Parsha discussion

Question:  What is the difference between מקדש and משכן? Approach : A technical answer can be given based on the use of the two phrases throughout the תורה. The term משכן appears to relate specifically to the enclosed area housing the main vessels. The large מזבח is outside this area. The term מקדש seems to refer to the wider structure, as well as any other physical area given spiritual significance by בני ישראל. Perhaps these terms are reflective of a more esoteric approach, whereby משכן connotes the limited area where the שכינה is most manifest, but מקדש relates to anywhere the people choose to sanctify.

Question:  Why are the laws of damages to servants interrupted? Approach: There are a number of ways that the תורה could have presented the rules of damages - based on offending party, damaged party, severity of the crime etc. From a closer reading of the text, it appears that the primary factor is severity of crime. Hence why the cases of causing death to humans, or close to it, come before damages to property. Within each category, the order seems to be the nature of what is damaged, based on who/what is the damaging party. Hence, causing death to a “regular” human precedes causing death of a slave, which itself precedes the death to a fetus, which is essentially the ultimate damage to a human limb. Damages to slaves is then the first in the category of damage to property.

Question:  Why are the boys referred to only as children of ציפורה and not of משה? Approach : Whilst we sometimes find children linked specifically to the mother, we normally find it when the father is previously known (e.g the children of יעקב). In this case, we have heard of the birth of גרשם previously, but the birth of אליעזר is only hinted to. We see that, whatever the explanation, ציפורה “saved the day” with the ברית מילה, and here it transpires that she went back to מדין whilst משה was in Egypt. As such, it seems that the attribution of parenthood goes to the person who raised the child, rather than based purely on biology. This is similar to how we explained שרה suggesting that her raising the child of הגר would be her “building”.

Question:  Second half of 13:18 and all of 13:19 relate to the nature of the exodus, and would appear to be a better fit for the latter part of chapter 12. Why are they moved to here? Approach: we need to distinguish between two aspects of יציאת מצרים. The first is the actual leaving the country. That is recounted in chapter 12. The other aspect is the onward journey, detailed here. Taking arms clearly relates to the onward journey, looking towards what might be in the future. It also makes sense that the taking of Yosef’s bones appears here as the promise to him had been specifically related to the journey back to ארץ כנען