Vaeira - 7th Portion

Join as we learn the seventh Torah reading for paras for Shabas paras chapter 9 verse1 17. Yesterday we learned about the plagues of pestilence uh boils and now the Torah started telling us about the next plague which was going to be hail where tells us about the plague of hail which is as bad as all the plagues because it takes away the sustenance the food of the people and which God tells Pharaoh that he could have killed him as well but he wants to show the greatness of Hashem and therefore he begins in verse 17 the seventh ali You continue to trample on my people by not sending them forth. What is the word? Rashi explains and says you're trying to step on them. Like the word usually means a path. Any word that the beginning of it is starts with and it's talking in a way an activity that already occurred. So you'll put the tough in the middle of the noun. showing how you pronounce the word that it should be that you already doing what you have done. Verse 18. Therefore, tomorrow at this time I will make it rain down a very very heavy hail that was never like that in Egypt from the day it was founded or until today. There was nothing like it at this time tomorrow. This time tomorrow he made a mark on the wall. carved something in the wall and said tomorrow when the sun hits the spot the hail will come down. What does mean from the day it was founded over here? She tells us the grammatical point of it. Any word that the beginning of its root word is audible will come in place of the verse 19. Send word and gather your livestock. than anything that's in the field any animal that's going to be in the field. It's not going to be gathered home and the hail will then come upon it and they will die. What does the word mean? Explains go. As we find this in other places, it says gave him that they gathered from the people of meaning to gather bringing it home. Verse 20 those who feared those amongst Pharaoh's courthouse those from Pharaoh's servants who feared what God said he made sure to make it sure that he got his slaves his servants as muo and his cattle into the home heinus he chased them making them run verse T1 that that not heed to what God said left his servants and his livestock in the field. Verse 22. God says to Moshe, "Raise your hand heavenward will be hail throughout the land of Egypt. On the man and on the animals and on all the grass in the land of Egypt and all the plants in the land of Egypt." 22 towards heaven. And the Medish explains that what actually happened was that God lifted Moshe even above the heaven and this way he put his hand towards in in the heaven. Verse 23. Moshe raised his staff heavenward towards heaven. And God made uh gave forth hail and and voices, sounds and hail and the fire came down to the ground. God made it rain down hail on the land of Egypt. Verse 24 as you see one of the miracles usually fire goes up and over here the fire was going down. If you look going down onto the Egyptians and this hail and the fire was very was lightning and flashing in the midst of the hail in a very very heavy heavy hail. There was nothing like it in the land of Egypt ever since it was a nation. What does it mean? What was going on there? So Rashi explains was a miracle of miracles. Number one, you have fire and hail mixing. Hail is water and usually would put out the fire and it wasn't. Number two, and why were they doing this? To make peace, to do what God wants. They made peace amongst the fire and water, meaning they wouldn't put each other out. And the very fact that they came together in Egypt and this extent of the great miracle that happened there verse 25 and the hail hit throughout Egypt it struck everything that was in the field from humans to animals and all the plants of the field the hail hit and all the trees and were shattered by the hail. Now verse 26, the only place that it didn't affect was in the place of Gan where there the Jewish people resided. There there was no hail. Verse 27, Pharaoh called Moshe. He summoned Mosha and said, "I've sinned. I've done something wrong. This time I'm wrong. I sinned. God is righteous. Me and my people are bad or evil are the wicked ones. Verse 28. Pray to Hashem. Pray to God. And there have been enough of these thunder heaven. Heavens and thunder hail. And I'll send you out. And don't you don't need to stay any longer. What does it mean? It's enough. He already brought enough thunder, enough noise, enough damaged. That's it. We don't need anymore. Verse 29. When I leave the city, I will spread out my hands to God. The thunder will seize and the hail will not come down. Why? So that you will know that the land the world belongs to God. He tells them only once I leave the city but in the city I will not pray because it was full of idolatry. Verse you and your servants will know. They have not you but you and your servants know and I know that you do not yet fear what God said because despite what you say I know your issues. Verse 30. What does it mean? You still don't believe in Hashem. Every time we have the word, it means not yet. Doesn't mean before. Like not yet. They have not yet gone to sleep. So I know you still have yet to be fearful of God. But once you re because the moment you start having and the plague goes away and everything is fine and you're still going to stay in your corruption, you're not going to follow through on what you said and you're not going to let the Jewish people go. Verse 31, the flax and the barley were crushed because the barley was ripe and the flax had formed stalks. What does this mean? explains they broke like the limping one, the broken one or people that are injured hitting here. Rashi tells us again some grammar what the actual word is. The word is na that means the nun is not replacing any other letter but is actually part of the source letter. What's the reason why they broke? And he explains because the barley was already it's already hardened. So therefore, it can break and therefore falls. So do the flax fire was ripened becomes hard and stays in it stalks and therefore it's able to break. However, but the weed and dispelled were not crushed because they were late in sprouting. So therefore, they were pliable and there and they were still able to bend and they just bent from the force and the impact but they didn't completely break as opposed to the barley and the flax. explains they're late to ripen were still soft. They were able to hold something that's heavy that comes on it without breaking even though it says that all the plants were destroyed by the by the h. Yeah. So it sounds like everything was destroyed. So what's going on here? You can explain but the simple interpretation by those hardened grass those are the ones that broke those that are able to get destroyed by butter and the hail but those and those were actually destroyed and that's the plants that the Torah is talking about explains. There are those that argue on this and they explain the word means wondrous miracles happened to them that they weren't. That means technically they should and all the other plants were destroyed. It was a miracle that the that the wheat was not. Verse 33. And Moshe left from the presence of Pharaoh and he left the city. He spread out his arms. He spread out his hands to God. And the thunder and the hail seized and no rain came pouring down on the ground. She says didn't reach. Even those that were midway, they stopped in the middle. It's never came down. We find this in other places. Other places we see the same usage explains as follows. Hebrew he explains this in the addition when he talks about the word comes from the word like somebody that's making iron and he's pouring it out and he's shaping it. I see where he's coming from because the actually says and they poured what does it mean that it didn't hit the ground it wasn't poured towards the ground that's the terminology that he comes from verse 34 that the rain and the hail has ceased and the thundering sounds and he continues to sin And his heart is hardened. Who? He and his servants remain unmoved and continue to refuse to let the Jewish people go. Continues to refuse and his heart is hardened to continues to refuse to let the Jewish people go. Does not send the Jewish people forth like exactly the way God told Moshe what would happen. This concludes the Torah reading of Paras Vira.