Chumash
11/4/2011 3:46:00 PM
9/7/11
In 7:7 when Moshe speaks to Pharaoh he is 80
Shmot ends in aleph nisan year two after exodus.
Most of Shmot takes place over two years
12:40-41- 430 years that Bnai Yisrael were in egypt
in beraishit 15 brit ben habitarim says Bnai Yisrael will be tehe for 400
years.
Moshe’s lineage was amram (137 years) and kihat (133 years). Kihat went
down to Egypt. How would 3 generations span 400 years?
Even if kihat went down as a baby and amram had Moshe right before he
died it still doesn’t equal 400 years.
Rashi 6:18- The 400 years are counted and start when yitzchak was born.
Rashi 12:40- from the time the 70 people go down until yitziat mitzrayim is
210 years. The 430 stats from brit ben habitarim and the 400 starts from
yitzchak’s birth.
Rambam 12:40- Bnai Yisrael were supposed to be in mitzrayim for 400
years, but they were so bad so they stayed an extra 30 years.
How would Bnai Yisrael go from 70 people to 600,000 men (2 million total)
in 210 years?
Rashi 1:7 the women gave birth to 6 babies at a time. This comes from the
6 words in the pasuk.
9/9/11
the years in depth in shmot are only 2 years the last year of galut and the
first year in the midbar.
There are 40 perakim
Perek 20 is aseret hadibrot
The sefer took place in 3 locations. Mitzrayim, biderech, and har sinai.
Umberto Cassuto- splits the book up into 3 differentsly and says the first is
“seavub vitiziat mitzrayim” the second is “torah vihamitzvah” and the third is
“mishkan”
Moshe’s words to pharaoh
“shilach at ami viavdeni” 20:23
this statement is split up into two like the sefer.
shilach at ami shmot to bishalach
viavdeni  yitro to pekudei
ramban comments on what the theme of the sefer is about and he has a
hakdama before each sefer.
9/12/11
Rambam
Sect I: overview of beraishit (ends with hahem)
Sect II: recap of shviim nefesh
Sect III- theme of shmot
I Ramabm refers to beriashit as yitzirah, its nickname, because the book is
about the creation of the world and the creation of Bnai Yisrael. The avot
created a world for their children- maaseh avot siman libanim. (like avraham
going down to mitzrayim was bad).
II Why does shmot begin with shviim nefesh?
The theme of shmot is galut ogiulah so we have to begin with the beginning
of galut which is the shviim nefesh. That’s why the names are repeated from
before.
III What is the geulah?
The sefer doesn’t end with complete geulah (Bnai Yisrael don’t enter Israel).
It should end with bishalach (yiztait mitzrayim). It ends with the mishkan so
then we must ask why the mishkan is linked to geulah?
Geulah isn’t fulfilled until Bnai Yisrael aren’t at their spiritual high. When
Bnai Yisrael have har sinai and Hashem’s shechinah is in the mishkan, we
have been redeemed and return to the level of our avot. Only then are we
considered redeemed.
Gemara pisachim- rav says to begin with the bad and end with good. What
is the bad? Rav says it is that terach and nachor were oved avoda zarah.
Shmuel says we should start with avadim hayinu.
Rav solovetchik9/13/11
Perek Aleph
1-7 shviim nefesh
why would it repeat the story of the 70 nefesh if we already know their
names?
Similarities
All of yaakov’s 12 sons mentioned
Dina not mentioned
Yoseph dies
Both have same total as 70
Same phrase “eleh shmot Bnai Yisrael habaim mitzraymah”
Differences
Shmot just had the name of yaakov’s 12 sons while beraishit lists everyone.
There is more biographical information in shmot
Different order of Bnai yaakov. In beraishit it is leah, zilpah, rachel, bilha. In
shmot it is leah, rachel, bilhah, zilpah.
Shmot says that Bnai Yisrael reproduced a lot and beraishit doesn’t

Berasihit does mention this but it doesn’t talk about rapid
reproduction
 In shmot it talks about filling the entire land and has 6 words to
describe it
Shmot mentions that the entire generation died.
Shmot is different because it explains why pharaoh look at Bnai Yisrael as
strong.
Beraishit focuses on individuals and maintains the family unit (that is why
the rder of mothers appears that way).
Shmot is about the development of the am. The mother’s order is based on
hierarchy kind of like a nation would have.
Bnai Yisrael is used twice from 1-7. The first time is about yaakov’s children,
but the second refers to the nation as the torah will continue to do.
Egyptians themselves were angry at the Jews because they were rich and
living well and they convicned pharoah to be angry at them.
Pharaoh is the first person to refer to bani Yisrael as an am.
9/14/11
Beraishit
Genesis
Sefer hayiztirah/yashar
Shmot
Exodus
Sefer hageulah
Vayikra
Leviticus
Torat kohanim
Bamidbar
Numbers
Sefer hapikudim
Divarim
Deuteronomy
Mishna torah
the bihag changes the name of shmo to sefer hasheni.
The nitzi says that the bihag based his names off of the Gemara but he asks
why he would keep the nicknames for some , but number shmot, it should
be consistent.
The nitzi answers that shmot is the completion of the creation.
Beriashit is more about a limited amount of people when it says l”lizarecha
eiten et haaretz hazot” which is about certain kids and one place
However the first plan was piru orivu umelu et haaretz which was for all
children and everyone.
Why would am Yisrael be a creation?
Where else is there a link between shmot and beraishit?

