Riddles of the Week

(For answers see above)

1. The Medrash relates that Moshe Rabbeinu saw how much Klal Yisrael were suffering. He saw that the Egyptian taskmasters assigned jobs appropriate for big and strong people to small and weak people, and jobs appropriate for small and weak people to big and strong people. Men’s jobs were assigned to women and women’s jobs were assigned to men.
   We can understand the torture of small and weak people doing the jobs of big and strong people, and the torture of men doing women’s jobs and vice versa, but what exactly is the torture of big and strong people doing the jobs of small and weak people. It would seem like these strong men had a lucky day. They were only asked to schlep five pounds of bricks when, in reality, they could have schlepped twenty-five pounds of bricks?
2. In this week’s parsha we begin to learn about Moshe Rabbeinu. Why is Moshe Rabbeinu referred to as Moshe Rabbeinu, and not Rabbeinu Moshe like how we normally refer to Rabbonim? The halachah is that one is forbidden to call his Rebbe by his name, does that mean that it is forbidden to call Moshe Rabbeinu, by his name?
3. In this week’s parsha we learn about Pharaoh’s gezeirah [decree] to throw all newborn babies into the Nile, and we learn how Moshe Rabbeinu was placed in a basket and was miraculously saved. How long can one survive under water?
4. In this week’s parsha we learn that Hashem told Moshe to throw his stick to the ground and it turned into a snake. The pasuk then says: וינס משה מפניו – “And Moshe fled from in front of it” (4:3). Moshe Rabbeinu was speaking to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and the Mishnah (Berachos 30b) teaches, that if one is in the middle of davening and a snake wraps itself around the persons ankle, he shouldn’t interrupt. If, so, how come Moshe Rabbeinu who was talking to Hakadosh Baruch Hu ran away from the snake, he should have remained in place and continued talking to Him?