Tzipporah incident, brit
Questions instead of answers (food for thought), and very speculative
Now I'll write about the other topics in the portion, but .....
Maimonides states in the introduction to the :Guide of the perplexed" that the careful reader will notice some contradictions, and should understand that these are deliberate, and are the signs of a deep secret, which cannot be revealed to all, only to those who notice the contradiction and attempt to delve into the depths to understand its meaning.
It seems clear that he is telling us thereby that this is also the method of the Torah.
So here are some perplexing mysteries or contradictions or conundrums related to this week's Torah portion.
Mystery and conundrum:
There is a very odd aspect to the initial warning about this last plague (in a previous weekly-portion, Ex 4): immediately following that message to Moses about what to tell Pharaoh, there is a sudden segue to another topic which actually seems to be almost the same topic, very confusing....Read passage 4: 21-24, and in passage 24 ask yourself: who is the 'him'?
21 And the LORD said unto Moses: 'When thou goest back into Egypt, see that thou do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in thy hand; but I will harden his heart, and he will not let the people go.
22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh: Thus saith the LORD: Israel is My son, My first-born. .23 And I have said unto thee: Let My son go, that he may serve Me; and thou hast refused to let him go. Behold, I will slay thy son, thy first-born.' 24 And it came to pass on the way at the lodging-place, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.
You will be thinking 'him' = Pharaoh. But what way is referenced and what does it mean the lodging place? Why is Pharaoh there, where is he going?
Or perhaps it is the Jewish People, God's 'firstborn' - but why would that be?!
And then read further, passage 25: 25 Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said: 'Surely a bridegroom of blood art thou to me.' 26 So He let him alone. Then she said: 'A bridegroom of blood in regard of the circumcision.'
What an unexpected switch! And though it clarifies that it is not about Pharaoh, the story is so enigmatic that it leaves us just as confused as before but in a different way!
Read commentaries about this
Offering a speculative opinion: I think perhaps Moses's actions are somehow preparing the ground for the later blood-related action, placing the blood of the sacrifice on the doorposts to be protected from the plague of the firstborn that he was just told about - he was acting to achieve the merit to deserve this intervention, and to cement in the minds of the Jewish people how important it will be to ensure circumcision for all the male babies - who would otherwise have been cast into the Nile had they remained in Egypt, the Nile which later God turned into blood as a result......
Before the plague of the firstborn in our portion, God commands Moses regarding the pascal lamb sacrifice, and what to do with the blood. And if we remember that God's message regarding the warning to Pharaoh regarding this plague was followed by the blood-incident, then the pascal-lamb blood-aspect perhaps takes on a deeper significance......
.....
And now for another enigma: the Jewish People are told to eat the sacrifice with matza and maror!
We grow up thinking that we eat these at the Passover seder to remind us of the affliction in Egpyt, yet here they are still in Egypt and are eating it!
And they are commanded to observe Passover every year, not to eat chametz (se'or) even though they haven't even yet left, with the whole issue of not having time to bake bread!
And why is not eating chametz so important anyway?
And if they knew they would be leaving in middle of the night, why didn;t they prepare bread earlier rather than after the last moment? And when and where exactly was it actually baked?
All this is extremely enigmatic. (Read the commentary of Abarbael?, ibn Ezra? and others)
Why is the command given for the jewish People to forever keep a week of special festival holiday to eat matzah and not eat chametz based on this, and then afterwards it is made to seem as though it is due to the actual exodus not the sacrifice?
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פרשנות ספקולטיבית מאוד:[b] אפקט מסע בזמן של אנרגיות רוחניות: אחורה וקדימה[/b]
[b]כשם שאברהם ולוט הכינו עוגות ומצות ל'אורחיהם' בממרא ובסדום כי 'פסח היה', הרבה לפני יציאת מצרים, כהכנה אנרגטית להשפיע על העתיד[/b] (לאפשר את יציאת מצרים עם אפיית המצות, וכדי לאפשר את הגאולה הסופית באמצעות בואו של המשיח, צאצא לוט), כך גם [b]לסדר פסח של דורות של יהודים לאחר יציאת מצרים יש השפעה אחורה בזמן להעלות את אבותינו מהמעמקים כדי שיוכלו לצאת מהביצה הרוחנית של מצרים[/b].
[b]לכן חובה עלינו לראות את עצמנו כאילו יצאנו בעצמנו ממצרים,[/b] ולחוות את קורבן הפסח/הסדר כקבוצה משפחתית כפי שהם עשו.
[b]הסבר[/b]: חז"ל מלמדים שהקב"ה נתן ליהודים - שהיו שקועים כל כך נמוך - מצוה נוספת מיוחדת של קרבן הפסח כדי שבזכות קיומו, יוכלו להטות את הכף לזכות ביציאת מצרים; לעלות ממעמקי הייאוש והטומאה הרוחנית מדורות השעבוד שוברת הרוחות המשפילה במצרים.
