OTHER WRITERS ON PARSHAS BO

A quick round-up:



Dov Bear, having fun with plagues
Egyptian magic: http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2007/01/egyptian-magic.html
Water, blood, thirst: http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2006/01/water-water-everywhere-nor-any-drop-to.html
Tzfardia: http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2006/01/frogs-here-frogs-there.html
Darkness: http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2006/02/how-many-died-during-darkness.html


Mevaseretzion
Rosh chodesh http://mevaseretzion.blogspot.com/2007/01/bo-renewal-of-spirit-and-morals.html



Moshe David Tokayer, giving us the Sfas Emes in English
First Ma'amar on Parshas Bo: http://sfasemes.blogspot.com/2007/01/bo-5631-first-maamar.html
Second Ma'amar on Parshas Bo: http://sfasemes.blogspot.com/2007/01/bo-5631-second-maamar.html



Rabbi Joshua Maroof / Vesom Sechel
About tefillin: http://vesomsechel.blogspot.com/2007/01/tefillin-of-rashi-and-rabbenu-tam.html
[Why is this relevant? Because of some verses in the last part of Parshas Bo that instruct us to wear them. I mentioned same in some detail in my notes (after psook 13:9), but you probably didn't read that far. Rabbi Maroof explains the basis of the machlokes between the two bawuste rishonim. His article is quite fascinating.]

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Notes:

RABBEINU TAM = Our righteous rabbi; appellation of Rabbi Yakov Ben Meir (1100 - 1171), grandson of Rashi, and one of the greatest of exegetes. Yakov Avinu was also ‘tam’ (righteous; a straightforward man). Rabbeinu Tam, with his brothers and other kin, was among the great Talmud-Torah scholars of the middel-ages.

Yocheved, one of Rashi’s three daughters, married Meir Ben Shmuel. Together they had four sons: Samuel (Shmuel; the Rashbam), Jacob (Yakov; Rabbeinu Tam), Isaac (Yitzhok; the Ribbam), and Solomon (Shlomo, the grammarian). There were also daughters.


RASHI = Rabbi Shlomo ben Itzak, a mediaeval bible commentator (1040 - 1105) who lived in Troyes. His commentary and annotation of the Torah and Talmud is often included on the printed page, and is considered the basis from whence all study of the material must grow. Rashi did not labour in a vacuum; his children, grandchildren (see above), and students also contributed mightily to Rabbinic scholarship.


SFAS EMES: The Sfas Emes (The Lips of Truth, after his magnum opus, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter, b. 1847, d. 1905, second Gerrer Rebbe, grandson of the Chidushei HaRim). One of the great Chassidic masters of Eastern Europe, whose lineage continued in Israel with the Emrei Emes. The Sfas Emes opined that if you have learned much Torah, the insights thus gained will teach you to not take overmuch credit for yourself.

He was a brilliant child, and when orphaned by the death of his father, was raised and taught by his grandfather (the Chiddushei HaRim, first Rebbe of Ger), as is reflected in his commentaries, which often start with a thought from the Chiddushei HaRim.


Chiddushei HaRim = Rabbi Yitzhak "Feige" Meir Rothenburg Alter (1799 – 1866), the first Rebbe of Ger, who had become a disciple of the Seraf of Kotsk (Rav Menachem Mendel of Kotsk, 1787 – 1859) while still very young. A descendant of Rashi and King David.
Chiddush = Innovation.