TORAH SPARKS
Parshat Yitro
February 11, 2023 | 20 Shvat 5783
Torah: Exodus 18:1-20:23 Triennial: Exodus 18:1-20:23
Haftarah: Isaiah 6:1-7:6, 9:5-6
On Eagles Wings
Bex Stern-Rosenblatt
In this week s parashah we read God s peculiar words to Moses, which Moses is supposed relay to the Israelites: You all have seen that which I did to Egypt and that I carried you all on the wings of eagles and brought you all to me. For all of us who have been reading the Torah closely, this line presents a problem. God did all sorts of miraculous things during the plagues and the Exodus, but I do not recall a convocation of eagles appearing to give a lift to the weary Israelites. (A group of eagles do show up to save weary travelers in The Hobbit, but that s the wrong book.)
The image of a great bird acting on Israelites shows up repeatedly in the Tanakh. We read in Proverbs that the way of an eagle in the sky is one of the world s great mysteries, beyond the comprehension of a human. In Psalm 103:5, eagles are portrayed as almost magical birds, acting like phoenixes. We read that God renews Israel s youth like the youth of an eagle. While some see this as a reference to eagles regenerating their feathers and thus appearing youthful, Saadiah Gaon explains that every ten years, eagles fly so close to the sun that it burns up all their wings. At this point, they fall down into the ocean and regenerate, to fly again. Eagles experience the same cycle as Israel, getting very close to God, before losing that closeness and having to start over again. Likewise, Isaiah 40:31 describes the same phenomenon, saying But who wait for the LORD shall renew vigor, shall grow new pinions like the eagles, shall run and shall not tire, walk on and not be weary. The passage in Psalms 103 continues, describing how God made his ways known to Moses. Reading this together with the passage from Proverbs, we can understand that the ways of eagles are unknowable, except perhaps to Moses, on this one occasion of Exodus from Egypt.
Moses will use the image of an eagle again in his parting song to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 32. There, he says, Like an eagle awakens its nest, hovering over its fledglings, it spreads its wings and takes them, carrying them on its pinions. So too YHWH alone guides them, there is no foreign god with him. This verse is often interpreted to show the care that God shows for Israel. Unlike all other birds, an eagle supposedly carries its young on its back, to protect them from all harm. So too does God do for Israel.
Moreover, Deuteronomy 32 gives us license to interpret the verse in our parashah as a simile as well. We do not need to find real, live eagles hidden in the Exodus story. However, the question still remains what the simile is referencing. Is there a particular moment in which it is as if we were carried on eagles wings? In the Mekhilta d’Rabbi Yishmael, Rabbi Eleazar states that this moment is the day of the Exodus, when Israel arrives so quickly at Ramses. Rashbam and Chizkuni disagree with that, arguing instead that the moment is the crossing of the sea. Bekhor Shor and Rabbeinu Bahya both connect the eagles to the pillars of cloud and fire. Bekhor Shor explains that these pillars act as blinders just as the wings of an eagle do for its young, preventing the carried ones from seeing anything other than God. Rabbeinu Bahya specifies that the eagles are plural in our verse to refer to both pillars, that of cloud and that of fire.
The wonders of the Exodus are many. An eagle escort does not seem any more fantastical than pillars of cloud or fire. When God tells Moses to remind the Israelites of these eagles, God is inviting us to contextualize the rest of the miracles of the Exodus. While perhaps all the other miracles really did happen, their metaphorical interpretations are just as important for the Israelites and for us, to help us understand the meaning of the Exodus.
Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak Nothing
Vered Hollander-Goldfarb
Haftarah
In an epic moment, the Israelite people stand together in front of Mount Sinai to hear God. The experience is so great that senses come together, and they have a moment of synesthesia. Along with the trepidation they felt, there is a moment of great awe and unity.
In our haftarah the navi (prophet) Isaiah sees and hears God and the seraphim of the heavenly host. Unlike the positive, awe-inspiring and uniting experience of the Israelites in the parashah, Isaiah is alone, experiencing dread and distancing. He fears dire consequences, Woe is me, for I am cut-off! Because I am a man of impure lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of impure lips; for my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts (Isa. 6:5). Rashi attributes the navi s fright to fear of death because he saw God. Ibn Ezra sees the distress as stemming from his impure status, forcing him away from those who are holy (perhaps referring to angels or holy people.)
While impurity is a known state in Tanakh, that state affects the entire person, not the lips alone. Therefore, R. Joseph Kara stresses that this is not actual impurity, and the explanation should be sought in the realm of the spiritual. Both Rashi and Ibn Ezra identify the problem in the environment in which the navi lives: a nation immersed in sinful behavior and speech. In such an environment one utters words that should not be said, words of spiritual impurity.
It is only after some external help from one of the seraphim that purifies his lips with a burning coal that the navi can become an active participant in the conversation of the holy beings. Only then can he respond in the positive to the voice of the LORD asking, Who shall I send?
The message that he is sent with to the people is horrifically simple. He is sent to fail. Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart – and return and be healed! (6:10).
