Readings for Saturday, January 13, 2024
Va-ayrah (And I appeared)
6:2-9:35 Shemot (Exodus)
Va-ayrah is the second sedrah of the eleven that make up the book of Shemot (Exodus). The sedrah takes its name from the first word of the second sentence of the weekly reading, “Va-ayrah” - “And I appeared” as in I (God) appeared. The sedrah divides into two basic parts. The first part (6:2-7:13) has been described as a “Divine Reaffirmation” or restatement by God giving the reasons for Moshe’s mission and the conditions under which it will be carried out. The second part (7:14-9:35) describes the first seven of the Ten Plagues. You may detect a note of hesitancy in this guide. It is only fair to warn you that I find this a most difficult sedrah and I may leave you with more questions than commentary.
“Divine
Reaffirmation” (6:2-7:13)
Etz Hayim, the Conservative Chumash, uses this
term to describe the first part of the reading and it is as good a description
as any other. In part, the opening
verses are an answer to Moshe’s question at the end of the last sedrah, “Lord,
why hast thou done evil to this people?
Why then hast thou sent me?”
Va-ayrah actually begins with the statement “And God spoke to Moses.” According to some commentators, the root of
the Hebrew word for “spoke” carries with it the connotation of a rebuke. In other words, in providing Moses with a
repetition of the information presented in Shemot, He is rebuking Moshe for his
apparent lack of faith. At the start of
this sedrah, God (Elohim) tells Moses that his name is now יְהוָה Adonai
or the Lord (Yud-Hay-Vav-Hay or YHVH).
From now on, YHVH will be the
divine name that speaks to Moshe. God
tells Moshe that he is the same God who had appeared to the Patriarchs, but
that they did know Him by the name YHVH.
But we saw YHVH used in Bereshit so how do we explain this
apparent contradiction? (And now you begin to see why I have so much
difficulty with this sedrah.) The
Patriarchs may have known of the name but they did not know its full
meaning. Only with the Plagues, the
Exodus and the giving of the Torah do we finally see the full might and meaning
of the name YHVH. The text repeats God’s instructions to Moses
and Aaron about approaching Pharaoh.
There is one of those periodic genealogies (6:14 - 6:30), although this
one only contains a partial listing of the tribes including just the first
three, Rueben, Simeon and Levi. The list
stops at this point because the whole point of the genealogy is establishing
the connection of Moses and Aaron with the house of Jacob.
The First Seven
of the Ten Plagues (7:14-9:35)
There are only two groups of people for whom the Plagues
do not present a problem - those who accept the Bible literally and those who
dismiss it as book of tales on par with the legends of King Arthur or Robin
Hood. For the rest of us there are lots
of questions with only partial answers.
What really did happen in Egypt?
What were the authors trying to tell us happened? What message is there for us at the dawn of
the 21st century in these Plagues?
The easy answer is that God sent the Plagues to establish His power and
might, to prove that He was Master of the Universe. This may be an easy answer, but hardly a
satisfying one. I do not intend to
discuss each of the seven plagues since that would make the Guide longer than
the Sedrah. What follows are some random
comments that might prove useful.
Commentators have provided structure to the Plagues. They divide them as 3-3-3-1. “The first three proved the existence of God;
the next three proved that His providence extends to earthly affairs and that He
is not oblivious to material matters and the next three proved that God is
unmatched by any power.”
In each of the groups of three, the first two plagues are
preceded by a warning and the third plague comes without warning. It is as if the third plague is a punishment
for not “heeding the message” in the first two plagues. Also, the first warning comes to Pharaoh by
the Nile and the second comes in his Palace.
At the end of each of the first five plagues, the commentators say that
Pharaoh hardened his heart. It is only
with the subsequent plagues that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart. (Yes,
it is the plagues and the questions of free will that make this an even more
difficult sedrah for me.) I would
suggest that you read the text closely to see that different words are used to
describe Pharaoh’s specific response to each of the plagues. The First Plague is the boldest of all, save
for the Tenth. By attacking the Nile,
God attacks the very source of all Egyptian society. The end of the plague and Pharaoh’s response
are also not stated in the same way as they are with subsequent plagues. At any rate, the sedrah ends with the seventh
plague and Pharaoh as unyielding as ever.
