SO MOSES AND AARON WERE

BROUGHT BACK TO PHARAOH AND HE SAID TO THEM, "GO AND WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR

GOD! WHO ARE THE ONES TO GO?" MOSES REPLIED, "WE WILL ALL GO, YOUNG

AND OLD: WE WILL GO WITH OUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS, OUR FLOCKS AND HERDS; FOR WE

MUST OBSERVE THE LORD'S FESTIVAL." BUT HE SAID TO THEM, "THE LORD BE WITH YOU THE SAME AS I MEAN TO LET YOUR CHILDREN GO WITH

YOU! CLEARLY, YOU ARE BENT ON MISCHIEF."

 (Shemot 10:8-10)

Who are the ones to go? Pharaoh said to Moses: Why are you

so adamant about going? Do you think you will enter the Land? Who are the ones

to go enter the Land? They will all die in the wilderness, except Joshua and Kalev!

Who are the ones to go The numerological equivalent of the

phrase is "Kalev and [Joshua] bin Nun.

Moses answered him: We will all go, young and old

– The [divine] edict [that the generation of those who left Egypt would die

in the wilderness] does not apply to those under twenty years of age, nor to

those over sixty years of age.

 (Ba'al Ha-Turim on Shemot 1:9)

We will all go, young and old – For they [the young] are

obligated to worship, just as the adults are.

And

also with our sons and daughters

– even though they are not really worshippers.

In any case, we will all go with them, for we must observe the Lord's festival

– and that involves joy, and it is impossible to rejoice without the sons and

daughters, and we need the flocks and herds for festive sacrifices.

 (Ha'Amek Davar ad loc)

The lemon tree

In the yard of the

house on Levi Street

In Bakka,

known as Geulim

Reminds me

Of the flavor of the

pear-tree my grand-father planted

In Malz,

in the region of Gorodno

In

Byelorussia.

A longing

Carried upon

Ancestral

tales.

Its leaves have

yellowed.

Remembrance

of the Exodus from Egypt

Haim Rubenstein

"Historical

memory" is an odd concept, something of an oxymoron. In the book, The

Clan of the Cave Bear, Jean M. Auel attempts to

develop the unconventional notion that memory is embedded in the human genome. Like

a wine stain on a page of an old book, the genome's mutational changes may be

thought of as a kind of memory, just as the Syria-Africa fault constitutes a "memory"

of past geological events. The term "memory," as it is usually used

in psychology or biology, refers to something else, and Auel

intended to say that the heroine of her book remembers events from the distant

past that are outside her experience, but she remembers them in the usual

psycho-biological fashion, which is dependent upon processes such as the

strengthening of connections between certain synapses in the brain.

Memory

begins with certain actual, physiological events, which, theoretically, are

susceptible to measurement. An event is experienced, creating an effect which

is stored for some period of time during which it can be "called up"

and re-examined. Memory is the key motivator of future action and decision

making. Like a sophisticated computer, each living being builds itself a kind

of information-bank based primarily upon previous experience, but also upon

learning, deduction, and inference. That "bank" helps it with

deliberations and decisions relating to a range of activities from blowing air

over a cup of hot tea to the filing of a suit in a court of law.

The

aforementioned notion, which we shall call "primal memory," does not

refer to a collection of ideas founded in the immediate experience of the

individual. Rather, its contents are received through various techniques which simulate

real experiences. Their effect, the motivation caused by them, is similar to

that caused by genuine memories, living memories. One might say that a

collection of attitudes and systems of response are constructed which are based

upon the experiences of others.

The

historical "primal" memory is not connected to concrete experience,

but rather combines education and tradition. The experience is transmitted from

father to son, by word of mouth. It is carried on by mother's milk, beyond the

generations. An oral tradition. The force of the

experience reflects the strength of tradition, the might of he who retells it. Its

main ingredient is not experience but self-identification. Identification

with the teller's experience, with his trials and history. The son or

grandson experiences the "original" experience, the virtual

experience, by way of the story. He acquires the emotional elements which

accompany the experience, while only living through its substitute. Such

experiences are gained through symbolic acts, through ritual. Sometimes, such

borrowed experiences are stronger than the original, more durable and less vulnerable

to challenges. Many have witnessed how emotional the responses to a sensitive

issue can be, even though the respondents have no direct experience of the

matter discussed.

Old

and enduring traditions develop techniques for transmitting foundational

experiences and values through experiential and emotional means. Such

techniques combine literature, holy writ, customs, and oral traditions which

shape "foundational experience" common to the entire community, and

which inculcate concepts and feelings into the very depths of life, setting

them as the basis upon which are born the demands of society, the group ethos.

The

Exodus from Egypt, as described in our parasha,

offers an excellent example of this: On that very day, all the ranks of the

Lord departed from the land of Egypt (Shemot 12:41). In this parasha

and that following it, the historical description of the event is presented

together with the symbols that came to represent it throughout the generations.

The idea of memory and its various constituents are mentioned several

times in the parasha. It is built around festive days: And that day shall be

your generations you shall celebrate it as an eternal ordinance (12:14), commandments:

You shall observe the matzot, for on this very day

throughout the ages as an institution for all time (12:17) and it shall be a sign on your hand and a symbol

between your eyes, that the Lord took us out of Egypt with a mighty hand (13:16), and traditions: And when, in time , your son asks you, saying, "What

that the Lord brought us out of Egypt, the house of bondage (13:14).

The

basic experience of the Exodus from Egypt is deeply embedded in customs,

prayers, and traditions which mark it as the genesis of the Israelite nation. It

is an integral part of every Hebrew's "Jewishness."

It is woven both into the cycle of life and the cycle of liturgy.

