Parshas Shemos - Parsha Stumpers and Something to Think About

פרשת שמות

Parsha Stumpers and Something to Think About

1. Where is there a רמז in the Parsha that one who does Shnayim Mikrah V'echad Targum 
   
   
   nicely will merit to be able to do many more shnayim mikrah v'echad targums?

2. Why isn't Yosef listed among the other shevatim in the beginning of the parsha?

3. How could it have been a maidservant of Batya's who went to get Moshe if Rashi 
   
   
   explained that malach Gavriel killed them all?

4. Why was it necessary for Moshe to grow up in the house of Pharoah?

5. Rashi explains that before Moshe killed the Mitzri, he looked into the Mitzri's future to 
   
   
   see if any geirim would come out of his descendents. What did the Mitzri do to that 
   
   
   
   
   made him Chayav Meesah? If he only hit the Jew, then how could Moshe kill him; and if 
   
   
   
   
   he killed him, then why did Moshe have to first look into the Mitzri's future?

6. When Rashi tells us who the two Jews were that were hitting each other, he writes 
   
   
   
   
   “They were Dasan and Aviram; the same ones who left over the manna (in the desert). 
   
   
   
   
   Why is it necessary for Rashi to add in this piece of information? What does it have to 
   
   
   
   
   do with here?

7. Yisro had seven names and seven daughters...what is significant about Yisro and the 
   
   
   number seven?

8. Moshe is the third one to find himself by a well in a distant land right before finding a 
   
   
   wife.

a. Who were the first two?

b. How are each of their stories as to how they found themselves by the well very different?

c. Why does there seem to be a pattern of the experience by the well getting progressively 

worse and worse?

d. What is the significance of the well?

9. Besides for the fact that they both went to a well after running away from home, there 
   
   
   are many similarities between Moshe and Yaakov. How many can you find?
   
   
   
   
10. What was Hashem's hava amina to tell B'nei Yisroel about both troubles, that Moshe
    
    
     had to argue and say that He should not tell B''nei Yisroel about the one in the future
    
    
    
    
     while they were still suffering now? (See Rashi 3:14)
    
    
11. The mind and mouth work together to bring ruchniyus into this world. If so, isn't it 
    
    
    weird that Moshe who was the one who would bring the Torah from Har Sinai had a 
    
    
    
    
    speech impediment?

12. Hashem told Moshe (4:19) to return to Mitzrayim and that Moshe should not worry 
    
    
    because those who had wanted to kill him were dead. Rashi learns that “those people” 
    
    
    were Dasan and Aviram and they were actually still alive. Rashi explains that they are 
    
    
    
    
    called “dead” because they became poor...

a. Who cares if they are “called dead”, why should that make Moshe feel better?

b. How does Rashi know that they became poor as opposed to one of the other things for 

which a person is titled dead (such as: Having Tzaraas, being blind, not having children)?

13. How could Tziporah give Bris Milah to her son if the Gemara Kiddushin (29a) says that Bris Milah is a Mitzva which is optimally done by the father (on 8^th day)?