Readings for Saturday, January 6, 2024
Shemot (“Names”)
1:1 - 6:1 Shemot (Exodus)
Shemot (Exodus) is the second book in the Torah. It consists of eleven weekly readings. During non-leap years, the tenth and eleven portions are read on the same Shabbat. Shemot (both the book and the first sedrah) literally means “Names” as in “These are names (Shemot) of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob.” Different commentators have divided the book in various ways. For some, Shemot divides as follows:
·
A description of the enslavement of the Israelites;
·
Events leading up to, and including, the redemption
from bondage;
·
Events leading up to and following the revelation
at Sinai;
·
Presentation of a significant number of
commandments (numbers 4 through 114 to be exact);
·
The building of the Tabernacle.
Shemot is known as the Book of Exodus in English. The name comes from one of the most dramatic
events in our history, the Exodus from Egypt.
The book of Shemot and the weekly reading of the same name each cover
far too much material for this guide to deal with in depth. You are urged to read the text and the
voluminous notes in the various commentaries to capture the full impact of the
events and their deeper meaning for the development of the Jewish people. One question that comes up time and time again
relates to the historic authenticity of the events described in Shemot. Generally speaking, Jews view these events as
part of our history. “Whether or not the
events happened exactly as described is in the final instance less important
than the way in which they were experienced and comprehended. Whether or not God objectively rescued Israel
from Egypt is a question to which no historian can provide an answer. But Exodus, the repository of Israel’s
experience, says that He did and on this basis history and faith together have
shaped the minds and hearts of Israel.”
This quote is from Plaut’s Commentaries, the Chumash of choice of the
Reform Movement. If the Reform Movement can
accept the historicity of Shemot, I think we can set the question aside and
move on to this text that describes some of the seminal events of our national
existence.
Shemot, the weekly reading, describes the enslavement of the Israelites,
the emergence of Moses and the first confrontation of between Moses and
Pharaoh. This confrontation with
Pharaoh, as with all subsequent confrontations, is really a confrontation
between God and Pharaoh. Much of the
narrative for this week’s sedrah, like much of the first part of Shemot,
includes tales many of you know from your days as Religious School students so
I may skip over some of text just to save time.
Enslavement of the Israelites 1:1-1:22
The sedrah opens by listing the names of the sons of Israel. This provides a connection with the
concluding portion of Bereshit and provides the glue that binds our historic
and spiritual heritage.
“And a new king arose who knew not Joseph.” Thus begins the tale of our enslavement, the
outlines of which are repeated over and over again throughout our history as
former allies and friends turn on us.
Did this new king not know of Joseph because he had served another
dynasty such as the Hyksos? Or did he
not know of Joseph because he had decided to do evil to Joseph’s
descendants? The text is silent. But the outcome is the same. Having decided, for no apparent reason, that
the Israelites pose a threat, the king now can justify enslaving them and
trying to murder the male children. This
Pharaoh is often cited as history’s first anti-Semite. The Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, who
refused to murder the infant boys, should qualify as the first practitioners of
civil disobedience. They acted as they
did because they feared God. This term,
“fear of God,” appears repeatedly throughout our text and is tied to the
concept of the highest level of moral behavior.
The Pharaoh is not impressed by their rectitude, which should give us
some idea about Egyptian morality. If
the midwives will not participate in infanticide, the Pharaoh has no choice but
to order the drowning of all male babies in the Nile. This decree sets the stage for our
introduction to the central temporal figure in the last four books of the Torah
and one of our tradition’s central figures - Moses or Moshe.
The Emergence of Moshe 2:1-4:28
First we are introduced to Moses’ parents, although not by name but
merely by tribe. There is nothing
miraculous about the birth of Moses. He
is the product of a normal, married couple having their third child. In order to save him, his mother puts him in
basket and hides him among the reeds under his sister’s watchful eye. Please note, the word used for basket is
“tevah” the same term used for the ark in which Noah sails. If you believe nothing happens by
coincidence, what connections do you think the author(s) were drawing between
the story of the Flood and Moses? The
daughter of Pharaoh finds the baby and in one of history's great ironies saves
the great liberator from the death planned by her father. Thanks to Miriam and the Egyptian Princess,
the mother of Moses becomes his nurse.
According to some commentators, Moses’ mother provided him with his
Israelite identification during this formative period of his life. At the end of this sojourn, the baby is given
to the princess who names him Moses: “I
drew him out of the water.” Does the
Egyptian Princess know Hebrew? If President
Bush’s wife can be bilingual, why can’t the daughter of the Pharaoh demonstrate
the same skill?
