For the week ending 4 January 2003 / 1 Shevat 5763
Parshat Vaera
Questions
- Did G-d ever appear to Avraham and say "I am G-d?"
- What cause did the forefathers have to question G-d?
- How was Moshe commanded to act towards Pharaoh?
- How long did Levi live?
- Who was Aharon's wife? Who was her father? Who was her brother?
- Why are Yitro and Yosef both referred to as "Putiel?"
- After which plague did G-d begin to "harden Pharaoh's heart?"
- Why did Pharaoh go to the Nile every morning?
- Give two reasons why the blood was chosen as the first plague.
- How long did the plague of blood last?
- Why did the frogs affect Pharaoh's house first?
- What did Moshe mean when he told Pharaoh that the frogs would be "in you and in your nation?"
- What are "chamarim?"
- Why didn't Moshe strike the dust to initiate the plague of lice?
- Why were the Egyptian sorcerers unable to bring lice?
- What were the Egyptians likely to do if they saw the Jews slaughtering lambs?
- Why didn't the wild beasts die as the frogs had?
- The dever killed "all the cattle of Egypt." Later, boils afflicted their cattle. How can this be?
- Why did Moshe pray only after leaving the city?
- What was miraculous about the way the hail stopped falling?
Answers
- 6:9 - Yes.
- 6:9 -- Although G-d swore to give them the land, they never actually had control over it.
- 6:13 - With the respect due a king.
- 6:16 - 137 years.
- 6:23 - Elisheva, daughter of Aminadav, sister of Nachshon.
- 6:25 - Yitro fattened (pitem) cows for idol worship. Yosef scoffed (pitpet) at his evil inclination.
- 7:3 - After the sixth plague -- shechin.
- 7:15 - To relieve himself. Pharaoh pretended to be a god who did not need to attend to his bodily functions. Therefore, he secretly used the Nile for this purpose.
- (a) 7:17 - Because the Nile was an Egyptian god.
(b) 8:17 - Because an invading army first attacks the enemy's water supply, and G-d did the same. - 7:25 - Seven days.
- 7:28 - Pharaoh himself advised the enslavement of the Jewish People.
- 7:29 - He warned that the frogs would enter their intestines and croak.
- 8:10 - Piles.
- 8:12 - Because the dust protected Moshe by hiding the body of the Egyptian that Moshe killed.
- 8:14 - The Egyptian sorcerers' magic had no power over anything smaller than a barley kernel.
- 8:22 - Stone the Jews.
- 8:27 - So the Egyptians would not benefit from their hides.
- 9:10 - In the plague of dever only the cattle in the fields died. The plague of shechin affected the surviving cattle.
- 9:29 - Because the city was full of idols.
- 9:33 - The hailstones stopped in mid-air and didn't fall to the ground.
All references are to the verses and Rashis commentary, unless otherwise stated.
