{"id":3101,"date":"2019-01-15T01:53:26","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T01:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=3101"},"modified":"2019-01-15T01:53:26","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T01:53:26","slug":"bo-5779","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=3101","title":{"rendered":"Bo (5779)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Drash Cards for Bo (5779)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Marc\nMangel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 I want\nto discuss one verse that the we read today and one that will come up in\nBaMidbar, and which interlock, taking advantage of the  wonderful new translation of the Bible by\nRobert Alter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 I will\nread the verses from the Rebbe\u2019s Chumash \nfirst alone and second with Rashi and interpolated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 This\nweek\u2019s verse with no interpolation. Ch 12, v 38: Moreover, a mixed multitude\nwent up with them, as well as flocks and cattle \u2013 a great deal of livestock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 With interpolation:\nMoreover, a mixed multitude of people from other nations asked Moses if they\ncould join the ranks of Israelites. \nMoses did not consult with God but accepted them on his own authority,\nreasoning that it would be good for them to be attached to God\u2019s presence. This\nmultitude went up with them, as well as flocks and cattle \u2013 a great deal of\nlivestock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 This \u2018mixed\nmultitude\u2019 gets a pretty bad rap from Rashi. \nHe says that they inspire the Israelites to build the Golden calf\n(arguing that what happened in Egypt was the result of the battle of\nconstellations in which Taurus defeated Ares). \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Then\nin BaMidbar, Ch11, v4, let\u2019s see what happens. \nWithout interpolation:  The mixed\nmultitude had begun to have strong cravings. The Israelites too were affected\nand began to cry \u201cWho will feed us meat?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Without\ninterpolation: The mixed multitude among the Israelites had begun to have\nstrong cravings for their former way of life. The Israelites too were affected\nby their behavior and began to cry with them. Even though they had taken many\nanimals with them from Egypt and therefore had plenty of meat, they all said\n\u201cWho will feed us meat?\u201d for they were seeking a pretext to avoid the\nchallenges of their new way of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Now\nthe mixed multitude is explicitly held responsible for inspiring the Israelites\nto complain about the lack of meat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Who\nare this mixed multitude? The Hebrew words that we focus on are \u201cErav rav\u201d.\nNahum Sarna translates it as \u2018mixed multitude\u2019 and writes \u201cVaried other groups\nof forced laborers seem to have taken advantage of the confused situation and\nfled the country with the Israelites\u201d. \nHe notes that Ibn Ezra identified them with the riffraff in BaMidbar Ch\n11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Now\nlet\u2019s turn to Alter.  He translates \u2018Arav\nrav\u2019 as \u2018motley throng\u2019, noting that \u2018mixed multitude\u2019 comes from the King\nJames version of the Bible.  He suggests\nthat it should be one word \u2018Eravrav\u2019 and that combining syllables like this is\na way in Hebrew of making perjoratives. \nHe writes: \u201cThe English \u2018riffraff\u2019 comes close. And in fact, in BaMidbar\n11:4 a similar kind of construction occurs \u2013 one word AsafSuf, which Alter\ntranslates as \u2018riffraff\u2019, as does Jacob Milgram. (In the Rebbe\u2019s chumash it\nremains the mixed multitude.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 With\nthe golden calf, the role of the motley throng is inferred by commentators, but\nwith the meat episode in BaMidbar they are squarely blamed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 What\ndo these subtleties of grammar have to do with us?  Plenty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 The\nTorah is not shy about human frailty.  In\nBereshit and Shmot thus far we have had lying, siblicide, murder, rape, incest,\nto name a few.  Today\u2019s parsha is another\ninstance of the Torah reminding us of the dangers that arise with human\nfrailty: The Exodus was for the Israelites and the motley throng managed to\nsneak out with them.  But when the\nIsraelites misbehave, what happens is that the weaker, motley group gets the\nblame. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 This\nis the story of the Jews in the galut: when something goes wrong in the\nnon-Jewish society, the  Jews \u2013 a weaker\ngroup \u2013 gets the blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 This\nis the relevance to us, and what the Torah warns us about: The in-group blaming\nthe weaker out-group. And it continues to this day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drash Cards for Bo (5779) by Marc Mangel \u2022 I want to discuss one verse that the we read today and one that will come up in BaMidbar, and which interlock, taking advantage of the  wonderful new translation of the Bible by Robert Alter. \u2022 I will read the verses from the Rebbe\u2019s Chumash  first … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":51,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3101","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3102,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3101\/revisions\/3102"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}