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Dear Parents and NCSYers,
This week's awesome dvar torah was written by Benjy Dennis:
Over the last few weeks we have read about the amazing miracles of the ten plagues. This week we finish off with an incredible climax: the splitting of the sea. As you know, these were all tremendous miracles. If we would have been present for even one of them, we would have been left speechless and completely believing in Hashem. Therefore, there should be an apparent question: why was the first sign that Moshe did to prove Hashem's greatness to Paraoh the staff turning into a snake? Wouldn't the splitting of the sea have wowed Paraoh a lot more than a staff turning into a snake? Furthermore, we know that the Egyptians were able to replicate the staff miracle! It is strange that this is the first sign that Hashem had Moshe perform.
Rabbi Yonason Sacks had a really incredible idea to answer this question. He said that a staff is something that a person has control over. It is just an extension of the person using it. A snake, however, acts on its own. Even a person holding a snake has no control over how it moves or who it bites. Paraoh wanted to claim that he is not deserving of any punishment for his treatment of the Jewish people. He was claiming to be the staff of Hashem. After all, he was merely doing what Hashem had told Avraham would occur (at the Bris Bein Habesarim). He was just carrying out the word of Hashem! Through the staff turning into a snake, Hashem was showing Paraoh that he was not a staff, but a snake. He was telling Paraoh that he was really responsible for the oppression. This is why the staff was the first sign. Hashem was showing Paraoh that he was deserving of all of the miraculous punishments that were on the way.
Hopefully one lesson we can learn from this is that we should always strive to be like the staff of Hashem and try to serve Him in the best way possible.
Have a terrific Shabbos! |