The text is silent about the years Moses spent growing up in Pharaoh’s
household. The next time we meet him he
is a grown man and his experiences at this time will pre-sage the events of his
future life. He kills an Egyptian who
was “beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsmen.”
This tells us two things about Moses.
First, he knows who his people really are. Secondly, he has a strong sense of
justice. Moses is forced to flee Egypt
when one of his fellow Hebrews implies that he will expose Moses for killing the
Egyptian. This will not be the last time
that his fellow Israelites will cause Moses pain and suffering. Moses flees to Midian (an ill-defined region
east of Egypt possibly in the Arabian Peninsula) where he encounters his soon
to be wife, Zipporah and his future father-in-law, now called Reuel, but later
called Jethro and Hobab. Once again,
Moses’ sense of justice comes into play as he defends the right of Reuel’s
seven daughters to water their flocks at the well. (Yes, we have seen others at the well. What is the significance of the repetitive
themes?) Moses marries, has a son named
Gershom (“I am stranger in a strange land” ties perfectly with “There came a
king who knew not Joseph.”) and settles down to the life of a shepherd. Meanwhile, back in Egypt, the king dies, but
the enslavement continues. Note the
language in 2:24 and 2:25. On the one
hand it says “God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” which
may contain the lesson that even when man forgets God, He remembers us. On the other hand, what does it say about God
when the text continues, “God took notice of them?” Does this mean that God is not always paying
attention to His Chosen People? If not,
what happened to catch His divine attention?
(These would seem to qualify as “Saturday Kiddush Questions.”)
The narrative now switches back to Moses and his first meeting with God
at the Burning Bush on a site that will later be known as Sinai. Moses is the reluctant prophet giving God all
sorts of reasons why he is the wrong person for the task. This modesty is another of Moses’ great traits. In the course of their conversations, God
reveals the future to Moses including the reason for the Exodus. “And when you have freed the people from
Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”
In other words, Moses knows from the start that the deliverance from
Egypt is a prelude to something even more glorious. Unlike the Patriarchs, Moses wants to know
God’s name. In 3:14 God provides the
enigmatic answer that has puzzled commentators ever since. Interestingly enough, Moses never shares this
name with Israelites. Of further
interest is that God tells Moses to invoke the names of the Patriarchs (3:15)
when appearing before the Israelites.
Once again, we see the theme of historic continuity arise depending upon
how one reads the text. At the end of
the conversation, God tells Moses that his brother Aaron will speak for
him. In subsequent verses, the text
plainly states that Aaron spoke the words of Moses. But in ensuing chapters, when the Torah says,
“Moses spoke” should it really say, “Aaron spoke?” Furthermore, when and why does Moses lose the
speech impediment and no longer have need of Aaron’s tongue?
As Moses leaves Midian to return to Egypt with his wife and family, we
find one of those strange interludes (4:24-4:26). Is it a nighttime encounter reminiscent of
Jacob wrestling with the angel?
Apparently somebody has not been circumcised. Is it Moses?
Is it his son?
Apparently it is the younger son of Moses who has not been
circumcised. Moses, for some
inexplicable reason, has failed to perform the primary ritual and it is only
through the intervention of Moses’ wife that all are saved. Some commentators contend that Moses now goes
on to Egypt alone. His wife and sons
turn back and will not re-join him until Jethro brings them to him after the
Exodus.
The First Confrontations with Pharaoh 4:29-6:2
While the elders of Israel are impressed with Moses’ presentation, the
Pharaoh is not. He scoffs at them and he
scoffs at God. After throwing the
brothers out, Pharaoh decides to make things even worse for the
Israelites. Now they must provide the
straw for the bricks as well as make the bricks and build the cities of
Pharaoh. By making their lives even
harder, the Pharaoh figures he can discredit the brothers and bring an end to
their meddling. In point of fact, he
seemed to have succeeded. First the
Israelites turn their wrath against Moses for making their lot worse. Then Moses seems to lose faith with his
questions (5:22-23). But of course, God
is God and neither Pharaoh nor the Israelites understand the true nature of the
contest.
Themes:
Women - Shemot provides
more evidence of the central role women play in the story of the Jewish
people. The midwives, Yocheved, Miriam,
Zipporah and Pharaoh’s daughter all play pivotal roles in the sedrah. We do not need to re-write our history to
create great women. Only those who have
not studied Torah are unaware of these realities and therefore feel compelled
to invent an unnecessary mythology.
The Midwives - The Babylonian
Talmud provides this additional information about these brave women. One was named Shiphrah, which means
fertile. She was so named because she
ensured that the babies were born healthy.
The other was named Puah which means “open-mouthed.” This appellation alluded to the soothing,
calming affect her voice had upon the infants in her care. Some contend that Shiphrah was Yocheved,
Moshe’s mother and that Puah was Miriam, Moshe’s sister.