Themes:
Women
In the genealogy in chapter six we see the rare mention
of wives. In verses 20, 23 and 25 we
read that Amram married Jochebed, Aaron married Elisheba and Elazar married a
daughter of Putiel. Each of these women
had an honored lineage of her own. By
mentioning them, it would appear that the Torah is trying to confer extra merit
on at least one of their offspring. Only
those who have not read the text would claim that women are absent from our
tradition.
Pesach
Three aspects of the Seder have their origins in this
sedrah. The first is the recitation of
the Plagues. The second is the Four Cups
of Wine. In 6:6-7, there are four
promises of redemption. “I shall take
you out. I shall rescue you. I shall redeem you. I shall take you.” The Four Cups of Wine commemorate these four
promises. The third aspect is Elijah’s
Cup. In 6:8, the text reads “I shall
bring you to the land.” Some felt that
this was a fifth promise so there should be five cups of wine. Others said no, there were only four
promises. As an act of compromise, and
since all such disputes will be settled with the coming of the Messiah which
will be announced by the prophet Elijah, it was decided to put a fifth cup on
the table, but not to drink it. Instead
it would be left for the prophet Elijah.
There may be other explanations for these customs but at least this
provides a common point of departure for future discussion at your Seder or at
Shabbat Torah study.
Marriage
According to the
Talmud, when contemplating marriage one should consider the family of the
future spouse. For when you marry, you
are not just joining your life with another individual. You are becoming a part of that person’s
family as well. This is one of those
many timeless teachings found in the Torah that speak across the ages to all
generations. According to Rashi, the
origins for that teaching are found in this week’s sedrah (6:23). The reading tells us the name of Aaron’s wife
as well as the name of her father and brother.
Punishment
In Judaism, we believe that a warning should always
precede punishment. This view has been
adopted in the world of modern employee relations. We derive this concept from this week’s
sedrah when Moshe, at God’s behest, warns Pharaoh about the plagues he will
suffer if he does not free the Israelites.
Ezekiel, the prophet from whom we take this week’s haftarah, also has an
interesting lesson on the subject of punishment. If a person sees another doing the wrong
thing and does not warn him, two things will happen. God will punish the evildoer. But He will also punish the person who failed
to deliver the warning (3:16-18). In
modern times the entire concept of what is called progressive discipline
centers around the question “Did you tell the person clearly and unequivocally
what was expected?” After all, how can
you expect the person to perform if he or she does not know what is expected of
him/herself? Also, did the person know
the consequences, both negative and positive, of his or her behavior?
Free Will
According to Judaism, we all have it. But our past behavior inclines us toward our
future behavior. In responding to the
first five plagues, Pharaoh chooses to do evil each time, so that with the
subsequent plagues, his response is almost predictable. His inclination to do evil is “second nature”
to him now. And in that sense, some
commentators say, we find the meaning of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart. Another view on this is the belief that all
men have the free will to pursue their destiny.
This is an issue of major concern among the Pharisees who had a great
deal to say on the topic. In speaking of
the Pharisaic view of this, the historian Josephus said, "They ascribe
everything to fate without depriving man of his freedom of action." This idea was expressed by Rabbi Akiba: "Everything is foreseen (that is,
predestined); but at the same time freedom is given." Akiba, however, declared, "The world is
judged by grace (neither by blind fate nor by the Pauline law), and everything
is determined by man's actions (not by blind acceptance of certain
creeds)." Two other Rabbinic
comments on the tension between free will and predestination are, "All is
decreed by God except fear of God" and "Man may act either virtuously
or viciously, and his rewards or punishments in the future shall be
accordingly."
