5785/2025
In Parashat Ki Tavo, during Mikra Bikkurim, the bringer of Bikkurim declares the following: “VaYare’u Otanu HaMitzrim VaYa’anunu, VaYitnu Aleinu Avodah Kasha” (Devarim 26:6). Why does the Pasuk use the unusual word VaYare’u—“they made us bad”—instead of a more common expression for mistreatment? What exactly does this term connote?
The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh explains that VaYare’u does not mean that the Egyptians acted badly toward us, but rather that they made us bad. Living so long in Egyptian society influenced Bnai Yisrael, drawing them into the Mitzrim’s corrupt behavior and weakening their spiritual character. Netziv offers a different approach. He explains that VaYare’u refers not to mistreatment, but to how the Egyptians portrayed the Jews. They depicted Bnai Yisrael as villains, spreading propaganda that the Jews were ungrateful, disloyal, and plotting to join Egypt’s enemies. In truth, none of this was real. It was all slander designed to justify their enslavement of the Jewish people.
The parallels to today are striking. From ancient Egypt until our own times, falsehood and propaganda have been constant weapons used against the Jewish people. Back then, it was claims that the Jews were a threat to Egypt. Nowadays, it is accusations that the Jewish State’s army kills indiscriminately, making the Jewish State into the villains, and not the terrorist organization that started the conflict by brutally slaughtering 1,200 Jews. The lies have changed form, but the pattern remains. The pattern, Im Yirtzeh Hashem, will also continue for Hashem’s response. Just as Hashem redeemed us from Egypt, where there was propaganda and oppression, so too, B’EzratHashem, He will redeem us from the falsehoods and hatred directed at us today, bringing us back to the Beit HaMikdash.