Parshas Beshalach - Raising Children in Exile

2:35 And then, these women would become pregnant. So when it came time to deliver, the Gemara says a very strange thing: they would go out under an apple tree. Why an apple tree? We'll soon see. They would go under an apple tree. And then Hakadosh Baruch Hu would send a malach And this malach would come and act as a midwife And the malach would help the child be delivered. And then the malach would take care of the child. The Gemara says that there were two loaves that the malach would feed the child from. And the malach would feed the children oil and honey from these loaves. But when the Mitzrim found out about these births, they would come to kill the children. The Gemara says this is a wild Gemara. And so what happened to these children? The ground would open up, and the babies would be swallowed up into the ground.

3:41 But the Mitzrim still wanted to kill these children, even though they were swallowed up in the ground. The Mitzrim were afraid. So the Mitzrim would come. And they would take their cattle and plow the ground to make sure that the babies that were swallowed up in the ground would be killed. But of course, they weren't killed. What would happen? They would grow up. The Gemara says, under the ground, and then they would come home like flocks of sheep. But in that time these children were in the ground The Gemara says these children. The Gemara says that these children Would They were with Hashem. So they recognized Hashem. So by Krias Yamsof, when Hashem's presence was so obvious, so apparent to the entire world, that even a shifcha had unbelievable nevuah. So in that time, it was the children who grew up underground with Hashem. That the children said, 'Zekeli v'Anveyu.' I recognize this. This is Hashem.

4:58 So it's an amazing story. The Gemara says "Who was it that said Zekeli v'Anveyu?" It was the children who grew up underground who recognized Hashem because they were growing up literally in the cradle of Hashem Yisburach. They were the ones that said Zekei Livanvehu. This is what the Gemara in Sota eleven B says. However, we have many, many questions on this Gemara. Because, like all Agadat Gemaras, we have to know that it's meant to be taken seriously and not always meant to be taken literally. So I'll give you a beautiful introduction. Just in general, how to learn Agadat. The I believe it's the maral. I believe it's the maral. It might be the marsha. But it might be the mar. I'm not sure if it's the marsha or the maral. He gives a marshal to explain how we're meant to learn agada to gemaras, how we're meant to learn medrash.

6:02 So says as follows: Imagine back in the day that people would go to war, they would all meet up in a certain field. That was the battlefield. And before the battle was about to start, all the one side was on one side of the field, the other side was on the other side of the field And they would come to the middle of the field. They would send out the leaders of their battalion and they would sign a declaration of war. And then, if they couldn't come to a peace agreement, they would go back to their sides. They would run to the middle, and whoever killed more people were the victors. So imagine, says the Maral, maybe the Marsha. Imagine if the next day's newspaper headline read Ten thousand people drowned in a drop of ink. We would all know what the newspaper meant. It didn't mean obviously that the drops of ink were so large that they would drown ten thousand people.

7:02 It means to say that. Given that yesterday, when they signed the declaration of war, ten thousand people died. That's a headline that grabs your attention. Imagine if many years later somebody picked up a newspaper and they said, "It used to be in those times" That if the drops of ink were so big that you could drown in them, even ten thousand people could drown in them. It wasn't meant to be taken literally; it was meant to convey a message. And so too with every Agada to Gemara. We must ask ourselves: What is the message of this Gemara? What are we being taught? So we have many questions. The details here are very important. What are the messages that are in this Gemara? In order to understand the messages, we need to look carefully at what the Gemara said. So let's go back to the beginning. Some of the questions we have.

8:02 What a strange miracle that Hashem sent! The women would go to the well, draw their water, and fish would come out. What was the nature of this miracle? Why fish? Why didn't Kadosh Baruch Hu have cows running to their doors so that the men could have steak in the field? I like a good piece of salmon as much as the next guy. But I'd rather have steak. So there's something specific that Hashem sends fish And these righteous women I don't know. It says be'schus nashim tzedkaniyos. In the merit of these righteous women, we were redeemed from Eretz Yisrael. What they do? What they do already? They cooked the fish. They brought it to their husbands who were working in the fields. Is this so impressive? Of course it is. It's always impressive. Take care of your family. They took the water. They bathed their husbands. They fed them some fish. Why is that such an amazing thing? It seems like it's a very big deal.