In a place where even the navi s lips are impure there is doubt that the ears can listen, or the eyes see. A dull heart will guarantee a lack of change.
Isaiah has taken the first step against his mission to fail; he has his own lips purified. He will speak warnings time after time to the people of Jerusalem. Perhaps every prophet, leader, educator, every person who tries to bring about change should acknowledge that they have moments of impure lips, of words that should not have been uttered, of speeches that dulled the heart, reduced the hearing, and blinded the audience. Moments that did not improve the world, even if they gained ratings for the speakers. We do not have seraphs that purify us, we must take responsibility for our lips.
The Case of Forgotten Cheez-Its
Ilana Kurshan
Adventures in the Mishnah with My Kids
Pesachim 3:7
A few weeks after Pesach, Matan announced to me that he d discovered an unopened bag of Cheez-It crackers in the small garbage can in his room. Ima, I m sure they were there on Pesach, because no one has brought us Cheez-Its since then, he informed me, to my dismay. Cheez-Its is an American product that is hard to find in Israel. Anytime my parents come to visit, they bring us several large boxes, and we try to ration them so the kids don t devour them all at once. Before Pesach, we discovered a Cheez-It surplus in the back of our pantry, and for the first time, we let the kids eat as many as they wanted, in an attempt to get rid of them all before Pesach. Apparently, based on Matan s announcement, we had not succeeded. There were Cheez-Its from before Pesach in our house even now, weeks after the holiday had passed.
Matan told me about the Cheez-Its when we were studying the end of the third chapter of Masekhet Pesachim, which is about a person who suddenly remembers that he has hametz in his possession. The Mishnah begins by discussing the case of a person who is on his way to perform a mitzvah on erev Pesach the fourteenth of Nisan when he suddenly remembers that he hasn t in fact gotten rid of all his hametz. The Mishnah suggests that he might be on his way to circumcise his son, or to eat in a betrothal feast for a newly-engaged couple, or even to sacrifice his Pesach offering. Should he turn around to get rid of his jametz, or continue on his way?
Matan understands the question immediately. It s like when I forget to take my lunch to school, he tells me. If I m already at school, I m not going to turn around. But if I only just got out of the elevator in our building, then of course I ll go back upstairs and get it.
Exactly, I tell him. It depends how far you ve gone, and how much time you have left. The Mishnah teaches that if the person has enough time to go back home, get rid of his hametz, and still complete the mitzvah he was on the way to performing, then he should turn back. If not, he should simply nullify the hametz in his heart, so that it is as if it no longer exists.
So if I can still make it to school in time, I should go home and get my lunch. If not, I should just pretend my lunch doesn t exist anymore, Matan glosses.
I think you should always go back and get your lunch, because if not, you ll be hungry, and you won t be able to concentrate in class. But yeah, I guess that s what the Mishnah is saying.
However, as I explain to Matan, this ruling does not apply if the person was on the way to save someone s life. The Mishnah gives the examples of someone who is rushing to save a person from a fire, or from drowning in a river, or from an avalanche, or from robbers, or from an invading army. Such a person should not turn around even if she thinks she has time to make it back, because we do not take any risks when it comes to saving human life. Instead, she should simply nullify the hametz in her heart.
Matan thinks about this one. Well, I left the Cheez-It bag in my garbage, he tells me. But it wasn t because I was saving someone s life. I really just forgot about it.
But why were there Cheez-Its in your garbage in the first place? You know you re not allowed to eat in your bedroom.
Ima, I was in bidud! I had to eat in my bedroom! Matan reminds me that he was in quarantine a few weeks before Pesach because a kid in his class had tested positive for Covid. At the time, he had to eat all his meals in his room. I thought he had set all his leftovers outside his door for me to collect. Apparently I hadn t bothered to check his garbage, which he hardly ever uses.
I tell him that being in quarantine is sort of like saving a life. After all, if he had been contagious and had come into contact with other people, he could have infected someone else, and that other person could have died. And so perhaps when he was staying in his room, it was as if he was on the way to save someone s life.
The Mishnah concludes by explaining that if a person were merely leaving home for pleasure, and not to perform a mitzvah or save a life, then he is not permitted merely to nullify his hametz in his heart. He has to turn around and get rid of the hametz in his possession, even if he ll miss his all-expenses-paid kosher-for-Passover seven-day cruise.
That s the end of the Mishnah? Matan asks. We re done?
He grabs his hat and tells me he s going out to play laser tag with his friend. Wait, I tell him. First empty your garbage. I don t want to think about what else is in there.
But I can t, Ima. Yuval is meeting me in the park. I have to go.
He ll wait for you, I tell him. Are you on your way to do a mitzvah? To save someone s life? Matan shakes his head. I ve already made my point, but I say it anyway. Great. Then you have time to go back and take out your garbage. And don t tell me you can nullify it in your heart, because it will eventually start to smell.
Matan turns around, reluctantly, and I close the Mishnah with a sense of satisfaction.