This I Believe

Below is an excerpt from a great piece by Quinn Cummings:

Too often, the loudest events which come up in our lives become the most important, even if we don’t really like them or don’t want to make them a priority. The narrative, the picture, becomes one of great movement and activity but we lose the thing at the center of the frame which matters. We find ourselves wondering why an entire week has gone by and everyone we care for has been fed and cared for but we haven’t had a single transcendent moment. Maybe we tell ourselves that feeling a sense of connection to our ultimate goals is too much to ask for on the week the kids go back to school, or we start a new job, or the holidays are upon us. But then when can we ask for it?
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I need to frame my picture better. I need to move less and think more. I need to start viewing each day as productive not only for how many things I knocked off the “To-do” list but for the moments when I was truly present and grateful.This I believe.

How was Shabbos/Saturday? Mine was a blessing, for which I am grateful. I heard some Torah:

Why in the middle of the story of Moshe's taking the Jews out of Mitzrayim - just as things are about to turn around - are we (finally) told his genealogy? Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch suggests that this a measure G-d took to remind us that Moshe was a human being.

Why were three of the ten plagues done directly by G-d? Rav Amnon Bazak explains that the descriptions of those three makot include words about G-d making a separation between the Jewish and the Egyptian people. This separation is uniquely Divine. Someone at the presentation (of Rabbi Zev Reichman) noticed as well that these three plagues were all inflicted upon living creatures. it would have been easy to dodge the bullet were it not that these makot were orchestrated directly by G-d.

Many commentaries say that the acronym of R Yehuda, which groups the plagues into threes is not just a mnemonic. Rav Hirsch says that the first three show G-d's power over water and land, the second three show G-d's power over the land's inhabitants, and the third group demonstrates G-d's power over the atmosphere surrounding the land and the people on it. Then Rav Hirsch does something different . Rav Hirsch suggests that there is a common thread to the first, second, and third plague in each of the above mentioned groups.

The first one of each of the three groups (Blood, Wild Beasts, and Hail) form the category of Alienation. The ruination of their river took away the confidence and arrogance which they previously felt in their fertile homeland. When wild animals roamed through their property they were reminded that safe boundaries are provided only by G-d. The Torah tells us that there never was hail like this one in Egypt like this hail. That's because there never had been hail in Egypt at all. It was weather which was alien to them, a literal and metaphorical change in their climate.

The second of each of the 3 groups of plagues (Frogs, Pestilence, Locusts) form the category of Slavery. A task master feels that he a) belongs to a species superior to that of his slaves and b) that he is superior due to his power and wealth. Frogs are generally fearful of people and flee at the sight of man. The fact that frogs invaded the space of man was a clear message that these men had lost their mastery. Horses and donkeys carried their wealth, cows and sheep were a symbol of their prosperity. This was stripped away from them in the plague of pestilence. Whatever produce survived the pestilence plague was wiped out by the locusts which came next.

The third of each chronological set of three plagues (Vermin, Boils, Darkness) form the category of Affliction. The lice and blisters cause severe physical pain. The darkness provided an amorphous prison which caused them to be immobilized, unable to access food and thus caused starvation.

Shavua Tov to one and all.