass on to the generations. But this was Yehuda. So that's why we're called Jews, right? He says every person has I'm a Jew. I'm a Jew. Meaning what? And I'm a Jew. You know, it's not about where I came from. It's about where I'm going. where I'm going with my Torah, with my kite, to always be prepared to be for the to be willing to give up our lives spiritually and physically, which we've seen so much in the last two years, right? without questioning farther we are away and we can even say to a certain extent without the beta mikdash you know the Jewish the the situational ethic of the Jewish people is still even here in arenoto with a sense of gullus I mean look half of the kind the whole battle that's going on societywise is a battle between whatever you it's not just the Supreme Court and it's not just even the even the the um draft issue. It's it's that's it's all part what's there's a major it's a whole major thing. It's about half of the country wanting to have a Jewish state, a Torah state, and half of the country wanting to have a United States of America. They don't want they don't want any of this religious stuff, right? That's that's a that's in a broad sense that's what's going on here. So that's a that's a goalless phenomenon, right? So but we have to have then we will be surrounded by holiness call on all sides. Okay. All right. Let's go over the page now. And we have two more pieces. Okay. Uh let's do the one on the right. It's actually called number five. Um this is from uh Ravnissen Albert. Ravnissen Albert was [clears throat] a Tommed Muvak of Rav Mosha Feinstein Ro in New York and a Rebi in Yeshiva University. Uh he was taken from this world very young. He was a very very special person. Uh not only in in his learning but he was really a very special individual. So this is what he's going to say. Okay. Here we have another picture of what's going on with Moshe now and the maldot with Miriam and the daughter of parro right also familiar story but he revisits it vatif she sees Moshe put Moshe in in the water she opened up the the um the she saw vu at she saw the boy vine nar It was a nar the boy was crying and she had pity on him right this is this is parro the daughter of parro he's from the Jewish people now um we can skip that first paragraph I think well because it's just well a little bit after Torah explains um that the Um I I want to skip it because we won't make it to the third piece. Uh so we learn in the middle of there couldn't fourth line fifth line she couldn't take care of him. Right? She had to hide him. Right? They wanted to kill all the boys. Right? What did she do? Interesting talking about praying for the future. That little ta of Moshe, she made a on top of it, right? That he should one day really be under and she saved him. Now let's go back to the PK so Albert I write but by the way these two pieces are from my Hebrew cafer on the para K yona okay so it's not directly from I brought it here okay so here maybe he brings a quote from mitans he's asking a question here and a very good question which might have if you look at the carefully you might ask that question right you'll see you'll see what he says why didn't I think of that The is about her finding Moshe, right? So what's this question? Look at the POS again. Go back to the top. She opened it and saw at the boy was crying. Then it should say and she said must be from the Jewish boys because I know what my father has done. So this must be some mother has hidden the baby. But what does it have to say that all of a sudden the middle she had pity on him. She had pity on him. Right? That's what he's that's what he's asking here. Right. So why what did this what did this whole idea of she had mercy on him. She cared for him. She wanted to do the something for the child before she says he was from the Jews. Before she she identified him before she did her research to see who this boy is. Where does he come from? you know what are what are his needs? She was ready to do before she knew really knew anything, right? Which is a challenge, which is what he's going to say. Paragraph three. The Torah here is giving us the Torah is giving us here by who was a an unbelievable person, right? Who named Mosha Rabenu? Mosha Rabenu. And every motion that came afterwards was was not named by Yv, not named by Amro, not named by Miriam, not named by, but named by Bya Parro. So that tells us what this woman was all about, right? So what's the he's telling us when you do for someone else the desire the emotion the heart your heart to do for a person has nothing to do with that person's you know does he really need it I got to do it that then the intellectual I got to find out if there's a there's a real need here First there has to be this sense that I want to help this person even though the guy's asking you know we always say you know people walk around they asking for money and you think you know you want us says this person there listen person that's sticking out their hand that's says a statement all so don't give more than a right so this is what you saw with rashit first in the middle of this whole thing She just felt bad for him. Then she said, "You know what? Where's he? Who is this?" Right? He was he was a Jewish child. He was from the Hebrews, right? Who she know her father was at war against the Jewish people. Notwithstanding the fact that saving this boy is putting her own life in mortal danger. Right? If she goes, there's no Egyptians anymore, right? Par's daughter, right? So now she had a way in on the scale of balance. Should is it really worth it to save this child? If I save this child, I'm the Egyptians are finished. I'm finished. Whatever. Maybe just leave it alone, right? Or do I save him? It's too late because the the the heartstrings were before were at the beginning. So that came first. That was that was the first reaction. I got to deal with my first reaction. Whether it's right, whether it's wrong, intellectually there are you can make a hundred arguments, right? The danger even at the time of the danger was in her head. Now, she helped him. She made the decision, right? no matter what was going to happen. Right? So bottom line this is a statement of for all of us. Clearly emo you can't live on emotionalism right that's that's not what ykite is all about you know I feel I feel unfortunately that's the world we live in today