Bo

During the plague of locust Pharaoh's servants came to him and said, for how long are you going to let this man destroy us? Send them out to serve 'ה for you know that Egypt is lost. Moshe and Aaron are brought before Pharaoh & he says, go serve 'ה, who's going? Moshe tells him, the young, the old, our sons & daughters, & all our animals are going. Then Pharaoh says, I refuse to send the women & children & it goes without saying that I won't send out the flocks. לכו נא הגברים let only the men go. Why? As the posuk continues ראו כי רעה נגד פניכם: see that evil faces you. Rashi brings the Midrash that says that the evil he was referring to was a star called ראו that Pharaoh saw meant bloodshed for the Jewish people in the desert. The כלי יקר explains an obvious question. If evil awaits them & that's why he's not letting them go, so then why let the men go? Shouldn't he be concerned about them too? He answers that Pharaoh knew that the men had two mitzvos to protect them: the mitzva of פסח & the mitzva of מילה. Since women aren't obligated in the mitzva of מילה, & children don't generally sacrifice, they would have no protection, so let only the men go.  How do we understand this? Is Pharaoh all of a sudden concerned about us? Is he trying to protect us with religious rationalization? The posuk states later on that Hashem says, I will pass through the land of Egypt on this night & kill every firstborn Egyptian in the land of Egypt. והיה הדם לכם לאת על הבתים: and the blood on your houses will be a sign that you are there and I will pass over you. There will not be a plague among you when I strike the land of Egypt. Then the posuk says, לא תצאו איש מפתח ביתו עד בקר: that no man should leave his house until morning. Rashi says that this is telling us that once the destructive forces are allowed to destroy, they don't differentiate between צדיקand רשע, so the Jews had to stay in their homes and 'ה will not let the destructive forces come into the Jewish homes to destroy.   The sefer עוד יוסף חי asks, why was it necessary for there to be a destroyer in Egypt necessitating the Jews to stay in their homes to be safe, since it was 'ה himself who did the killing and he could differentiate between צדיק and רשע ? He answers that when the Egyptians heard about מכת בכורות they thought it would be done through destroyers, & when they saw the Jews putting blood on their doorposts so that the destroyer wouldn't come into their homes, the Egyptians thought to outsmart 'ה & forced the Jews to house the Egyptian firstborns in their homes where they would be safe from destruction. However, one who thinks he's able to annul ה's decrees or tries to outsmart Him will not only not succeed, but will lose double. What did 'ה do? He sent the destroyers out to the Egyptian homes to kill the firstborn, and when they didn't find a firstborn there, they killed the oldest in the house, while 'ה Himself went & skipped over the Jewish firstborns & killed the Egyptians that were in the same house. So not only didn't they save the firstborn, they caused the death of whoever was the oldest in the house too.     Maybe that is also what Pharaoh was doing. He was trying to appeal to Moshe with religious rationalization explaining why they couldn't all go, because by saying the women & children couldn't go he knew  the religious ceremonies they'd have without the women & children wouldn't have a lasting effect & would be worthless. He thought that by granting partial permission he would circumvent the end result. At the end, not only did everyone go, but Pharaoh himself sent animals with them for their religious sacrifice, proving that there can be no gain from trying to outsmart  'ה or go against His will. We have to trust that if we follow His ways and don't rationalize  we'll always come out on top!

va'eira

The posuk says ותעל הצפרדע ותכס את ארץ מצרים: the frog emerged & covered the land of Egypt. Rashi says that one frog arose from the river, they hit it, and swarms of frogs streamed out of it. The סטייפלער asks, once the Egyptians saw that every time they hit the frog swarms of frogs came out, shouldn't they have stopped hitting it? Why would they continue to hit it until the entire land was filled with frogs? Also, asks רב טוביה לסיצין, why did 'ה make the plague of frogs in that way, that just one came up & multiplied when it was hit?
The אוצרות התורה brings down from the sefer הכל בו that there was a minhag for the women to go to the well to draw water right after shabbos. It was rumored that the בארה של מרים was in the sea of טבריה & every מוצאי שבת the waters would run through all the wells & streams, & if one happened on the right water & drank from it, it would cure all their ills immediately.
There was a story of one such woman whose husband's body was terribly disfigured, with boils & scabs over his entire body. One מ"ש she went out on a quest to find this water, & after a long search she came upon the water from בארה של מרים. She filled her jar & came home to her husband, who was livid that she was so late coming home. Before she could say anything, he started yelling at her. She got so nervous that the jug fell & broke, spilling all the water! The few drops that hit him cleared up his skin, but only where the water hit. The rest of him was still hideously disfigured.
The סטייפלער says that of course, rationally speaking, once they hit the frog & more frogs came out they should have stopped. However, once they hit it & it multiplied, they got angry & hit it again. This caused it to multiply more, which made them angrier. The hitting intensified, for when anger takes over, there's no rational thinking. The סטייפלער says that from here we have to learn to control our emotions. If when someone gets angry at us we don't retaliate, then the anger will slowly slip away, however if we answer back, the other one will too, & the fight will just intensify. Had the woman's husband just waited for his wife to say why she was late, & not blown up at her, he could have been healed. So too, had the Egyptians not continuously hit the frog in fits of anger, they could have avoided the mass influx of frogs in their land. Maybe this is why 'ה did it this way with just one frog, to teach us this lesson. A small problem could just stay small & will go away, but we are the ones who bring it upon ourselves by getting angry & fighting with one another. All that does is intensify the problem instead of each person taking a step back & letting it go away. We have to learn from here not to get angry, not to retaliate, & to use rational thinking instead of gut reaction, which will in turn minimize our problems, helping us to lead happier lives!