עם זאת, מוזר ביותר שבאותו זמן שהם אכלו את זה, נצטווה מצווה לכל הדורות הבאים של יהודים לקיים זאת, כחג בן 7 ימים לציון יציאת מצרים, החל מקרבן פסח זה וסעודה עם מִשׁפָּחָה. במילים אחרות, עוד לפני שהתרחשה יציאת מצרים, הדורות הבאים של היהודים כבר נצטוו להנציח אותה! כמו כן, יהודי התקופה, שעדיין במצרים, היו אמורים לאכול את הקרבן עם מצה ומרור, אך מצות פסח אמורה כביכול להנציח אירוע שעדיין לא התרחש אז, הזמן המוגבל לאפייה וכו' ביציאה ממצרים, והמרור היה אמור לציין את המרירות של עבדות מצרים, אבל הם אכלו אותה עוד במצרים, ממש לפני יציאת מצרים!
אולי אפשר להבין זאת כך: חז"ל אומרים ש[b]אלמלא ה' היה מוציא אותנו ממצרים עדיין היינו שם עכשיו! במילים אחרות אנחנו בעצמנו צריכים להבין שמעמדנו הוא באמת עבדים במצרים, ועלינו לעשות מאמצים להוציא את עצמנו![/b] ו[b]כשם שה' נתן לדור יציאת מצרים מצוה מיוחדת לעזור להם לזכות ביציאת מצרים, כך גם המצווה לצאצאיהם נועדה מאותה סיבה, כלומר כדי שיוכלו להצטרף למאמץ זה [/b] על ידי קיום פסח של 7 ימים בכל שנה. כך נרתמו האנרגיות של היהודים בעתיד כדי לאפשר לבני ישראל לזכות ביציאה ממצרים; כלומר, כל הדורות הבאים מציינים את החג הזה במשך 7 ימים בכל שנה בכדי להעביר אנרגיה לאחור לאבותינו.[יש 'מעשה אבות סימן לבנים', וחז"ל אמרו שבעת הגאולה העתידית ילדים ילמדו את הוריהם, אולי נוכל לפרש זאת גם במובן הזה לגבי השפעת הילדים על יציאת האבות.] והאפשרות הזו להתעלות מעל הזמן - ובאמצעות "בחצות" ה' מדגיש את סוגיית הזמן שאפשר רק לה', וה' מדגיש כי יציאת מצרים תתקיים תוך שימוש במידת ה' היה הווא יהיה - הייתה מתנת ה' אלנו, זו הייתה הדרך שבה ה' חילץ אותנו, למרות שלא היינו ראויים. אלמלא זה, אנחנו עצמנו עדיין היינו שם.
והקרבן פסח והסעודה במצרים נועדו כמקבילה של הסדר העתידי, שיהיה עם אותו קרבן ואותו מצה ומרור, במצרים ובדורות מאוחרים יותר בכדי שהדמיון הזה ייצר הרמוניה של תהודה רוחנית המגשרת על הזמן, וכך בני ישראל ממש לפני יציאת מצרים הצליחו להתכוונן לאנרגיה שמקורה בעתיד.
וכך קרבן הפסח בזמן יציאת מצרים התחבר גם אחורה בזמן ל'סדר' של אברהם ולוט עם אורחיהם המלאכים, וגם קדימה ליהודי כל הזמנים, כך שכולם יכולים להתחבר בהתעלות על הזמן כדי לאפשר את יציאת מצרים. ואז זה מהדהד בזמן, כדי להוות דחיפה רוחנית לכל מי שמקיים את המצווה בעתיד,בנכדי שנוכל לעזור לעצמנו לצאת מהמצב של 'עדיין להיות עבדים במצרים'.
MATZAH MYSTERY
Our seders today help our ancestors rise from the 49 levels of Tum'ah impurity in order to leave Egypt, and so help us get out too
A very speculative interpretation: Time-travel effect of spiritual energies: backwards and forwards
Just as Abraham and Lot 'celebrated passover' long before the Exodus, prepared ugot and matzot for their 'guests' in Mamre and Sdom, as energy-preparation to affect the future, to enable the exodus with its baking of ugot matzot, and the eventual arrival of the moshiach (messiah)[ who will be a descendant of Lot], to complete the final exodus, so too the generations of Jewish observance after the exodus have a back-in-time effect to raise our ancestors from the depths so that they could exit the spiritual swamp of Egypt.
That's why it is incumbent on us to see ourselves as though we ourselves left Egypt, and to experience the pesach sacrifice/seder as a family group as they did.