Two Sons - Moshe has two
sons. The elder is Gershom. The name takes it root from the Hebrew word
“ger” meaning stranger. Moshe felt that
he was a stranger in a strange land. The
younger is name Eliezer, which means “with God’s help.” He was so named as a sign of Moshe’s
gratitude for God having helped him escape from the wrath of Pharaoh. Their fate is fascinating. See if you can track it as we move forward.
Abraham and Moshe - Both are great
men. Both are prototypes of Jewish
leaders. Yet one was basically compliant
and accepting. The other was challenging
and impatient. According to the great
commentator Rashi, “Moshe talked out of turn, Abraham did not.” Abraham never complained even at the time of
the Akedah Yitzchak. On the other hand,
Moshe repeatedly refused to accept God’s command that he return to Egypt and
lead the Israelites. Abraham was patient
and accepting as can be seen in his willingness to wait for the birth of
Isaac. Moshe wanted a fast resolution
(he hit the rock) and had a tendency to challenge God (do not destroy the
Israelites and let me enter the Promised Land).
Pesach - The holiday
will be upon us in a few months. As you
read Shemot, you should see elements of the Haggadah and the Seder. Hopefully reading the source material will
make celebrating the holiday a more meaningful experience.
Continuity - This is
obviously important to the author(s) as well as being a basic concept in
Judaism. We see repeated invocation of
the Patriarchs. We see re-working of
motifs from Bereshit. And last, but not
least, God reminds us that unfolding events are merely the realization of that
which had been foretold to Abraham.
Defining a Real
Jew
- There have been many sectarian quarrels among various Jewish groups over the
millennia. In these conflicts, there are
those who are always quick to declare that those who do not see things their
way are not “real” Jews. At the same
time, there are the sons of Aaron who seek ways to find peace in the
house. A quote from this week’s portion
provides the springboard for a tale about two approaches to the issue of “real
Jews.” When confronted by Moshe’s
demands, the King of Egypt responds, “And Pharaoh said: ‘Who (is) the Lord that I should hearken to
his voice…’” (5:2).
A Chassidic Rebbe and his son were visiting a Jewish community. On Shabbat afternoon, following the meal, as
was the custom among the Chassidim, the Rebbe began a d’var Torah on the
portion of the week. The German Jews
were not used to such a discourse and began mocking the Rebbe. The son was infuriated. “How,” he asked his father, “can you waste
your words on Epikoros?” The Rebbe was
shocked that his son would refer to the German Jews as Epikoros, a term used to
characterize people who are lax in the observances and/or non-believers. The father agreed with his son that it would
be wrong to speak Torah in front of Epikoros.
However, the father confessed a weakness - on Shabbat he felt the need
to converse about the Holy Books. It was
agreed that on the following Shabbat, if the Rebbe felt the urge to speak, his
son would remind him of the waste of speaking Torah to Epikoros by waving his
hand. Sure enough, on the following
Shabbat, the Rebbe and his son sat down for Kiddush and the afternoon
meal. The Rebbe started to “talk
Torah.” The son immediately began making
gestures to remind the father of his promise not to speak. But the Rebbe ignored him and gave a
brilliant talk that completely captivated those at the table. After Shabbat, the son asked his father why
he ignored his gestures and spoke Torah to the Epikoros. “How can you call these German Jews
Epikoros? Pharaoh was the only Epikoros
for he is the only one who questioned the existence of God when he said, ‘Who
is the Lord that I should hearken to his voice?’ But these German Jews cannot be called
Epikoros. After all, at the first sign
of trouble they cry out Shema Yisrael, Hear O Israel the Lord is One.” And the son learned from the father that it
is easy to strike a quarrel with another Jew.
But the merit is finding the common ground to unite the whole house of
Israel.
Circumcision in
Shemot - “So Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin”
(4:25). The circumcision ceremony
described in Shemot is a puzzler. First,
who is the son? Is it Gershom the son
whose birth is described in 2:21-22? Is
it Eliezer whose name we discover much later (18:2-4) when Jethro reunites
Moses with his family after the Exodus has taken place? Regardless of which son it was, why didn’t
Moses perform this fatherly duty? Some
say it was because the baby was a newborn (thus it would be Eliezer) and he was
afraid it would threaten the child’s health to circumcise him before a
trip. But if that is so, why would God
threaten the life of Moses since laws may be abrogated over matters of health? Zipporah’s assumption of the responsibility
for the brit is a reminder that although it is the father’s primary
responsibility to ensure that the brit takes place, the members of the
community or in this case the wife, can act in his stead if he is unable to
ensure the child’s circumcision. Note that
Zipporah uses a flint (stone knife) to perform the ceremony even though she is
living in the Bronze Age when metal utensils have supplanted the cruder stone
items. The use of the flint reminds us of
the antiquity of the Brit and the need to maintain close connections with the
origin of our customs if they are to retain their original meaning. (For example, Electric Chanukah menorahs just
don’t cut it.) Last but not least, this
strange interlude might be there to remind of us the need to take care of the
basics before going off on grand missions.
