Emor 5774: Shlomit bat Divri

“The son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man went out among the Children of Israel. And this son of the Israelite woman quarreled in the camp with an Israelite man. And the son of the Israelite woman pronounced the [Divine] name and cursed. So they brought him to Moshe (Moses). His mother’s name was Shlomit, daughter of Divri, of the tribe of Dan.” (Vayikra/Leviticus 24:10-11)

The end of this week’s Torah portion tells of a man, son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian, who blasphemed G-d. The Midrash Rabbah gives the “back story”.  The man’s mother, Shlomit bat Divri, was exceptionally beautiful. One day, an Egyptian taskmaster noticed Shlomit when she smiled at him as he went to her home seeking her husband, an Israelite overseer or “kapo” in charge of a large group of Israelite slaves. The Egyptian called the husband out to work and returned to Shlomit’s house pretending to be her husband.

Shlomit’s husband saw the Egyptian leave the house and was concerned. Shlomit told him that she mistook the Egyptian for her husband. When the taskmaster realized that Shlomit’s husband knew what happened, he whipped the husband with the intention of killing him. Midrash Tanchuma (Shemot 9) identifies the taskmaster as the Egyptian man that Moshe killed. Further, the Midrash identifies Shlomit’s husband as the troublemaker Datan. Moshe later broke up a fight between Datan and Aviram and Datan said he knew that Moshe had killed the Egyptian. (Shemot/Exodus 2:12-14)

Why does Torah provide the name of Shlomit bat Divri, but not her son’s name?

Rashi explains that Torah singles out Shlomit in order to commend the Israelites. During the enslavement, all of the Israelites were true to their spouses. Shlomit was the only woman who had relations with an Egyptian. Rabbi Ari Kahn on aish.com provides the Zohar's insight: the Israelites’ chastity is proven in Torah with the Sotah ritual done with the bitter waters of Marah in Shemot 23-25.  (Shlomit was not tested at Marah because she was no longer married.)

Rashi seems to blame Shlomit for the incident with the Egyptian. He comments that her name gives insight into her character. He writes: “[The name Shlomit denotes that] she was a chatterbox, [always going about saying to men] “Shalom aleich (peace unto you or how are you?) [She would] greet everyone and ask about their welfare. Divri [from the verb mDaBeRet, denotes that] she was very loquacious, talking with every person. This is why she sinned.”

Rabbi A.L. Scheinbaum in Peninim on the Torah writes that Harav M.D. Soloveitchik feels that "her [Shlomit’s] lack of tzniut, modesty and discretion, her constant chattering with whomever came her way, was the basis of her son’s miscreancy. When the mother is not a tzanua (modest woman), the child may [emphasis mine] gravitate towards evil behavior.” Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum strongly cautions against blaming the mother for the child’s actions; many factors besides the mother’s character influence the child’s outcome.

Citing Talmud (Yoma 47b), Harav Soloveitchik relates the example of Kimchis’ wife, who merited to have seven sons who served as Kohanim Gedolim (high priests). She attributed this to the fact that she was extremely diligent in her tzniut: whether inside the home or outside, she never uncovered her hair. The Maharsha claims that Kimchis’ husband was not a person worthy of such children. Writes Rabbi Scheinbaum: “We may derive from here that the mother…the akeret habayit, foundation of the home, can shift the balance in favor of her family through her righteous deeds.”

Writes the Rebbetzin in Women at the Crossroads: “Scripture refers to the uncontrolled speech of the mother of the blasphemer to teach us that a mother has a special responsibility to teach her children proper behavior by example. The way we use our Divine capability of speech has repercussions in our children…As mothers, we must realize our great responsibility in building the character of our children. They are influenced by who we are rather than what we preach.”

