15
votes
Accepted
Why a burning bush?
The midrash in Sh'mot Rabbah (2:5) offers some explanations:
Why fire? To inspire him with courage so that when he comes to Sinai later he is not afraid of the fire.1
Why a thornbush? R' Yehoshua b....
- 56.2k
14
votes
Why did Pharaoh only order the murder of boys?
Rashi to Exodus (1:16) quotes a Midrash that the Pharaoh decreed to specifically kill males since his astrologers predicted that a male would save the Jews. This Midrash is pretty old, and is present ...
- 35.3k
14
votes
Why did Pharaoh only order the murder of boys?
Commentaries available here:
Rashi (verse 16) - Pharaoh's stargazers had told him that a boy who would lead the Jews out of Egypt was being born.
Chizkuni (verse 16) - men were generally those ...
- 20.8k
14
votes
Accepted
Moshe and filicide
R. Avraham Ibn Ezra seems to say that she put him in the river not because that would save him but so that she shouldn't have to witness his death:
ויוכבד עשתה זאת כי אמרה אל אראה במות הילד
R. ...
- 48.7k
12
votes
Accepted
What kind of tree or bush was the "burning bush" of Moses?
Most commentaries render this as some sort of thorny bush (see Rashi, Ibn Ezra).
In terms of identifying which exact species it may have been, a great resource is Rabbi Kaplan's Living Torah ...
- 20.8k
11
votes
Accepted
Are there any sources that translate the term "a land flowing with milk and honey", as being literal rather than a metaphor?
Kesuvos 111b: (Art Scroll 11b5) has the following:
Rami bar Yechezkel traveled to Bnai Brak. He saw certain goats that
were eating under the fig trees, and [fig] honey dripped from the figs
...
- 42.7k
9
votes
Accepted
How did Paro's daughter explain suddenly having a child?
2:10 וַיִּגְדַּ֣ל הַיֶּ֗לֶד וַתְּבִאֵ֙הוּ֙ לְבַת־פַּרְעֹ֔ה וַֽיְהִי־לָ֖הּ לְבֵ֑ן וַתִּקְרָ֤א שְׁמוֹ֙ מֹשֶׁ֔ה וַתֹּ֕אמֶר כִּ֥י מִן־הַמַּ֖יִם מְשִׁיתִֽהוּ׃
2:11 וַיְהִ֣י׀ בַּיָּמִ֣ים הָהֵ֗ם ...
- 20.8k
7
votes
How long did Miriam wait by the river before Basya retrieved Moshe?
Exodus 20:5-6
"You shall neither prostrate yourself before them nor worship them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a zealous God, Who visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons, upon the third and ...
- 10.6k
7
votes
Accepted
Why did Moshe have the voice of a grown up boy?
This may very well be one of Ramban's objections to Rashi's explanation:
ועוד מה טעם שיזכיר הכתוב עובי קולו
And furthermore, what reason is there that Scripture should mention the thickness of his ...
- 48.7k
7
votes
How short was Pharaoh?
The Gemara in Moed Katan 18a says the Pharoh that was in the times of Moshe was 1 Amah.
- 2,115
6
votes
Egyptian man rescued us from the hand[s] of the shepherds. Who rescued Yisro's daughters?
Maadanei Shemuel points to Midrash Shemos Rabbah 1:32:
אמרו בנות יתרו למשה: יישר כחך, שהצלתנו מיד הרועים! אמר להם משה: אותו
מצרי, שהרגתי, הוא הציל אתכם! ולכך אמרו לאביהן: איש מצרי, כלומר מי ...
- 6,825
6
votes
Accepted
Are Ra'meses and Ra'amses the same place
Ibn Ezra in his long commentary to Shemot 1:11 and 12:37 claims they are different places and that the Jews lived in Ra'meses and not in Ra'amses which they built. (According to this it would be a ...
- 96.3k
6
votes
For how long was Aharon Moshe's spokesman?
The Ibn Ezra on Sh'mot 4:30 writes,
כי הוא המליץ על כן משה לא דבר עם ישראל לעולם רק על ידי אהרן. ובמותו היה כמו כן מליץ תחתיו אליעזר בנו
That Aharon was the spokesman, and Moshe never, ever, spoke ...
- 37.4k
6
votes
Accepted
Is the Cushite woman Zipporah?
Mefarshim from here.
