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Teaching · Parshas Shemos

Back to His Root

Rebbe Elimelech teaches that when Basya drew Moshe out of the water, she returned him to his root.

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The Noam Elimelech explains why Pharaoh's daughter named the child Moshe, for I drew him out of the water. The Egyptians knew that Moshe's soul came from the root of all chassadim, Hashem's kindnesses, and so they cast him into the water, to cut him off from his root. The Torah speaks of the upper waters and the lower waters, divided from one another, and the Egyptians meant to sink him in the lower waters and sever him from the upper ones. But Pharaoh's daughter took him out of the lower waters, and he cleaved again to his root. In Rebbe Elimelech's reading, her act of rescue was not only physical: she returned Moshe to his root, and he cleaved to it again.

Source: Noam Elimelech, Bereishis, Vayetzei (on Shemos 2:10 and Bereishis 1:6)

Practical lessonHelp someone return to their root

Every Jew has a root of holiness, even when life has pushed them far from it. This week, think of one person who seems cut off: a friend who stopped coming to shul, a relative who feels distant from Yiddishkeit. Do not lecture. Invite them to a Shabbos meal, send them a short dvar Torah you enjoyed, or simply ask how they are. Like Basya at the river, you are not creating something new; you are helping someone back to where they already belong.

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