Going Up and Out of Egypt

 Parshat B'Shalach 

by Rabbi Avi Billet 

 Rephidim (a place referenced in Shmot 17) is synonymous with two events: (1) there was no water, and perhaps as a result of what the people did in response, testing God and wondering if He’s even there, and (2) the battle with Amalek. 

 In the context of the complaining about water, Moshe is asked why he took them out of Egypt (ג) וַיִּצְמָ֨א שָׁ֤ם הָעָם֙ לַמַּ֔יִם וַיָּ֥לֶן הָעָ֖ם עַל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַיֹּ֗אמֶר לָ֤מָּה זֶּה֙ הֶעֱלִיתָ֣נוּ מִמִּצְרַ֔יִם לְהָמִ֥ית אֹתִ֛י וְאֶת־בָּנַ֥י וְאֶת־מִקְנַ֖י בַּצָּמָֽא: 

 Notice that they ask לָ֤מָּה זֶּה֙ הֶעֱלִיתָ֣נוּ מִמִּצְרַ֔יִם – Why’d you bring us UP from Egypt? This is a seemingly odd phrase for when we think of the Exodus, we think of יציאת מצרים. God begins the Decalogue with אנכי ה' א-לקיך אשר הוצאתיך… Are we talking about going out of Egypt? Or Aliyah from מצרים – going up? 

 While one might think these words are interchangeable, the fact is they are different. They don’t mean the same thing, and the truth is that they don’t have the same connotation either. 

 Yetziah means leaving. Aliyah means going up. 

 Just to clarify, the phrase למה הֶעֱלִיתָ֣נוּ appears two times – here and in a complaint of Dasan and Aviram in Parshas Korach. In Parshas Chukas, when the people are complaining about water before the מי מריבה episode, they say twice למה העליתנו – He’elisoonoo. Why did you bring us up? 

 [In Parshas Chukas, Ibn Ezra notes that “He’elisoonoo” is a strange word. Obviously its vowelization is different than הֶעֱלִיתָ֣נוּ, but I couldn’t explain its difference otherwise beyond some subtlety in grammar.] 

 Which means that primarily at major moments of confronting Moshe over the Exodus, this term of ALIYAH MIMITZRAYIM is making an appearance. 

 Some commentaries (Ibn Ezra, Rabbenu Bachaye) note that since the wilderness and Canaan are north of Egypt, they’re simply noting a geographical move northward. This is certainly a definition of going up! But perhaps there is greater depth to the distinction. 

 A number of commentaries and Midrashim (see Midrash Sechel Tov) take the Aliyah depiction of this matter as a specific attack against Moshe, not for the Exodus (leaving Egypt), which everyone accepts as coming from God, but for the specific concept of העלאה, of raising up from Egypt, as if this was Moshe’s plan. And so the question becomes, what else are they complaining about with this word? Are they suggesting, for example, that since their “Aliyah” is Moshe’s fault, all of their religious commitments are Moshe’s fault? From whatever happened in Marah, to, as later complaints might include, Sinai, the Mishkan, and God’s role even in our destiny? Alshikh and Abravanel specifically identify their complaint against Moshe for putting the children and animals in harm’s way – because Pharaoh was long ago agreeing to let the adults go. And so, the argument goes, had you Moshe accepted that offer, we’d have left a long time ago and not put our children in this situation. Yes, we’d have left the kids in Egypt, but that simply means we’d have returned to Egypt! Wasn’t that the original plan anyway? So the Aliyah we are experiencing is YOUR fault, since God only recommended a 3-day journey at the outset! 

Or maybe, as Malbim puts it, they blamed Moshe for working alone, without the input and advice of the Zekenim (elders)! 

There is a small problem, however, in that God told Moshe at the burning bush to gather the elders, tell them God appeared to you, and tell them “וָאֹמַ֗ר אַעֲלֶ֣ה אֶתְכֶם֘ מֵעֳנִ֣י מִצְרַיִם֒” I will bring you UP from Egypt, and וְשָׁמְע֖וּ לְקֹלֶ֑ךָ – they will listen to you! 

Aliyah from Egypt was always part of God’s plan! The question is if the people knew or were aware of this, or if they simply accidentally co-opted a phrase in their complaining. [I am not sure of the answer…] 

Netziv, both in our parsha and in Parshas Chukas, focuses on this phrase and teaches us a profound lesson about what Aliyah Mimitzrayim is all about. 

 Netziv says their complaint was that they had to function in the world in a manner that was למעלה מן הטבע – above the laws of nature. So whoever wasn’t cut out for this kind of higher level living was lost at the lifestyle they were now exposed to. Miracle manna, miracle water, body needs that simply vanished – when you have heavenly bread and heavenly water it might just dissipate from the body without producing waste. After all, how could this perfect food have any “waste” in it? 

