Parshah Topic
I will pass through the land of Egypt on this night, and I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from humans to livestock, and I will perform judgments upon the gods of Egypt; I am Hashem. (Shemos 12:12)
We learn an important principle about Yetzias Mitzrayim from this verse: Hashem Himself took us out of Egypt. We spell out the point in the Pesach Hagadah.
Hashem took us out of Egypt. Not by an angel and not by a seraph and not by a messenger; rather, it was Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself. As it says, “I will pass through the land of Egypt....”
“I will pass through the land of Egypt on this night.” I, and not an angel.
“And I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.” I, and not a seraph.
“And I will perform judgments upon all the gods of Egypt.” I, and not a messenger.
“I am Hashem.” I am the One, and no other.
Why wasn’t Yetzias Mitzrayim performed by an angel? The cities of Sedom and Amorah were overturned by the angel Gavriel. He didn’t need any help; apparently it wasn’t very hard for him. Gavriel can go between earth and the highest heavens in one jump, so apparently he didn’t need to exert himself very much when he overturned Sedom.
Accordingly, the angel Gavriel (or another angel) could have smitten the firstborn and taken the Jewish people out of Egypt. Why did Hashem Himself need to smite them and take us out? What stands behind this fact?
Angels Can Block Us Out
Let’s talk about King Menashe.
Menashe was one of the worst and wickedest people the Jewish people ever knew. His father was a great tzaddik, King Chizkiyahu, about whom Chazal say:
ן
ח
ר ה
ק
ש – “Grace is false.” This is the generation of Moshe.
י
פ
י
ל ה
ב
ה
ו – “And beauty is nothingness.” This is the generation of Yehoshua.
ל
ל
ה
ת
יא ת
ת ה’ ה
א
ר
י – “The fear of Hashem is to be praised.” This is the generation of Chizkiyahu, king of Yehudah.
But his son, Menashe, did everything just the opposite. Chizkiyahu “stuck a sword at the entrance of the beis midrash and said, “Whoever does not engage in Torah study shall be stabbed by this sword.’” Menashe ordered that anyone who learns Torah shall be put to death.
Menashe even killed his grandfather, the prophet Yeshayahu, and it says clearly in Tanach that Menashe’s evil deeds caused the destruction of Beis Hamikash:
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ש
ל א
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ן א
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א ש
ל
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ה.
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י
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ע
ת ה
י א
ת
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ל ו
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ת י
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י
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ם ו
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י – However, Hashem did not turn back from His great anger that flamed up against Yehudah for all the things that Menashe did to anger Him. Hashem said, “I will remove Yehudah, too, from before Me, as I removed Yisrael. I reject this city of Yerushalyim, which I had chosen, and [I reject] the House about which I had said that My Name shall be there.”
Yirmeyahu Hanavi cried out to the people to return to Hashem, but Rashi explains that this was not in order to annul the decree of exile, but only to lessen the punishment and to prepare the Jewish kingdom when they return from exile.
In other words, Menashe was so evil that even teshuvah couldn’t save from destruction and exile.
What happened to Menashe in the end?
It says in the Midrash that the army of Ashur captured him and shackled him and put him in a copper cauldron, under which they lit a fire. He started to burn.
What does a person do when he finds himself in a cauldron that is on the fire?
Menashe started calling out to all the idols and false gods in the world. He was a genius, an expert in all kinds of idol worship. As the cauldron was heating up he managed to call out to every false deity there is, yet none answered him.
In the end, Menashe remembered that his righteous father, king Chizkiyahu, used to repeat to him over and over a certain pasuk:
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ר
ח
א
ה ב
ל
א
ים ה
ר
ב
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ל ה
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ך
או
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– When you are in distress, and all these things happen to you at the end of days, you shall return to Hashem your G-d.
At that point, Menashe called out to Hashem, and said, “Master of the World, You are the G-d over all gods. If you don’t answer me, I will say that there is no difference between You and them.”
Menashe put stipulations on Hashem, so to speak. Then the ministering angels went and “closed all the windows of heaven, so his prayer will not ascend to heaven. They said to Hashem, ‘O Master of the World, would You accept the prayer of the man who set up an idol in the Sanctuary?!’”
So Hashem “dug a tunnel in the heavens under His Throne of Glory, and received his prayer.”
A stormy wind then came and tipped the cauldron, and Menashe returned to Yerushalayim, to his royal throne.
The point we want to focus on in this story is the angels shutting the entrances to heaven. What does that mean?
8 Devarim Rabbah 2:20.
9 Devarim 4:30.