Shlomit’s son entered the camp of the tribe of Dan, which was his mother’s tribe, but not his father’s. He was denied entrance (camps are by the father’s tribe), quarreled with an Israelite man and then appealed to Moshe. He lost the appeal and cursed G-d. Rabbi Kahn gives the Zohar’s explanation for the son’s extreme anger. The Zohar identifies the Israelite man involved in the quarrel as Shlomit’s son’s half-brother. (Shlomit’s husband, Datan, divorced her after the incident with the Egyptian. He then remarried and had a son with his second wife.) The half-brother provoked Shlomit’s son by revealing that his biological father was the Egyptian taskmaster whom Moshe killed. The half-brother reviled Shlomit calling her a harlot, and the son came to Shlomit’s defense. The Midrash Rabbah says that the son cursed with the same ineffable name YHVH that Moshe used to kill the son’s Egyptian father. The son knew the name because he had heard it at Sinai when the Jewish people received the Ten Commandments.

http://www.aish.com/tp/i/moha/92077274.html

     

   

 

Tazria 5774: Holiness of Childbirth

“When a woman conceives (tazria) and gives birth to a son, she shall be tamei (ritually impure) for seven days…And if she bears a female, she shall be tamei for two weeks.” (Vayikra/Leviticus 12:2, 5)

Rav Yissocher Frand in Rabbi Frand on the Parsha writes that a pregnant woman comes “as close to being like the Creator as a human being can possibly come. [In creating new life] she gained a touch of the Divine and became sanctified.” He explains that a woman’s kedushah (sanctity/holiness) increases during pregnancy, climaxes at childbirth, and then disappears.

According to the Kuzari, when kedushah departs, it leaves a void. It follows that the greater the void left by the withdrawal of kedushah, the more tumah rushes in to fill it.

Rav Frand suggests that when a woman is pregnant with a girl, she rises to a much higher level of kedushah because her unborn daughter is a potential creator. Therefore, when she delivers a girl, a woman loses more kedushah than if the baby had been male. As a result, the mother’s tumah is proportionately greater than if she had borne a boy.

Rabbi A.L. Scheinbaum in Peninim on the Torah puts forth that the increased period of tumah accomplishes for the female child what the bris milah (ritual circumcision) does for a male child. He writes: “The striking characteristic of a Jewish woman, the emblem of Jewish womanhood which distinguishes her as a daughter of Sarah Imeinu (our foremother), is her ability to sublimate herself to the level of morality and modesty to which man has a constant reminder in the form of the bris milah on his body.”

“The double period of y’mei tumah (days of ritual impurity) infuses the mother with her two-fold mission. First, she must raise her daughter to represent the character of the Jewish woman. Second, she must do so by personally being a role model of this noble virtue…With each female birth, the mother must doubly prepare herself to lead the child along the lofty path of virtue and purity.”   

Vayigash 5774: Serach bat Asher

“And these are the names of the children of Israel who were coming to Egypt…And the sons of Asher were Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi and Briah, and Serach, their sister…” (Bereishit/Genesis 46:1, 17)

“She opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.” (Mishlei/Proverbs 31:26 Eishet Chayil/A Woman of Valor)

In this week’s Torah portion, Yaakov (Jacob) and his large family leave the famine of Canaan and set out on a journey to Egypt. Torah lists the names of the immediate family members, “seventy souls,” including Serach, daughter of Asher. Serach is the only granddaughter, and the only woman besides Yaakov’s wives and his daughter, Dina, who is listed.

The Midrash (Hagadol 45:26, and Sefer ha Yashar, Vayigash Ch. 14) tells that Serach is a young girl when Yaakov’s sons learn that their brother Yosef (Joseph), whom they sold as a teenager into slavery, still is alive in Egypt. Fearing that the shocking revelation will overwhelm their elderly father, the brothers ask Serach to gently break the news. She plays her harp and sings, “Od Yosef chai (Joseph still is alive.)” When the meaning of the song becomes clear, Yaakov blesses Search with longevity: “The mouth that told me the news that Yosef is alive will never taste death.” (Otzar haMidrashim)

Serach’s name appears in Torah 250 years later (Bamidbar/Numbers 26:46) among the names of the family of Asher who are to receive a portion of the Land of Israel. Rashi notes that Serach is counted because she still is alive, the sole survivor of the generation that left Canaan for Egypt.

Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum on breslev.com notes that Serach’s name hints to her extraordinary longevity. She writes: “Our Sages relate…sheserachu v’nitrabu yemeiha -- her days were twined and multiplied.” Neesa Berezin-Bahr on Drisha’s Parsha Blog comments that the verb form of Serach, spelled with a samech rather than a sin, means “to overrun” or “to exceed.” In a Torah account of the making of the Tabernacle curtains (Shemot 26:12), serach ha-odef means “the overlapping excess,” the leftover remnant.

Writes Dr. Rachel Adelman: “Because of her longevity, she [Serach] embodies a living Jewish memory, becoming the sole link to the generation of the patriarchs, lost to the Israelite slaves in Egypt.”  Citing the Zohar, Dr. Adelman characterizes the period of Egyptian slavery as a galut ha-dibur, an exile of the word. “The people can only groan…moan and cry for help…wordless expressions of anguish…Language itself goes into quiescence, into exile…Serach bat Asher [is] pivotal in bringing the word back…[she is] the agent of living memory, bearer of the oral (mouth-to-mouth) tradition.”

Serach is able to make a critical connection between a promise G-d makes to Moshe (Moses) about the slaves’ future redemption (Shemot/Exodus 3:16), and an earlier statement Yosef makes to his brothers when he makes them promise to take his bones out of Egypt to bury him in Canaan (Bereishit 50:24.) This linguistic connection enables Serach to grant Moshe (Moses) authority and endorse him as the redeemer of Israel. The Midrash (Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 48) describes the transmission of the secret letters of redemption (peh, peh) from Avraham (Abraham) through four generations to Serach. (The Hebrew letter peh also means “mouth.”) 

The elders of Israel went to Serach bat Asher and said to her, “A certain man has come…and he said, ‘Pakod pakadeti etchem (I have taken note of you).’ She said to them, “He is the man who will redeem Israel from Egypt in the future, for so I heard from my father, ‘Peh-peh, Pakod yifkod etchem (G-d will surely take note of you.’)” The people then believed in their G-d and in Moshe.

When the slaves are freed and the Jewish nation hurriedly prepares to leave Egypt, Moshe wants to take Yosef’s bones to Canaan to fulfill the promise. How does he find the bones? Since Serach was alive and present at Yosef’s burial, she is the only one who knows that the Egyptians sank Yosef’s coffin in the Nile River. Moshe calls out to Yosef, imploring him not to delay the redemption. The coffin miraculously rises to the surface. (Mechilta de Rabbi Ishmael, Masechta Vayechi; Babylonian Talmud Sotah 13b)

According to the Midrash (Bereishit Raba 94:9), Serach continues to live during the reign of King David. She is said to be the unnamed “wise woman” of Abel-bet-Maakah who through peaceful, persuasive language prevents a civil war in Israel (Shmuel/Samuel 20:16-20). She identifies herself to Yoav (Joab) as “the peaceful and faithful of Israel…the one who completed the numbers of Israel in Egypt, the one who connected the faithful Yosef to Moshe.” She also calls herself a “mother in Israel” and asks how Yoav, whose name means “father to Israel,” could cause bloodshed in Israel.

Another tradition teaches that Serach never dies and is one of the people who enter the Garden of Eden while still alive. She is said to appear in the era of the Amoraim (compilers of the Talmud) to Rabbi Yochanan to settle an argument and testify a first-person account of the splitting of the sea at the time of the Exodus from Egypt (Pesikta de Rav Kahana 11:13.)