9:02 And then we know that they would go to the fields, and specifically, they would be intimate with their husbands on the borders of the field. Why? Why there? What's the gemara communicating to us that it happened on the borders of the field? And then we continue with this very strange story. What happens? They have the women get pregnant and they go to have children. They go to have their children. And where do they go under an apple tree? Why does the Gemara tell us that their children were born under an apple tree? What is the significance of an apple tree? And Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends a malach And the malach acts like a midwife, very beautiful. The Gemara tells us a strange thing: honey and oil. That's what he would. That's what this malach would feed the children. Why dafka honey? Why dafka oil? What's the significance of these things that Hakadosh Baruch Hu dafka sends a malach to feed the children honey and oil?

10:04 And then what a strange thing! The Mitzrim come to kill them, and they're swallowed up by the ground, safely ensconced in the cradle of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and only afterwards do they come out, go home, and this is how the population grew in Mitzrayim. And these children are the ones to recognize Hashem. Zekeliva anvehu. What's going on over here? The children are swallowed up by the ground, and then they recognize Hashem later, and they see by Az Yashir. What are the inner messages here? There's a lot. Every word of Chazal, every single word of Chazal Hasidism is packed with meaning, packed with lessons, life lessons that could really come with us for the journey. What were Chazal conveying over here? There was a There was a promise, a bracha. From Yaakov Avinu. There's a Malach Yaakov Avinu says, "There will be a redeeming Malach. One day there will be a redeeming Malach."

11:21 And ultimately, the bracha of Yaakov Avinu is VeYidgu L'arayv beKeriv Aratz. You will become abundant. VeYidgu. You will become abundant. Says the Gemara in many places. What's this lashon of VeYidgu? VeYidgu is the fish in the sea. You will become abundant like the fish in the sea. I would like to submit the following idea. And I hope you'll find this meaningful. For those of you, I know it's hard on Zoom. I'm so impressed every single one of you that showed up, and every single one of you that's doing your best. Zoom is maybe hard to pay attention, but I think this is maybe going to be worth it. The women of Mitsrayim What was their godless? What was their greatness? They were sitting with the bracha of Yaakov Avinu on their heart. They knew the bracha of Yaakov Avinu to Yosef, to Ephraim, and to Menashe.

12:23 And they were waiting. Their husbands were away in the fields. There was no intimacy. There was no. There was no family. They were thinking to themselves, "How is the bracha of Hakadosh Baruch Hu going to become fulfilled? How will we multiply? Where will we build our Jewish families if our husbands are not home?" So Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends a message to them. They go out to the well, they draw their water, or wherever they drew their water from. And all of a sudden they pick up their buckets, and it's filled halfway with fish. Girls, you know what a regular person would say? A regular person would say, "Great" My kids now have fish to eat. I'm going to make them a spicy salmon and a delicious tuna. " That's not. What these righteous women of Mitzrayim saw These righteous women of Mitzrayim They saw a hint. Vayidgu arayv We will become abundant. Yaakov Avinu promised us we will be abundant like the fish in the sea.

13:29 So when they saw the fish in those buckets, the women said, this is the time the Rebbeinu Shalom is sending us a message. The Rebbeinu Shalom is sending us a kiss. The Rebbeinu Shlomo is saying, 'You can figure out, even under the most difficult of circumstances, you can figure out how to build a Jewish family.' Like Klal Yisrael has done for thousands of years. In the most difficult of circumstances, we figured out how to continue to build our community, how to continue to build our families. The righteous women throughout history that went to mikveh in freezing cold lakes that were covered with ice. That went behind the backs of the Cossacks and the Nazis. They figured out a way. The righteous women of Mitzrayim, those righteous Jews living in Mitzrayim When they saw the fish in the bucket, they didn't think of a good meal.

14:24 They said the Rebbeinu Shlom is sending us a message. How many messages does the Rebbeinu Shlom send us on a daily basis? We're not listening to our messages. The tzidkus of these women. They were hungry. Their husbands were out in the field. They were slaves. They didn't get any money for it. They didn't think to themselves, "the Rebbeinu Sholom gave me food." They said, "The Rebbeinu Sholom says, find a creative way" Find a creative way. So they took that water And they took those fish, cooked the fish, took the water, and went to the fields. And they found a creative way To be together with their husbands, even though their husbands couldn't come home. They went to the borders of the field. What's the significance of going to the borders of the field? Listen to what the Maral says. Unbelievable Maral. Intimacy is oneness. That's what intimacy means.

