One very important aspect of our exodus from Egypt is that it necessitated great wealth, for if one leaves naked and penniless then his freedom is not complete. The promise to be redeemed with great wealth, was given to Avraham Anvinu, "And Hashem said to Avraham: Know that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them for four hundred years. And I shall judge also the nation that they will serve, AND THEREAFTER THEY WILL GO OUT WITH GREAT WEALTH." Bereishit 15:13-14.
Hashem was so concerned with fulfilling His promise that He even commanded Moshe to ask a special request from the Jews, “Speak, now, to the people and let each man ask of his neighbor, and each woman of her neighbor, vessels of silver and vessels of gold.” (Shemos 11:2) Hashem wanted to make sure that we did not leave Mitzrayim empty handed.
But that wasn’t enough wealth. Pharaoh emptied his treasure house to decorate his horses, chariots and soldiers in pursuit of Am Yisrael. Such brazen wealth was meant to intimidate Am Yisrael. Only someone who is completely sure of victory will use his treasure to clothe his army with such a magnificent display of wealth. In fact, Chazal tell us that the treasure which washed to shore after the Egyptians drowned at the Red Sea was many times greater than the wealth that the Jews brought with them when they left Egypt. It took years for Egypt to the wealthiest power in the world. Hashem wanted it that way in order that we leave Mitzrayim with the greatest wealth possible. Hashem collected it for us in a hidden way through Yosef. As viceroy he taxed the Egyptians 20% of their food during the good years. When the lean years came Yosef had enough food stored up to feed the world. People from all around the word came to Egypt to buy food. In this way the coffers of Egypt steadily filled.
In even a greater show of hasgacha prattis Hashem brought up Yosef the slave out a jail in Mitzrayim and made him the viceroy of Egypt by correctly interpreted Pharoah’s dream. It was the sar hamashke who told Pharaoh about Yosef’s ability to interpret dreams. Yosef had met the sar hamaske while they were together in jail and surprised him by correctly interpreting his dream. The sar hamashke was jailed temporarily for the crime of serving Pharoah a cup of wine with a fly in it. Keep in mind that because of that fly Yosef met sar hamaske.
According to this, the exodus from Mitzrayim was set in motion 210 years earlier through a fly! Hashem could’ve started the exodus in any way He wanted, but in order to keep His divine plan hidden He began by using a fly.
This is a dramatic lesson teaching that hashgacha prati is not always clear in the moment. Sometimes it takes years to see how an incident plays out. Furthermore, in our lifetime we may never see the reason for a any particular event. Today the world seems more confusing than ever. It’s difficult to make sense of the events in our lives and certainly in the history of our people throughout galus. However, at the time of geula not only will we see how our suffering was meant to bring about the geula but even the most misunderstood and trivial events will be put into perspective. Through our emunah that Hashem is constantly bringing us closer to our final redemption we will merit seeing the Bais HaMikdash be rebuilt speedily in our days.
Over the years people have asked me if I would ever draw cartoons depicting some of the cases found in Yora Daya. Well, the answer is yes! I recently published a sefer called The Great Game of Kashrut. Click on the link to find out more: The Great Game of Kashrut
To order a copy of The Great Game of Kashrut follow this link: The Great Game of Kashrut
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