Shemos—The Drama of Life—R’ Dovid Rhodes

Sefer HaChinuch: Don’t take revenge because…If someone hits another with a stick, does that person get
angry at the stick? We are just sticks in Hashem’s hands. If someone wants to get revenge on the stick, he
doesn’t believe it’s from Hashem. If he does acknowledge Hashem’s role, it’ll be someone else who gives him
what he’s supposed to get. If someone is a complete tzaddik, He cannot use him for enacting justice as a stick.

Become a true servant of G-d.

HE has a plan for this world, and He needs people to fill various roles. Who gets what role depends on one’s
level. After Moshe left Egypt, the Torah finds him in Midian at a well. Yisro’s daughters came to water their
sheep and were attacked by the other shepherds, who wanted to rape them. Moshe steps in and saves them.
They return to Yisro and explain that an Egyptian man rescued them as their reason for coming home early.
Didn’t he go to Ethiopia first? Why did they say that? The daughters thanked Moshe, but he said it was the
Egyptian man he killed that sent him on his journey.

Moshe’s two son: Gershon, a stranger in a strange land; Eliezer, the G-d of my father saved me from the sword
of Pharaoh. The names should have been reversed because he was saved and then went into exile. “All this
happened to get me out of Egypt and to Midian.” His first focus was on his exile. Then, when He told him to
take the Jews out, he understood why it had happened.

Who was this Egyptian? He was a player in Hashem’s grand plan. Shlomis bas Dibri was the wife of Dassan, and
his son was the one who cursed later on in the Torah. She shmuezed with others, unfortunately even with
men. She was called this since she said “Shalom Aleichem” to everyone and “spoke” to all. The taskmaster got
Dassan up early for work and sneaked in to sleep with her. Dassan had his suspicions, but the taskmaster
found excuses to hit him. Moshe saw, through ruach hakodesh, what was going on. HE gave him the power of
the Holy Name, he looked into the Egyptian and saw nothing good would come from him, and he killed him
with the Holy Name. Dassan was watching. He got into a fight with his brother Aviram the next day about
wanting to divorce his wife, but Aviram said he shouldn’t since it wasn’t her fault; she didn’t know the man
wasn’t her husband. He did divorce her, as evidenced by the son later trying to connect to Dan, his wife’s
tribe, instead of Reuven, his tribe. His father was the Egyptian. The argument became so vehement that
Dassan was going to hit Aviram. Moshe then intervened, and Dassan condemned him, eventually ratting him
out to Pharaoh, who wanted to kill Moshe.

Moshe saved this man’s life! He was the Jewish-Egyptian prince, helping the Jews! Moshe convinced Pharaoh
to give the Jews a day off, Shabbos! Why was Dassan finking on Moshe? Maharal from Prague: There always
needs to be a protagonist and an antagonist. Dassan was highly respected, very wealthy, and a tzaddik. When
Pharaoh stopped providing the straw, Dassan was hit from the taskmasters but did not hit his fellow Jews to
tell them to make more bricks—he was in charge of the Jews. However, he had a totally distorted view of who
Moshe was. He saw Moshe use HIS Name. Dassan was an appeaser; he felt that the Egyptian situation was
only temporary. He wanted to live in prosperous harmony but believed Moshe was a great sorcerer and a
troublemaker. HE needed a powerful antagonist for Moshe, and Dassan/Aviram fit the role. They challenged
him after Pharaoh wouldn’t give more straw; Moshe complained to Hashem about them. Regarding the Yam
Suf, they said they should have stayed in Egyptian, causing Moshe to complain to Hashem again. Why didn't’
they die in Darkness? HE needed them to antagonize Moshe. Regarding the manna and the spies, they
complained and were rabble rousers. It wasn’t until Korach, when they tried to undermine Moshe’s power,
that they crossed the line of no return and new antagonists had to take their place.
We see how each actor played his role. The truth of life that is that there are millions of acts being played out
daily. We need to consider our actions to determine if we are the protagonists or antagonist in our own
world’s drama.