The Mefarshim that say Zipporah was the Cushite do not necessarily get this from the simple reading of the verse. See Rabbeinu Bachya/Bechaye who bases this off of a Gematriya (...
- 20.8k
6
votes
Is the Cushite woman Zipporah?
The unnamed Cushite wife of Moshe mentioned in the Torah was Queen Adoniyah of Cush. She was the first wife of Moshe before Tzipporah.
As mentioned in the Torah in parshat Shemot 2:14-15, after Moshe ...
- 13.5k
6
votes
Accepted
Why did Moshe keep his name if it was given by an Egyptian?
The Midrash Rabba in place says:
"אָמַר לוֹ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְמשֶׁה חַיֶּיךָ מִכָּל שֵׁמוֹת שֶׁנִּקְרְאוּ לְךָ אֵינִי קוֹרֵא אוֹתְךָ אֶלָּא בַּשֵּׁם שֶׁקְּרָאַתְךָ בִּתְיָה בַת פַּרְעֹה (...
- 25.5k
5
votes
Why a burning bush?
Rashi says God appeared in a thornbush to show He was sharing the Jews' pain.
- 73.6k
5
votes
Why didn't Par'oh have Moshe killed from the outset?
According to the medrash, after Moshe was put into the water, the astrologers (who had warned him before) came and told him that the baby he was worried about had been cast into the Nile. Thus, he did ...
- 42.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Were Moshe's sons Jewish?
I'm inferring yes.
We see that God was angry that Moshe had not circumcised Gershom, and Tzipporah had to do it. While we know that technically, Gentiles have circumcised their children, there is no ...
- 69.6k
4
votes
Why does God have Moshe use a name the Israelites won't know?
Ibn Ezra on the second verse you refer to (Exodus 6:3), citing Rav Saadya Gaon, explains that the meaning of this verse is not that the Jews had never heard this name before (in fact, the name had ...
- 18.9k
4
votes
How to define the Malach YHVH
What is a malakh? There are a number of opinions, I will discuss one of the most famous, that of the Rambam in the Moreh.
I've included the pertinent parts of the extensive discussion of the subject ...
4
votes
Daughter of Pharao doing Teshuvah?
According to the Gemorah (Megillah 13a), she was actually going to the river with the purpose of converting to Judaism:
רבי שמעון בן פזי כי הוה פתח בדברי הימים אמר
הכי כל דבריך אחד הם ואנו ...
- 18.7k
4
votes
First Pesukim of Shemos
Rashi ad loc. says it lists the children of Jacob who went to Egypt again because God lists them repeatedly out of His love for them.
Ramban ad loc. says it mentions the descendants of Jacob who went ...
- 73.6k
4
votes
Egyptian man rescued us from the hand[s] of the shepherds. Who rescued Yisro's daughters?
Maasiyos Hazohar brings such a Peshat
- 138k
4
votes
Accepted
No mention of Aharon
Why does the Torah in שמות ב:ד state "his sister [Miriam] stationed herself at a distance" but omit "his brother" (Aharon)?
I propose:
Since Aaron didn't actually "do anything" to try and save Moshe,...
- 42.4k
4
votes
Egyptian enslavement of the Jews - Antisemitism?
Rav Hirsch explains that the new king carefully and gradually stirred up anti-Semitism in order to drive down the Israelites because they were a single group or caste within the society. All the other ...
- 42.7k
4
votes
Why is the Pasuk for Vayareiu Osanu Hamitzrim a Pasuk where nothing happens?
Rabbi Yochanan Zweig asks this very question. He gives a beautiful and simple answer: the worst thing you can do for a person is to label them as a problem. Once they have a negative label placed on ...
- 33.8k
4
votes
Accepted
Why is the Pasuk for Vayareiu Osanu Hamitzrim a Pasuk where nothing happens?
According to Perush Kadmon (printed in Mossaf HaRav Kook's Torat Hayyim Haggada), וירעו means calculated evil. Therefore the citation about deliberation and planning is appropriate. This is quoted by ...
- 35.3k
4
votes
Accepted
Ibn Ezra: Moshe = Monius?
Immediately after stating that that was Moshe's name he tells us where he got it from:
ככה כתוב בספר עבודת האדמה הנעתק מלשון מצרים אל לשון קדרים גם ככה בספרי
חכמי יוון
That is, he got it from ...
- 48.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible