Hashem tells Moshe to inform the Jewish People that He is going to take them out of Egypt, but the people do not listen. Hashem commands Moshe to go to Pharaoh and ask him to free the Jewish People. Although Aharon shows Pharaoh a sign by turning a staff into a snake, Pharaoh's magicians copy the sign, emboldening Pharaoh to refuse the request. Hashem punishes the Egyptians, sending plagues of blood and frogs, but the magicians copy these miracles on a smaller scale, encouraging Pharaoh to remain obstinate. After the plague of lice, Pharaoh's magicians concede that only Hashem could perform such miracles.

Only the Egyptians, and not the Jews in Goshen, suffer during the plagues. The onslaught continues with wild animals, pestilence, boils and fiery hail. Despite Moshe's offers to end the plagues if Pharaoh will release the Jewish People, Pharaoh continues to harden his heart and refuses.

PARSHA INSIGHTS

Disappointed by Kaddish

“I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov…” (6:3)

This the third of a series of tributes to my mother (hk’m) who passed away just under a month ago.

When my father (a”h) was saying kaddish for his own father, he once told me something very honest. He said he felt a little disappointed with the kaddish. “It doesn’t say anything about the person who passed away,” he said; “it doesn’t describe their life, their goodness, their uniqueness. It just says Yisgadal v’Yiskadash Shemei Rabbah — may Hashem’s Name be magnified and sanctified.”

In Parshat Va’era, Hashem tells Moshe: “Va’era el Avraham, el Yitzchak, v’el Yaakov b’Keil Shakai, u’shmi Hashem lo nodati lahem - I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov in the name of Keil Shadkai, but my name Hashem, I did not make know to them.” The Avos lived in a reality where G-dliness was naturally present, where faith did not need to be asserted. It did not need to be made known to them. Moshe lived in a world of exile — a world where Hashem is concealed, where His presence must be made known, it must be declared.

Every soul, every neshama, is a unique revelation of Hashem in the world. When a neshama leaves, a channel of light is gone. And that is precisely why kaddish does not speak about the departed; because the task of the living is not to describe what was, but to restore what is missing. My mother, Hareni Kaporas Mishkavah, had a light that people sensed immediately. When she left this world, something went quiet, that unique light left the world.

And so when I say kaddish I am proclaiming Hashem’s greatness because, when my mother passed away, that greatness became a little less self-evident in this world. By saying kaddish, I am bringing back some of that radiance that my mother’s neshama revealed in this world.