shemos
sholem aleichem,
this dvar is dedicated to the memory of brenda churchill, may her neshamah have an aliyah
Apologies for the lateness. I was traveling, and job-interviewing, and I’m tired.
So. Here’s what I was thinking about on the train.
Time passes in Mitzrayim, and
וַיַּעֲבִ֧דוּ מִצְרַ֛יִם אֶת־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בְּפָֽרֶךְ
Egyptians made the children of Yisrael serve with crushing oppression.
This is the story I think of when I think of the Exodus story: the Egyptians oppressed the B’nei Yisrael.
And that’s true, of course. But it’s also more complex (of course). After all, there were plenty of poor Egyptians who were themselves eking out a life under a tyrannical despot who believed himself to be a god. While their experience of oppression in Egypt was qualitatively and quantitatively different from that of the B’nei Yisrael, they were not all taskmasters.
Let’s learn. Moshe gives the warning of the fifth plague (pestilence upon livestock) a day early
וַיָּ֥שֶׂם יְהֹוָ֖ה מוֹעֵ֣ד לֵאמֹ֑ר מָחָ֗ר יַעֲשֶׂ֧ה יְהֹוָ֛ה הַדָּבָ֥ר הַזֶּ֖ה בָּאָֽרֶץ
HaShem has set the time [for this pestilence] saying: tomorrow haShem will do this matter in the land.
Why “tomorrow”? The Netziv:
כדי שבין כך ימכרו המצריים מקניהם בזול לישראל
So that between [the warning and the pestilence] the Egyptians will sell their livestock cheaply to Yisrael [since livestock owned by Yisrael would be exempt from the plague]
To me, this sounds like the practice of selling chametz to goyish neighbors. You sell it, so that the transfer of ownership is clear. But you sell it cheaply, to a friend, because the whole point is that you will buy it back later.
There are multiple ways of reading this midrash. Here’s one: there were some Egyptians who lived near to the B’nei Yisrael, who were their friends, who even (gasp) intermarried with them. And, as our friends do with our chametz, the B’nei Yisrael helped their livestock survive the plague. (To be intellectually honest, the Netziv disagrees with me here.)
The Par’ohs who rule us want us to fight each other. They want us to believe simple stories about each other. They want us to identify each other as oppressors, and never them. They want us separate, never together.
I hope we can help each other nonetheless.
Shavua tov,
ada