B"H

Friday, Tevet 24, 5785 / January 24, 2025

In this week’s Parsha, Va'eira, the Torah tells us about the first seven plagues which G-d brought upon the Egyptians for enslaving the Jewish people: Blood; Frogs; Lice; Wild beasts; Plague; Boils and Hail

The Torah states the following about the hail: "And the hail struck throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field and broke every tree of the field." Then the Torah says, “Butthe wheat and the rye were not smitten for they were not grown up yetand they were soft.” Thus, they were able to withstand the hail without breaking.

Q. What was the lesson to Pharaoh in that the wheat and rye were spared because they were soft?

A.The Talmud tells the following story:  Rabbi Elazar was once riding on his mule, coming from the house of his teacher. He was feeling very happy because he had studied diligently and acquired great Torah knowledge from his master. On the way, he met a person who was extremely ugly.  The man greeted Rabbi Elazar, to which he replied, "Are all the people of your town as ugly as you are?"

The man said, "I do not know, but go tell the Craftsman who made me, 'How ugly is the vessel which you made!'" Rabbi Elazar realized that he had done wrong. He dismounted and begged the man, "I have sinned. Please forgive me!"

"I will not forgive you until you go to the Craftsman who made me and say, 'How ugly is the vessel you have made!'" he replied. Rabbi Elazar continued walking behind the man begging his forgiveness.

Finally, they came to the city where Rabbi Elazar lived.  When the people heard that Rabbi Elazar had returned, they came out to greet him, "Shalom unto you, our great rabbi and master!" The man who was walking in front of Rabbi Elazar said to the crowd, "If this man is a teacher, may there not be more like him in Israel!"

Everyone was shocked at this unexpected remark. "Why do you say so?" they asked. The man told them what happened. "Please forgive him," they pleaded, "for he is a great scholar".

The man replied, "I forgive him for your sake, but on the condition that he not act like this again!"

After this incident, Rabbi Elazar entered the Beth Hamidrash (study hall) and preached, "A person should always be bending as a reed and never unyielding as a cedar. For this reason, the reed merited to make from it a pen to write a Torah, Tefillin and Mezuzuot."

This was the lesson of the plague of hail. G-d showed Pharaoh that the hard trees were brokenwhile the "wheat and the rye" which were soft and giving, survived. G-d’s message to Pharaoh was that his punishments were a result of Pharaoh’s hardeninghis heart and not letting the people go free.

SHABBAT  SHALOM

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