Could Moses have been so caught up in his new mission that he forgot to
take care of one of the first commands; in this case the command that
symbolized the connection between those whom he was about to help free with
their ancestral patrimony?
What is the
“Thing” - In chapter 2, verses 14 and 15 we read about the Israelites
threatening to expose Moses and Moses subsequent decision to flee because
Pharaohs wants to kill him. “And Moses
feared and he said: Surely the thing
(ha-davar) is known. And Pharaoh heard
this thing (ha-davar) and he sought to kill Moses.” Modern translators have Moses saying “The
Matter is known” and Pharaoh learning of “The Matter”). The question is what was the thing that Moses
feared Pharaoh finding out about and what was the thing for which Pharaoh
wanted to kill Moses? Were the “things”
the same “things?” Was Moses afraid that
Pharaoh would be angry because he had killed somebody or was he afraid that
Pharaoh would be angry because he would find out the Moses was a Jew? Moses was troubled by the fact that he taken
another life. In fact, there are
commentators who say that this is the real reason he did not get to enter the
Promised Land. But Moses knew that
Pharaoh would not be troubled by this.
After all, Moses was a Prince in a land where life was cheap. When Moses says “the thing is known” does he
means that it is known that he is a Jew?
Pharaoh would not have threatened the life of a member of court for
taking the life of commoner. But he
would have killed Moses for being a Jew since the destruction of the Jewish
people was his goal. What kind of
society would not punish a murder but would punish a Jew for being a Jew? The Egyptians may have been the first to have
this moral value, but as we know now, they were far from the last.
Who was in Egypt - There is a
great deal of controversy among some commentators as to who the enslaved people
were. This controversy extends itself
into the story of the Exodus and the settling of the land by subsequent
generations as described in Joshua and Judges.
In the opening chapters of the book of Shemot, we find the enslaved
people described over and over again as “Hebrews.” Professor Kugel points out that of the
thirty-four times that the appellation “Hebrew” is used, twenty of those times
are found in the narrative about Joseph or in the introductory chapters of the
second book of the Torah. Pharaoh calls
the midwives “Hebrew midwives.”
Pharaoh’s daughter describes the baby she finds floating in the Nile as
“one of those Hebrew children.” When
Moses intervenes in the fight, it is not between two slaves fighting, or two
men fighting, but “two Hebrew men fighting.”
And in the first confrontation between Moses and the King of Egypt, he
tells Pharaoh, “the God of the Hebrews” appeared to us. We have gone from Abraham’s description of
himself as being an “Ivri” (Hebrew) in Bereshit (Genesis) to being the Sons of
Israel and now back to being Hebrews.
Are these all the same people? Is
this evidence of a text that brings together the traditions of several tribes
and groupings who co-mingled in Canaan and created a common ancestry through a
literary convention? Or is this really
the same people who are variously named depending upon the circumstances and
who is describing them. Consider the
names applied to the people of the United States. We have been called Americans, Yankees by 18th
century Europeans and Asiatics (not to be confused with the name given to the
Northerners during the Civil War), Rebels by the English (not to be confused
with the name given to Southerners during the Civil War) to name but three. Yet all of the appellations apply to the same
people. This is one of those questions
that get chewed over with a bowl of Cholent.
YHWH Again - Each year, it
seems that another author or commentator takes another crack at deciding who
Moses talked with at the burning bush; what is the name; what does it
mean? It is obviously an important
issue, the comprehension of which is well beyond me. You might want to look at How To Read the
Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now by James Kugel for another twist
on this. At the same time, you might be
hearing some of an older theory that says the God of the Exodus has His origin
in Midianite culture and that Jethro is the one who taught Moses about God, not
the other way around.