In Chukas, Netziv has them asking היינו שנהיה בדוקא אנשי מעלה הראוים להשגחה פרטית – they wondered what gave Moshe the impression that they were אנשי מעלה or that they could be אנשי מעלה who were deserving of such a high-level- spiritually-sustaining existence of supernatural sustenance. Why can’t you make it simple through not making it so simple? 

We need bread, we need a river. So let us make the things ourselves and eat them ourselves and gather water ourselves! 

To be אנשי מעלה – people who aim higher – is the task of the Jewish people. 

 קדשים תהיו כי קדוש אני – Be holy, for I [God] am Holy. 

Rabb Morris Joseph, a British rabbi from the turn of the previous century (he died in 1930) wrote in his book “Judaism as Creed and Life,” “Being chosen doesn’t mean that we are better, but that we ought to be.” 

It’s a good aphorism that models a particular kind of behavior, but perhaps it’s more important for us to remember not that we are better, but that we ought to be striving for higher and better. 

 While certainly everyone’s task in this world is personal improvement, every now and then someone laments to me about others’ public observances: some people are lax about washing, brachos, bentching, bracha acharona, people engage in gossip, or perhaps in general some don’t seem to care much about halakha or God. 

Obviously each person has his or her own relationship with God, but perhaps we ought to ask if we truly believe in God or whether we live this life because it’s most convenient or because it was how we were raised, rather than on account of a true conviction, or a belief in reward and punishment in the next world? 

 Each of us may benefit from asking the following questions: 

• What do I believe in? What do I want to believe in? 
• What choices do I make and what actions do I take to demonstrate my beliefs? 
• When I come to shul, do I turn off the phone and eliminate distractions, including talking to neighbors? 
• Do I pay attention to all the words of davening – such as when we sanctify God’s name in Kaddish and Kedusha? 
• Do I pay attention to the Torah reading? Am I listening as God speaks to me through the words of the Torah? 
• Do I believe that צדקה in both the charitable giving sense, and in the doing the right thing sense, is the way I’m supposed to behave always? After all, in the Sodom story, God chose to tell Avraham Avinu His plans because He knew that Avraham will be teaching his descendants לעשות צדקה ומשפט, to live out our creed of living for righteousness and justice. 
•  Do we seek out opportunities to learn more, or do we only perk up when an opportunity to learn something piques our interest because of a clever title? While it’s difficult to navigate a website like yutorah.org that has hundreds of thousands of lectures and shiurim, plenty of filters can be plugged in that you can really find whatever you want there – from history, to biographies of great Jews, to Jews in the entertainment industry, to of course every Halakha and Gemara under the sun. 

The Bnei Yisrael who complained to Moshe missed a particular opportunity in למה העליתנו. They did not want the burden of being אנשי מעלה, and as a result, Amalek came. 

 And what is Amalek? 

 The Slonimer Rebbe explains in Parshas Ki Setze that the commandment for remembering Amalek זכור את אשר עשה לך is a reminder that we have a spiritual battle against evil. Amalek is the ultimate distraction from being and becoming אנשי מעלה. The mitzvah is written in the singular because this battle is every individual’s battle – each of us comes to our relationship with God on our own basis, based on our particular needs, understandings, and of course our own output. The Slonimer Rebbe said Remember that YOU the individual faces this battle with Amalek, because each person has different challenges. 

 It is Eisav’s descendants saying “What do you need God for? Come live with us! Disappear as a unique identity!” It’s Amalek enticing the נחשלים, the weakhearted and saying “Join our way! No rules! Anything and everything goes.” 

For us, for our ancestors who were told at the splitting of the Sea, התיצבו וראו את ישועת ה', see God’s salvation, the goal of our connection is ויאמינו בה' ובמשה עבדו – to believe in God and in Moshe and His servant

 אנשי מעלה. Being people who ascend. Being people who are מעלים בקדש. Let us take the slip of the tongue of those who challenged God and say not למה העליתנו – why did you take us up from Egypt, and instead say “How privileged we are to be elevated.”

 ברוך הוא א-לקינו שבראנו לכבודו והבדילנו מן הטועים ונתן לנו תורת אמת. 

If indeed we are privileged as we say in עלינו – שלא עשנו כגויי הארצות - that we are different than others, our difference is in our being אנשי מעלה, people who are always an upward trajectory to be closer and closer to the Almighty. 

Rephidim’s challenges are therefore a call to all of us to remember our calling – not to get distracted by the things which take us away from our life goals. May we merit to live up to our creed, and embrace our lot of being אנשי מעלה.