EXOD32 Don't condemn children because of their parents' misdeeds. Few people will acknowledge acting in so unfair a manner, yet it is very common in traditional Jewish circles to greatly emphasize yichus (lineage) when considering marital prospects for oneself or one's children. Thus, families in which a scandal has occurred often find it difficult to make a match. The Bible repeatedly warns against making a child suffer for a parent's sins. Jeremiah prophesies that a criterion of a better world is that children no longer suffer because of the misdeeds of their parents: "In those days, they shall no longer say, 'Parents have eaten sour grapes, and their children's teeth are set on edge'" Jeremiah 31:29 – 30 [The character of the parents is certainly not an infallible indicator of the child's character. There are few more evil figures in the Bible then the Pharaoh of the opening chapter of Exodus, who decreed the drowning of the male Israelite infants. Yet it was this Pharaoh's daughter who, out of compassion, defied her father's decree and saved the life of the infant Moses. Later the Bible describes King Josiah, who ruled over Judah from 640 to 609 B.C.E. in superlative terms: "There was no king like him before who turned back to the Lord with all his heart and soul and might, in full accord with the teaching of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him" II Kings 23:25. Yet Josiah's father was King Amon, a morally debased figure, and his grandfather was King Manasseh, whom the Bible regarded as singularly wicked, and a man who sacrificed one of his sons in fire II Kings 23:25. Conversely, the Bible relates that the priest Eli, a highly righteous man, raised two sons who were scoundrels I Samuel 2:12-17.] Continued at [[EXOD1040]] Exodus 34:7 TELVOL1 87

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EXOD33 We must feel the suffering of others, even when it means a loss of personal pleasure. … Rashi sites the Midrash Shmos Rabbah 1 which states that Moshe set his eyes and heart to be grieved for his brothers. This is the first incident that the Torah relates about Moshe. The Jewish people were enslaved in Egypt, and Moshe, adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh, grew up in the Royal Palace surrounded by luxury. He personally was saved from the suffering and anguish experienced by the rest of his people and benefited from the opulence of his surroundings. But herein lies Moshe's greatness: he could have forsaken his people and chosen a life of material comforts; instead, he went out among his people and "set his heart to be grieved for them." He did not merely feel sympathy for their plight and then forget them. He intentionally went out of his way to feel the pain of their suffering to the degree that he could feel his own. This, says the Midrash, was what merited Moshe the right to the leadership of the Jewish people and to be chosen as the emissary who would receive the Torah at Mount Sinai. He risked his life and gave up his privileged status as a member of the royal family to save him (Verse 12). We must learn from Moshe to care about the suffering of others, even if it means sacrificing our personal pleasure. Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv in Chochmah Umussar, vol. 1, essay 1 and 99.

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EXOD34 The Torah holds the scales equally balanced between rich and poor, employer and employed; but it is clear that the heart of the Lawgiver was with the oppressed labourer. Did he not himself leave a royal palace in order to go out and relieve his people from their burdens? [this verse] No less than seventy times does the word 'ani (poor man) occur in the Bible (with evyon "needy man") a close second with sixty-one)--an indication that the needs of the poor were uppermost in the mind of the Lawgiver. No Socialist ever denounced more trenchantly than did our prophets the evils of their times, thundering against the grinding of the poor in the violence and immorality committed by the rich. [See especially Amos ii. 6-16 et passim; Is. iii. 14-15; Jer. xxii. 13ff; Job xxiv. 2-11] In education, the children of the poor would be given first consideration, for from them would scholarship emerge. [Ned. 81a] Even the Messiah, according to one Rabbi, [Exodus R. xxii] will be found among the ragged poor. When God was asked by Israel: "Who are Thy people?" The answer they received was "The poor".

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EXOD35 See [[EXOD25]] Exodus 1:17 feared AHAVCH 25

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EXOD36 See [[EXOD29]] Exodus 2:3 Nile OXFORD 90-1

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EXOD37 If you become aware that blockages obstruct your heart, then one Mussar approach is to try to identify sole-traits that are the sources of the fear and clutching and to work on these specific qualities, rather than directly on [the trait of] generosity itself. Another approach applies more for people whose hearts are being enslaved to ego, where the inner voice says, how can I give when I don't even have enough for me? Here you might cultivate a sense that what you do for others is actually a great gift to yourself. No one loses. Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, the founder of the Kelm school of Mussar, wrote his book Chochmah u'Mussar [Wisdom and Mussar] just for the purpose of explaining how bearing the burden of the other is a profound spiritual practice. "We have spoken about this bearing the burden of the other many times," he writes. "This is the most inclusive of the attributes." He brings as his example the story of Moses, who began his spiritual journey toward becoming the greatest of prophets by responding to the suffering he saw around him, from which he had been insulated by living in Pharaoh's palace. "He saw their suffering," the Torah tells us, and what he felt had a formative impact on his soul.

