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PARSHAT BO

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TorahZionist:
BS"D

YESHIVAT HARA'AYON HAYEHUDI
Jerusalem, Israel
HaRav Yehuda Kroizer SHLIT"A, Rosh Yeshiva

PARSHAT BO
8 Shvat 5767/26-27 January 2007


OH, AFTER MIDNIGHT

In his hit song, Eric Clapton tells us that after midnight you are going
to "let it all hang out". Lehavdil: In our parsha, Moshe tell Pharaoh that
“about midnight” Hashem will strike down and kill all the firstborn sons of
the Egyptians. “And Moshe said, 'So said Hashem, at about midnight I shall
go out in the midst of Egypt. Every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall
die - from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on the throne, to the firstborn
of the slave woman who is behind the millstone, and all the firstborn
animals.'”

Now, would it not have been easier for Moshe to tell Pharaoh at
midnight - and not at “about midnight”? Why was it necessary for Moshe to
say “about”? Was his watch off a few minutes, that he did not know when
exactly midnight was? Should Moshe’s generation have chipped in and bought
him a Rolex?

Rashi, quoting the Midrash, teaches us the reason: So as not to let
Pharaoh and his servants have room for a mistake, for if Moshe had said
midnight, even though Hashem is exact and it would start exactly at
midnight, Pharaoh and Co. are not so exact, and they could make a mistake
which would then be that according to their account the plague would start a
minute or two before or a minute or two after midnight. Pharaoh and Co.
would be able to say: See, the plague was not at midnight, as you said, but
before or after - that being the case, this plague was not from G-d, and
Moshe is a liar.

Understand this well: For the last year, Pharaoh and the Egyptian have
had their entire country destroyed by nine plagues, which devastated the
entire country - from having all their crops eaten up to the cattle wiped
out, to their water and economy turned into turmoil, just to name a few.
Still, all that Pharaoh and his servants are interested in, even after being
hit by the worst plague of them all - the death of their firstborn - is that
maybe Moshe is off by a minute or two. Why? So as to have a reason to say
that the plagues are not from Hashem, but rather, they all are just a
coincidence. Unbelievable as it might sound at this late stage of the game
for Pharaoh and Co., they still hold on to any thing, rather than accept
Hashem’s ultimate authority in this world. Even something so small as a
minute or two before or after midnight would give them reason to throw off
Hashem’s yoke.

This is what our Rabbis teach us - that the wicked, even at the gates of
Gehinom - Hell - still do not repent. Even when confronted with
overpowering truth, they refuse to see and continue to hold on to their
falsehoods until they are consumed. This is what the prophet Isaiah tells us
re what will take place at the end of days. “Who would believe what we have
heard? For whom has the arm of Hashem been revealed? He was despised and
isolated from men, a man of pains and accustomed to illness.” The nations
have despised the Jewish people throughout our long history, looked down
upon us and trampled on us, belittling the idea that the Jews have been
chosen and separated from the nations of the world at the Revelation of
Sinai. Still, at the end of days, the unstoppable truth will emerge, and
even as it does, they will still hold on to their falsehoods.

With this in mind it should come, then, as no surprise that this week
“Encyclopaedia Judaica” the world's most profound Jewish encyclopaedia, came
out in its new edition with a report about biblical Moshe, saying that they
are rather sceptical if Moshe ever really existed: “We cannot even be sure
that Moses was a historical character."

Would we find such an article by Muslims about the existence of
Mohammed? I’d like to see how long that author would live. Or an X-tian
writing that Jesus did not exist? Of course not! But here, a supposed
"Jewish" encyclopaedia, in a scholarly work, takes upon itself to destroy
the very foundation of Judaism. Shame on them! If only the authors of the
encyclopaedia would have looked at their watches, they would have seen that
it's only a few minutes to midnight...

With love of Israel,
Levi Chazen


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