Hot answers tagged egypt
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I think there may be a few misconceptions at work here.
The Torah does not tell us to "love" the Egyptians, just (as DoubleAA pointed out in a comment) to not abhor them (Deut. 23:8) - which, as the Torah goes on to say in the next verse, means that we are to allow the grandchildren of Egyptian converts to freely intermarry into the body of the Jewish ...
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Your question really comes earlier, for in the plague immediately after the pestilence, we find:
וַיְהִי, שְׁחִין אֲבַעְבֻּעֹת, פֹּרֵחַ, בָּאָדָם וּבַבְּהֵמָה
"and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast."
which implies that the Egyptians had animals on which boils "broke forth".
Abarbanel, in his description of the ...
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Rashi (46:34):
כי תועבת מצרים כל רעה צאן: לפי שהם להם אלהות:
are abhorrent to the Egyptians: Because they (the sheep) are their gods.
The Siftei Chachamim (46:34) (in his second answer) gives a different twist to the word "To'evah", and explains Rashi a little differently. He says that Yosef is telling his brothers that the Egyptians greatly ...
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Idol worshipers would buy and sell their gods. For example, Terach, Avraham's father, owned a god-market. It therefore follows that when the Egyptians were faced with starvation, they brought all their possessions, including their gods, to trade in for food.
We see this from the following passage in Beraishis Rabsi (p. 217):
אינו אומר וישמעו אל יוסף ...
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Many of the assumptions in your question are questionable, however the Midrashim are full of stories regarding the harshness of Egypt.
One Midrash states that things were so bad, the men and women refused to have children with eachother. (This is one reason why Moshe's birth is itself a miracle)
Slavery it'self was pretty horrid. The Midrashim state that ...
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We see when Moshe went out he saw the Mitzri hitting and whipping a Jew (Malkeihu V'Rodehu)
See Rashi
see translation of Malkehu = lashing here
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According to Abarbanel, the several prophecies in Chapters 29-32 of Ezekiel are all concerning the future of Egypt (the future from Ezekiel's perspective), but they will not all happen at the same time. The first prophecies were realized during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar and his conquering Egypt, and the later prophecies will be realized before the coming ...
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The Yeraim answers that the ban only applies when leaving Eretz Yisroel for Mitzrayim.
The Ritva has another answer he says the ban only applies when most of the Jews live in Israel.
The Rabbeinu Bechaye says the ban on living in Mitzrayim only applied in the times of the Torah when the Egyptians were infamous for their immorality, latter it would not ...
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As mentioned in your link, Targum pseudo-Jonathan identifies them in that verse saying:
וקרא לחוד פרעה לחכימיא ולחרשיא ועבדו לחוד הינון יניס וימבריס חרשין דבמצרים בלחשי קוסמיהון היכדין:
And Pharoh called to the wise-men and the magicians, and they -- Yannis and Yambris, the magicians of Egypt -- did with their magic thus.
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The source for Rashi is the Sifra - Toras Kohanim which states:
מנין שלא היתה אומה באומות שהתעיבו מעשיהם יותר מן המצריים ת״ל כמעשה ארץ מצרים לא תעשו. מנין לדור אחרון שהתעיבו מעשיהם יותר מכולם ת״ל כמעשה ארץ מצרים לא תעשו. מנין למקום שישבו בו ישראל שהתעיבו מעשיהם יותר מכולם ת״ל אשר ישבתם בה לא תעשו . ומנין שישיבתם של ישראל גרמה להם לכל המעשים הללו ת״ל אשר ...
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Exodus 9:3 (emphasis mine):
behold, the hand of the Lord will be upon your livestock that is in the field, upon the horses, upon the donkeys, upon the camels, upon the cattle, and upon the sheep, a very severe pestilence.
This limits the scope of the plague to the animals in the field. Hence, any animal brought inside was not afflicted. So when Verse ...
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To add to what @avi said:
According to Kabbalah (Zohar, part II, 34a), Pharaoh represents a serpent who sits in the Nile and says "I created myself and this river. This idea comes from a prophecy in Yechezkel (29:3), where Pharaoh says this. But the Pharaoh in the prophecy is referring to a later Pharaoh, the one that Nevuchadnetzar would destroy.
The ...
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When no name is given, the lesson and meaning of the story can be expanded for all generations. When a name is given, it is because what is being said is mostly just relevant to the time period that is being discussed, and generalities should not be derived from those verses.
As a quick example.. When dealing with Nimrod, Nimrod has his own special ...
