Parshat Shemot 5778-Shaabat Mitzraim-a lesson in leadership

(based on a shiur by Rabbi I. Bernstein zal in London 1993)

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At the end of the parsha there is the famous ‘showdown’ between Moshe and Pharo regarding the fate of the Jewish slaves.Pharo gets angry and says:

ט  תִּכְבַּד הָעֲבֹדָה עַל-הָאֲנָשִׁים, וְיַעֲשׂוּ-בָהּ; וְאַל-יִשְׁעוּ, בְּדִבְרֵי-שָׁקֶר.

9 Let heavier work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard lying words.'

What exactly are the דִבְרֵי-שָׁקֶר.that Pharo is referring to?

Rabbi Y Kaminetzki zal( in his sefer: Emes Leyaakov) has a remarkable observation to make.He says that the Midrash to this pasuk states that the Jews had ‘megillot’/scrolls of holy writngs which they would study.Furthermore the Midrash explains that Moshe had secured a day off from work for the Bnei Yisrael and this happened to be on Shabbat.In which case, what did they do every Shabbat, apart from trying to recover from the backbreaking labor of the Egyptian taskmasters?

Rabbi Kaminetzki suggests that the Jews spent time every Shabbat in the houses of study which had been set up as a prelude to their descent to Egypt.In the bet midrash they would ask the questions which really troubled them and hope to receive some answers to these questions.One of the most difficult questions would be regarding ‘tzadik vera lo,rasha vetov lo’-why do the righteous suffer and the wicked Egyptians prosper?

In order to give some perspective to their situation Moshe wrote for them certain megillot,i.e. writings. which would give encouragement at the time of suffering.One such scroll contained the ‘Mizmor Shir Leyom Hashabbat’ which is one of the Mosaic psalms, attributed to the authorship of Moshe  (as elaborated in T.B. Bava Batra).This Psalm (which we say every Friday night to usher in the Shabbat) has in fact, nothing in it regarding the lessons of Shabbat but deals with much more theological issues, such as the matters of Divine justice. The verse says:

יג  צַדִּיק, כַּתָּמָר יִפְרָח;    כְּאֶרֶז בַּלְּבָנוֹן יִשְׂגֶּה.

13 The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

This is clearly encouragement for the Hebrew slaves that the righteous will prevail and the

wicked Egyptian will be punished.In fact all the Psalms of Kabbalat Shabbat deal with the

grand issues of God’s powers in the world and would be suitable material for

encouragement for the Jews in their times of trouble.

R’Yaakov also suggests that the Book Of Job, which is also attributed to Moshe ,would be

a sefer  to be studied at a time of trouble.This was the task of the leader ,to encourage and

strengthen his people in times of trouble, and certainly Moshe understood this role and

carried it out to the best of his ability.

With this remarkable explanation of the ‘megillot’ of Shabbat in Egypt, we can suggest that

this may be the reason why the Kabbalists of Sefat added the Kabbalat Shabbat service to

our liturgy in the 15th century.They were acutely aware of the sufferings of Spanish Jewry

and the exile that was being endured.These great men of Sefat decided that the Jews needed

chizuk yet again at this time of the darkest galut and we have these beautiful Psalms now in

our liturgy to carry us through the difficult periods of galut until we achieve the ultimate

redemption.This is also the underlying theme of ‘Lecha Dodi’ which looks forward to the

glorious redemption and reawakening from the dust of the Jewish people, as we have seen

in Israel today.Let us all give a little more attention to the words and encouragement of

Kabbalat Shabbat, so that we become inspired like our ancestors in Egypt,to to prepare for the

ultimate redemption speedily in our days.

Shabbat Shalom           

Rabbi Ian Shaffer             Cherry Hill NJ/SCW