Parshat Shemot 5773 Schedule

Weekly Words of Torah

Striving to Reach our Tremendous Potential

Insights into Parshat Shemot of Mr. Binyomin Barman of Yeshivat Sha’alvim, by Rav Re’uven Ungar of Yeshivat Sha’alvim.

The Pasuk says: “האלך וקראתי לך אשה מינקת מן העבריות” – “Shall I go and summon for you a wet nurse from the Hebrew women?”. Rashi describes this as follows: the daughter of Pharaoh takes Moshe and tries to find him a Jewish woman so Moshe can nurse from her. Pharaoh’s daughter had first taken Moshe to many Egyptian women, but Moshe refused to be nursed by them. Why? Since Moshe had a pure mouth and knew he was destined to speak to the Shechinah (Divine Presence), he wouldn’t nurse from an Egyptian woman. The Rashi in Gemara Sotah (12b) says that Moshe wouldn’t nurse from an Egyptian woman because the taste of their non-kosher foods was evident in their milk.

Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky in Sefer Emet L’Yaakov asks the following question from the Sefer Siftei Chaim: how do we know that the reason Moshe didn’t nurse is because he knew he would eventually talk to the Shechinah? Maybe he didn’t recognize his mother and didn’t want to nurse from anyone else? But that couldn’t be, because the Torah writes that Moshe was hidden in the dark – so he wasn’t able to see his mother anyways.

Rav Kaminetzky continues by bringing a Rama in Yoreh Deyah (81:7) that quotes Rashi: The milk produced by a non-Jewish woman is still Kosher but it is better to use Jewish milk because milk that comes from a non-Jewish woman causes the child to have an impure heart and a bad nature when he grows up. The Bi’ur HaGr”a (in the name of the Rashba) says the source for this comes from Moshe Rabbenu, who refused to nurse from an Egyptian woman because he knew he would eventually speak with the Shechinah and he didn’t want to become impure.

We shouldn’t drink non-Jewish milk because we just mentioned the source from Moshe. However, Moshe was going to speak in front of the Shechinah, but what about us? Do we know that we are going to speak in front of the Shechinah as well? We can learn out an unbelievable Chinuch (child-rearing) lesson – every child has the potential to speak directly to the Shechinah. Therefore, a father has to educate his son with Torah values so his son could be ready to meet the Shechinah once he reaches his greatest heights.

This idea is also parallel to the Rambam Hilchot Teshuva (5:1), which says: every Jew can be a Tzadik like Moshe Rabbenu. What does the Rambam mean? Rav Elchanan Wasserman says that a person can never really reach the level of Moshe Rabbenu. Nevertheless, we can still realize the following: just like Moshe had the potential to reach his greatest heights, so too we all have the ability to maximize our potential to become one who speaks to the Shechinah as well. A person should ask: How do I achieve this goal? Firstly, I have to really think about what my potential is. Make sure that I clearly know my strengths and weaknesses. Then, I need to consult with others to organize myself so I know what I am going to be working on. Once I have seen my potential, I need to create a strategy to ensure that I will follow through. B’ezrat Hashem, if we work on this with alacrity and circumspection, we all will develop the ability to speak directly in front of the Shechinah.