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EXOD39 See [[EXOD15]] Exodus 1:17 feared AHAVCH 25

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EXOD38 … one should be zealous on God's behalf against sinners and evildoers--to war with them and chastise them--as our Rabbis of blessed memory have said (Sanhedrin 81b: "If one cohabits with an Aramean woman, zealots may strike him down." Moshe was zealous on God's behalf against the Egyptian, as it is written [this verse]: "And he smote the Egyptian." And so we find with Eliyahu, who said (I Melachim 19:10): "I have been zealous on behalf of Hashem, the God of hosts, for the Children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant." And it is so written of Pinchas (Bemidbar 25:11): "Because he was zealous for My sake in their midst." And the Blessed One rewarded him for this, as it is written (ibid.: 12): "Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace" and it is written (Devarim 1:17): "Do not be afraid of any man." One who fears the Blessed One will give his life for the sanctification of His name, as it is written (Shemos 32:26): "Whoever is for Hashem, let him come to me; and all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him." And it is written (Bemidbar 25:7): "And Pinchas, the son of Elazar, the son of Aharon the Priest saw, and he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand." All who fear Hashem and who are pure of heart are duty-bound to stir a zealousness on behalf of Hashem when they see "the hands of the princes and rulers in crime." Our Rabbis of blessed memory have said (Bereshis Rabbah 26:5): "Any breach which is not made by the great is not called a breach, as it is written (Ezra 9:2): 'And the hands of the princes and the rulers were in this crime first.'"

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EXOD42 Moses' daring achievements save the Jewish people. He is impulsive enough to kill an abusive Egyptian taskmaster who won't stop beating a Hebrew slave [this verse]. He is undaunted by the power of Pharaoh, as great a king as the world had known, and he is strong-willed enough to lead the rebellious Jewish people out of Egypt to freedom (Exod. 5-12). Even God's fierce anger does not stop of Moses from trying to change God's "mind." How astonishing, then, is the Torah's description of him: "Moses was exceedingly humble, more so than any other man on earth" (Num. 12:3). What specifically prompts the Torah's mention of Moses's humility is his response--more accurately, his lack of response--to Miriam and Aaron's personal attack on his wife (Num. 12:1). The narrative tells us that Moses says and does nothing to retaliate. He remains remarkably passive to his sibling' denunciations. For someone with his history of explosive outbursts, such behavior is completely unanticipated. Bahya b. Asher tells us that Moses's "exceeding" humility was caused by his unwavering focus on his goal, shalom bayit, the family harmony so esteemed by our tradition (Kad Hakemah). Of all the praiseworthy qualities he possesses, it is Moses as the model family man that the Bible chooses to honor for his personal code of anavah.

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EXOD40 Finally, what is the nature of the individual, the community, and the purpose of life as described in Judaism’s Exodus-Sinai story? We do not hear much about individuals; they seem to be glossed over in favor of the People Israel as a whole. We read though, that Moses risks his life and position to save a Hebrew slave, (Exodus 2:12) thus indicating the inherent worth of each person regardless of status. Similarly, later Jewish tradition has a dampen our joy at the Israelites’ release, quoting God as saying to the angels, “My children are drowning in the sea, and you are singing songs?” (B. Megillah 10b). Since then, we diminish our cup of joy at the Seder table by extracting one drop of wine for each of the plagues that the Egyptians had to suffer. Non-Jews as well as Jews have inherent, divine worth. ... The emphasis in the biblical story, though, is on God's covenantal relationship with the People Israel. We leave Egypt, we cross the sea, we stand at Sinai, and we marched toward the Promised Land all as a group. Moreover, the Torah revealed at Sinai speaks to us as a community, and its punishments and rewards, therefore, are those that applied to a community-- rain or drought, victory or defeat in battle, and so on. (For example, Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 11:13-25, 28). God's covenant is also with the People Israel as a whole, and the goal is to make them “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:6) Thus later Jewish sources would have us see our own individual actions as adding to one side or the other of the scale by which God will judge the People Israel-- and, indeed, the entire world-- as a group. (B. Kiddushin 40b and M.T. Laws of Repentance 3:2,4). In the Jewish story, then, individual identity is tightly intertwined with and defined by membership in the People Israel.

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