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Misplaced Mercy by Rav Moshe Weinberger
From the Fire
Parshas Va’eira Misplaced Mercy
By Rav Moshe Weinberger Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf
From the outset, our parsha seems to send mixed messages. On one hand, it begins (Shemos 6:2), “And G-d, Elokim, spoke, va’yedaber, to Moshe,” using the word for speech implying a harsh tone and the Divine name implying strict justice – din. But the pasuk then quickly switches gears and continues, “And He said, va’yomer, to him, ‘I am Hashem, YKVK,’” using the word for speech implying a soothing tone and the Divine name implying lovingkindness and mercy – rachamim.
The Zohar explains that immediately after Moshe challenged G-d regarding the Jewish people’s suffering (ibid. 5:22-23), “Why have You hurt this nation?... From the time I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has harmed this nation,” Hashem meant to convey to Moshe that there were two very different but simultaneous processes going on. On the one hand, Hashem used the words “And G-d, Elokim, spoke,” to show that He was acting with din with the Egyptians – that they were about to suffer the consequences for their cruelty.
But Hashem was also telling Moshe that He was acting completely differently with the Jewish people. He said, “I am Hashem, YKVK,” to show that all of the Jewish people’s suffering was about to come to an end, that within their suffering, He was preparing to treat them with great mercy. The Jewish people’s redemption was at hand. That is why He then used the four expressions of redemption (ibid. 6:6-7), “I will take out... I will redeem... I will take...” and “I will bring.”
But when Moshe relays this message to the Jewish people, the Torah says (ibid. 9), “They did not listen to Moshe because of their shortness of breath and the hard labor.” Based on this, Moshe makes an argument to G-d using an a fortiori, kal vachomer deduction, to argue that Pharaoh will also not listen to him (ibid. 12): “If the children of Israel did not listen to me, how will Pharaoh listen to me?”
The commentaries have great difficulty with Moshe’s logical derivation. Let us understand one basis for this difficulty.
It would have been understandable if Moshe was commanded to deliver the same message in the same tone to both the Jewish people and Pharaoh. It would then make sense to ask, “If my own people will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh?” But Moshe was commanded to send a completely different message to each recipient. The Arizal explains that Hashem’s message of din was meant for Egypt, and His words of encouragement and love were meant for the Jewish people. On the one hand, He told Moshe and Aharon (ibid. 13) “concerning the children of Israel” with the message of strength, compassion, and redemption quoted above. But “concerning Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, [they were commanded to tell him] to take the Jewish people out from the land of Egypt.”
Hashem told Moshe to deliver messages appropriate for each recipient. The beleaguered Jewish people desperately needed encouragement, hope, and love – rachamim. We needed to hear the four expressions of redemption. We need to hear that we had a bright future in Yerushalayim and in Eretz Yisroel, a land flowing with milk and honey. Our Egyptian oppressors, however, needed words of rebuke, plagues, and punishment – din.
The ability to encourage and strengthen the Jewish people is so important that in the introduction to the Zohar it says that a person may only enter the chamber of Moshiach if he knows how “to turn darkness into light and to make the bitter sweet.” One must know the way of rachamim. He must see the good in the Jewish people in order to encourage them. That is the way Hashem wants His leaders to act in order to strengthen us. But the wicked must be dealt with using strict justice, rebuke, and “a strong hand and an outstretched arm.”
Unfortunately, the world has completely confused these two approaches. When it comes to the Jewish people, they speak with din, judging the Jewish people’s efforts to live and protect themselves in the harshest possible light. They condemn the only democracy in the Middle East, beset by animalistic terrorists on all sides, and from within, at every opportunity. The leaders of the United States calls every Arab civilian casualty in Israel’s war against the animals who hide among their own women and children an “outrage” and calls on “all sides to show restraint.” But when it comes to terrorists and backward Islamic extremists, they speak with a soft voice, with kid gloves, afraid to offend the delicate sensibilities of murderers.
The reality that our world does not understand today is that when one shows compassion to the wicked, this will not “turn darkness into light and make the bitter sweet.” Although much of the world makes itself blind, we have seen that this rachamim only strengthens evildoers by showing them that good people are weak and will do nothing to stand up for justice and righteousness.
The only way we can turn darkness into light is by seeing the goodness in other Jews, encouraging them, and treating them with rachamim.
May we merit to treat each other right and may we see much more than ten plagues visited upon those who work to destroy us with the arrival of the complete redemption, may it come soon in our days!
