Shabbat Va-Era
Written by Rabbi Professor Marc Saperstein Friday, 19 January 2007
This is a parashah filled with a multitude of puzzling problems, that have vexed Jewish commentators through the ages:- What is the significance of the two names of God, as mentioned in the very first verses: ‘I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make Myself known to them by My Name YHWH’ (Exod. 6:3)—especially since we know that God did indeed use this name with the Patriarchs (‘I am YHWH, who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to assign this land to you as a possession’: Gen. 15:7)?
- What is the purpose of the magic show which Aaron performs before Pharaoh’s court, changing his rod into a snake , which swallows the snakes of the Egyptian magicians (Exod. 7: 8–13)? Is God’s power really to be proved by this kind of spectacle?
- How are we to understand that difficult assertion that God will harden the heart of Pharaoh so that he will not accede to Moses’ requests (Exod 7:3 and elsewhere)? If God is responsible for Pharaoh’s stubbornness, why should Pharaoh and the Egyptians be punished by the plagues?
The most familiar verse in the parashah, however, pertains to none of these questions. It is God’s mandate to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh and say, “Thus says YHWH: Let My people go that they may serve Me”’ (Exod. 7:25). ‘Let My people go’ has become a rallying cry of oppressed peoples through the ages. The blacks in the American South who suffered for many generations under the dehumanizing institution of slavery dreamed that some day there would be a new Moses, who would once again ‘tell old Pharaoh: Let My people go.’ A generation ago, this phrase fired the imagination of all those who joined in the struggle on behalf on behalf of freedom to emigrate for Jews in the Soviet Union. Many in the world still ache and yearn for this message to be fulfilled in their own lives.
In its context, he verses teaches that it is impossible for any people to fulfil its potential under conditions of oppression and slavery. When Moses comes to bring the exalting message of liberation to the Israelite slaves (Exod. 6:6–8), they are respond with indifference, refusing to listen to Moses, ‘Their spirits crushed by cruel bondage’ (6:9). Yet Moses, though at first discouraged, continues the struggle against an arrogant, self-absorbed despot to bring freedom to the enslaved, relief to the oppressed. That is a model to inspire us whenever we encounter conditions that afflict the body and crush the spirits of our fellow human beings.
But this great verse implies something not only about life in Egypt; but also about the nature of freedom in the wilderness. The Israelites were to leave Egypt so that they could serve not Pharaoh but God; their liberation did not free them from all obligations, but placed upon them a greater and nobler obligation of living by the highest values of which they were capable. The road from the Sea led directly to Sinai, where the Hebrews were to become a people dedicated to a unique vision of the good.
We live under conditions of religious and political freedom that many in the past have yearned for—which should make us all the more bound to remember that such freedom carries with it an obligation of service. We have synagogues all around us; there is no shortage of well-trained rabbis; we can study Jewish history and the Hebrew language; there is no shortage of Jewish books—none of which Soviet Jews had a generation ago. For us to ignore these opportunities for cultivating a vibrant Jewish life is to betray the very freedom for which so many have struggled in the past.
‘Let My people go that they may serve Me’. We must never slacken our efforts to win liberation for all those who are physically, culturally, and spiritually enslaved. And we must also use our freedom in the service of God and the ideals given us as eternal goads to a better life, that the promise of redemption may be fulfilled for us, and for other peoples as well: ‘I will free you from the labours of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm . . . I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God’ (Exod. 6:6 – 7).
Rabbi Professor Marc Saperstein
January 2007
