Countdown to Pesach 20-Belz

The 24th of Adar is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Yitzchak (ben Chanoch Henach) Meyer of Alesk (1829-1904). Born in Belz to the Lev Sameyach and his Rebbetzen Freide, daughter of the Sar Shalom of Belz. After learning with his maternal grandfather, he became a chasid of Rav Yisrael of Ruzhin, and later of his son, Rav Dovid Moshe of Chortkov. With his father’s petira in 1884, Rav Yitzchak became Rav in Alesk. He had  one daughter, and his son-in-law succeeded him.

The Belzer Rebbe said: We find that Pharaoh’s magicians were able to perform by their secret arts the miracles of turning water into blood and of bringing up frogs. They were unable to duplicate the other plagues. The question arises: Why did God cause Moses to perform miracles that could be duplicated by magic? Could He not have enjoined that all the plagues be beyond imitation?

The answer is as follows: God knew that in later times unbelievers might arise and say, “The Egyptian soothsayers were possessed of little wisdom, and that is how Moshe was able to trick them. We, however, would not have been victims of his trickery.” We believers can answer, “If you are smarter than the Egyptian magicians, accomplish at least as much as they. Turn water into blood. Bring up frogs. If you cannot do this, you must admit their superiority, and at the same time recognize that they acknowledged the Divine Power resident in the acts of Moshe. (Dover Shalom, page 78)

iPray-iThank-Morning Blessings: “Ata Hu Hashem, Elokeinu.”

“”Let all who walk the earth recognize and know that You alone are the Lord, Supreme over all the kingdoms of the earth (II Kings 19:15).”

Haggadah: “Great awe,” alludes to the Divine Revelation, as it is written, “Has God ever attempted to take unto God a nation from the midst of another nation by trials, miraculous signs and wonders, by war and with a mighty hand and outstretched arm and by awesome revelations, just as you saw the Everpresent God, your Lord, do for you in Egypt, before your eyes.”