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One possible thought could be that God made the powers of Good and Evil one against each other. Rav Chaim Kaufman ZT"L (Gateshead) says that on the day that Esau came home and ate the lentils, the Medrash says he had just killed the evil Nimrod. Why is it on that same day that Avraham Avinu died as well. He explained that whenever a certain amount of Kedusha ...
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If you're assuming no astrology, magic, or other forms of mysticism, then one should look at political / socialogical reasonings, with a historical context.
Pharoah is known to relieve his advisors, if and when he believes they are of no use to him (often "relieving" them of their heads - see e.g. the story of Yosef...)
Naturally, his advisors are ...
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No source, but something I thought of when we learned the portion this year.
It was because Datan and Aviram publicized it that Pharaoh needed to take action. Once word got out that a public servant had been murdered while/for doing his job, there would have been a call for justice from the rest of Pharaoh's court.
Pharaoh gave into the public pressure and ...
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Exodus Rabbah 1:26 brings this midrash: one day when Moshe was a child he grabbed Paro's crown and the court magicians counselled Paro to have him killed lest he usurp the throne. Ultimately a test was proposed and Moshe passed (with Gavriel's help), so he was allowed to live. But it's not unreasonable to think that the magicians would continue to caution ...
3
Try Panim Yafot on Bamidbar 5:2
Alternatively, if you assume the Erev Rav were originally not Jewish then you can apply the statement (Kiddushin 70b): קשין גרים לישראל כספחת
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The first bold term is obvious. Without the words "Who sits on his throne", you would think that only Pharoh's son, and not Pharoah himself would be threatened with the plague.
Once that phrase is required, then the next phrase 'behind the millstone" is also needed. Because if it only mentioned the throne, then you might think that only the slaves of ...
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Rashi explains that from the most illustrious to the lowliest ones were afflicted.
There are different levels of slaves, and those behind the millstone were the absolute lowest level. And Pharaoh was on the absolute highest level.
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One difference might be that in Yishmael's case, it wasn't he personally who was going to be sinning in the future (indeed, he eventually did teshuvah), but his descendants. Whereas Michah and the ben sorer umoreh will be personally guilty.
Another possibility: We know (see Ohr Hachayim to Gen. 37:21) that in general, Hashem is more reluctant to interfere ...
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A friend of mine offered an interesting solution. He pointed out as follows.
The angels didn't say, "His descendants will eventually kill your children with thirst why shouldn't you kill him with thirst?"
Instead, they said, "for one whose descendants will eventually kill your children with thirst You will provide for him a well?".
In other words, my ...
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That is an interesting idea for a novel, for sure.....
However, the intention for leaving Egypt is spelled out, as we just heard, in Parshah Lech L'Cha Bereishit 15:13-20, G-d telling Abraham what was going to happen to his descendents...serving another nation, leaving, and settling the wide Promised Land. Nothing about returning to Egypt to convert the ...
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Assuming the “astrologers” had no real power of prediction, we must understand what their plan was. What cause the astrologers to make up such a declaration? Perhaps there are two possible explanations to the astrologers plan. One approach is to suggest that the astrologers were working together with Pharaoh to come up with a plan to undermine Bnei Yisroel. ...
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Well, it turns out that if I had been reading the verse in a Chumash rather than a Haggada, my confusion would have been cut short. Rashi (quoting from Gemara Sotah) to that verse clears up the problem very handily:
and depart from the land: against our will. Our Rabbis, however, interpreted [i. e., depicted Pharaoh] as a person who curses himself but ...
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A twist on Avi's answer:
"Who sits on his throne" is to include even the highest ranking of Par'oh's many sons from his many wives (as is likely for a monarch at his time).
"Who is behind the millstone" is then needed either for parallelism or to avoid unintended inferences from the throne quip as outlined in Avi's answer.
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The ben sorer umore is being judged by a human court, whose job is to prevent sins. So they have to judge him al shem sofo, according to how he will turn out. Yishmael, on the other hand, was being judged by Hashem, who judges as the true judge, not in order to prevent future sins. So he was found innocent.
I heard the above from my father-in-law in the ...
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I actually find the situation of the Ben sorer a stronger question than with the children being killed in the bricks.
The children in the bricks are neither righteous nor wicked. They have yet to do anything. They currently have nothing to be judged on in one way or another.
Ishmael, had done good deeds, and bad deeds. He had lived a number of years and ...
1
Rav Kanievsky answers it says in Medrash Eicha(פ"ד סי' כ) That the Jews had a treaty with Egypt's King Pharaoh the Limp and an enemy attacked the Jews they called on Egypt an the Egyptians were coming to save them. Hashem caused the bodies of the Egyptians who had drowned at the splitting of the sea to surface one asked the other who are these people they ...
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