Rabbi Yudin
"Aharon
spoke all the words that Hashem had spoken to Moshe; and he performed
the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed, and
they heard that Hashem had remembered the Children of Israel and the
He saw their affliction, and they bowed their heads and prostrated
themselves." (Shemos 4:30,31)
The
flow of the pesukim would
lead one to understand that the people believed in Hashem due to
their seeing the signs/miracles that Aharon performed, i.e. the staff
changing to a snake and then again back to a staff, the leprous and
healed hand, and the water of Egypt turning to blood, caused the
people to believe. The Medrash (Shemos
Rabbah 5:13),
however, has a very different understanding of the pesukim.
If indeed their belief came as a result of the signs, it should not
have said "the people believed", but rather "the
people saw", since when we describe something as a belief we are
referring to something one cannot see tangibly with his eyes.
The Medrash therefore
teaches that they believed in the message of Moshe, not the signs.
They believed in the exact formula that was safeguarded by
Serach bas Asher
- that the redeemer would present the credentials of "pakod
yifkod",
that Hashem has not forgotten you. Why, then, were the signs/miracles
presented before the people? The Yefei
Toar on
the Medrash suggests
that it was a dress rehearsal which was preparing Aharon for his
presentation before Pharoh.
The
powerful message of this parsha is that faith does not only reflect
the supernatural, rather it creates it.
The
miracle of Chanukah came about only after the effort of the Jewish
Nation and their unrelenting desire to utilize pure oil to consecrate
the menorah caused
Hashem to respond in kind. The Talmud (Chulin 91b)
teaches that Yaakov was privileged to have his majestic dream of the
ladder only after reaching Charan and realizing his failure to pray
where his forefathers did, and began to retrace his steps; only then
did he merit k'fitzat
haderech,
the miraculous contracting of the earth on his behalf. The daughter
of Pharoh was determined to save baby Moshe, even though he was
impossibly out of reach. She stretched out her hand, and Hashem
miraculously extended it to reach Moshe. Man has to take the first
step, and his belief triggers the Divine miraculous response. While
winding the strap of the Tefillin
shel yad around
our finger like a wedding ring, we recite the passuk,
"v'eirastich
li b'emunah -
I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness" (Hoshea 2:21-22).
The Yalkut
Shimoni (619)
comments that we are redeemed from exile in the merit of our emunah.
For example, we merited Divine inspiration and sang the shirah upon
our deliverance at the Red Sea in the merit of the emunah we
displayed during that episode.
The Chidushei
Harim insightfully
asks "why does the Torah introduce the shirah with
"v'yaaminu
b'Hashem -
they believed in
Hashem", when in reality they saw Hashem?
They literally pointed with their finger and said, "zeh
Keili v'anveihu -
this is my God and I will glorify Him", so where was there room
for belief?
They saw/knew Hashem
and were convinced of His control of nature and His mastery of the
universe by the events they witnessed! The answer lies in the
juxtaposition of "v'yaaminu"
and "az
yoshir".
The passuk should
have said, "az
shar -
then they sang", in the past tense; why does it instead say "az
yoshir"
in the future tense? The Talmud (Sanhedrin 91b)
teaches that this is a source in the Torah for the belief in techiyas
hameisim -
the resurrection of the dead, because the passuk is
telling us that Moshe will sing again in the future. While the Jews
saw Hashem in all His might and glory at the splitting of the Red
Sea, one thing they did not see was techiyas
hameisim.
A Jew cannot live without emunah,
which is our constant connection to Hashem, and thus even at a moment
of great revelation like krias
Yam Suf we
still needed to have belief in
Hashem.
The
first of the Aseres
Hadibros,
which explicitly includes the belief that Hashem took us out of
Egypt, is understood by the Sefer
Mitzvot Katan (by
Rabbi Yaakov of Corbeil) to also include belief in Hashem as the
future redeemer; just as He redeemed us from Egypt, so will He redeem
us in the future. The requirement for our active belief is
exemplified in the teaching (Sanhedrin 90a)
that one who does not believe in techiyas
hameisim will
not be resurrected.
As
we start anew Sefer
Shemos,
the book of our geulah/redemption,
we are not only reading about our past, but also learning how to
affect the forthcoming geulah.
The Talmud (Sotah 11b)
speaks of the incredible faith of the Jewish women in Egypt, cajoling
their husbands to procreate and give rise to the next generation
despite the horrific environment. Hashem responded in kind by
miraculously preserving and tending to these children.
Let
us realize the very special times in which we are living. If
our tefillos are
not as effective as we would like, perhaps it is because we
do not really believe in
their efficacy and power. May our emunah in Hashem, His Torah, His
people, and His land, speedily have the meritorious effect described
by the navi Hoshea,
just as it has in the past (ma'aseh
avos siman labonim).
