Recap for 23 Tevet 5777 (Parsha Shemot)

This Shabbos, we discussed Parsha Shemot, including commentary by Rav Yeager. It was a special Shabbos, as we held a siyum on tractate Bava Metzia. The learning was held in memory of Irwin Ravinett (Yisrael Moshe Ben Mendelleib), David’s father-in-law, and Yishai Davidi (Yi Shai ben Tzvi Arieh), David’s uncle. David Schlesinger led discussion.

We learned the last daf in tractate Bava Metzia.  We discussed who would own plants, and be entitled to the fruit, if trees and/or plants seemed to be on more than one property. We discussed specifically the case of two properties at different elevations with a vertical wall separating them. We discussed who would own the plants growing out of the vertical wall. There were several different opinions. One of them was that whomever’s property possessed the roots, owned any plants that came out of these roots. Another opinion was that whomever could reach the plants from their property, was entitled to them. After finishing the Daf, we held a siyum to celebrate the finishing of the tractate.

This Shabbos we began a new book of the Torah, known as Shemot. We discussed how the word Shemot means “names”. We discussed why this second book of the Torah is called “names”. When we went to Egypt and became enslaved, we each lost our identity and purpose, which is represented by each of our names. Pharaoh took away our identity, purpose, and thus our names. We discussed how the specific names of characters in the parsha are not mentioned, which indicates that the names were effectively taken away.

Later in the book of Shemot we get our names back.  Hashem sets us free and we journey to Mt. Sinai, receive the Torah, and have our identities, and purpose restored.

We discussed how Hashem gives us all a purpose, which along with our name gives us an identity. Rob pointed out that it is often hard to figure out what our purpose is. Nevertheless, we all have different purposes and identities that together with others, form a team.

We discussed how Pharaoh messed up our team, by stripping each of us of any purpose.  We discussed how this is analogous to a football team.  Every position on a football team, such as quarterback and center, has a purpose. What pharaoh did to us, is ask the quarterback to kick field goals, and the wide receiver to play center and hike balls.

David shared about how woman have been activists in our history, and have played a major role in contributing towards our well-being. We discussed specifically in this parsha, it was the midwives who refused to kill newly born males. And it was Miriam who was able to get Moshe nursed by his biological mother. Back in the Hanakuh story, it was a woman named Judith, who played a role in helping us be victorious.

Yaki gave a dvar Torah about how Moshe was instructed to perform miracles to convince us that he was really bringing a message from Hashem. Yaki spoke that it was necessary to perform 3 miracles, because there was a concern we had assimilated into Egyptian culture. Yaki spoke about how each of these miracles, symbolized how we as a nation could move from one state to another.

We discussed this Shabbos the role of angels. Rob shared the idea that perhaps fights with angels as mentioned in the Torah, are actually fights we have with our own conscience. Irv shared that angels in some cases would seem to be physical, as the fights resulted in physical injuries. I shared that perhaps these physical injuries were just perceived but not really there.

David shared that his father, Rav Dr. George Schlesinger, would say that events happen in clusters. This seems to be true, whether it is events in the Torah, or events in our everyday life. I personally seem to have stressful things to deal with, all happening within a few days of one another. Another example, in the Torah, we seem to have a lot of misfortune clustered within the month of Av.

This is a summary of what we discussed.  No halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.