בס”ד
By Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
Painting by: Baruch Nachshon z”l
In this painting we obviously see the events of the Splitting of the Red Sea and the Giving of the Torah. These are also themes close to this parsha which discusses the Splitting of the Sea and Israel’s travels towards Mount Sinai where they are to receive the Torah.
In this painting we should notice that the pyramid at the back of Pharaoh is painted red, a matter that seems to hint to our Sages’ teaching that the Egyptians used Jewish blood in the building bricks of their “storage houses,” which some commentators associate to the Pyramids. This may also be the explanation of the bat adjacent to this “bloody” pyramid, since bats are an impure animal which also eat blood in many cases. Above the bloody pyramid we see the Palestinian flag. It is known that Yishmael the ancestor of the Arab people was born from Hagar, who was an Egyptian. The ideas implied with this connection we will leave for the reader…
We see ten fish of about the same size and another very large fish. The fish is known to be a symbol of the righteous in Torah thought. In the Idra Raba of the Zohar commentators correlate the group of the ten righteous participants of the holy assembly of this “Idra” to the ten sefirot. It is known that there are ten sefirot from Hochma to Malchut. However, there is yet another sefira called the Keter which is considered the source of all these ten sefirot. This “source sefira” may be the meaning of the large fish, in a sense greater and above the other ten.
We see twelve birds flying around the Two Tablets of the Torah, a matter which seems to hint to unison of the twelve tribes in elevation towards the Torah which unites them all. Ultimately, it is Hebron which unites all our People around our common roots mentioned in the Torah.