Shviim nefesh

Vi’eleh shmot
o With the vv it shows that there is a sequel
Brit bein habitarim
o It is fulfilled in shmot

Bnai Yisrael fulfill the bracha of piru virivu vitimaleh
The mabul was like a re-creation
It is redoing beriashit
People don’t like mondayd and Hashem doesn’t say that iti is ki tov but that
is because many say it wasn’t finished. It may each us that we shouldn’t be
upset at the beginning when we don’t yet know the end. When the end
comes all will be good.
9/16/11
get notes from beginning
we are conserving this pharoah so there is only one really bad pharoah and
not more.
1:8- vayikam melach chadash
asher lo yadah et yoseph- this seems to make more sense with melech
chadash mamash.
Rashi


mallika-
chadash mamash
shenitchadshu gizeirotav
acts as if he doesn’t remember yoseph
yada is known personally
onkelos- acts contrary to what yoseph did
nachum sarna says it is vayakam melech chadash means a new dynasty not
a new king. If it was anew king it should say vayimloch.
Josephus- lived in 1st century CE, not necessarily accurate, but we do get a
lot of information from him. he defends the cannon of the bible.
Hyksos ruled in lower egypt. They were called foreign rulers and the
egptians were angry. One of the pharaohs defeated the hyksos.
Josephus says that our forefathers were the hyksos
There is only evidence of settlement in Israel in the 13th century no the 16th
century when the hyksos left egypt
Exodus probably happened around the 13th century with Seti I and ramses II
(pitom and ramses).
9/19/11
Josephus said exodus happened in 16th century and when they were kicked
out yitziat mitzrayim happened.
There is no evidence of people conquering Israel in the 16th century.
The hyksos makes sense for yoseph going down during their time because it
would be weird for the egyptians to allow a foreign ruler to rule. It explaisn
how he can marry an “egyptian” women dn why pharoah was so paranoid
about the Jews taking over.
1:9-10
Rav viatzum mimenu- they are larger and stronger than us
(how can this be true that the Jews were more than the egyptains)
rav hirsch- minenu probably means ”for us”. so it means that the Jews are
too many for the egyptians to deal with.
“ki tikreunu milchama”- there will be a war
“nosaf…soneinu” join the enemies
“alah min haaretz”
isn’t that good that their enemies will leave the land.
Get notes from end
Beg
Gidolah
Aval
bishlama
achrei
otam
vihaeinyan
nikmah
txifno
vinireh
hachamas
vizeh
bamirmah
9/20/11
Ramban (havah nichachma)- (it was not as bad in the beginning and then it
got worse later. It was a slow progression). Why does pharaoh not openly
kill Bnai Yisrael?
We cannot kill the people who the previous king invited and allowed them to
settle in the land.
The people would not accept killing them
Bnai Yisrael would fight back if we came out against them strongly.
Ramban translates “havah nichachma” as let us do it in a sly way where
they wouldn’t think that they are being persecuted.
 Tax (1:11-14)
o Slavery is the tax like shlomo did
o The Jews wouldn’t feel hated when this was done because
many foreign countries do this
o This is an indirect solution to the problem
 Midwives kill the babies (1:15-21)
o This was completely secretive
o The mothers wouldn’t even know that the babies are dead
because the midwives will say that the baby was a stillborn.
o This is a direct solution to the problem
9/21/11
 Throw the boys in the Nile
o Pharaoh doesn’t tell his executioners to kill the boys. He tells
the nation that if they find a Jewish boy they will throw him
in. There would be no evidence against pharaoh because the
Egyptians are doing it, he isn’t doing it directly.
o This is a direct solution to the problem
At the beginning ramban says the people would not accept killing the Jews.
However, at the end they did because he did a slow progression.
What motivates pharaoh to keep his plant going? (it seemed like he may not
have wanted to kill everyone at the beginning, but at the end he did).
At every stage it talks about Bnai Yisrael multiplying more and more.
There is no pasuk that says that Bnai Yisrael are multiplying after throwing
the babies in the well. But in perek bet it says that Moshe was saved which
shows that it was still going on.
Rashi 12- it’s like the pshat. Pharaoh’s original fear is “pen yirbeh” lest they
multiply. This pasuk says “kein yirbeh” they did multiply.
The first thing that Bnai Yisrael did in the labor tax was building royal cities.
The sarei misim lead this (the right hand men of pharaoh).But it fails
because Bnai Yisrael multiply.
Then it becomes avoda kasheh. Also the egyptians themselves are in charge
and not just the sarei misim. Now they are doing mindless and endless work.
Rabbi samet- it was not one step. The step of slavery was split into two.
Both plans undergo a shiftwhen pharaoh is originally subtle but then he
becomes less subtle.
Compare hitler to pharoah or who is worse
Was it rational or not? Etc
1-9 mohes birth and nile travels
10 gmoshe gorws up
11-12 kills egyptisn
13-15 stops Jew Moshe runs
16-22 Moshe in midyan
23-15 new king harsher
9/23/11
get notes
9/27/11
odes miyaldot ivriot mean that they were for the Jews or were they Jewish?
As the nation grows they lose their names. There are 12 chidlren at the
beginning
Sforno- yitzritzu was in beraishit talking about the bugs. He says it means
that they were bad like ants and not just reproducing like them.
The perek is about Moshe. There is a shift between the nation in perek aleph
and Moshe in perek bet.
The stage so of phaorah’s persecution robs the Jews more of their identity.
Sarna- shifra and puah have names which shows that they are on a high
level. The torah is on biblical levels.
If this is an intimate story about a family but why is the only name in the
perek is Moshe.
Why is Moshe he only name?
a) eric- universalize a personal tale
b) mallika- highlight Moshe and the difference between the generations
c) ramban- we don’t want to get sidetracked with lineages
10/3/11
get notes
10/4/11
so why does the pasuk say ki tov
pseudo yonatan- targum yirushalmi/rashbam-she saw that he was healthy
and therefore worth saving (even though he was born prematurely). Another
possible answer is that he was able to be saved (because the Egyptians
don’t know that he was born and won’t kill him).
shadal/Rav Hirsch- she saw that he was a good child and wouldn’t cry for
any reason. He would be good if his needs were met. This allows Moshe to
be saved.
Rashi- ki tov is like beraishit and when he was born the hosue was filled with
light
ramban- she hid her because he was good looking so she saved him? That is
not possible, every mom is going to try and save their own baby.
She thinks that because of the spectacular birth and miracle he will survive.
If he got a neis it is worth saving him.
Many comic and historic figures are also abandoned at birth.
10/5/11
it seems like Moshe’s family tried to save him and didn’t abandon him.
sargon was abandoned
yocheved wanted bat pharaoh to find her.
Bat pharaoh has compassion on moshe but doesn’t necessarily want to
adopt her.
However Miriam asks if she wants a nursemaid which brings the idea of
adoption into bat pharaoh’s head
The torah uses ben twice and each time it is referring to different mothers so
it is like he has a dual identity.
Moshe is born a slave, raised as noble, and then found out his birth later.
Adopted parent has the right to name children like rachel and leah who
name bilha and zilpa’s kids.
Moshe had to have had a Jewish name that his family called him.
Chazal says he has 10 names.
Moshe is only referred to as Moshe because it was a schar for saving him.
10/24/11
cleary Moshe had a name before he was named by bat pharaoh but what is
it?
chazal says he has 11 names
shmot rabah- there are rewards for people who do great kindness. We refer
to him only as moshe because it is a reward to bat pharaoh since she saved
him. (bat pharaoh was named batya because she took Moshe and Hashem
took her as a son).
What does Moshe’s name mean?
“ki min hamayim mishitihu”
the name Moshe means to draw out and is an active word but mishitihu is a
passive word (the name actually coming from mishitihu should be mashuy).
How does bat pharaoh speak hebrew?
An answer can be that names in tanach can’t always match meanings. Such
as shmuel, his name shouldn’t be shmuel it shuld be shaal.
Ibn ezra 10- when it comes to name the tenses used doesn’t matter.
Sforno- Moshe will help and save others from suffering (so his name will
become active)
Midrash hagadol- Moshe on Israel since he will bring them out.
Ibn ezra 10- Moshe is translated from Egyptian to Hebrew. The Egyptian
name is monius and Moshe is just a transliteration but bat pharaoh didn’t
speak hebrew. Or maybe she learned hebrew or asked someone.
Get notes from end.
10/25/11
if in perek gimel Moshe is chosen as a leader one would think that perek bet
would explain it
vayar is a milah mancha in the story of killing the mitzri an it was also the
milah hamancha at the beginning of the perek
cassuto- he sees the similarity and saw that earlier when they saw they had
compassion so too here is it compassion. He is empathizing with them.
Just like his mothers had compassion on him he needs compassion on
others.
At the end of the perek it seems like there is extra and unconnected events.
However it says that Hashem saw bai Yisrael’s suffering. So it is traced back
to Moshe’s parents who had compassion and then moshe had compassion on
others so Hashem had compassion on Bnai Yisrael.
Rabbi eliach- 1st – Moshe doesn’t speak and he just attacks
2nd- Moshe speaks and doesn’t cause a fight
3rd Moshe is able to save the girls without violence
it shows the progression that Moshe becomes more peaceful over time
Nechama lebowitz notices the progression
Jew vs non Jew – easy to get involved because he would side with the Jew
Jew vs Jew- hard to be objective in the situation
Non-Jew vs non-Jew (hardest)
10/26/11
was yoseph mitzri or ivri
mitzri



reuael’s daughters referred to him as ish mitzri – (19)
raised in beit pharaoh
bat pharaoh names him
o Moshe may be an egyptian name

“vayetzei el achav” (11)
Ivri


born and raised for a few years by his hebrew family
ish ever miachiv (11)
ibn ezra- he asks why Hashem would choose a leader that was Egyptian?
Hashem’s ideas are deep. We don’t know the secrets or his intricacies, but I
will try to answer it. maybe Hashem made it that Moshe would grow up in
the palace so his soul will be on an uplifted level and his teaching would be
high. He wouldn’t have a low spirit like the slaves. Examples: he kills a
mitzri because he was being corrupt and he saves the bnot reuel from
injustice. So the Jews wouldn’t view them as just one of them (he is elite
and on a pedestal above them).
We would expect him to naturally be a good leader and want to be a good
leader.
This is the first time that Hashem appears. Now Hashem’s name is
mentioend 5 times in 3 pasukim (23-25)
Hashem hears (shma)--vyinachu
Remembers (zachor)--- shavatam
Sees (yira)--vayizaku
Knows (yada)---nakatam
He hasn’t physically done anything for Bnai Yisrael.
Bnai Yisrael are crying and moaning to Hashem.
Why does Bnai Yisrael only do this now?
The pshat is because the king died so they started to scream and that leads
Hashem to respond.
But why would the king die make them respond? (vayimat melech mitzraym
sounds like a positive thing).
Rashi-It got worse. He got tzaraat. The new pharaoh isn’t only killing the
babbies but he is sadistic and bathing in the babies’ blood. (Rashi makes
pharaoh’s death look worse.) this comes from the fact that Bnai Yisrael cired
out and a new king came.
11/1/11
ramban- what Rashi said is a midrash. (he sometimes uses the word
midrash to prove it’s right or to dismiss it). according to pshat they were
hopeful that pharaoh would die and when they saw that he died they saw
that the new king was even worse.
Sarna- historically a new king pardons many fugitives. The Jews were hoping
that they will be freed but that does not happen so it upsets them.
Rav soloveitchik- he distinguishes between pain and suffering. Pain is a
physical response. People and animals experience it. A slave will cry out
because he is hurt but he moves on. A slave just cries out when he feels
pain but does nothing else. The slave does not know suffering. On the other
hand, suffering is not only a sensation but also an experience and it is
known only to humans. So this perek is the first time they cry out for
suffering and not just pain. When Moshe came the voice came back. Moshe
stood up and told Bnai Yisrael that they had rights he killed a mitzri. All of
their feelings were evil and not supposed to be felt. With suffering came
protest.
 The problem is that there is a parshiah break between killing the
mitzri and Moshe.
Nitziv- Bnai Yisrael want to daven to Hashem. (they don’t have a text to
daven but they are still davening). And the tefilah was accepted.
In the haggadah it says that it is a davening since it says why Hashem
answered.
Perek gimel
Where should the end of perek bet be?
The mareh hasneh is a good intro to perek gimel
Ramban- (How long is the yamim rabim?) we assume that Moshe ran away
when he was young. Vayigdal Moshe means that Moshe grows up and finds
out now and then he tells the Jews they are suffering and kills the miztri.
The mitzrim find out and then he runs away. He is between 12 and 20 when
he runs away. When Moshe goes back to pharaoh he is 80 so there is a 60year gap. He only went to midyan a the end of the 60 years and he was
probably is kush and married an isha kushit. But why is there this huge gap?
Rav Moshe lichtenstein- the lack of narrative is narrative. He was doing
nothing in the past 60 years.the 60 years was years of despair and
disillusion. (if Hashem would have asked him to lead right after he ran away
he would have, but he waited 60 years).