Name of the Divine
The shifting appellations for the name of God including
Elohim, El Shaddai, and YHVH (6:3), require us to pay attention to how the
terms are used in Hebrew. The different
names provide the basis for a significant school of Biblical interpretation
known as “Higher Criticism.” Simply put,
these critics believe the different names for Ha-Shem are proof of multiple
authors of the Torah; that they are proof that the Torah is compilation of
legends from several different strains of forefathers that were smoothed into
their current form by later editors sometimes referred to as redactors. I suggest you read “Does Exodus VI,3, Support
the Higher Critical Theory?” on pages 397 through 399 of the Hertz Chumash for
a concise, highly literate treatment of this topic. In talking of these critics, Hertz writes,
“…all this wanton tampering with the text leads nowhere…. All suggestions of contradictions are merely
due to an insufficient insight into the spirit and intent of Scripture on the
part of the Higher Critics.” In point of
fact, the various appellations may be seen as God’s way of communicating
different aspects of His divine presence to us.
Whatever your belief, when it comes to understanding the Bible, the
question “What’s in a name?” is very significant indeed. We will talk more about the “Yud Hay Vav Hay”
format as we wend our way through the Torah. The name of Divine Being is the word we could
not say and now we cannot pronounce.
Some say the essence of the name was a breath. Could this be a way of telling us that the
essence of divinity is silence?
Measuring Greatness
How does one measure one’s accomplishments? What is the importance of lineage? A line from this sedrah has given rise to
numerous stories that provide illumination on this topic. “These are the heads of their houses…” (6:14)
introduces a description of the lineage of Aaron and Moses. Among Jews the term for this kind of pedigree
is Yichus. Unfortunately, some people
who come from a long line of scholars or rabbis, etc. become overly impressed
with their own accomplishments and fail to appreciate the accomplishments of
their fellow Jews who come from humbler beginnings. The gist of a whole raft of those folk tales
is that a Jew with Yichus should be humble in assessing his or her
accomplishments because until their deeds and learning surpass that of their
illustrious ancestors they really have nothing to brag about. However, there is a countervailing
notion. Just because a person is born
with Yichus does not mean he will accomplish anything. If a person is not supposed to blame his
parents for his shortcomings, then he should not have to give them credit for
his accomplishments. For example, both
Absalom and Solomon shared the same Yichus.
They were the sons of King David.
But one is remembered as a vain, selfish rebel while the other is
remembered as the ruler who built the Temple and helped enrich our religious
literature.
Whose Counting Counts
In this week’s reading, Va-ayrah, we read about the seven
plagues. In next week’s reading, Bo, we
read about three more plagues. This
makes for ten plagues. The sages seemed
to have accepted this count. In the
Haggadah, Rabbi Jose, the Galilean, uses the ten plagues in Egypt as proof that
there were fifty plagues at the Red Sea.
The Egyptians said that the ten plagues were the “finger of God.” God showed “His Hand” at the Red Sea. If a finger is worth ten, then a hand (five
fingers) is worth fifty plagues.
However, the Bible offers different counts. While the book of Shemot (Exodus)
says there were ten plagues, the Book of Psalms offers two other counts. The author of Psalm 78 refers to the plagues
in recalling the “past mercies” that God has shown His people (78:43-51). However, his plague count is seven, not
ten. Also, the order in the two versions
is different although both start with Blood and end with The Death of the First
Born. The author of Psalm 105, who was
probably writing for the remnant of Jews who had returned from the Babylonian
exile, uses the plagues as one example of how God has (and therefore will
again) help a small group to overcome adversity (105:27-36). This author uses eight plagues, not ten. While he ends with the Death of the First
Born, he begins with Darkness and then lists Blood. What is the significance of these
discrepancies? It is not the first time
different books of the Bible have offered different information. Consider how differently the anointing of
Solomon is described in Samuel and Kings, on the one hand, and in
Chronicles, on the other hand.
Are the versions in Psalms an example of poetic license? The references in Psalms demonstrate one
thing - the Story of the Plagues and therefore of the Exodus - were well known
to the Israelites from a very early date in Jewish history. This would seem to strengthen the argument
that regardless of the historical accuracy of the actual events described in
the opening chapters of Shemot (Exodus) a departure from Egypt by
our ancestors is grounded in some level of reality.
Stopping at Seven
Why does the portion end with the seventh
plague? Is there something magical about
the number “Seven,” as in the Seven Days tied to Creation? Commentators like Ibn Ezra and Rashbam find
the answer in the words of the last two verses of the reading. After the rain, hail and thunder stopped,
Pharaoh “sinned yet more and hardened his heart. Pharaoh’s heart stiffened and he would not
let the Israelites go” (9:34-35). Unlike
the previous plagues, there is no admission of guilt by Pharaoh with this
plague. Instead he increased his sin
while stiffening his resolve against the Israelites, which the commentators say
means that after the seventh plague Pharaoh was not just sinning, he was
“enjoying his sin.”
