Pĕsikta dĕ-Rab Kahăna: R. Kahana's Compilation of Discourses for Sabbaths and Festal Days (JPS Classic Reissues)

PISKA 11

266 PISKA 11 Summary The awesome doings of God and the radiance of certain personages in Israel When a man’s ways please the Lord, He may cause even the man’s enemies to give up life for his sake, or may have them make peace with him, as God did in Israel’s behalf when Pharaoh let them go out of Egypt (Sec. 1). After Israel’s departure, the Egyptians, who at one time ordered that every son of Israel be cast into the Nile River, were themselves drowned in the Red Sea—an awesome reversal which only God is capable of bringing about (Sec. 2). The Egyptians, at first foolishly unwilling to let Israel go, were to discover that they should have done so at once. As matters turned out, the Egyptians, unwilling to be admonished, were afflicted by plagues, were compelled to part with their wealth, and were forced to let Israel go (Sec. 3)—indeed were to receive measure for measure (Sec. 4): the stew which they cooked for others they were to stew in themselves (Sec. 5). Israel were redeemed from Egypt for four reasons: they did not change their names; they did not change their language; they did not inform on one another; they were not wanton. According to one authority, it was solely because they hedged themselves in against Egypt’s unchastity that Israel were redeemed (Sec. 6). Exposition of several ensuing verses in Exodus 13 follows: 1. At sight of the well-disciplined people of Israel whom the Egyptians had had to let go, they cried woe (Sec. 7). PISKA 11 267 2. God led Israel not in the way of the earth (Exod. 13:17)—that is, not in the usual manner, but in ways that were miraculous, eight examples of which are given (Sec. 8). 3. The meaning of Because it was near (Exod. 13:17) is construed variously as referring to the place and time of the Egyptians’ punishment ; to the recent respect which the Canaanites had shown to the deceased Jacob; and to the recency of the oath which Abraham had sworn to Abimelech, king of Philistia (Sec. 9). 4. God did not lead Israel through the land of the Philistines, the shortest route to the Land, because He did not want Israel to be disheartened at sight of the bones of those Israelites who had died during a premature attempt to leave Egypt (Sec. 10). 5. Only a small number of the children of Israel—possibly as few as one out of five hundred—actually left Egypt (Sec. 11). 6. Moses recovered Joseph’s coffin from the Nile, and Joseph’s bones were reverently carried through the wilderness (Sec. 12). 7. The waters of the Red Sea, which became a wall for Israel, shone because of the radiance of such personages as Moses and Aaron who had drunk deep of Torah’s waters. Small wonder that because of such men in Israel, that God had Himself counted as the seventieth among the souls of the house of Jacob that came into Egypt (Sec. 13). The radiance of Israel’s personages is derived also from a willingness to hallow the Name (Sec. 14). One such personage, R. Simeon ben Yohai, was said to have been as radiant as the rainbow, token of the covenant between God and earth—indeed all generations until the resurrection of the dead will be illumined by his radiance (Sec. 15). In part, at least, the radiance which was R. Simeon’s came from his having endured privation in a cave for thirteen years because he had dared speak harshly of Rome’s iniquitous rule. Upon emerging from the cave he bestowed boons upon the people of Tiberias, punished mockers severely, and was stern with the supercritical (Sec. 16) and with those who would disobey the dicta of the Sages (Sec. 17). 268 PESIKTA DE-RAB KAHANA R. Simeon’s son, Eleazar, when young, was a man whose strength was extraordinary, whose appetite for food and drink was huge, and who, as servant of Rome, acted in person as executioner (Secs. 18–20). But the clouds of glory which enveloped Israel in the wilderness (Sec. 21) were also to envelop Eleazar. For Elijah the prophet undertook to have Eleazar take up the study of Torah, the vocation of his fathers. So much of his strength then went into learning that he could...