The Weekly Internet
P A R A S H A - P A G E
by Mordecai Kornfeld
of Har Nof, Jerusalem
Founder of the Dafyomi Advancement Forum
Email kornfeld@jencom.com

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PARASHAT BO 5757 EGYPTIAN BABIES


The Ten Plagues were climaxed by Makat Bechorot, in which Hashem killed every Egyptian firstborn child. It is clear that the Egyptians deserved the punishment they received for their cruel and merciless enslavement of the Jewish people. The Midrash (Tanchuma Bo, #4), adds that each one of the Makot was an appropriate retribution for one particular form of cruelty that the Egyptians demonstrated when killing the Jews ("Midah Keneged Midah" -- see Parasha-Page Metzora 5755 for more about this precept).

But that only explains why the Egyptians themselves were punished. Why should Hashem take the lives of innocent Egyptian babies in order to penalize their fathers? What was their sin? (Question originally posed to me by Jim Scheinman and the local Torah study group of the University of California at Davis.) Although we can never hope to fully understand the ways of the Creator in this world ("Because your thoughts are not able to comprehend My thoughts... Yeshayah 55:8), we can at least try to gain insight into the ways of Hashem by looking at the various approaches mentioned in Rabbinical literature regarding this question.

The Alshich (Rav Moshe Alshich, 16th cent. Safed, Israel) was one of the most proficient lecturers on the Torah in history. This is how the Alshich explains the verse in Tehillim 136:10 which states, "[Let us praise] the One Who struck the Egyptian firstborn; for His kindness is 'L'olam' [= forever, lit. 'for the world']." The Alshich writes:

One who ponders the Death of the Egyptian Firstborn will undoubtedly feel embittered. If the Egyptians sinned, why should their firstborn -- especially the babies -- suffer for their sins?

The answer to this question is that Hashem's intention was to do kindness to the world at large by letting them clearly witness His involvement in all that happens on this world. With the death of the firstborn, He demonstrated beyond all doubt that the Egyptians were being punished for enslaving Hashem's "firstborn," Israel (see Shmot 4:23 -MK).The beneficial lesson that the *entire world* would learn about Hashem's involvement in the world, which had in its power to grant the world as a whole continued existence, outweighed the loss of the Egyptian firstborn. [This is what the above verse means to say: "Hashem struck the firstborn of the Egyptians, notwithstanding their personal loss, because it was a kindness 'L'olam,' to the entire world!"]

Another possible approach is suggested by many Midrashic sources. In Gemara Shabbat 32b a list of sins is presented that are all punishable by the death of one's *children*. The reference is apparently to underage children [= less than 13 years old, who are not yet obligated in Mitzvot in their own right. Alternatively, this may be referring only to very young children such as infants]. Although the Torah says unequivocally "Sons shall not die for their fathers' sins" (Devarim 24:16), the Sifri limits this to children that have come of age. Minors are punished even for the sins of their fathers. See also II Samuel 12:14, which describes the death of King David's newly-born infant as retribution for the King's sin.

It would seem almost as if infants or immature children are not surviving on their own rights. Rather, they are simply the "property" of their parents and are liable to be "taken as collateral for their parents debts" -- in the words of the Gemara (Shabbat 105b). At least one early commentary clearly mentions this rationale: young children are treated as one's property when it comes to punishing their father (Radak to Yehoshua 7:15 -- see also Ketubot 46b, Bava Metzia 12b, where the Halachic "possession" that a parent has over his child is discussed).

Michtav Me'eliyahu (Jerusalem 1992 edition vol. 3 p. 252; also printed in English by Feldheim Publishers under the title "Strive for Truth") by Rav Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (England and Israel, d. ~1960) presents another way of looking at the death of infants for their fathers' sins.

As we know, although everyone has free choice to sin or not to sin, Hashem knows the outcome of that free choice before the person actually makes his decision. (See Rambam and Ra'avad, Hilchot Teshuvah end of Ch. 5.) If so, it may be suggested that Hashem need not shorten the life of a sinner's child at all in order to punish the sinner. Rather, He may have "planted" a child that had been granted only a short life in the family of a person that is going to eventually sin. The child will die because his time has come (which, obviously, nobody can consider "unethical"), yet the father suffers for *his sins* by the loss of his child. His punishment is to raise a child that will live a short life! A friend of mine pointed out to me that this view has its source in the Kabbalistic writings of the great 16th cent. Kabbalist of Safed, Rav Chaim Vital ("Pri Etz Chaim," end of Parashat Mishpatim, p. 89a, s.v. Lo Ti'ye).

(This approach is more readily understood when dealing with children that were born *after* a man sinned. Once the man has sinned, he may be given short-lived children as a punishment. As far as children that were born *before* the sin are concerned, the limitations that this approach puts on our free will have deep and complex ramifications, which we shall not delve into at this point.)

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