Parshas Shemos

General

1. How many verses are in this week’s Parsha? 124
2. What is the Haftorah of this week’s Parsha? Yeshayahu 27:6-28:13; 29-22-23
3. How many Mitzvos are in this week’s Parsha? 0

Rishon

Topic 1: The family of Yaakov who arrived to Egypt

4. Why does the Torah once again list the names of the children of Jacob? Rashi
5. How many tribes are listed in the verse that came down to Egypt? 11
6. What are the names of the tribes that are listed to have come down to Egypt, and in which order? Reuvein, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda, Yissachar, Zevulun, Binyamon, Don, Naftali, Gad, Asher.
7. What is the reason behind the above order? Chizkuni
8. How many descendants of Jacob were in Egypt? A total of seventy souls who descended from Yaakov were in Egypt.
9. Were any of the children, or the original 70 descendants, of Jacob still alive when the slavery began? Yosef and all his brothers and all that generation passed away. Rashbam/Seforno
10. How many children would the Jewish women bear at a time? The Jewish people reproduced and multiplied to great numbers, and the earth became filled with Them.

Topic 2: The slavery begins:

11. Was the Pharaoh alive in the times of Joseph the same Pharaoh who forced the Jewish people into slavery? A new king was appointed over Egypt who did not know Yosef.
12. Why was Pharaoh so threatened by the Jewish people? He told his nation that the Jewish people have multiplied more than us, and therefore we should conspire a plan to deal with them, lest they multiply even more and drive us out of our land.
13. What was Pharaoh’s plan to decimate the Jewish people?
14. What jobs of slavery were the Jewish people given? Pharaoh appointed tax collectors to make the Jewish people work in hard labor, and had them build cities of storage for Pharaoh. The Egyptians enslaved the Jews with crushing labor. They were worked with hard labor involving mortar and bricks and every labor of the field. All the labors they performed were crushing and back breaking work.
15. What were the names of the cities that the Jewish people built? The cities of Pithom and Raamses.
16. What was the purpose of the cities? What is the meaning of the words “Arei Miskanot?”
17. Did the plan work? Did the Jewish people stop multiplying? The more the Jews were oppressed, the more they multiplied.
18. “Humor riddle” Which fruit of the tree was used to make the Jewish people work hard? [See Unkelus 1:13]

Topic 3: The midwives Shifrah and Puah, and the decree to kill the boys

19. What were the names of the Jewish midwives? Shifrah and Puah
20. Who was Shifra and Puah and why were they called by this name? Rashi
21. What did Pharaoh tell the Jewish midwives to do? To kill all the male children born to the Jewish people.
22. What were the midwives to do with the girls who were born, kill them or spare them? He instructed for the girls to be spared.
23. Why did Pharaoh’s only make the decree against the males and allow the girls to be spared? Rashi
24. Did the midwives listen to Pharaoh and kill the newborn baby boys? The midwives feared G-d and did not listen to his instructions and allowed the male children to live.
25. How did Shifra and Puah give life to the newborns? Rashi 1:17

Sheiyni

26. How did Pharaoh react to the midwives and what did they say to defend themselves? Pharaoh confronted the midwives and they replied that the Jewish people are akin to wild animals who give birth on their own. The Jewish people thus continued to multiply.
27. What reward was given to the midwives for not killing the Jewish babies? Hashem gave the midwives homes in reward of them fearing Him. Rashi
28. Which kings came out from the descendants of Miriam? See Sotah 11b
29. What new decree did Pharaoh make after the above events and who had to follow it? Pharaoh then commanded his entire nation to kill their male born children, while sparing the females.
30. Why did Pharaoh’s later decree for all boys, even the Egyptian mothers, to be drowned? Rashi
31. Which death did Pharaoh instruct for the male children to be killed in? Drowning in the Nile river
32. Why did Pharaoh instruct to kill the children specifically by drowning them? Rashi

Topic 4: Moshe Rabbeinu is born and placed in the river:

33. Who was the Levite man who took a Levite daughter, and who was this daughter? Rashbam
34. Why doesn’t the verse explicitly state who they are? Ramban
35. How were they related?
36. How was it permitted for Amram to marry his aunt?
37. Who convinced Amram and Yocheved to remarry and how? Rashi
38. In which month of pregnancy did Yocheved give her to her son Moshe? Rashi
39. What did Yocheved see when her son Moshe was born? The mother saw that he was good and the house filled with light when Moshe was born:
40. For how many months was Moshe hidden for until he was found? She hid him for three months.
41. How old was Yocheved when she gave birth to Moshe? Rashi
42. What was Moshe’s original name? Tuvia
43. Where did Yocheved hide her son to help him escape from being found by the Egyptians?
44. How did the Egyptians discover that Moshe was born? Rashi 2:3
45. What material was the basket made from? His mother placed him in a reed basket.
46. What was the basket smeared with? It was smeared with clay and tar.
47. Where was the basket with Moshe placed? She entered him into the reeds of the banks of the Nile River.
48. Who stood guard next to Moshe’s basket to see what would happen to them? His sister stood from a distance to see what would happen to him.

Topic 5: Baby Moshe is rescued

49. Who rescued Moshe? The daughter of Pharaoh was strolling with her maidservants by the river and she saw the basket, stretched her hand and took it.
50. What was the name of the daughter of Pharaoh? Basya
51. What happened to Batya’s maidservants?
52. What did Batya see when she opened the basket holding Moshe? She opened it and saw a lad crying and had mercy on him. She exclaimed that the child is from the Jewish people.
53. How did Batya know that Moshe was Jewish? Rashi
54. Why was it necessary for Miriam to call someone to nurse Moshe? Rashi
55. Who ended up becoming the wetnurse of Moshe? The sister of Moshe [i.e. Miriam] offered Basya to bring a Jewish wet nurse to nurse the boy. After her acceptance, she summoned the boy’s mother who nursed her son in exchange for payment from Basya.
56. What did the daughter of Pharaoh do with Moshe? The child grew up and became adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh as a son.
57. Who gave Moshe his name? The daughter of Pharaoh named him Moshe.
58. Why was he called Moshe? As he was drawn from a river.
59. How many names did Moshe have? Seven [Even Ezra]