Rav Olshin Shlita on the Role of Jewish Women

The Essence of Yetzias Mitzrayim and the Role of Jewish Women

By HaGaon HaRav Yerucham Olshin Shlita L’zecher nishmas R’ Tzvi Dovid ben R’ Moshe

As re-stated by Rabbi Yair Hoffman

Chazal tell us in several places that “bizchus noshim tzidkaniyos yatzu Yisroel miMitzrayim” – through the merit of righteous women, we left Egypt. How are we to understand this teaching of Chazal?

Aren’t the Midrashim and divrei Chazal filled with mentions of the madreigos that the Yidden, both men and women, maintained in Mitzrayim? Aren’t they filled with the maasim tovim that the Yidden, both men and women, did in Mitzrayim? Why, then, was Yetzias Mitzrayim ultimately in the zechus of the noshim?

Understanding the True Essence of Yetzias Mitzrayim

In order to answer this kashya we must first understand the true essence of Yetzias Mitzrayim. In this week’s parsha we find Yisro exclaiming, “Boruch Hashem asher hitzil eschem miyad Mitzrayim umiyad Paroh asher hitzil es ha’am mitachas yad Mitzrayim” – thanking Hashem for saving Klal Yisroel from Mitzrayim. In fact, every Yom Tov we ourselves thank Hashem for saving us from Mitzrayim.

What is the true essence of Yetzias Mitzrayim? What is it that we’re thanking Hashem for?

The answer to this question lies in an incredible Sforno in Parshas Va’eschanan. The well-known posuk tells us, “V’amarta l’vincha avodim hayinu l’Paroh b’Mitzrayim vayotzi’einu Hashem miMitzrayim b’yad chazaka” – You should say to your son, “We were avodim to Paroh in Mitzrayim, and Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim with a strong hand.”

In explaining just what the tzara of “avodim hayinu l’Paroh b’Mitzrayim” truly was, and just what the chesed of “vayotzi’einu Hashem miMitzrayim b’yad chazaka” truly was, the Sforno writes, “U’vihiyos she’b’avodaseinu lo hayinu yecholim liknos hashelaymus hamechuvon mei’ito, hafleh la’asos l’hotzi’einu ul’havi osanu el ha’aretz shenuchal liknos bah oso hashelaymus” – Because during that time of slavery we were unable to be koneh the shleimus that Hashem intends, Hashem miraculously took us out of Mitzrayim and brought us to Eretz Yisroel where we could be successful in being koneh that shleimus.

Why did Hashem take us out of Mitzrayim? What was the true chesed of Yetzias Mitzrayim? Was the chesed of Yetzias Mitzrayim the mere fact that we were suffering at the hands of the Mitzrim and Hashem saved us?

While that was, of course, an element of the chesed as well, with these incredible words the Sforno teaches us that that wasn’t, however, the true essence of Yetzias Mitzrayim. The true essence and chesed of Yetzias Mitzrayim was the fact that we, Klal Yisroel, found ourselves subjected to incredibly difficult conditions. And those conditions – that avdus – prevented us from reaching the shleimus in avodas Hashem that Hashem intends for us to reach. And Hashem, therefore, performed incredible nissim for us, redeeming us from Mitzrayim and bringing us to a land where we would be able to live in tranquility and work towards reaching that shleimus.

The Four Expressions of Redemption

A similar concept can be found in the Maharsha in Brochos 54. It is there that he gives an entirely new explanation for the daled leshonos shel geulah, and in turn the daled kosos. In Mizmor 107, which the Sefardim say during the tefillos of Kabbalas Shabbos, Dovid Hamelech discusses the “daled tzrichim l’hodos” – the four tzaros from which if one is saved, he is mechuyav to bring a todah and thank Hashem.

As the Gemara there in Brochos explains, “Arba’ah tzrichim l’hodos yordei hayam, holchei midbariyos, umi shehaya choleh v’nisrapeh, umi shehaya chavush b’beis ha’asurim v’yatza” – There are four individuals who need to thank Hashem: Those who cross the sea, those who cross the midbar, those who were sick and were cured, and those who were imprisoned and then freed.