shemos

Yisro had seven daughters who tended to his flock. The other shepherds would chase them away because Yisro had denounced their gods and therefore was excommunicated. One day when the girls went to water the sheep, the other shepherds were harassing them. Moshe, who was running away from Pharaoh, came over, rescued them & watered the sheep for them. When they got home their father asked, why are you home so early today? They answered, איש מצרי הצילנו מיד הרעים: that an Egyptian man saved us from the shepherds and watered the sheep for us. Yisro says to his daughters, if that's so, where is he? למה זה עזבתן את האיש קראן לו ויאכל לחם: Why did you let him leave ? Find him and let him eat bread. Rashi says that when Yisro says let him eat bread, he meant maybe he'll marry one of you. ר' דוד פיינשטיין asks, why did Yisro want so much for his daughter to marry Moshe ? He never met him & knows nothing about him except that he helped them water the sheep.
Also, why did the daughters call him an Egyptian man? We know the Jewish people in Egypt kept their Jewish way of dressing & looked different that the Egyptians. Moshe Rabbainu was definitely no different than the other Jews, so why didn't they call him a Jewish man?
The Midrash compares this to a man who was bitten by an ערוד snake, and was running to the river to put his feet in, for the only way to be cured from that snake bite is to get to the water before the snake does. As the man gets to the river, he sees a child drowning, & saves him. The grateful child says to him, if not for you I would have drowned!! The man tells him, don't thank me, thank the snake, for because of him I was running to the water. Therefore, it's because of him you were saved! So too the daughters of Yisro, when they went to thank Moshe for saving them from the shepherds, were told, don't thank me thank the מצרי who I killed. Because of him I was here to save you. That's why the daughters told their father that a מצרי saved them, for it was because of the מצרי that they were saved. ר' חיים שמואלביץ says we see from here how far we are obligated to have הכרת הטוב. The kid had to thank not the man who saved him, but the snake who sent the man there. Yisro's daughters had to be thankful not to Moshe, but to the מצרי הרשע who Moshe killed, showing us that even if someone unintentionally does us a favor we still have to be thankful. ר' דוד says this is why Yisro wanted Moshe to marry one of his daughters. Anyone who has that much הכרת הטוב that he accepts no thanks for himself, & gives it all to the מצרי, shows tremendous character traits. That's the kind of person he wanted for his daughter.
Teaching us not to look for the superficial, instead focus on character & to be thankful to anyone that helps us no matter how indirect it may be!

vayechi

When Yaakov gave the berochos to the shevatim before he died, he put Zevulin who went to work & supported Yissachar, before Yissachar who studied Torah. ספורנו says that the reason for that is because it's impossible to devote oneself completely to Torah unless he first has a way to support himself. When one supports his friend in order for him to be able to devote himself to Torah, then the toil of the one who dedicates his life to Torah is attributed to both of them, because אם אין קמח אין תורה. The חפץ חיים once asked, in ברכת המזון we say שלא נבוש ולא נכלם לעולם ועד: that we not feel inner shame nor be humiliated forever and ever. Does a person live forever that he could be embarrassed for eternity? He explained as follows. There's a person who throughout his life had no time to learn, however, in lieu of learning himself he supported someone who was sitting and learning, hoping that he would share in the merit of that learning. After 120 the heavenly tribunal asked him, why didn't you learn Torah? He answered, so & so learned for me, & in exchange I supported him. The חפץ חיים continued, saying that the deal only works if the person whom you supported was learning לשמה. However, if he had ulterior motives, it doesn't work. When they go look at the one he supported, & they find his Torah was lacking, then there will be eternal embarrassment for having relied on someone else and not learning himself. The question we're all asking, is how do you know? How can we be certain the person we support is real & not taking us for a ride?
The (בית דוד - מורשת אבות) brings down a story of a rabbi who was walking down the street & saw an old jew selling drinks & cakes out of an old pushcart. The rabbi, feeling sorry for the old man, went over & bought something from him. While he was there, the old man, realizing that he had the ear of the rabbi, started telling him his life story. One of the stories he told was about when he was young & lived with his parents in a small town in ליטא. They lived next door to the rabbi who was very poor & had a son who was an עלוי. One day he overheard the father telling the son that as much as he would like to, he had no money to send him away to yeshiva. The son, who had an intense desire to learn, was heartbroken, & was crying that he wanted to go to yeshiva to learn. The old man said he was so touched by the son's desire, that he committed himself to make the money needed. In those days it was hard for anyone to make money. However, the kid's cries were ringing in his ear so he worked day & night until he had the money needed, & brought it to the father who thanked him with tears in his eyes, & sent the boy off to learn. The rabbi, fascinated by the old man's story, asked him, do you remember the name of this boy that you worked so hard to send to yeshiva? The old man replied, sure his name was אהרן קוטלר. When the rabbi heard that name, he grabbed the old man with both hands & said, do you have any idea who he is today?? He's the גדול הדור, one of the most prestigious ראשי ישיבה of our time! You have no idea what your efforts gave to the Torah world!
Maybe from this story we can learn how to make sure our money goes to the right people. If we give it לשמה like the old man gave it, because we want to help people grow in Torah, then just like the old man who helped one of the greatest people of our generation, our money too, will go to those that are in it for real, ensuring us a place for eternity!