in terms of religion right um it's I have to feel good about it right and you know if you go into a public library in America you'll see in the religion section you'll see maybe one shelf of Judaism you'll see about a whole case maybe about Christianity right seven eight but then you'll see whole section of um of witchcraft and just you know like everybody makes their own religion right Juda Judaism and a woman named Sheila she wrote a thing I'm calling my religion Sheila ism right you can't make these things up right so um it's not enough emotion is not enough there has to be that intellectual component and sometimes you're going to find out that the what you do investigate your due diligence you cannot help this individual or this organization. There are big questions about this organization. There are big questions about this family. It's not really true, right? So, you have to do your due diligence, right? But you have to work at it much harder because you're working against you want to you have to defeat your emotional sensitivity of doing the right but you need right he says so the intellectual that's second level right. right? But and we say the Torah says Torah speaks about kindness, grace and truth. You would think truth should come first. No comes first. Even if it turns out to be false comes first. Then you deal with the with the and you'll find out what the story is, right? So that's that's what he wants to say. Beautiful idea. Beautiful ideas. What time is it? >> 11:04. >> Pardon? >> 11:05. >> 11:05. Okay. We're going to do the third piece. Um, right at the beginning of the para, Yseph dies and all of his brothers and all of the generation. What's strange about this statement at the end of safer berations if you remember if you did shy maker of right I'm not asking for a show of hands that you saw that said well yseph died so y dies is is in parat besid and then he dies in parat person can only die once his death mentioned in paratit and parhatmote Oh, why is it mentioned in both places? So, we might not have time. So, maybe I'll say this one outside completely and I'll tell you. So, Rahutner asked this question. He said he asked this question. What what's going on here? So, he says this is based on the Ramban. Uh the Ramban tells us that safer beresit is safer aot. And that's why we've been speaking about a watershed moment. There's a tremendous transfer from Beresit to um to Schmot right you have f you have right families but then you go to the you're going now to the children say foranim the ramban says it's the next generation right in fact s is also divided a little bit the beginning is more about the individual in fact the first where's the first place that the word mishbah is mentioned in the Torah when when Noah came out the ark when Noah came off the Torah the Tava. said that Noah came and his Mishbah with his family that was also a watershed moment from being concerned with the individual right there was now a family situation that was created with the door of Noah right so that's that was also a literally literally a watershed moment with the flood right but here you have from aotes to banim right so now we have three avot Right. Ara, and Yakov, each one did something. What what does what does it mean? They're a father. It's not just genealogical, but a hoot. Fatherhood and imahoot and motherhood means that they they dedicated their lives to a particular thing and they were there was something unique about their persona about their accomplishments and about who they were and what they were all about. Abraham Rahutnner writes here, he says it in Yiddish. It's very if any of you know Yiddish it's it's a it's very beautiful I'm going to say in Yiddish but he said Aram was the gavorit was the gabborer and Jakov was the fafaler what does that mean a was the first who became a Jew he was the first Jew by choice right but it rhyme it's poet poetic in Yiddish he was the first Jew by choice was the first Jew right who he was born a Jew vers more true and Yakov was the Jew who had taken it to the next level of building up the the people of Israel. Right? So, but he says something's missing here. There's another dimension that has to have avoot. And what's that dimension that has to have aut says this is the dimension of that we could lose everybody. People can walk out. I don't want this Yiddish kite, right? I want to get out. I want to be assimilated now and which we see we suffer from it today what the percentages are the dropout percentages are today it's frightening but the there's a promise from the avoot of Yoseph what Yoseph the messa with pifar with patifar that he ran out of the room that was a m his ahoot was the netzah of cl Israel will never never be completely wiped out the running away from Torah and yahadut is safe. the the we might go through periods where it's low and we got a lot of assimilation but you know gula is not a straight line there there are periods of galut and gula it's done in it's done in in stages you know kanek it's a perfect example it says the greatness of kanek was we had malut we had kingship for the next 200 years the ram says well is that g is that's gula yeah it is goula gula comes in stages we that's why we have to be strong we're living through we're living through some some serious times now but we have to know that is going to make it good for us again right we had bad times we have good times we're going to have good times right so Yseph created that aud that that guarantee in Kali Israel that that we will not disappear completely the Jewish people will will not disappear we are the living people forever right so he had that's his aboot he was an av fourth a so he was also a son say for Abani Like the Ramban says, right? It was also enough, right? In fact, we have three that the Avat gave us, right? Shakis was the instituted by Abraham, right? Mets, right? Mar of Yakov. We have another called Musaf. Sound familiar? So there's four that say that Yoseph is is musaf. So therefore this is what Rahutner concludes here that that's what that's why his death that question we asked at the beginning why he his death is mentioned at the end of sesit and also at the beginning of seshmote because yseph was both an av and a son so he his death belongs in both of these okay brilliant way to to see that that to answer that question [gasps] okay thank you all shabbat shalom barak