Rav Moshe Weinberger Shabbos Morning Drasha - Parshas Bo - Hashem's Bekeshe

Below, please find a write-up of Rav Weinberger's Shabbos morning drasha from this Shabbos, Parshas Bo. He has not yet reviewed this version so any mistakes are due to me. See here for past write-ups. Also, thousands of Rav Weinberger's shiurim are available online HERE.

Rav Moshe Weinberger

Parshas Bo 5772

Hashem’s Bekeshe

This is the parsha of יציאת מצרים, the exodus from Egypt, which is the foundation of our אמונה, our faith in Hashem. “אָנֹכִי ה' אֱלֹקיךָ אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִיךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים,” “I am Hashem your G-d who took you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.” Shmos 20:2. Perhaps the most well known Ramban in all of Chumash is on the last pasuk in this week’s parsha, commenting on the mitzva of Tefilin. There (Shmos 13:16), the Ramban says that the world Hashem created is one where people have free will because Hashem is hidden and where people can deny all of the fundamentals of אמונה, faith. To counter this confusion, the miracles of יציאת מצרים, the exodus, demonstrate Hashem’s existence, His creation of the world, His knowledge of the events in the world, His providence, and His rulership over all creation. The Ramban says that Hashem gave us the mitzvos of Shabbos, Pesach, Tefillin, and many others so that we would constantly remember יציאת מצרים, the exodus, which will sustain and strengthen our אמונה, our faith in Hashem.

Many Tzadikim, including Reb Tzadok Hakohen of Lublin, explain an even deeper reason why יציאת מצרים, the exodus, is the foundation of our אמונה, our faith. They explain that when a person wants to start being an עבד ה', a servant of Hashem, whether it is a Bar Mitzva boy or someone in his thirties, fourties, or fifties, the יצר הרע, the evil inclination makes certain claims to dissuade him. It claims, “How can a nobody like you think that you can possibly be a great servant of Hashem?” Or it says “After what you have done, how can you think that you will be able to serve Hashem?!” The answer to this is זכר ליציאת מצרים, remembering how Hashem took the Jewish people out of Egypt. One should remember that if Hashem raised up the Jewish people in Egypt, who were slaves on the 49th level of impurity, to receive the Torah on Har Sinai over the course of just a few weeks, then surely any Jew can become a true servant of Hashem no matter who he is or what he has done.

Rav Naftali Ropschitzer explained the phrase in Kiddush, תחילה למקראי קודש זכר ליציאת מצרים",” “first of the holidays (lit. “the calls of holiness”) a remembrance of the exodus from Egypt,” along similar lines. He said that when a Jew first hears the call to holiness, he should not give up on himself or lose hope that he has the ability to change. He should rememberיציאת מצרים , how Hashem lifted the Jewish people up from the lowest place to stand on Har Sinai to receive the Torah, and he will be strengthened to know that he too can change and become great.

Shimon Yoel (the Bar Mitzva bachur), you first put on Tefilin this week and the last pasuk in this week’s parsha is the mitzva of Tefilin. There is a story of Rav Yisroel Husiatiner, the son of Rav Mordechai Shraga and descendant of the Magid of Mezritch. Rav Yisroel said that when he first put on Tefilin as a Bar Mitzva bachur, his father, Rav Mordechai Shraga, told him the following story:

At the beginning, the Magid of Mezrich, their ancestor, traveled from place to place teaching the path of Chassidus. He came to one town and started speaking to a group of talmidei chachamim. Soon other villagers came to listen as well, and soon the whole town was on fire with the light of Chassidus. After a few months, the Magid told them that it was revealed to him that he needed to move on to a different place. The people of the town told him that they would be lost and begged him not to leave them because they did not have anyone else to lead them in the service of Hashem. He gave one of them his bekeshe and gartle and told them to go to the nearby town of Vitebsk. He told them that there, they would find a Jew named Mendel. They should put his (the Magid’s) bekeshe and gartle on Mendel, and then he would be their leader.

