Bo 2020
Isaac’s Parsha Corner · 2020
In order to better understand the events in this week’s Parsha it is useful and helpful to go back to the very beginning of the Exodus story. In Parshat Lech Lecha G-d said to Abraham, “You shall surely know “Yadoa Teidah” that your children will be strangers in a foreign land. And they will enslave and oppress them for 400 years. And also shall I judge the nation that enslaves them, and then they will exit with a great treasure. And you shall come to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried upon reaching a ripe old age. And the 4th generation will return here.” (Genesis chapter 15 verses 13-16) These verses are hard to understand:
1/ What is the meaning of “you shall surely know? How is it different from regular knowing??
2/ The name of the enslaving nation is not revealed – why not?
3/ 400 years is a very long time. Also, the 4th generation is a lot less than 400 years.
4/ No treasure is worth that type of existence for that long. (Assuming that’s the only benefit.)
5/ What is the meaning of the comfort and the old age. Abraham’s children will suffer but you will be ok! It sounds cruel. Seems like a meaningless comfort. If I was told this report my senor moments would be fraught with anxiety and certainly not “Sevah Tovah” translated literally aging peacefully.
I think there is “knowledge” and then there is “higher knowledge”. Higher knowledge is the ability to see things not as they appear but as for their purpose. It was clear from the very beginning that the enslaving nation was to be Egypt. Abraham himself experienced to some small degree of “foreignness” in the story of Sarah’s being taken. Higher knowledge is to be able to look back and see the purpose of the past that it lead to the future and that it is all part of a complex plan. The higher knowledge was that the nation that took your wife and that was accustomed to acting in that way would do it again and again. But the higher purpose would be that your children would be like the stars of the earth (a large nation) inherit the land of Israel and have a great treasure (Rechush Gadol). Rechush was not just financial wealth but a Rechush Gadol a truly great treasure. It would include a unique national identity and purpose, a torah from heaven, and a history of miracles that lasts to this day. The 400 years of slavery and of oppression may have begun when Joseph was sold down to Egypt into slavery. It didn’t end until the nation finally became settled in the land and all vestiges of the enslavement were forgotten and the people no longer yearned for return to Egypt. Abraham was promised “a peaceful old age”. Peace would come with the attainment of higher knowledge. The higher knowledge was that the nation which leaves Mitzrayim will be unaffected by the years of enslavement and of affliction. “And as they were afflicted so they grew many and were strong. “And the people increased and became very strong”. Most importantly was that, despite being a in a foreign land, his children would leave together and not assimilate. The people suffered greatly, but prospered and were stronger for it. Most importantly would be the attainment of the Great Treasures. It is with this higher knowledge that Abraham had the promise of ripe and peaceful old age.
Dedicated to the memory of Joel Shulman A’H