Sefer Shemos begins with the pasuk, “And these are the names of the Children of Israel who came down to Egypt with Yaakov, each man and his household came.” [Shemos 1:1] The Tolner Rebbe shlit”a asks three interesting questions on this pasuk:
First, the five opening pesukim of Sefer Shemos appear to be redundant. The Torah lists the names of the twelve tribes; it says that the population of Yaakov’s family totaled seventy; and that Yosef was already in Egypt. We knew all this already from the end of Sefer Bereshis! Parshas Vayigash contains an enumeration not only of Yaakov’s children, but of all his grandchildren as well. The Torah says that the total population of Yaakov’s descendants in Egypt was seventy. We know the Torah is very judicious in its use of words, so why was this census information repeated here?
Second, it would seem that the more precise way to introduce the sefer would be to say “And these are the Children of Israel who came down to Egypt…” Why is emphasis placed on the names of the Children of Israel?
Third, why does the Torah use the term “ha’baim Mitzrayema” to express the idea “who came down to Egypt,” when grammatically speaking, the word “ha’baim” is present tense, and the expression would usually be translated “who are coming (down to Egypt)?” Why does the Torah not say “she’ba-oo Mitzrayema,” which is past tense?
These are the three questions the Tolner Rebbe shlit”a asks. He gives the following analysis, which answers these questions:
A famous saying of Chazal teaches that in the merit of the fact that the Jews did not change their names, their language, and their mode of dress, they were redeemed from Egypt.
These first five pesukim of Sefer Shemos are not here to tell us history. They are not written to inform us who came down to Egypt. As we mentioned before, we know that already. This opening section of the second book of Chumash is trying to teach us that this is the secret of how to exist in Galus [exile]. As Chazal say, the exile in Egypt and the redemption from that exile are the paradigms for all future exiles and redemptions of the Jewish people.
As we have mentioned many times, Galus is a function of the history of the Jewish people. We have been in Galus more years than we have been in Eretz Yisrael. The two batei mikdash [Temples] lasted approximately 400 years each; the period of the Judges was roughly another 400 years. Other than those approximately 1200 years, we have been in exile most of the time of our collective existence. We need a blueprint, a survival kit, with which to survive Galus.
That is why the opening pasuk of the sefer reiterates, “And these are the names of the Children of Israel.” It is not to inform us who came down. The pasuk is telling us the secret of survival in Galus. The secret of maintaining our national identity in exile involves not changing our names. Yaakov’s children did not adopt secular names or the names of the land. They were called by their Hebrew names, the names they were given at birth, not by the Egyptian equivalent of those names.
As we read in the Hagaddah, “… this teaches that they were distinct there” (melamed she’hayu metzuyanim sham). The only way a few dozen people can survive amongst a population of millions is by maintaining their unique identity. In those days, maintaining a nation’s national identity meant not changing their names, not changing their language, and not changing their clothes.
Currently, we have 613 mitzvos which allow us to maintain our unique Jewish identity. But this was before matan Torah. They did not have a set of hundreds of unique commandments. What, then, made them “Jewish?” Today we are “Jewish” because we keep Shabbos, we keep Kashrus, we have Tallis, we have Tefillin — we have all these things. But what made us “Jewish” in Egypt? The answer is that they had to “hang on by their fingernails” to whatever Jewish identity they had. A critical part of that Jewish identity was their names. Therefore, “These were the NAMES of the Children of Israel…” This is part of the secret.
Regarding the term “ha’Baim Mitzrayema” (in present tense), the Tolner Rebbe says: Of course, based on the rules of grammar, it should read “she’Ba’oo Mitzrayema” (past tense), but here too, the pasuk is not telling us history. It is teaching us a message. The Jews did not just come to Egypt and settle in. They were always in a state of flux. They knew, and kept reminding themselves, that they were “strangers in a land that did not belong to them.” We are always “still in the process of just coming here.” We are “greenhorns.” We are going to remain “greenhorns,” and we are proud that we are “greenhorns.” We are always in the state of “ha’baim” — just now coming to Egypt. We are here merely as travelers — this is not our permanent country.
These are the “secrets” the Torah is revealing to us in the opening pesukim of Sefer Shemos. A person must not identify himself by saying, “I am an Egyptian Jew.” He must say, “I am a Jew” (period!). If not, he is going to be swallowed up by the host culture.
There is one other secret mentioned in this opening pasuk. That is alluded to by the words “ish u’beiso ba-oo” (each man and his household came).” In situations when a nation is in turmoil — they were after all in exile; they were foreigners in a strange land — in such situations, it is the Jewish home that must become the bastion of serenity and protection in order that their national integrity be maintained.
When the outside environment is hostile, the sanctity of the Jewish home (bayis ha’Yehudi) becomes critical to the maintenance of Jewish identity. Our fortress is dependent upon the bayis ha’Yehudi. This is primarily based on how a woman maintains her home. Throughout our exile, it has been the “Yiddishe shtub” [the Jewish home] which has been the key to our survival.
These three things – Shemos (maintain your Jewish identity), ha’baim (always be in a state of being a stranger in the land, not a sojourner), and beiso (the Jewish home) — are the secrets of our survival in exile.
Four of the five books of the Torah end in a similar fashion — ending either with reference to “Bnei Yisrael” or “Kol Yisrael“. For instance, the Book of Vayikra ends “These are the commandments that Hashem commanded to the Children of Israel on Mount Sinai.” [Vayikra 27:34] The Book of Bamidbar ends “These are the commandments and laws that Hashem commanded through Moshe to the Children of Israel in the Wilderness of Moab by the Jordan (near) Yericho [Bamidbar 36:13]. The Book of Devorim ends with the words “…before the eyes of all Israel. [Devorim 34:12]”
Sefer Shemos is unique in that it concludes with neither the expression “Bnei Yisrael” (as we find at the end of Bereshis, Vayikra, and Bamidbar) nor “kol Yisrael” (as we find at the end of Devorim). Sefer Shemos ends with the expression: “before the eyes of all the House of Israel…” (kol Beis Yisrael). This is the only one of the Chamisha Chumshei Torah that ends like that, and in fact, this is exactly how Sefer Shemos began — ish u’Beiso ba’oo (every man and his household came). The secret of their survival in exile was beis Yisrael — the Jewish household. That was the island of tranquility in a sea of turmoil.
[Rabbi Frand]
