Shemos

This Shabbos we read Parshas Shemos. The Parsha begins with the story of the enslavement of the Jewish people by Pharaoh, and the birth of Moses. At the time that Moses was born, Pharaoh had made a decree to kill all Jewish baby boys. Moses was left by his mother in a little cradle to float on the Nile River. He was discovered by Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh, and in an amazing development, she brought him to the royal palace, where he ended up being raised in the palace of Pharaoh himself. Subsequently, Moses went on to become the savior of the Jewish people, the one who brought down the Torah at Mount Sinai, and the greatest prophet of all times. Certainly we would wonder what gave this person, who ended up being raised in a Gentile home, the ability and right to be the great Savior of the Jewish people? The Sages point to one particular verse in this week’s Parsha that they explain gives the answer. “And Moses grew up, and he went out to his brothers, and he saw their afflictions” (Exodus 2:11). Our Sages explain in more detail what this means.”Moses saw their heavy burdens, and he cried for them. He saw the back breaking work being done with cement that they were doing; He began to cry for them, he said could I only suffer instead of you!!! Hashem said, “You left your personal business and went to see the pain of the Jewish people. I will leave the Heavens and the entire world and speak to you…” It is clear from the Sages, that all the great things that Moses merited to – leading the Jewish people, taking them out of Egypt, bringing them to Sinai and through the desert for 40 years, all began because of this trait of Moses that he felt the pain of others. The powerful lesson that we are taught with this is how important it is to feel the pain of others. If we can try to rise above our own personal needs and wants, to feel the pain and needs of others, we will have absorbed a lesson from Moses, and taken this basic lesson in what it means to be a person who lives a life for others, emulating the ways of Hashem.