Torah portion Va’erah 5763

Rabbi Avraham Brandwein of Jerusalem
(in Translation)
With the help of Heaven

In this Torah Portion, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, (G-d), promised Moses our Teacher (Moshe Rabbeinu), that He would deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt, as the verse says, (using four different terms of deliverance) {1}“And I will bring you out from beneath the suffering of Egypt, {2} and I will save you from their enslavement (of you), {3} and I will deliver you, … {4} and I will take you, for me, as a Nation, and I will be, for you, the Lord.”

When we look deeply into these verses, we see that the three terms used for deliverance, {1} “And I will bring you out,” {2} “And I will save you,” {3} “And I will deliver you,” primarily relate to taking out the Children of Israel from a physical subjugation. However, the primary goal was to bring them to a spiritual freedom, as it is written, by the first revelation of G-d to Moses at the burning bush, “When you will bring out this Nation, you will worship G-d on this mountain (Mount Sinai).” This means to say, that this is the goal of the deliverance from Egypt, to bring them to a spiritual freedom, standing at Mount Sinai, by receiving the Torah. And this is what is written, “And I will take you, for me, as a Nation, and I will be, for you, the Lord.” What we learn from this verse is that nationality is tied together with the attachment to G-d; it is impossible to separate between the two. This is the difference between the Nation of Israel and the other Nations. The other Nations developed from families into tribes, and then groups of tribes turned into a Nation. This same (result of) familial closeness (in developing a Nation) (applies to) territorial (proximity) as well. Since many families lived in one territory, they decided that this (new Nation) would be their founded Country. The unifying (forces) were familial closeness, a single language, and a single territory. This was not the case by the Nation of Israel. Everything was given to them by Divine command, as it is written by Abraham, the father of the Nation, “Go out from your land and your birthplace… to the land (of Israel) which I will show you.” This means that the (formation of the) Country was by Divine decree. The force, which unifies the Nation, is (only) when the (Nation of Israel) are serving G-d, May He Be Blessed. Therefore, it is impossible to separate between the Nation and Land (of Israel) from G-d, and from the fulfilling of His Divine Command, which is (keeping) the Torah. This is what is written in the Holy Zohar, (kabbalistic teachings of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, 1800 years ago), “The Holy One Blessed Be He, the Torah, and Israel are one.”

Now, we need to understand, why was the purpose of the deliverance phrased with the term, “And I will take you?” In order to understand this, I will bring the words of our Sages of blessed memory, in the Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate on Passover, Chapter 10, “How do we know (to drink) four cups (of wine at the Passover Seder meal)? Rabbi Yochanan in the name of Rabbi Binayah says, ‘(The four cups) correspond to the four (terms used by) the deliverance (from Egypt), {1}“And I will bring you out,” {2}“And I will save you,” {3}“And I will deliver you,” {4}“And I will take you.”’ Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi says, ‘(The four cups) correspond to the four (times the word) cup (is mentioned in the Torah, end of Portion Vayeshev) by (the story of the dream of the wine-steward) of Pharaoh, {1} “And the cup of Pharaoh was in my hand,” {2} “and I squeezed the grapes into the cup of Pharaoh,” {3} “and I placed the cup on the palm of the hand of Pharaoh,” {4} “and I placed the cup of Pharaoh in his hand, as the first judgment, when your were his wine-steward.”’”

This means to say, that the four cups of wine, which we drink on the Holiday of Passover on the night of the Seder dinner, correspond to the four terms of deliverance, mentioned in our Torah reading Portion, or they correspond to the four times the word cup is mentioned, in the dream interpretation of Joseph for the wine-steward.

