This Lelamed Dvar is also available in your local App Store (iTunes and Android). As you hopefully enjoy this Dvar, it would be nice to share these thoughts (and quote) with as many people as you can think of, either via email which I will gladly include in these distributions, or by word-of-mouth... _______________________________________________ When Yocheved and Miriam, the two midwives responsible for delivering the Jewish babies, were ordered by Paroh to kill all the newborn boys, they disobeyed a direct order, thereby risking their lives. In explaining this to us, the Torah says that G-d rewarded them, the nation prospered and multiplied, and G-d "built them houses" (1:20-21) - not literal houses, but rather that their descendants would become great pillars of Jewish leadership and religion (Rashi). From the way the Passuk (verse) elucidates it, though, it seems that they were rewarded AND there were houses built for them. Were they rewarded twice? If so, why? Rabbi Rubman (Zichron Meir) points out that the Passuk says that it wasn't because they risked their lives that they were rewarded with great descendants, but because they feared G-d that they deserved it. The reason for the double-language is because they were 1) rewarded for risking their lives, and 2) houses were built based on their fear and respect of G-d. What's unique about these rewards is that their fear/respect of G-d is what warranted eternal reward, and NOT their life-risking actions. The Torah's message is that the motives behind our actions are sometimes more important than the acts themselves, even if the act is life threatening. The Torah's message is that when it comes to building a Jewish home, it truly is the thought that counts. Shlomo Ressler _______________________________________________ Quotation of the Week: “Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.” - Cyril Connolly