15:21 Oneness doesn't mean two things that are close together. Oneness means true oneness. In this world, the Maral says there's no such thing as real oneness. Because when you live in the physical world, everything is fragmented. I have here in front of me, two water bottles. These two water bottles can be close, but they can never become one. There is not a true sense of unity in our world. The thing that we have that's closest to oneness is marriage. The way that we become one with our Kadosh Baruch Hu, the way that we become one, we cleave to Hashem, we become one with Hashem. The closest thing we have to that is to become one with our spouse. In the physical world, there is no parallel, says the Maral. Except for one thing. The border of a field In a certain sense, what's the border of a field between one field and the next? What's the border? It's like at what point does one field stop and the other one begin?

16:23 The border in the physical world is the closest thing we have to oneness. It's where the two fields meet. So the women went and they took their husbands to the borders of the field. Why the borders of the field? Because they said to their husbands, "We need, even though we're separate from each other, even though you're out in the fields and I'm home" We need to make sure that we're intimate. We need to make sure that we maintain despite our distance. We need to make sure that we maintain our unity. This is the message that they sent to their husbands, and of course, when a relationship has such unbelievable levels of intimacy, The natural response to that is that these women got pregnant. But now there was a problem. Now there's a problem. How do we raise these children in Galus? How do we raise our children in Galus? How do you raise a child in Mitzrayim?

17:28 I'll tell you. I think I've mentioned this before, but I'll I'll tell you a quick story. My rasha shiva Rebbe Brown Spiegel, shliita, should be zaychad a refuah shleima. My rasha shiva He was a Holocaust survivor. But the Nazis, yimachshemam, they didn't know about him. He was in the concentration camps, but the Nazis didn't know about him. Why not? Because he and a couple of other children. He told us the story. They lived in the bathrooms. The Nazis never went to the bathrooms. They had outhouses in the back. The Nazis never went there because it was so filthy and disgusting. As a little three, four, five-year-old child, he was growing up, mamish, in the concentration camps. How do you raise a child in the concentration camps? Imagine being a mother. How do you raise a child in the concentration camps? How do you raise a Jewish child in America? No. With all the suffering, with all the terrible things that are going on around you This is the creation of a Jewish family. The Jewish nation was born in Mitzrayim. This is what Yaakov Avinu promised. We're going to become abundant in Mitzrayim, and we were.

18:42 What's the pshat? How do you raise a kid in Mitzrayim? How do you build a nation? I once heard a good line. Klal Yisrael went from being families to tribes to a nation. How do you build yourself up in Mitzrayim? So listen to what these women did. They went to an apple tree. What's the significance of going to an apple tree? It's an amazing thing. We find that the Zohar Kadosh says the Zohar Kadosh and Achrei Mos says that the apple is a mashiach is a symbolism for healing. An apple heals. That's the nature of an apple. That's what Ibn Ezra says when the pasuk says Hisamchuni ba'ashishus rafduni batapuchim kichaylas aha'vani. What does that mean? It means that an apple invigorate me with apples. Invigorate me with apples is a cure to kichaylas aha'vani. When a person is sick, an apple is a cure. Even today, what do we say? An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

19:56 An apple is a symbol for cure. For making someone healthy again. This is what the Jewish women said. We need to build a family. We know that the family is going to suffer. Bad things will happen in our lives. We cannot teach our children that life will always be good. It will not. But what we can teach our children, what we're obligated to teach our children Is that we can heal. We can heal. That's an amazing way to bring up a child. An amazing way to bring up a child is to tell the child, "It's true. In your life, you're going to have hard things." Maybe you're born into a hard situation. Maybe it's a difficult family situation. Maybe it's a difficult grade that you're going that you're growing up with. Everybody has their own stuff. Maybe in the family there's going to be all sorts of illnesses.

20:55 Suffering of course will happen. Life is painful. But there can be healing. And not only can there be healing But the thing itself that's causing so much pain, so much discomfort, will become the healing. So what does that mean? What does that mean? So listen, what Hakadosh Baruch Hu does, He sends a Malach. Remember what was the beginning of Yaakov Avinu's bracha? There's going to be a redeeming angel. I want to suggest that the Malach in Yaakov Avinu's bracha. You can see that Malach already over here, the Malach that acts as a midwife, the Malach that delivers these children and then nourishes these children. He's nourishing the children with the notion of redemption. And what does the Malach give to the children? What nourishes these children? What grows these children? What makes these children into children who could grow up in Mitzrayim and be worthy of redemption?