Let us return to the usage of the term, “And I will take.” Our sages of blessed memory, in the Tractate on Marriage, page 2b, state, “Why do we find that the taking of a woman in marriage is called “taking,” as the verse says, ‘When a man takes a woman?’ (The Talmud answers,) Since it is written in the Torah Portion Bereishis (Genesis), that G-d made Adam fall asleep and took part of his side and (from it) made a woman, and called her Woman (Isha) because she was taken from a man (Ish). (The Talmud continues:) This is comparable to a person who has lost an object. (Who searches after whom?) The person searches after the lost object. (The lost object does not search for the owner.) Therefore it is the nature of a man to go after a woman. (The man lost part of his side and searches for the woman) And therefore, it is written, “When a man takes a woman (for marriage). (The Talmud continues) We learn from this, that when a person comes to complete a part which is missing from them, we use the term “taking”, as our sages of Blessed memory, say, “That if a man proposes with the words, ‘You are the one I have taken,’ (instead of the correct form of, ”You are betrothed to me”), this is also considered an appropriate wording for a binding marriage. It is probable to say this is the reason the word to take (Lakach) contains the letters of part (Chelek).

Just as we see by a man and a woman, the same matter applies to the soul. It is written that the soul, in its source, was attached to the Holy One Blessed Be He, and it is called a part of G-dliness from above, until it became distanced from The Holy One Blessed Be he and descended and became enclothed in a turbid physical body in this world. And so too the Nation of Israel is called (part), “For His Nation is a part of G-d.” In the subjugation and exile in Egypt, the Children of Israel became distanced from the Holy One Blessed Be He. It is written that they descended to the lowest level, and that they were sunken into the 49 gates of impurity. Therefore, the fourth term of deliverance (mentioned above), that is used (in the verse), is “taking”; i.e. the Holy One Blessed Be He takes back his lost object, which is the Divine Soul which dwells within the Children of Israel and returns it to an attachment to the source from which it was hewn. And this also lets us understand the order of the four cups of wine on the night of the Passover Seder dinner. For it is written in the Zohar, that the four cups correspond to the four letters of the Name Havaya (the Tetragrammaton, Yud, Hay, Vav, Hay). The Sages, of blessed memory, divided the cups up (in an order), so that the first cup should be drunk when saying the Kiddush (the sanctifying blessing of the Holiday, at the beginning of the Seder), for in the Kiddush we say, “(this night is) a remembrance for the Exodus from Egypt.” The second cup is after the Hallel (Psalms praising G-d), (where it is said,) “When Israel came out from Egypt.” The third cup is after the Grace after meals (Bentching). There we also mention that, “G-d our Lord, you took us out from Egypt, from the house of slavery.” The fourth cup corresponds to the Great Hallel (Praise) (Psalm 136). The Talmud of the Tractate on Passover, page 118a, says that in the Great Praise, it mentions the phrase “For His Kindness is eternal,” 26 times, corresponding to the 26 generations from the Creation of the world until the receiving of the Torah (at Mount Sinai). From this it is understood, that the fourth cup corresponds to the deliverance term of “taking”, for then the Holy One Blessed Be He brings back a part of His Soul, to the Rock from which it was hewn. According to this, we can understand the opinion of the Jerusalem Talmud, that the four cups correspond to the four cups of the wine steward. By the mentioning for the fourth time of the cup by the wine-steward, it says, “And you placed the cup of Pharaoh on his hand, as the first judgment, when you were his wine steward.” We see that at the fourth, the part returns to its first source.

It is written with regard to Teshuvah (Repentance, the Return to G-d) that the word Teshuvah can be phrased (Nutrikone) as, “Tashuv Hay, (Return the Hay.) This is because the (last) letter Hay from the Name of Havaya (the Tetragrammaton, Yud, Hay, Vav, hay) represents the Knesses Yisroel (the Gathering of Israel, the Nation of Israel), and the letter Vav represents the Holy One Blessed be He. When the Gathering of Israel and the Shechinah (indwelling Presence of G-d) are in exile (the Diaspora), then the (last) letter Hay is separated from the Holy One Blessed Be He. Therefore, the Sages of Blessed memory, say, “Teshuvah (The return of the Hay, Repentance) is so great, since it brings near the deliverance.” This also goes together with what we have explained, that the fourth cup corresponds to the letter Hay. When we return in Teshuvah (repentance), and we come closer to the Holy One Blessed Be He, there is a union of all four letters of the name Havaya (the Tetragrammaton, Yud, Hay, Vav, Hay) and (this brings) the complete deliverance. May it be the will (of G-d) that we should soon see these words in their fulfillment and completeness.