Explanation: Tradition chazal rabbis teaches that God gave the Jews - who were sunk so slow - a special additional mitzvah of the pesach lamb sacrifice so that in the merit of its fulfilment they will be able to tip the scales to merit the exodus, to rise from the depths of the despair and spiritual uncleanness from the generations of degrading spirit-breaking servitude in Egypt.
However, it is extremely strange that at that same time, a mitzva was commanded to all future generations of Jews to observe this, as a 7-day holiday marking the exodus, beginning with this pesach sacrifice and joint family-meal. In other words even before the exodus happened the future generations of Jews were already commanded to commemorate it! And the commemoration was to be using matza and maror; also, the jews of the time, still in Egypt were to eat the sacrifice with matza too, yet the matza of pesach is supposedly to hark back to an event which did not then yet occur, the limited time for baking etc when leaving Egypt, and the maror was to mark the bitterness of Eyptian slavery, but they were eating it while still in Egypt, right before the Exodus!
I think perhaps one can understand this as follows: We are told that if God had not taken us out of Egypt we would still be there now! In other words we ourselves need to understand that our status is really slaves in Eypt, and we need to make efforts to get ourselves out! And just as God gave the generation at the time of the Exodus a special mizvah to help them merit the Exodus, so too the mitzvahi to their descendants was meant for the same reason, in other words so that they could join in in this effort, by observing a Passover of 7 days every year. In this way, the energies of the Jews in the future was harnessed to enable the Bney Yisrael to merit leaving Egypt; ie all the generations to come, observing this holiday for 7 days each year, give the energy backwards to our ancestors. And this possibility of time-transcendence was God's gift to us, it was the way that God took us out even though we were not deserving. If not for that, we ourselves would still be tere.
And the pascal lamb observance in Egypt was the equivalent of the future seder, which would be with matza and marror, and in this way, by having the same sacrifice in Egypt and in later generations, the same matza and maror, it creates a harmony of spiritual resonance that bridges time, and so the Bney Yisrael right before the Exodus were able to tune in to this future-sourced energy.
And so the pesach korban pascal lamb at the time of the exodus was patterned after the future seders of their descendants, eaten with matzah and maror - connecting back to Avraham and Lot's 'seder' with their angelic guests, and forward to Jews of all time - and all can connect in this time-transcending manner to effectuate the Exodus. And then this reverberates in time, to be an energy-boost to all who observe it in the future, so that we ourselves helped ourselves get out of the situaiton of 'us still being in Egypt'.
May we be inspired by the tremendously-significant effect of our own observance of passover, soon coming up!
...
Better version?
Our seders today help our ancestors surmount the 49 gates of impurity in order to leave Egypt, and so help us get out too
A very speculative interpretation: Time-travel effect of spiritual energies: backwards and forwards
Just as Abraham and Lot 'celebrated passover' long before the Exodus, prepared uugot and matzot for their 'guests' in Mamre and Sdom, as energy-preparation to affect the future (to enable the Exodus with its baking of ugot matzot, and to enable the final exodus via the arrival of the moshiach, descendant of Lot), so too the pesach-seder of generations of Jews after the Exodus have a back-in-time effect to raise our ancestors from the depths so that they could exit the spiritual swamp of Egypt.
That's why it is incumbent on us to see ourselves as though we ourselves left Egypt, and to experience the pesach sacrifice/seder as a family group as they did.
Explanation: Tradition chazal rabbis teaches that God gave the Jews - who were sunk so low - a special additional mitzvah of the pesach sacrifice so that in the merit of its fulfilment, they will be able to tip the scales to merit the exodus; to rise from the depths of the despair and spiritual uncleanness from the generations of degrading spirit-breaking servitude in Egypt.
However, it is extremely strange that at that same time that they were eating this, a mitzva was commanded to all future generations of Jews to observe this, as a 7-day holiday marking the exodus, beginning with this pesach sacrifice and a meal with family. In other words even before the exodus happened the future generations of Jews were already commanded to commemorate it! And the commemoration was to include using matza and maror; also, the jews of the time, still in Egypt, were to eat the sacrifice with matza and maror, yet the matza of pesach is supposedly to commemorate an event which did not then yet occur, the limited time for baking etc when leaving Egypt, and the maror was to mark the bitterness of Eyptian slavery, but they were eating it while still in Egypt, right before the Exodus!