Telling Lies - Is it ever acceptable to
tell a lie? Based on Shemot, the answer
is “it depends.” This sedrah contains
three separate instances of people telling lies. The portion begins with a lie when the
Pharaoh declares, “And he said unto his
people: 'Behold, the people of the children of Israel are too many and too
mighty for us; come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it
come to pass, that, when there befalleth us any war, they also join themselves unto
our enemies, and fight against us, and get them up out of the land.'” (1:9,
1:10). Then when the Pharaoh asks the
midwives why they are not killing the Hebrew male babies (1:18) they reply with
a lie: “And the
midwives said unto Pharaoh: 'Because the
Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are
delivered ere the midwife come unto them.'” (1:19). And last but not least, God tells
Moses that he should tell the Pharaoh that the Israelites only want “to go … three days journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to
the Lord our God” (3:18) when God knows that they want to leave and not
come back. Everybody agrees that the
Pharaoh’s lie is unacceptable. But at
least one commentator, Abarbanel, the 15th century Sephardic sage,
is bothered about the other two episodes.
He asks, “How could the Hebrew midwives, who feared God and were
rewarded by Him, tell the obvious lie that ‘Before the midwife can come to
them, they have given birth’”? “Why did
God tell Moses to deceitfully request in His name a ‘three days journey’ into
the wilderness rather than demanding ‘Let My people go’”? The lie of the midwives may be acceptable on
many different levels. First, if they
had told me the truth, they would have been signing their own death
warrants. There is a difference between
“Kiddush Hashem” and suicide. Secondly,
the concepts of truth and lies are predicated on a Just Society. Obviously Pharaoh’s Egypt was not a Just
Society. But as to God’s deception;
suffice it to say that the Sephardic Sage is not the only one who is baffled by
this seemingly un-God-like behavior and will continue to look for an answer.
Aaron and God versus Moses and God - “The Lord
said to Aaron, ‘go to meet Moses in the wilderness.’ He went and met him at the mountain of God,
and he kissed me” (4:27). This one
simple sentence describes Aaron’s first meeting with God. No burning bushes; no mysterious voice; no
dramatic dialogue between man the Divine. God tells Aaron what to and Aaron does
it. I am not sure what is more puzzling:
the difference between the first
interaction between the brothers and God or the lack of commentary on the
subject. But then I must confess that
Aaron often puzzles me. He fails the
leadership test three times - twice at the time of the Golden Calf and once
when he joins Miriam in the rebellion against Moses. Yet he is rewarded with the role of High
Priest. He is rewarded again by seeing
his son also assume the position thus knowing that his family will hold the
position in perpetuity. And he is
rewarded with a peaceful death, mourned by the whole house of Israel. Are these seemingly disproportionate rewards
somehow tied to the ease with which he accepted the Lord’s instruction and his
willingness to play second-fiddle to his younger brother? Who knows?
But it does give us something to think about the next time we demand
more of an explanation from God than He appears to be willing to give. As to the mountain where they met, some say
that it is the same mountain where Moses had his first encounter with God and
the same mountain on which Moses will stand when he receives the Ten
Commandments.
Visiting
Pharaoh
– When God talks to Moses at the Burning Bush he tells him that elders of
Israel will go to Pharaoh with him (“Then you shall go with the elders of
Israel to the king of Egypt”). When
Moses returns to Egypt he meets with the elders but when it comes to visit he
goes only with Aaron (“Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh”) Why
didn’t the elders go with Moses? Why
didn’t Moses follow the plan laid out by God?
Did this have anything to do with Pharaoh’s rejection of Moses’s
request? The commentaries I have looked at don’t address this apparent
discrepancy between God’s plan and man’s actions. Yet it sits there begging to be explained.
Seeds of
the Golden Calf –
The Golden Calf is viewed as one of the most shameful moments in Jewish
history. But the creation of the calf
might have its antecedents in this week’s reading. The building of the calf begins with the
Israelites saying, “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down
from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him ‘Come make
us a god who shall before us, for that man Moses, who brought us the land of
Egypt – we do not what has happened to him.’” These recently freed slaves did
not comprehend the concept of this all powerful diety who had no physical
form. They were following Moses to whom
they attributed an element of divinity.
But in Parsha Shemot, God describes the Aaron/Moses relationship as
follows. He tells Moses, “Thus he” (meaning Aaron) shall serve as your (meaning
Moses) spokesman, with you (meaning Moses) playing the role of God to him
(meaning Aaron). In other words, God
tells Moses and Aaron that what the people will see is Moses playing the role
of the divine one. How can we blame the
children of Israel for accepting this bit of divinely created theatre as
reality? Is this an example of “the
medium is the message”? If nothing else,
it should give us pause when studying the events in our ancient history especially
when it comes to assigning blame and responsbility.
The Sin of the Egyptians
“The Egyptians ruthlessly imposed upon the
Israelites…Ruthlessly they made life bitter for them with harsh labor.” The word which modern English translate as
“ruthlessly” is “B’fah-rehch” may also be translated at “with crushing
harness.” In other words, the Egyptians
did not just enslave the Israelites, they went out of their way to make life
harsh for them; almost as if they enjoyed the slavery of the Israelites. Some might say that misery is part of the
human condition. However, enjoying the
misery of others is quite a different matter.