Accuracy and
Honesty
These continue to be troubling issues as we go through
the second book of the Torah. In Chapter
9, verse 3, Pharaoh is told that the Egyptian livestock will be struck “with a
very severe pestilence” (NJPS) or “a very grievous murrain” (OJPS) if he does
let Hebrews go to worship God. Pharaoh
did not comply and, “all the livestock of the Egyptians died.” Then comes the plague of Hail in which the
Egyptians are told to shelter their livestock unless they want them to
die. “Those among Pharaoh’s courtiers
who feared the Lord’s word…brought their livestock indoors to safety” (9:19). If “all the livestock” was destroyed in the
fifth plague where did the livestock come for the seventh plague? One said that the term “all’ was really an
exaggeration and the author meant “most” or some such other great measure. Another commentator indicates that “all”
means “all” and that the cattle in the seventh plague were ones that the
Egyptians bought from “foreigners in the land.”
Both of these answers seem to beg the question. One possible explanation is that there was a
great deal of time between each of the plagues, but the text does not say
that. As to the Honesty, Moses keeps
asking Pharaoh to give the Israelites time off from work to go pray to their
God. But God has already told Moses that
He plans on freeing the Israelites. How
do we explain this disconnect? If we
don’t, there are those who will say that Pharaoh was right to deny Moses’
request because he sensed that he was not telling the truth. Of course Pharaoh would not have acquiesced
to a request to free the Israelites, but that is another matter. Why then didn’t Moses just tell the Egyptian
King what he wanted from the start? I am
sure that “Rashi’s proverbial 5 year old daughter” knows the answer so I hope
she will share it.
Reassurance from the Plagues
According to a Rabbinic tale, much to the consternation
of the local peasants a Jew had acquired several head of cattle. As was the custom of the place, the Jew took
his cattle to the common green so that they could graze. The peasants drove his stock off declaring
that no Jewish cattle would feed on the common in their village. The Jew was forced to drive his little herd
up into the hills where they could forage for food. One day bandits attacked the town. In the course of their looting and pillaging,
they slaughtered the cattle, butchered the beef and took it with them. The peasants were beside themselves with
grief. What would they do for milk,
cheese and butter? How would they ever
have meat to eat again? At that very
moment, the Jew came down the road into the town square driving his cattle,
which had been in the hills before him.
The town was saved because as it says in this week’s sedrah about the
plague of cattle disease, “But of the cattle of the Children of Israel, not one
died” (9:6).
Moses in Egypt
and the IDF in Gaza
As they moved
into Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defense Forces warned the
Arabs that they were coming. In some
instances they reportedly placed phone calls telling the people to evacuate
because the area in which they were living would be coming under attack. They urged those who were innocent civilians
to move away from the Hamas fighters so that they would not be wounded or
killed in the upcoming attacks. A
precursor of this strange behavior, willingness to sacrifice the element of
surprise to save lives, can be found in this week’s Torah portion. In chapter 9, before the Plague of Hail, God
instructs Moses to warn the Egyptians in the following words:
“18 Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause
it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the day
it was founded even until now. 19 Now therefore send, hasten in thy
cattle and all that thou hast in the field; for every man and beast that shall
be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down
upon them, and they shall die.' 20 He that feared the word of the LORD
among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the
houses; 21 and he that regarded not
the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.”
The death and destruction of war, like the death and
destruction that came with the plagues, are horrible things to behold. Neither the IDF nor God is looking for
corpses. God is saying “let my people
go” while the IDF is saying “let my people live.”
A Deepening
Relationship
The relationship between God and Moses is tested for the
first time. Moses has failed in his
initial attempt to negotiate with Pharaoh.
Not only has he not gained freedom for the Israelites, he actually has
worsened their condition. Moses does not
throw in the towel. More importantly,
God does not respond with the kind of anger we will see with the episode of the
Golden Calf. Instead, he provides Moses
with reassurance and helps to reinvigorate the great Prophet for the work that
lies ahead. It would appear that the
Torah is providing us with paradigm for teaching and for comforting those who
are weighed down by the challenges of life.