When Klal Yisroel was redeemed from Mitzrayim, he says, they weren’t only freed from slavery, they actually merited all four of those salvations that obligate one to thank Hashem. When they were miraculously saved from the Yam Suf they were “yordei hayam”. When they journeyed through the midbar, incurred all the inuy that it presented, and were given the mon, the slav, and the be’er, which enabled them to survive, they were “holchei midbariyos”. When they were cured at Har Sinai from the many illnesses that they endured as a result of the years of back-breaking labor they were “cholim shenisrapu.”By being freed from their imprisonment in Mitzrayim they were “chavush b’beis ha’asurim v’yatza”. Therefore, Yetzias Mitzrayim was mechayev them all four of the hoda’os that the Gemara discusses. And with the daled kosos we are yotzei those four chiyuvim. Each additional kos represents yet another hodaah to Hashem for one of the four geulos to which we were zocheh when we left Mitzrayim.

In fact, the Seder on Leil Pesach is a seudas hodaah. As we say in the Haggadah, “B’chol dor vador chayav adam liros es atzmo k’ilu hu yatza miMitzrayim.”  Each year we thank Hashem for saving us from those four tzaros. And each one of those daled kosos serves as another kos of hodaah.

The Deeper Meaning of Hodaah

However, the Maharsha then teaches us an incredible yesod regarding our chiyuv of hodaah. When we think of being freed from those four tzaros we naturally assume that we are simply thankful to Hashem for saving us from sakanah. I was terribly sick and Hashem cured me. I sat in prison for many years and Hashem freed me. I have been spared the incredible tzaar that I suffered in prison. I have been spared from the hunger and thirst that I endured as I journeyed across the desert. Could there be a greater simcha than that?

However, the Maharsha tells us that the hodaah that one who survived these tzaros must give to Hashem is much deeper. The main tzara that such a person suffered was the fact that the pain and the hardships prevented him from reaching shleimus in his ruchniyus. He further explains how each one of those four specific tzaros prevents a person from properly serving Hashem and, therefore, from reaching shleimus.

One who is wandering through the desert, he explains, has no way of supporting himself (and he is, therefore, not able to dedicate the appropriate amount of time to learning and davening). One who is imprisoned is constantly being watched by his captors. He, too, can’t serve Hashem the way he should. One who is weak or sick is simply physically unable to involve himself in Torah and mitzvos the way he would like to. One who is voyaging across the sea, often times for business or commerce, is so preoccupied with his business dealings and with his riches that he, too, is distracted from Torah and mitzvos.

The Nature of Suffering and Spiritual Growth

A person’s tachlis in this world is to reach shleimus in avodas Hashem. That is his avodah. However, when he’s in a tzara – when he’s suffering – when he’s in a difficult situation – that tzara – that suffering – prevents him from reaching shleimus. If he’s imprisoned, what can he do in avodas Hashem? If he is sick or weak he simply can’t daven like he should. He can’t learn like he should. He’s extremely limited in his avodas Hashem. Aside from his tzara gashmis – his physical tzara – he is in a tremendous tzara ruchnis as well.

Therefore, when he is saved from that tzara his main hodaah to Hashem is for returning him to a state and an environment in which he can once again strive for shleimus. What he is most thankful for is that he can now once again fulfill his tachlis.

The Mesillas Yesharim’s Understanding

To truly understand this underlying tzara of shibud Mitzrayim, let us remind ourselves of the words of the Mesillas Yesharim. In Perek 4 he writes that there are “shleimei hadaas,” to whom it is clear, “ki rak hashelaymus hu hadavar harauy sheyechumed meihem v’lo zulas zeh v’she’ein ra gadol mechisron hashelaymus v’haharchakah mimenu.” The shleimei hadaas, he says, understand that the only thing worth desiring and striving for is shleimus, and there is nothing worse than one’s lacking in, and distance from, that shleimus!

Not everyone reaches such a madreigah. However, the shleimei hadaas understand that if one is lacking in shleimus he is in a tremendous tzara. There is no greater ra than that. A chisaron in shleimus is, as the Ramchal later writes, “a tzara gedolah v’ra’ah rabbah.”