Misery may love company. But we
are not supposed to love the misery of others.
Doing More With
Less
One of the mantras of management in the 21st century is
doing more with less; cutting back on staff and resources while demanding
greater productivity. But there is
nothing new in this. Pharaoh followed
the same policy. He decided the
Israelites had too much time on their hands so he told them that they would
have to gather their own straw and make their own bricks while still meeting
their daily building quota. And when
they could not meet the demand of the Egyptian king, what did he say? He called them “Lazy.” He called them “shirkers.” Modern senior management is a little more
elegant – they categorize their workers as ingrates who do not appreciate the
fact that they have a job in this tough economy. Of course, Pharaoh described the Israelites
as lazy from the comfort of the sedan chair carried by his slaves, just as the
leaders of corporate America disparage their workers from the comfort of
their…well I think you get the point. Is
exploiting “wage slaves” any more acceptable than exploiting “bond slaves?”
All of the Facts All of the Time
In “On Not Obeying Immoral Orders” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’
commentary on this week’s Torah portion, he write. “Moses passes from prince of
Egypt to Midianite shepherd to lead of the Israelites through a
history-changing encounter at the burning bush.” This description of events is true, as far as
it goes. Unfortunately, in what some
might see as an inadvertent sanitization of history, Rabbi Sacks leaves out a
piece of the story and in doing so he inadvertently denies the human of
dimension of Moses thus diminishing his accomplishments. Moses stopped being a Prince of Egypt only
when he fled after expressing his fear about being punished by Pharaoh for
killing the taskmaster. The day after he
did the deed “Moses was frightened and thought: Then the matter is known.” It
was then, and only then, that Moses fled and became the Midianite
shepherd. Based on the text, Moses was
quite content to be a Prince of Egypt.
He had no problem with killing the taskmaster. After all he was a Prince of Egypt which gave
him such power. It was only after he
thought that Pharaoh would punish him that Moses decided to get out of
town. This is all very human
behavior. And because it is, the
accomplishments of Moses are made even greater.
The TaNaCh is story about human beings with all their foibles,
weaknesses and strengths. The stories
speak to us because we can see ourselves in them. They challenge us. In the case of Moses, he was capable of
acting in hot anger, of hiding his deeds and fearing the pain of
punishment. But he rose above those
weaknesses to lead our ancestors who were some of the greatest complainers and
gripers in history from bondage to freedom, from the Yoke of Pharaoh to the
Yoke of the Torah and from impending disaster on the banks of the Sea of Reeds
to greatness on the banks of the River Jordan.
If the “authors” of our sacred text could paint us “warts and all” it
behooves those who would act as commentators to always make sure the leave in
all of the facts all of the time.
The Haggadah and
the Sedrah
This year the reading of the Book of Shemot parallels the run-up to
Pesach. We will finish Shemot, the book
that provides the historic basis for Pesach, just two weeks before we sit down
for the first Seder. So this year
provides us with an excellent opportunity to see how much of the actual text of
the Haggadah comes from each of the weekly readings. This week we find:
"Great,
mighty," as it is said: And the
children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, and multiplied and
became very, very mighty, and the land became filled with them. - 1:7
"The
Egyptians treated us badly," as it is said: Come, let us act cunningly with (the people)
lest they multiply and, if there should be a war against us, they will join our
enemies, fight against us and leave the land." - 1:10
"And they
made us suffer," as it is said:
"They set taskmasters over (the people of Israel) to make them
suffer with their burdens, and they built storage cities for Pharaoh, Pitom and
Ramses." - 1:11
"And they put
hard work upon us," as it is said: "The Egyptians made the children of
Israel work with rigor. - 1:13
"And we cried
out to the Lord, the God of our fathers," as it is said: "During that long period, the king of
Egypt died; and the children of Israel groaned because of the servitude, and
they cried out. And their cry for help
from their servitude rose up to G-d." - 2:23
"And the Lord
heard our voice" as it said: "And God heard their groaning, and G-d
remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." - 2:24
"And he saw
our suffering," this refers to the separation of husband and wife,
as it is said: "God saw the
children of Israel and God took note." - 2:25
"Our
labor," this refers to the "children," as it is said: "Every boy that is born, you shall throw
into the river and every girl you shall keep alive." - 1:22
"And our
oppression," this refers to the pressure, as it is said: "I have seen the
oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them." - 3:9
(Translation - Chabad; Torah Citations - ArtScroll)
For those who think they know all there is to know about the holiday, it
might be interesting to compare the explanations for these verses found in the
commentaries in various Haggadot versus the explanations provided in various
Torah commentaries.