The

treatment of "primal memory" is an inseparable element of inter-human

dignity. Part of the way in which one relates to a human

being, to his values and rights, is through one's attitude towards his

traditions and primal experiences, which are collected in his historical

memory, his "primal memory."

When

someone misuses the symbols which are rooted in historical memory, he undercuts

the very basis of dialogue, i.e., mutual respect. Without respect, antagonists

become enemies and words are replaced with blows. It is easy to become

impassioned in public debate, especially in connection with fundamental issues.

It is tempting to let historical comparisons slip into dramatic flights of

associative thinking. Such comparisons damage the common primal memory. They

trample the opponent's honor underfoot. A great deal of caution is required to

identify the "landmines" buried in the field of debate. They are

landmines whose explosion is irreversible. "Anyone who causes his opponent

to become pale [with humiliation] has no place in the World to Come,"

because there is no way to return words that have been spoken. By their very

nature they are irretrievable.

You

descendants (12:24). We may apply the

principle regarding the Exodus from Egypt to our everyday lives. An institution

is required for all time. For an unceasing way of life.

Through three verses which constitute one continuous passage, the parasha explains the proper attitude towards the stranger, announces

God's command, and recalls the primal memory:

There

shall be one law for the citizen and for the stranger who dwells among you. And

all the Israelites did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they

did. That very day the Lord freed the Israelites from the land of Egypt, troop

by troop. (12:49-51)

Treating

the other as we would treat ourselves is a fundamental value for us as Jews. With

it, we continue to leave Egypt for all eternity.

Haim

Rubenstein, virtual departer from Egypt

And there was darkness upon the land of Egypt

The word va-yehi [and there was] points to the

existence of something. Such language cannot apply to natural darkness, which

is a kind of deficiency rather than an existent. That is why existence was not

attributed to darkness in the creation story. And so we learn that this

darkness [in Egypt] was different from natural darkness… That is why

Scripture says and there was darkness, that is to say that a new thing

had ben created which made it dark for them…

That is why darkness

came in response to their having worked the noble people harshly, as if to say:

You oppressed Israel, thinking that the Lord did not see,

now you shall be afflicted with darkness so that you may not see. You held My people like

prisoners, now the darkness will imprison you,

for no one will be able to get up from where he is. You listened to Pharaoh,

who said, let them not pay attention to false promises (5:9), now you

shall be frightened by false visions.

 (R. Yitzhak Shemuel Reggio on Shemot 10:21-22).

Why was Hametz [Leavened Bread]

Prohibited only for One Day of the Passover of the Exodus?

Rabbi Yossi Ha-Galili says: From where

do we learn that leavened bread was prohibited for only one day on the Passover

of the Exodus? It is learnt from the verse: no leavened bread shall be eaten

(13:3), and immediately afterwards [it is written]: This

day you go free (13:4).

(Pesahim 96b)

[The prohibition of] hametz was only observed for one day of the

Passover of the Exodus, and so they wrote that it was not observed as a festive

day of rest. In my opinion, this came to tell them something of value for

future generations as well, to demonstrate the perfection of His commandments,

may He be blessed. For all of the nations make the day of victory, the day of

their enemies' downfall, into a victory-holiday. Not so for Israel! They do not

rejoice over their enemies' downfall. They will not celebrate that joy, as it

says If your enemy falls, do not exult; if

and be displeased, and avert His wrath from him. (Proverbs 2:17-18). A superior man does not

rejoice at his enemy's downfall, since such rejoicing is evil in the eyes of

the Lord, and one should hate that which is evil in the Lord's eyes. That is

why it is not mentioned in connection to the Passover, the Festival of Matzot, that He afflicted the Egyptians, but rather only

that he took the Israelites out of Egypt. However, there is no festival or holiday in Israel celebrating the downfall of

enemies.

(R. Meir Simha

Mi-Dvinsk's Meshekh

Hokhmah on Shemot

12:16)

Readers Respond

(An exchange on Avner Ro'í's article from our

Vayigash edition)

Avner

Ro'i correctly identifies the privileges of the

Egyptian priesthood as a distortion of society, unlike the "biblical

economic plan," whose ideological tendency is more egalitarian.

When Avner Ro'i contrasts the biblical

economic plan with today's socio-economic situation, he criticizes, quite

justifiably, the school of thought which endorses the strengthening of the

owners of capital, and he believes it to represent a great danger. On the other

hand, he also criticizes "the proletariat which gave rise to the workers'

committees… in order to improve the lot of wage-earning employees have claimed special privileges for themselves. Any attempt

to limit those privileges is met by strikes which inflict serious damage to the

nation's economy."

Workers' committees do

not send the workers out to strike and struggle in order to protect their own

(the committees') privileges, but rather in response to the current government's

cruel legislation, which tramples workers' rights. Its whole goal is to

demolish organized labor and move the workers out of the labor market and into

the slave market. It should be recalled that the last strike organized by the Histadrut was a strike of "powerful"

dock-workers, government employees, etc., but it was aimed at helping the

employees of the local councils, who had not been paid for a long time. The

strikers personally sustained their own loss of wages in solidarity with the

workers who had suffered an injustice that cried out to the very heavens.

Every labor struggle is

painful and damaging, but workers have no weapon at their disposal but

strike-action.

It is a shame that

despite his noble stand against injustice, Avner Ro'i has internalized the ideology of the owners of capital.

Daniella Yoel

Jerusalem

Avner Ro'I responds:

In my article, I wrote

about the significance of the "law of the priesthood" in Egypt for

situations involving the abuse of privilege. Of course, there is no doubt that

when their intentions are pure, those who loyally serve the public are to be

blessed.

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