Parshas Shemos - Redemption and renewal

The passuk says in this week’s sedrah (2:1)

וַיֵּלֶךְ אִישׁ מִבֵּית לֵוִי וַיִּקַּח אֶת בַּת לֵוִי

And a man from the house of Levi went and he took the daughter of Levi.

Rashi explains:

פרוש היה ממנה מפני גזירת פרעה וחזר ולקחה וזהו וילך שהלך בעצת בתו שאמרה לו גזרתך קשה משל פרעה אם פרעה גזר על הזכרים ואתה ג"כ על הנקבות (ברש"י ישן) והחזירה ועשה בה לקוחין שניים ואף היא נהפכה להיות נערה ובת ק"ל שנה היתה שנולדה בבואה למצרים בין החומות ומאתים ועשר שנה נשתהו שם וכשיצאו היה משה בן שמונים שנה א"כ כשנתעברה ממנו היתה בת ק"ל וקורא אותה בת לוי

Amram had separated from Yocheved because of the decree of Pharoh (that all newborn boys must be drowned) and he went and re-took her. The passuk says “and he went” meaning that he went according to the counsel of his daughter (Miriam) who said to him, “Your decree is worse than Pharoh’s decree, because Pharoh only decreed on the males but you have decreed on the females also (that they should not be born).”

So Amram retook Yocheved and re-married her, and a nes happened to Yocheved, for she was 130 years old, since she was born when the benei yisrael passed through the walls of Mitzraim, and the benei yisrael were in Mitzrayim for 210 years, and when they went out Moshe was 80 years old, if so when she became expectant with Moshe she was 130 years old, yet the passuk calls her the daughter of Levi to indicate that she returned to her youth.

• Why does the Torah hint to the nes that occurred to Yocheved of returning to her youth, by calling her the daughter of Levi?

·       The passuk says in Lech Lechah (15:13 - 16)

וַיֹּאמֶר לְאַבְרָם יָדֹעַ תֵּדַע כִּי גֵר יִהְיֶה זַרְעֲךָ בְּאֶרֶץ לֹא לָהֶם וַעֲבָדוּם וְעִנּוּ אֹתָם אַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה... וְדוֹר רְבִיעִי יָשׁוּבוּ הֵנָּה

And Hashem said to Avraham, “You shall surely know that your children will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and they will afflict them for 400 years… and the fourth generation shall return here.”

• Why does the passuk use years as the measure of time (400 years) when describing the galus, but use generations as the measure of time (4 generations) when describing the geulah?

·       The Pachad Yitzchak explains as follows:

The gemara says in Sotah (12a)

ויקח ויחזור מיבעי ליה, א"ר יהודה בר זבינא שעשה לה מעשה ליקוחין הושיבה באפריון ואהרן ומרים מרקדין לפניה ומלאכי השרת אמרו (תהלים קי"ג, ט') אם הבנים שמחה

Why does the passuk say “and he took her”, why did the passuk not say “and he returned her”? Rabbi Yehudah bar Zevina explained, “He married her as though she had never been married previously. He placed her in a bridal litter of a wedding procession and Aharon and Miriam danced before her and the malachim said ‘the mother of the children should rejoice’”.

The Maharal (Gevuros Hashem, 16) explains as follows:

ודרשו שהושיבה באפריון וכו'. ויש לתמוה מה בא לאשמועינן בזה שהושיבה באפריון ועשה מעשה לקוחים. אמנם דבר זה ענין עמוק כי היה דבר זה לעשות לקוחים חדשים, מפני שחזרה להיות נערה כדמפרש והיה ראוי שיהיו עושים מעשה לקוחים חדשים כמו שחזרה להיות נערה. וענין זה נפלא מאוד וכאשר תשכיל תבין חזרת נעוריה שהיה ליוכבד, כי כאשר ילדה את משה רבינו ע"ה שהיה על כל בני אדם במעלה כדכתיב לא קם נביא כמשה עוד, ומעלת משה הוא מעולם העליון אשר ממנו מתחדש הכל, לכך כאשר לקחה היה כאן לקוחים חדשים וחזרה להיות נערה שהיה מתחדש הכל בכח אותו מעלה העליונה שממנה מתחדש הכל, וזה מודיע לנו מעלת משה רבינו ע"ה כי נשמתו היה קודש קדשים נאצל מן המעלה הרמה והנשאה העליונה אשר היא חדוש העולם, ולכך כאשר הוליד את משה חזרה להיות נערה בודאי והבן זה.

“The gemara says that Amram placed Yocheved in a bridal litter etc., and it is difficult to understand what the gemara means to tell us by relating this and by relating that he acted as though he was marrying Yocheved for the first time.

However this is a deep matter, because Amram acted in this way in order that he should be considered to be newly married to Yocheved. For Yocheved returned to her youth so it was appropriate that he should marry her anew as befits a young woman.

The reason for all this is that the neshama of Moshe came from the World of Renewal [and so Hashem gave the Torah, which is the source of eternal renewal, through Moshe]. And therefore when it came time for Moshe to be born, the wellsprings of renewal appeared, though which Yocheved was rejuvenated and through which Amram remarried Yocheved with such joy as if they had never been married before.”

Based on this Maharal, the Pachad Yitzchak explains that the reason that the galus in Mitzrayim is described in terms of years (400 years) is because with the progression of the years it is likely that things can be misappropriated from and grow away from their original intention.

Avraham asked Hashem how he could know that the benei yisrael would not forget the original intention of their creation, which was to serve Hashem. Maybe with the passage of time, they would take their existence for granted and utilise their strengths and capabilities for their own purposes, in which case they would not merit to inherit Eretz Yisrael. That is why in the nevuah, the galus is referred to as a passage of years.

Hashem told Avraham that the generations of the benei yisrael would always seek to be tied to their original progenitors, so that the 4^th generation would return “here”, meaning not only to the place in which Hashem was speaking to Avraham, but also to the spirit of the time in which He was speaking to him. In this way, the benei yisrael would never become removed from their original origin and so aged, but rather, through the gift of the רכוש גדול, being the Torah, they would always retain the wellspring of youthful vigour and would remain an eternally young people.

That is why the passuk uses the words בת לוי, the daughter of Levi, to refer to Yocheved becoming rejuvenated, to show that it was through the spirit of the rejuvenation of the Torah which would be given through Moshe, that the benei yisrael would always retain a youthful connection to the source of their being (as Yocheved was identified as Levi’s daughter) and would thus merit to be redeemed.