Torah Timeline
How long does the Exodus narrative last?
How long does it take to go from Moses’ encounter at the Burning Bush to
the Crossing at Sea? There is no gap in
the text. A simple reading makes it
seems like the events happened one after another, but logic would seem to say
otherwise. We know that Moses died at
the age of 120. We know that the
Israelites wondered in the Wilderness for 40 years. This would mean that Moses was 80 at the time
of the deliverance from Egypt. Logic
would dictate that Moses was in his 20’s when he slew the Egyptian and fled to
Midian. There would appear to be a
parallel between the two most famous Shepherds who worked for their
fathers-in-law - Jacob and Moses - so for the sake of argument we can say that
Moses worked for Yitro for twenty years meaning that he was in his forties when
he headed back to Egypt. This would mean
that the events leading of the Exodus starting with Moses and Aaron’s first
meeting with Pharaoh and the escape across the Sea of Reeds took place over a
period of 40 years. Viewing events as
having taken place over a forty year period gives it an entirely different
texture than does treating as something that happened over a matter of weeks
which is the superficial sense one gets from reading them back to back in the
weekly Torah readings. Also, when we
participate in the Seder, we are supposed to “experience” the deliverance from
slavery. If the events covered forty
years, then a “short” Seder would seem to fly in the face of a meaningful
observance.
Haftarah
Isaiah 27:6-28:13; 29:22-23 (Ashkenazim)
Jeremiah 1:1-2:3 (Sephardim)
This is one of those weeks where the haftarah you hear chanted will
depend upon what synagogue you are attending.
The vast majority of congregations in the United States follow the
readings of the Ashkenazim.
Isaiah
The Man and the Message: The Prophet
Isaiah is one of the Three Major Prophets.
The other two are Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
The term major refers to the fact that their books are longer than those
of the other prophets. Isaiah is also
the first of the Later Prophets, those coming after the books that start with
Joshua and end with Second Kings. The
book of Isaiah is attributed to at least two and possibly three authors. Traditionally, the fist thirty-nine chapters
are attributed to a historic figure described in the beginning of the
book. Chapters forty through sixty-six
are attributed to a second, anonymous author.
Isaiah’s name in Hebrew is Yeshayahu, which is a form of a word meaning
help or deliverance. The name is
certainly consistent with the teachings of this prophet. The historic or First Isaiah lived during the
eighth century B.C.E. He began preaching
around 740 B.C.E. His public career
lasted for some forty to sixty years spanning the reign of four Kings of Judah
beginning with Uzziah and ending with Hezekiah.
He was married to a woman he refers to as “the prophetess” and he had
two sons. Apparently he was related to
the royal family which meant he could address his teachings directly to those
in power.
According to tradition, Manasseh, whose reign was both long and wicked,
murdered Isaiah. Isaiah lived in a time
of great political turmoil. Assyria was
the leading power of the day. He
witnessed the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel and the exile of the ten
tribes. He encouraged the Judeans not to
make a military alliance with the Egyptians who were the enemies of the
Assyrians. Rather, he urged the Judeans
to trust in the Lord for their deliverance.
Isaiah lived in a time of affluence and economic inequality. He chastised the people for failing to care
for the disadvantaged. God would punish
them for this as well as their other moral shortcomings. The Isaiah of the Exile or the Second Isaiah
is thought to have lived during the sixth century B.C.E. during the period of
the Babylonian Captivity. His message
was one of comfort, hope and a vision of universal peace. The book of Isaiah describes a unique
relationship between God and the children of Israel. They are to carry His message to the people
of the world. By following the teachings
of Torah, they will show the world what God means by holiness. At the same time, Isaiah provides a picture
of God as the God of all mankind. Isaiah
transforms Him from the deity of the Israelites to the Supreme Being for all
the people of the world. Isaiah provides us with the Messianic Vision i.e., the
Coming of the Moshiach. And last but not
least, Isaiah is the prophet of world peace.
It is the words of Isaiah that we read in the prayer book each week,
“Nation shall not lift up sword against nation.
Neither shall men learn war anymore.”
The teachings of Isaiah, regardless of how many of them you think there
are, are rich and textured. The book of
Isaiah provides us with more Haftarot than any other prophet so we will have
ample opportunity to explore his teachings as the year goes by.
Theme-Link: The link between the sedrah and
the haftarah is little bit less obvious than that which we have seen in recent
weeks. Isaiah describes a time when the
Jews are suffering at the hands of the Assyrian Empire. And just as God delivered the Israelites from
the Egyptian Empire in Moshe’s time, so he will deliver them from the
Assyrians. The Torah portion begins by
invoking the names of Jacob and Israel, whose descendants will see the ultimate
triumph of God in the Exodus and at Sinai.