22:08 Two things Oil and honey. Let's first go to oil. There are many different liquids. Each one has a different symbolism in Judaism. There's water, there's wine, and there's oil. The oil is a liquid that is extracted from the essence of the olive. That's why when you get really good oil, olive oil. What do they say? Hundred percent extra virgin olive oil. That means they extracted it from the essence of the olive. It's not like wine. A wine is just when you step on a grape, the grape juice comes out. Olive oil is a very complex process. You have to extract it from the essence. The first thing that a child needs to know is who you are. If you want to raise a child in Gullus, a child who's worthy of being redeemed, first you need to tell a child, and it's a very beautiful thing.

23:09 You need to tell the child who you are. Today, children are growing up with no sense of safety. Because they don't know who they are. And if you don't know who you are, the world is a crazy place. So there's nothing anchoring you. To be part of a family means you come from somewhere and you're going somewhere. Children today are not growing up with that sense of safety. Who are you? You could be anything. We want to raise you in such an open way that you could choose to be whatever you want. But we're doing our children a disservice. We have to tell our children who they are. Of course, it goes without saying that every child needs to be raised in a way that they could find their own unique path. But that doesn't mean that we give our child every single option. We are Jews. We have a Jewish soul.

24:02 Even if a Jew will run away, they will not be less Jewish, because we have a Jewish soul. So the first lesson that Malach teaches the child, the first nourishing food that the child gets Is oil. Your essence is that you are a Jew. And that means that no matter where you go, you find yourself in Mitzrayim. You're a Jew. You find yourself in the Holocaust. You're a Jew. You find yourself in the Crusades. You find yourself in America today. With all the anti-Semitism on the rise. You're a Jew. And knowing who we are is the beginning. That's the bedrock of our chinuch. Raising our children. You are a Jew. That's a wonderful thing for a child to know. I'm a Jew. That means I have a mission. I'm supposed to be Mameleches Kohen and the Guy Kadosh. I'm supposed to bring our Kadosh Baruch Hu down into this world and illuminate the entire world with our Kadosh Baruch Hu's presence.

25:01 That's a beautiful way to raise a child, and that means that no matter where the child goes The child holds on to the mission. That's chinuch lesson number one. Ve yidgu l'arayv. If we're going to raise all these children and we're going to become a nation The first thing we have to know is that we are a Jewish nation. Not any other nation. We're unique. And that's important to know. The second lesson. That's important to know. Critically important to know Is the lesson of honey. What is the lesson of honey? So listen to something that we all know. Shimshon Agibor. Shimshon Agibor. We know the Torah tells us that he was attacked by a lion. He was attacked by a lion. And because Shimshon Agibor was so strong with his bare hands, he killed the lion that was about to attack him. Later, he returned to that spot.

26:04 And he saw the carcass of the lion. And he found in the belly of the lion, in the carcass of the lion, there was a swarm of bees. And that swarm of bees had made honey in the belly of the lion. And Shimshon Agibar said the following riddle: This is what he said to his friends, from the devourer came the food. From the strong came the sweet. What did that mean? From the devourer came the food. From the strong came the sweet. Listen to what Shemshan Agibar was telling us. That lion that tried to kill me Ultimately it became a source of sustenance. Its initial move was to attack me. But I killed it, and then the bees came into that lion. And they made that their place, and now it becomes a source of sustenance, and not just any sustenance, but that lion that was originally so strong It's not so strong now. Now it's giving a sweet taste.

27:12 Listen to the message of the honey. The Malach feeds our children honey. The children growing up in Mitzrayim, and it says to them, "Yes" You are growing up in an environment where you're slaves. You're going to be raised to be slaves. But from the devourer From the Egyptians that are trying to devour you, they're trying to destroy you. From those very same Egyptians will come the food. That's going to give you something unbelievable. From those people that are trying to kill you, it's going to give you something unbelievable. And right now it seems so bitter, it seems so chazak, it seems so strong. I'm mamish under the gun, Rebbe. What am I going to do? You should know that's going to give birth to the greatest sweetness. This is the lesson that we need to teach our children in Gollis. You feel right now. How many times in our lives do we feel right now? I just can't hold space for myself anymore. I'm mamish under attack everywhere I turn. I have so many different things coming at me.