Moses and Aaron
The behavior of this duo is a puzzler. The text says that Aaron is the “Prophet” for
Moses. Did Pharaoh think that Moses was,
like him, a divine being in human form?
This might account for the fact that Pharaoh did not take Moses
seriously. Then, as one of my students
asked, what language did Moses speak?
Did Aaron serve as the interpreter between these two dueling
leaders? And then there is the
unanswered question of how Aaron felt playing a secondary role to his younger
brother? We can pursue this issue of
“sibling rivalry” when we get to the Golden Calf.
MLK Holiday 2018
In one of those quirks of the calendar, this year’s
celebration of Martin Luther King falls on the Sunday after we read about the
first seven plagues and before we read about the last three plagues and the
Israelite deliverance from bondage. Talk
about providing every Rabbi with an easy topic for a great sermon! For those of us who have become cynical about
the need to help the “widow, the orphan, the stranger in our midst:” the weakest members of the society, the way this
calendar coincides should remind us that like the African-Americans, we (the
Jews) were slaves unto Pharaoh. We carry
that condition of our servitude down through the ages, for the Torah reminds us
over and over again that we should behave in a righteous way in dealing with
others because “we were slaves unto Pharaoh.”
The fight for social justice is long, hard and at times seeming to be a
wasted effort. But as the sages say,
just because we cannot finish the job is no reason not to start the work.
Haftarah
28:25-29:21 Ezekiel
The Man: Ezekiel is one of the Three
Major Prophets. The other two are Isaiah
and Jeremiah. This grouping comes from
the size of their books, not just the quality of their teachings and
preachings. Ezekiel lived at the time of
the destruction of the Temple and the Babylonian Exile (586 B.C.E.). He is a younger contemporary of
Jeremiah. He was born about 620 B.C.E.
and died about 570 B.C.E. We know little
about his personal life from the text.
He is described as the son of Buzi and is a member of the priestly
family of Zadok. He was married and his
wife died suddenly. He was carried into
captivity by the Babylonians and lived in a place called Tel-abib (Hill of Corn
Ears) on the banks of the Chebar River.
Apparently this was one of the sections set aside for the exiles. According to legend, Ezekiel died of unknown
causes during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar and was buried in a town lying
between the Euphrates and the Chebar rivers.
A synagogue was built on that site and as late as the twelfth century
pilgrims came there to read from a Sefer Torah supposedly written by Ezekiel’s
own hand.
The Message:
According to some commentators, the material contained in this week’s
haftarah was delivered about ten years before the Babylonian Exile. There was a division among the leaders of
Judah (the Southern Kingdom). Some
wanted to make peace with the Babylonians even if it meant becoming a vassal
state. Others sought to join an alliance
led by Egypt that would resist the Babylonians with the intent of preserving
the independence of the kingdom. Based
on these writings, Ezekiel opposed alliance with Egypt. He likened her to a reed, which would
splinter causing the destruction of the kingdom. The prophets played many roles. In this case Ezekiel was supplying very
practical advice to deal with a very political problem. This haftarah does raise the question of the
accuracy of prophecy. The Egyptians did
lose to the Babylonians. But Egypt was
not devastated in the manner described by Ezekiel. Her loss of power came through a slow
downward spiral that did not reach its low point until the days of the Roman
Empire. But the Egyptians were never
exiled and when the Israelites returned from exile, it was as a tiny remnant,
not as a mighty host. It would seem that
Ezekiel got it right on the big stuff, but sort of missed on the details.
Theme-Link: In
the sedrah we read of the arrogant Pharaoh who will not release the Israelites
even when confronted with the reality of God’s might as evidenced by the
plagues. The haftarah describes an
arrogant Pharaoh who fails to come to the aid of the Southern Kingdom and thus
hastens the fall of Jerusalem. Just as
God punished the Pharaoh of Moshe’s time, He will punish this Pharaoh and his
arrogant people.
Copyright;
January, 2024; Mitchell A. Levin
1/11/18
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