The haftarah begins by invoking by invoking the names of Jacob and
Israel. Jacob is seen as the root of the
ultimate triumph of the will of God, which will come through the redemption of
the Jewish people. Both text start out
using the Hebrew word “ha-ba-im” which is a form of the word “to come.” In the Torah portion the word is used to
describing the coming of the Israelites into Egypt. In the haftarah it is used in the sense of
“the days to come” i.e., the future when the children of Jacob will ultimately
be redeemed. There are really two very
powerful sections of the haftarah. The
first is the section where he condemns the drunken behavior of Ephraim. (Ephraim stands for the Northern
Kingdom.) The prophet is speaking out
against more than just over-imbibing. He
is speaking out against gluttony and condemning a society that tolerated great
disparity between the ruling class and the general population. His criticism of the Southern Kingdom is
aimed more at their general level of ignorance of the commandments. They do not understand. They have to be spoken to slowly, in simple
language (28:10-11). Their inability to
comprehend will lead to their downfall. Traditionally, the prophetic reading is
not to end on a negative note. So those
who created this tradition skipped to the next chapter of Isaiah to insure that
the text would end on a message of comfort and consolation.
Jeremiah
The Man and the Message: (This will
be brief because we have already covered one haftarah. We will have chance to study Jeremiah in
couple of weeks with the Sedrah of Bo.)
Jeremiah lived a century after Isaiah.
He lived during the 7th and 6th centuries
B.C.E. He was active during the time of
the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E. and died shortly
thereafter. Jeremiah warned the King
that his policies were folly. He also
warned the King that the immoral practices especially the mistreatment of the
poor by the wealthy would lead to the country’s destruction. Needless to say this made him quite
unpopular. His writings were destroyed
and he was imprisoned. This brief
narrative should give you some idea of the unhappy lot of this saddest of
prophets.
Theme-Link: The sedrah describes Moshe
assuming the mantle of leader of the Israelites. The haftarah comes from the opening chapters
of the book of Jeremiah. Like Moshe,
Jeremiah is a reluctant leader. God
tells Jeremiah that He had selected him for the job while he was still in the
womb. Jeremiah tells God he does not
want the job, resorting to Moshe’s excuse about not knowing how to speak
(1:6). Only in Jeremiah’s case, he uses
his young age and not a speech impediment as an excuse. But God will have none of his excuses. He reassures him in the same way He did Moshe
saying, “Have no fear…for I am with you” (1:8).
Jeremiah accepted the challenge and like Moshe he would be a prophet for
forty years. But from the start, God
lets him know that his mission will not be like Moshe’s. He must deliver “bad news” to the people and
if he fails to do so he will suffer accordingly. “Do not break down before them, lest I break
you before them.”
Personally, I find an interesting message in the fact that we are
looking at readings from both Isaiah and Jeremiah in the same week. Isaiah is such a popular prophet. He has all of those great quotes. “Holy, holy, holy, The Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His Glory.” “Nation shall not lift sword against nation,
neither shall they know war anymore.”
“The wolf will lie down with the lamb and the leopard will lie down with
the kid…and a little boy will lead them.”
He has all that good stuff about the Messiah. And then the Second Isaiah provides all of
the Haftarot of Consolation that we read after Tisha B’Av. Even when he is criticizing the people he is
doing it in such a magnificent way. And
the original Isaiah was a bit of an insider.
According to the Talmud his father was the uncle of King Uzziah and
Isaiah lived in Jerusalem. Compare this
with Jeremiah whom several have described as the quintessential outsider. He came from a small town called Anatoth in
the land of the lowly tribe of Benjamin.
The priestly family he belonged to had somehow become disassociated with
those officiating at the Temple in Jerusalem.
He would be denied a family - no wife, no children, nobody with whom to
share his burden. He preached a message
nobody wanted to hear. His writings were
burned before his eyes. And he suffered
the ultimate curse - he got to see the reality of the destruction he had predicted
and had fought so long and hard to prevent.
He must have felt like an utter failure.
How would he react if he knew that his descendants revere the words of
the “ultimate outsider,” reading them year in and year out? Would he smile or grumble? Or would he hope that we would learn from his
experience? The Jews cannot hide from
the role God has given us. And while
some times it may cause us great difficulty, in the end it is the only thing
that is eternal and worthwhile. (For
more on this see the writings of Elie Wiesel, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin and Rabbi
Abraham Heschel. With your indulgence,
we will return to this topic again.)
Copyright, January, 2024; Mitchell A. Levin
