Biblical Parallels Index – Shemot 13
Overview
This index is meant to help the reader explore Biblical parallels, be they two accounts of the same event, stories with similar motifs and themes, or units of text which are linguistically similar and perhaps alluding one to the other. The page includes links to tools that aid in comparison, primary sources that touch upon the parallels, and summaries of and links to articles which analyze them in depth.Matzah and Chametz
The command to eat matzah and prohibition to eat leavened bread are mentioned several times in Tanakh, with different reasons given for the law in different verses
Tools
- See Makbilot BaMikra for links to verses discussing the command to eat Matzah and corresponding prohibition of leavened bread. There is a seeming tension between the reasons for the mitzvah that are given by the Biblical verses: Shemot 12:20 sets forth a command to eat matzah that precedes the Exodus, whereas Shemot 12:34 and 12:39, as well as Devarim 16:3, characterize matzah as a result of the hurried departure from Egypt, which did not give enough time for the Jews’ bread to rise. Shemot 13:6-7 prescribes the command of matzah without giving the reason of the hasty Exodus.
Articles
- See Chametz and Matzah in Pesach Mitzrayim for an overview of commentators’ approaches to this issue. One position maintains that the commandment of eating matzah and prohibition of chametz on Passover were given before the Exodus and that the Jews in the Exodus story were obligated in them, another suggests that these laws emerged only after the Exodus as a form of commemoration, while yet a third proposes that chametz was prohibited only on the day of the Exodus itself.
Hardened Hearts
Paroh is the first of three people or groups of people of whom Hashem says He will harden their hearts. The other two are Sichon (Devarim 2:30) and the Canaanites (Yehoshua 11:20). Comparing the various narratives can help one understand both what is meant by the expression and how to deal with the theological problem of Hashem's apparent removal of free will in these stories.
Tools
- See Makbilot BaMikra for a list and links to all of the verses which speak of Hashem hardening someone's heart.
Articles
- See Hardened Hearts for analysis of the wide range of different commentators’ approaches to the hardening of human beings’ hearts in Tanakh. Some propose that, at times, Hashem removes an individual’s free choice, in oreder to bring about punishment. This is justified either due to the gravity of their sins, the fact that they used up their opportunities to change, or because, as idolaters, they were simply not bequeathed the gift of repentance. Others interpret the Biblical text to imply that free choice is never lost.
- See And I Will Harden The Heart of Pharaoh, by R. Yaakov Medan, for a unified interpretation of the hardening of the hearts of Pharaoh, Sichon, and Canaan. He suggests that in all three cases the characters never fully lost their free will.
Fire and Cloud
Shemot 13 contains the first of the Torah’s many references to the fire and cloud that led the Israelites in the desert.
Tools
- See Makbilot BaMikra for links to verses discussing the cloud and fire.
Articles
- See R. Alex Israel’s Beshalach: Fire and Cloud for analysis of the dual purposes of the fire and cloud: to protect and lead the Israelites and to represent God’s presence. R. Israel shares a suggestion of R. Lichtenstein that the fire represents rationality and order, while the cloud represents mystery and transcendence. Taken together, they symbolize the ways that man seeks to understand God.
- See בעמוד אש וענן, by R. Tamir Granot, for analysis of the many places in the Torah where God’s revelation takes place through the medium of cloud and fire. R. Granot demonstrates that in all of these places, the cloud and fire are part of the same pillar, with the cloud surrounding the fire. This is true of the manifestation of God when He led the Israelites out of Egypt as well as the revelations at Mount Sinai and in the Tabernacle.