Writes the Rebbetzin: “The continuing existence of Serach affirms that the quest for unity and peace is always alive within Jewish womanhood. Serach transmits the melody of life and redemption through the righteous women of each generation. Let us join her quiet yet powerful tune.”

http://www.breslev.co.il/articles/torah_portion/chanas_blessing/the_eternal_harp.aspx?id=14683&language=english

http://drishaparshablog.blogspot.com/2011/12/vayigash-serach-bat-asher-and-bridging.html

http://www.racheladelman.com/2010/01/serah-bat-asher-and-the-letters-of-redeomption/

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/serah-daughter-of-asher-midrash-and-aggadah

  

Miketz 5774: Osnat

“And Pharaoh named Yosef (Joseph) Tzaphenat Pa’neach, and he gave him Osnat, the daughter of Potiphera, the governor of On, for a wife, and Yosef went forth over the land of Egypt.” (Bereishit/Genesis 41:45)

“And to Yosef were born two sons before the year of the famine set in, whom Osnat, the daughter of Potiphera, the governor of On, bore to him.” (Bereishit 41:50)

In this week’s Torah portion, Yosef, now the viceroy of Egypt, marries. Does he marry an Egyptian woman? Writes Tamar Kadari on jwa.org: “The question of Asenath’s (Osnat’s) origins has significant consequences for the standing within the Israelite tribes of Manasseh (Menashe) and Ephraim, the two sons born to Asenath and Joseph.”

Ms. Kadari explains that there are two rabbinic approaches to the issue of Osnat’s descent. The first view contends that Osnat is an ethnic Egyptian who converts before marrying Yosef. The other position holds that Osnat is a member of Yaakov’s (Jacob’s) family – she is Dina’s daughter, conceived when Shechem violates Dina.  According to this approach, G-d directs matters so Osnat ends up in Egypt, in order for Yosef to find a spouse from among the members of his own family.

How does Osnat end up in Egypt? The Midrash (Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 35-38) tells that Dina’s brothers want to kill the baby girl to prevent public disgrace. To protect her, Yaakov places a gold amulet around Osnat’s neck and hides her in a bush, in Hebrew, sneh, from which the name Osnat may derive. (Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Sielgelbaum writes that the name Osnat may also derive from the Hebrew word senua, hatred.) An angel, or in another version, an eagle, carries Osnat to Egypt.

A different Midrash tells that Dina places Osnat on the Egyptian wall. Potiphera discovers her crying and brings her to his barren wife, who raises Osnat as her own. (This is the same wife who in the previous Torah portion tries to seduce Yosef and has him jailed when he refuses her advances.)

As to the amulet, there are various accounts of the written message it contains: a recounting of the episode with Shechem; the name of G-d; and/or “Whoever cleaves to you cleaves to the seed of Yaakov.”  (Targum Onkelos, Vayechi 48:9)

Reuven A. Stone adapts the Midrash on torahtots.com: “When Yosef was promoted from lowly prisoner to viceroy, Pharaoh had him led through the streets on a beautiful chariot. Yosef was very handsome. Local women stood on their roofs and threw their jewels at him to attract his attention. Osnat was no different. Since she had no jewels, she threw her locket.” (Two weeks from now, in the Torah portion Vayechi, the text mentions how women are attracted to Yosef and “stride the wall” to gaze at him when he rides by.) (Bereishit 49:22)

Vayechi begins with Yosef’s return to Yaakov in order to receive his and his sons’ blessings. “Then Yisroel [Yaakov] saw Yosef’s sons and he said. ‘Who are these?’ Yosef said to his father, ‘They are my sons, whom G-d gave me here.’”   (Bereishit 47:8-9) Writes Rashi: “He [Yosef] showed him [Yaakov] the document of betrothal [to Osnat] and the ketubah (marriage contract.) Only then does the Shechina (G-d’s presence) return to Yaakov and he blesses the sons.

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/asenath-midrash-and-aggadah

http://www.torahtots.com/parsha/breishis/miketz3.htm  

This week’s blog is in honor of the bat mitzvah of Yael Stochel.