The True Understanding of Yetzias Mitzrayim

And with that in mind we can truly understand the tzara of shibud Mitzrayim and the chesed of Yetzias Mitzrayim. The true tzara of shibud Mitzrayim, as the Sforno says, wasn’t merely physical slavery and physical pain. It was the fact that that slavery – that pain – was preventing us from acquiring the shleimus for which we so strongly yearn. And that, as the Mesillas Yesharim says, is the greatest tzara of all. And it is, therefore, self-understood that redeeming us from Mitzrayim, bringing us to Har Sinai, and eventually to Eretz Yisroel – a land where we could live in tranquility, serve Him properly, and work towards that shleimus, was, of course, the greatest chesed of all.

Rav Meir Soloveitchik’s Insight

The same idea is echoed by Rav Meir Soloveitchik in his shiurim on this week’s parsha. In this week’s parsha, Hashem instructs Klal Yisroel, “V’ata im shamoa tishme’u b’koli ushmartem es brisi vihyisem li segulah mikol ha’amim ki li kol ha’aretz. V’atem tihyu li mamleches kohanim v’goy kadosh.” In explaining these words, the Mechilta writes, “shetihyu knuyim li v’oskim baTorah” – that you should be my servants and dedicate yourselves to my Torah.

With those words, says Rav Meir, Hashem was telling us just what Yetzias Mitzrayim was all about. The purpose of Yetzias Mitzrayim, He was telling us, was for us to dedicate ourselves to eisek haTorah – to avodas Hashem. Yes, those years of shibud Mitzrayim were, of course, very difficult. But Yetzias Mitzrayim wasn’t merely for the purpose of sparing us from those hardships. It was for the purpose of “shetihyu knuyim li v’oskim baTorah.”

The Unique Role of Women

With this understanding of the true essence and chesed of Yetzias Mitzrayim we can, perhaps, understand why it was specifically in the zechus of the noshim tzidkaniyos that we left Mitzrayim. The answer to this question lies, perhaps, in the words of Rabbeinu Yonah in his Iggeres HaTeshuvah. When discussing the avodah of a woman in this world, he begins with a well-known kashya.

In introducing the giving of the Torah to Klal Yisroel, Hashem says to Moshe, “Ko somar l’beis Yaakov v’sageid livnei Yisroel.” Chazal tell us that “beis Yaakov” refers to the women of Klal Yisroel, and “bnei Yisroel” is the men, which would mean that in introducing the giving of the Torah to Klal Yisroel, Hashem asked that the message be given first to the women and only then to the men.

Women, asks Rabbeinu Yonah, aren’t even obligated in limud haTorah and they are, in fact, exempt from many of the mitzvos as well. While they must surely be given that very same message as the men, why, however, should they be spoken to first? Why not first speak to the men who are mechuyav in talmud Torah, as well as all the rest of the mitzvos, and only then to the women?

To understand this, says Rabbeinu Yonah, one must first understand the avodah – the role of a woman. It is the woman, he says, that sends their children to yeshiva to learn and looks after them and sees to it that they are learning. In fact, walk around the streets of Lakewood on any given morning. Who if not the Yiddishe mothers are standing early in the morning on every street corner waiting with the children for their buses to come and take them to yeshiva to learn?

It is the women, continues Rabbeinu Yonah, that treat those children with so much compassion when they return from yeshiva and use good words to infuse them with a desire to learn Torah. It is the soft and encouraging words that only a mother can offer that encourage the children to strengthen and grow in their learning.

It is the women, he says, that watch over the children and ensure that they don’t squander any time from their limud haTorah. And it is the women that inculcate those children with yiras cheit. As the posuk says, “Chanoch lana’ar al pi darko gam ki yazkin lo yosur mimenah.” And therefore, concludes Rabbeinu Yonah, it is, in fact, “hanoshim hatzenuos mesovevos haTorah v’hayirah.” It is the modest women that cause and bring about Torah and yiras shamayim.