I think perhaps one can understand this as follows: We are told that if God had not taken us out of Egypt we would still be there now! In other words we ourselves need to understand that our status is really slaves in Eypt, and we need to make efforts to get ourselves out! And just as God gave the generation at the time of the Exodus a special mizvah to help them merit the Exodus, so too the mitzvahi to their descendants was meant for the same reason, in other words so that they could join in in this effort, by observing a Passover of 7 days every year. In this way, the energies of the Jews in the future was harnessed to enable the Bney Yisrael to merit leaving Egypt; ie all the generations to come, observing this holiday for 7 days each year, give the energy backwards to our ancestors. And this possibility of transcending time was Hashem's gift to us, it was the way that Hashem extracted us, even though we were not deserving. If not for that, we ourselves would still be there.
And the korban pesach and the meal in Egypt was intended as the equivalent of the future seder, which would be with matza and marror, to have the same sacrifice and same matza and maror, in Egypt and in later generations; and this similarity creates a harmony of spiritual resonance that bridges time, and so the Bney Yisrael right before the Exodus were able to tune in to this future-sourced energy.
And so the korban pesach at the time of the exodus was patterned after the future seders of their descendants, eaten with matzah and maror - connecting back in time to Avraham and Lot's 'seder' with their angelic guests, and forward to Jews of all time - and all can connect in this transcending of time manner to enable the Exodus. And then this reverberates in time, to be a spiritual energy-boost to all who observe the mitzva in the future, so that we can help ourselves get out of the situaiton of 'still being slaves in Egypt'.
There is maaseh avot siman lebanim, and chazal said that in the time of future redemption children will teach their parents, maybe we can interpret this also in this sense regarding the effect of the children on the Exodus of the ancestors.
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sulam do same in order to create a resonance of spiritual energy kaballah
And via "behatzot" Hashem stresses the issue of a time that is possible only for Hashem
and tha tthe Exodus will take place using Hashem's manifestation of was, is, will be
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The episode of Yaakov in Lavan's home is somewhat reminiscent of the period of the exodus from Egypt. Yaakov is an expert in making time less, 7 years was to him like days, s maybe this is a hidden reference to his efforts to reduce the 400 years to less.
He is summoned back to the Land, almost like Avram was originally, and God refers to it as the land of his birthplace, so maybe this is a hint that his efforts were successful, and that now it is truly his land, as opposed to having spent those years in a land that was not his (as in the decree fo the 400 years).….
As when leaving Egypt, the Jews do not say they are leaving (for good), and Like Pharaoh, Lavan chases after them when he realizes that. So Yakov experiences something like Pharaoh’s chasing, perhaps as a preparation for his descendants dealing with that succesfully.
As with Egypt where God shows them their gods are worthless, Lavan is upset that they stole his gods.
Yaakov explicitly mentions his grandfather Avraham and his father Yitschak, with an unusual expression pachad yitschak, maybe a reference to his continuing the self-imposed task of his fathers.
Twice the word “inuy” is mentioned, once by Yaakov and once by Lavan, the word used in the decree of the 400 years. And Yakov soon thereafter has his new name Yisrael, and he refers to God as the God of Israel, perhaps referring to the future nation of his descendants, and he build ‘sukkot’, and names the place after the huts not after his house, perhaps as a way to help prepare the way for those leaving Egypt, and a sort of enactment of the future holiday where one prioritizes the sukkah over the house.
...
Note: The episode of Yaakov in Lavan's home is somewhat reminiscent of the period of the exodus from Egypt. Yaakov is an expert in making time less, 7 years was to him like days, s maybe this is a hidden reference to his efforts to reduce the 400 years to less.
He is summoned back to the Land, almost like Avram was originally, and God refers to it as the land of his birthplace, so maybe this is a hint that his efforts were successful, and that now it is truly his land, as opposed to having spent those years in a land that was not his (as in the decree fo the 400 years).….
As when leaving Egypt, the Jews do not say they are leaving (for good), and Like Pharaoh, Lavan chases after them when he realizes that. So Yakov experiences something like Pharaoh’s chasing, perhaps as a preparation for his descendants dealing with that succesfully.
As with Egypt where God shows them their gods are worthless, Lavan is upset that they stole his gods.
Yaakov explicitly mentions his grandfather Avraham and his father Yitschak, with an unusual expression pachad yitschak, maybe a reference to his continuing the self-imposed task of his fathers.
Twice the word “inuy” is mentioned, once by Yaakov and once by Lavan, the word used in the decree of the 400 years. He tells Esav "with lavan I lived" garti, using the word ger that was in the 400 year prophecy, so he fulfilled that part too.And Yakov soon thereafter has his new name Yisrael, and he refers to God as the God of Israel, perhaps referring to the future nation of his descendants, and he build a house, and ‘sukkot’ for his animals, and names the place not "house and gardenn" but rather after the huts, perhaps as a way to help prepare the way for those leaving Egypt, and a sort of enactment of the future holiday where one prioritizes the sukkah over the house.
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forever, for forever, to go permanently vs temporarily
after three days
as a sign tha the is intending to
note: heara