28:19 From the devourer comes the food. From the strong comes the sweet. It's an unbelievable thing that when a person can look at the pain in their life, they could know. I know there's something behind that pain. There's a reason for all of this. There's a lesson to be learned. Something that could mantiq this. Something that could sweeten this, which ultimately will enrich my life in unbelievable ways. And then come the Mitzrim And the Mitzrim here that Jewish children are born. So these Rishayim Gamurim come to the field to murder these children. They come to devour the children. And what does Hakadosh Baruch Hu do? Hakadosh Baruch Hu makes a miracle. And they're swallowed up by the ground. They're not devoured by the Mitzrim; they're devoured by the ground. But they were only devoured by the ground because the Mitzrim were coming to kill them. And there they met Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

29:21 In other words, if the Mitzrim would have never come to kill those Jewish babies, they never would have developed the personal relationship with Al Kadosh Baruch Hu that they developed. So the greatest thing in the world, as painful as it was, these Jewish mothers had to go out to an apple tree to bring healing into the world to heal a broken nation. They went dafka to the apple tree. And these kids are born, and they're cleaned by the Malach himself. And the Malach gives them these two important lessons: number one, you're a Jew, no matter where you go, no matter how difficult the circumstances. And number two, the circumstances themselves will heal you. The pain is the cure. Now the Mitzrim come And they try to devour us. But Akoldish Baruch Hu has a better plan. Because the Mitzrim are coming, I have no choice but to take you in. We discover Hashem in the midst of our pain.

30:15 That's where we discover Hakadosh Baruch Hu, which is an unbelievable lesson. It's a great reframe. It means that when I'm suffering, I'm suffering so badly. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is giving me an opportunity to learn these unbelievable lessons about my life. Wow! And now, many years later Hakadosh Baruch Hu splits the sea in this week's parsha And these Jews. These children That when they were born, they had to be taken underground. Because they had to avoid the Mitzrim coming to kill them When the sea splits, it's these children. They point and they say, "Zeh keli van ve'yu." I know what's happening now. This is the Rebbeinu Sholom, the same Rebbeinu Sholom that I grew up with, the same Rebbeinu Sholom that from all that pain I had to go underground. I've been here before. I recognize Hakadosh Baruch Hu. You see, there are some people because they didn't suffer, because they didn't find Hakadosh Baruch Hu within their pain They don't discover Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the salvation either.

31:25 They go through life not conscious of Hashem. What a terrible tragedy! If we can come close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu from our pain, That's unbelievable Because when the salvation ultimately does come, when we get to see the end of the story, there are those of us that will be sensitive enough to see that's the Rebbeinu Shlom, and there will be those of us that don't even recognize that the redemption is occurring. The sea split; it worked out miraculously. Where's Hakadosh Baruch Hu? Those children that suffered, they knew Zekeli Vanveu. They had a personal relationship with Hashem. Zekele, this is my God. Vaanvehu from a lashon of ani vahu. Me and you, Rebbe Nachshon. It's the two of us together. What an important lesson for our times! What an important lesson for our times. Girls We all have difficult things in our lives. Right now, you're in bidud.

32:23 I can't come in to Tomer Devorah to teach you. How badly I want to come in to teach. It's difficult. Some rabbis can come in live. Some rabbis can't come in live. It's difficult. Some of you are back home. And you're getting to zoom in. Girls Remember You have two choices. Choice number one Roll over Roll over. It's happening. I can't do anything about it. Choice number two is you can turn inwards and discover the Rebbeinu Shalom. He's pulling you closer to him. He's devouring you within. And you have an opportunity to daven. You have an opportunity to talk to Hashem about the difficult things that are happening. And those of you that use this opportunity to come closer to Hashem When the salvation comes, you'll have a greater relationship with Hashem. And those of us that take the opportunity to mask our feelings. To sit and watch Netflix all day To hide from ourselves We're missing out on an unbelievable opportunity.

33:38 The most important thing that we can give our children and that we can give ourselves is to feed ourselves from the honey. To feed ourselves from the oil To say, "I'm a Jew" In quarantine. In America, in Eretz Yisrael, in Yerushalayim, in Tel Aviv, wherever I go, I'm a Jew. And there are amazing opportunities in front of me. There's a gift here. From the devourer comes the food, from the strength comes the sweetness. I want to bless every one of us. Bei'ezar Hashem, this time period that we're not together. Hopefully next week we'll be back together. But this time period that you're in right now, don't let it go to waste. You have an unbelievable opportunity to come closer to the Rebbeinu Shalom right now. And Beisr Hashem Hamalach Hagayil I see me Kolra, that same Malach that nourishes us, that gives us that oil and that honey, the Yidgul Arayv bekeret va'aretz. Ultimately, it will become a source of great abundance in our lives.