The Jews of the town traveled to Vetebsk and asked about someone named Mendel. People pointed out a young talmid chacham named Mendel, so they went to him and told him to put on the bekeshe and gartle. From the time that Mendel put on the Magid’s bekeshe and gartle, he was filled with a new light and became the tzadik we know today as Reb Mendele Vitebsker. Rav Mordechai Shraga told him that if the bekeshe and gartle of the Magid of Mezrich could turn a Mendel into Rav Mendeleh of Vitebsk, then surely Tefilin, which are Hashem’s garments, תפילין דמרי עלמא, can turn any Jew into a Tzadik.

The story is beautiful but it is very difficult to understand. It seems that the only reason the gartel and bekeshe had the power to turn Mendel into Reb Mendeleh of Vitebsk was because he already had all of the qualities of a Mendeleh of Vitebsk hidden inside. If they had put the bekeshe and gartle on some other Mendel, nothing would have happened. Furthermore, we have all been wearing Tefilin, Hashem’s garment, for years and we have still not become big Tzadikim.

The answer lies in the pasuk of the mitzva of Tefilin, which says (Shmos 13:16), “וְהָיָה לְאוֹת עַל-יָדְכָה וּלְטוֹטָפֹת בֵּין עֵינֶיךָ כִּי בְּחֹזֶק יָד הוֹצִיאָנוּ ה' מִמִּצְרָיִם,” “and it shall be a sign upon your hand and as Totafos between your eyes that it was with a strong hand that Hashem took us out of Egypt.” We must remember that Hashem took the lowest people in the world out of Egypt and made them great. But just like Reb Mendeleh Vitebsker putting on the bekeshe and gartle of the Magid of Mezrich, they must have already had the latent potential to stand on Har Sinai and receive the Torah even before they were taken out. Shimon Yoel, as you begin to put on the Tefilin of the Master of the World, it must be that you too already have a heart and a Neshama capable of אהבת ה', love of Hashem, and יראת ה', fear of Hashem.

We have learned that the pasuk says that we put the Tefilin “עַל-יָדְכָה,” “on your hand,” which the Gemara derives to mean that the Tefilin should be placed on the “יד כהה,” “the weak hand.” We wear the Tefilin on the weak hand to remind us that even when we feel incapable of growing and weak, we must remember that we have a Mendeleh of Vitebsk inside waiting to come out and that Hashem can take us out of our own personal limitations, our own personal מצרים, Egypt, and that we can become great.

Similarly, the head Tefilin are called “טוֹטָפֹת,” which Rashi explains is not even a Hebrew word. It comes from foreign languages. Hashem is telling us that even if real service of Hashem feels foreign to us, even if we want to say “that is not me,” the Tefilin remind us that real service of Hashem is not foreign to us at all. It is already within us, deep inside. We just have to remember and believe that it is there and that Hashem can bring it out from us.

“Hashem took us out of Egypt with a strong hand.” We may find it difficult to believe that people like us can go from where we are to receive the Torah on Har Sinai. But Hashem has does not have a “יד כהה,” “a weak hand.” He has a strong hand which can bring us out of our personal external limitations to long for and achieve greatness. When we put on Hashem’s bekeshe and gartle, it reminds us that He has the power to bring out the Mendleleh Vitebsker within each of us.

I heard an interesting observation from a certain chochom. In the old Gemaras, the title page had a statement to the effect that all references to גוים or נכרים, non-Jews, do not refer to the non-Jews of today who believe in G-d, but rather to the non-Jews who lived at the time of the Gemara, who served idols and were heathens. This chochom observed that many Jewish people today make the mistake to think that the references to Jews in the Gemara also only refer to the Jews of that time, but that they do not speak to us today.

Tefillin, and all of the mitzvos which are a זכר ליציאת מצרים, remind us of how Hashem took us out of Egypt, remind us that we can strive for holiness and service of Hashem no matter who or what we are right now. Just like Hashem redeemed the Jewish people from מצרים, may he remember us again בגאולה שלמה ואמיתית שיבא במהרה בימינו אמן.

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