Aliya Summary: Pharaoh summoned Moshe again, offering to release the
Israelites if they leave behind their cattle. Moshe refused the
condition. Pharaoh sent Moshe away, warning him to never appear in his
presence again, "for on the day that you see my face, you shall die!"
Moshe agreed, but not before he delivered a final message that G‑d
relayed to him at that moment. G‑d told Moshe that he would visit one
more plague upon Egypt, after which Pharaoh will actually drive the
Israelites from his land. Parenthetically, at that time G‑d also
instructed Moshe to ask the Israelites to borrow from their Egyptian
neighbors jewels, silver and gold. The Israelites complied, and the
Egyptians readily lent out their valuables.
Moshe's
words to Paroh are: "We will also take our animals with us, for from
them we will take to serve G-d." The plain understanding of the passuk
is that Moshe was referring to sacrifices. The Malbim has another
beautiful interpretation of Moshe's statement to Paroh. "From the
animals we will take lessons in how to serve G-d - from the cat we will
learn modesty, from the doves fidelity, from the ants industry and
honesty, etc." Had we not received the Torah, which teaches us proper
conduct, we would learn these lessons from our animals (and even with
the Torah to teach us, we can see practical examples of its lessons in
nature.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment