Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Correction and a thought:

First the correction. In my post את אחי אני מבקש - My Brothers I am Seeking I wrote: “Yaakov uses it (henani) when Gd speaks to him in his dream with the ladder.“

This is incorrect. Yaakov responds henani when Gd calls to him before Yaakov leaves Cnan and goes down to Egypt to be with Yoseph. Bereshit 46:2

Second, I was watching a video by Traveling Israel. He makes a very interesting observation about the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The main point is his correction of his German friends when they say that they (the German collective) learned their lesson from World War II. His response: “You were taught a lesson.” This is not semantics.

In many ways this is encapsulated in this week’s Parsha and offers an understanding of Gd’s opening statement to Moshe in Shmot 10:2:

וּלְמַ֡עַן תְּסַפֵּר֩ בְּאׇזְנֵ֨י בִנְךָ֜ וּבֶן־בִּנְךָ֗ אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁ֤ר הִתְעַלַּ֙לְתִּי֙ בְּמִצְרַ֔יִם וְאֶת־אֹתֹתַ֖י אֲשֶׁר־שַׂ֣מְתִּי בָ֑ם וִֽידַעְתֶּ֖ם כִּי־אֲנִ֥י יְהֹוָֽה׃

And that you may recount in the ears of your child and of your child’s child how I abused Egypt and how I displayed My signs among them—in order that you may know that I am Gd.

Earlier Gd had mentioned that an additional goal of the plagues was for the Egyptians to recognize that there is no other god but Gd. וְיָדְע֤וּ מִצְרַ֙יִם֙ כִּֽי־אֲנִ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה בִּנְטֹתִ֥י אֶת־יָדִ֖י עַל־מִצְרָ֑יִם וְהוֹצֵאתִ֥י אֶת־בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מִתּוֹכָֽם׃ And the Egyptians shall know that I am Gd (Shmot 7:5)

Neither the Israelites nor the Egyptians could have learned the lesson with it being taught to them.

Shabbat Shalom,

Meir