bo
sholem aleichem,
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When Yosef made peace with his brothers, he instructed them to settle in the region of Mitzrayim called Goshen:
וְיָשַׁבְתָּ֣ בְאֶֽרֶץ־גֹּ֗שֶׁן וְהָיִ֤יתָ קָרוֹב֙ אֵלַ֔י אַתָּ֕ה וּבָנֶ֖יךָ וּבְנֵ֣י בָנֶ֑יךָ וְצֹאנְךָ֥ וּבְקָרְךָ֖ וְכׇל־אֲשֶׁר־לָֽךְ
You will dwell in the land of Goshen, so you will be near to me. You — and your children, and the children of your children. Your flocks and your herds, and all that is yours.
Why Goshen? Yosef says “so you will be near to me”. But there is another reason, per Rashi on Bereishis 47.1:
בעבור תשבו בארץ גשן. וְהִיא צְרִיכָה לָכֶם שֶׁהִיא אֶרֶץ מִרְעֶה
In order that you will dwell in the land of Goshen. And it is necessary for you [to be in Goshen] since it is pasture-land.
Since the b’nei Yisrael are shepherds, they need to settle in a region suited to shepherding.
But there’s also a sociopolitical aspect in choosing Goshen. Rashi continues:
וּכְשֶׁתֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ שֶׁאֵין אַתֶּם בְּקִיאִין בִּמְלָאכָה אַחֶרֶת, יַרְחִיקְכֶם מֵעָלָיו וְיוֹשִׁיבְכֶם שָׁם
And when you say to [Par’oh] that you have no skills in other work, he will distance you from him and settle you there.
Goshen is not only pasture-land, but it is geographically distant from the center of Mitzri power. While the Par’oh in Yosef’s time was not particularly hostile to the b’nei Yisrael, shepherding was an abomination in Mitzrayim. So in addition to being the best pasture-land, Goshen geographically kept the b’nei Yisrael separate from Mitzrayim, protected from the Mitzri distaste for their way of life.
Perhaps this is why, through famine and slavery, the time of the Exodus still finds the b’nei Yisrael living primarily in Goshen (long after, one assumes, they have lost much of their freedom to shepherd).
HaShem uses this enduring separateness to protect the b’nei Yisrael during the plague of swarms and plague of hail:
וְהִפְלֵיתִי֩ בַיּ֨וֹם הַה֜וּא אֶת־אֶ֣רֶץ גֹּ֗שֶׁן אֲשֶׁ֤ר עַמִּי֙ עֹמֵ֣ד עָלֶ֔יהָ לְבִלְתִּ֥י הֱיֽוֹת־שָׁ֖ם עָרֹ֑ב
On that day, I will set apart the land of Goshen where my people dwell, so that no swarm will be there.
רַ֚ק בְּאֶ֣רֶץ גֹּ֔שֶׁן אֲשֶׁר־שָׁ֖ם בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל לֹ֥א הָיָ֖ה בָּרָֽד
Only in the land of Goshen, where the b’nei Yisrael [dwelled], there was no hail.
Not so during the ninth plague. Moshe holds his arm to the sky, thick darkness descends, and
לֹֽא־רָא֞וּ אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־אָחִ֗יו וְלֹא־קָ֛מוּ אִ֥ישׁ מִתַּחְתָּ֖יו שְׁלֹ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֑ים וּֽלְכׇל־בְּנֵ֧י יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל הָ֥יָה א֖וֹר בְּמוֹשְׁבֹתָֽם
No man saw his brother, and no man rose from his place for three days. But for all the b’nei Yisrael? There was light in their settlements.
Why does the pasuk not say “there was light in the land of Goshen”, like the earlier plagues? Chizkuni:
בארץ גשן אין כתיב כאן כמו במכות אחרות הוא שאמרו רבותינו שונה מכה זו מכל האחרות שאפילו כשהיה ישראל בבית המצרי במצרים היה אור עמו
“In the land of Goshen” is not written here, like in other plagues. As our teachers have said: this plague is different from all the others, in that even when [a person of] Yisrael was in the house of a Mitzri in Mitzrayim there was light with him.
Imagine. For generations, the b’nei Yisrael have lived in Goshen. At first, it was a place where they could live as shepherds, safely apart from Egyptians who saw their shepherding as abominable. But one imagines that over time it became, perhaps, a prison of sorts: the fixed land of the b’nei Yisrael, slaves of Par’oh.
In the earlier two plagues, haShem transforms this prison into a refuge of sorts.
But in this, the second-to-last plague, haShem tears down the walls and makes the entirety of Mitzrayim a refuge. For days, the b’nei Yisrael are free to go where they wish, unafraid, their taskmasters frozen in place. Imagine this.
When Moshe first goes up Mount Sinai, haShem tells him to say to the b’nei Yisrael that
אַתֶּ֣ם רְאִיתֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר עָשִׂ֖יתִי לְמִצְרָ֑יִם וָאֶשָּׂ֤א אֶתְכֶם֙ עַל־כַּנְפֵ֣י נְשָׁרִ֔ים וָאָבִ֥א אֶתְכֶ֖ם אֵלָֽי
You have seen when I have done to Mitzrayim: I set you on wings of eagles, and I brought you to me
Rashi explains that haShem is referring to the night of the Exodus. The b’nei Yisrael were scattered across Goshen, but in just the briefest of moments they were all gathered together to leave.
The b’nei Yisrael got a taste of freedom in the ninth plague, and it transformed them into a torrent of water, rushing to liberation.
I’ve been wondering lately why the taskmasters and Par’ohs of our world are so extraordinarily cruel. Cruel beyond what is necessary even for their desired end. And I think it is, partly, this: if people taste even a nikkud of liberation, if we taste just a tiny portion of our true inheritance as human beings, we can no longer accept anything less.
It transforms us: rock into water, flint into fountain.
A secret: we do not need to wait on their permission.
Rashi says that the b’nei Yisrael “were gathered” — נִקְבְּצוּ — in an instant on the night they left Mitzrayim for freedom.
So, who gathered them?
good shabbos,
ada
p.s. The Chizkuni I quoted is referring to a section of Shemos Rabbah where the Rabbis also imagine the b’nei Yisrael using this freedom in the ninth plague to loot the Egyptians of gold and silver (which, eventually, I believe, becomes the golden calf, and maybe also some parts of the mishkan.) There’s something complex there to untangle.