• December 21, 2021
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This week we begin a new sefer, Sefer Shemos. As we all know, Braishis is the book of the Avos, the first Jewish homes. It’s obvious that the Jewish family and home is at the center of Sefer Braishis. In Sefer Shemos though, we transition from the family to the Jewish nation. In Shmos, the Jewish people’s population explodes from 70 to well over a million, we go through national experiences like yetzias Mitzrayim, we receive the Torah as a nation, and build the Mishkan with donations from the whole nation. Just as Braishis is the sefer of the family, Shemos is the book of our nationhood. However, something doesn’t add up. We would expect the topic and closing sentence of Sefer Shemos to reflect the nationhood of Klal Yisrael, it should use the words “Bnai Yisrael”, but it doesn’t. Both the very first and the very last sentences in Sefer Shemos talk about the homes of the Jewish people. The first passuk describes the arrival of Yaakov’s family in Egypt and says, אִ֥ישׁ וּבֵית֖וֹ בָּֽאוּ, “...Each man and his family household came.” Jump to the end of Sefer Shemos, and unlike the closing of any other Sefer it also uses the term “Bayis”, family household. לְעֵינֵ֥י כׇל־בֵּֽית־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בְּכׇל־מַסְעֵיהֶֽם “…Before the eyes of the entire family household of Israel throughout their journeys”. For a book about a nation, it seems odd that it begins and ends with family. But there is more. The sefer opens with Bnai Yisrael moving into shibud Mitzrayim, the enslavement and we begin that enslavement “ish uveiso” with our families. How do we end the enslavement? The key to redemption is שֶׂ֥ה לְבֵית־אָבֹ֖ת שֶׂ֥ה לַבָּֽיִת the korban Pesach which must be eaten by each family household. Do you detect the theme? There is even more. The second half of Sefer Shemos revolves around the Mishkan. What is the Mishkan? The Ramban tells us in his introduction to Sefer Shemos that the Mishkan is our best effort at replicating the homes of the Avos and Imahos. Our national building is a copy of Sarah, Rivka, Rachel, and Leah’s homes. Just like their Shabbos lights stayed lit all week, so did the Mishkan’s, just as their challahs stayed fresh all week, so did the lechem hapanim in the Mishkan, just as they had a cloud above their tents, so did the Mishkan. The Geulah of Sefer Shemos says the Ramban is not complete until we have Hashem’s presence in our midst as He was in the first Jewish homes. The message is clear. You may think, says the Torah, that Sefer Shemos is about the nation, but in actuality it’s about the Jewish family, because the family is the absolutely vital building block of the nation. There is nothing more integral and necessary to the Jewish people than the Jewish family. And at the heart of the family, is the Jewish woman. We know that when we see the word “Bayis” it refers to a woman, because women build homes. A Jewish woman is at the core of a Jewish family which is at the heart of the Jewish people. It is easy to forget the importance of what we do. Raising a family means doing the same thing over and over, winning private victories that no one else sees or cares about. It means giving and giving without seeing immediate results and without receiving accolades. As we go about our days, doing things that in and of themselves seem mundane, driving kids places, doing dishes that will be dirty again within the hour, cooking, arbitrating arguments, we want to hold on to the message of Sefer Shemos. We are building Jewish families and thereby we are building the Jewish people. There is nothing more important than that.