Parshat Shemot; Exodus 1:1 –6:1 by Rabbi Denise L. Eger

This week we begin the second book of the Torah, Shemot. With this parasha the Jewish people’s journey towards freedom and redemption really begins. The opening lines of the portion remind us that a new king arose who did not know Joseph. And so the fortunes of the Israelites in Egypt take a turn for the worse. Where they were once prosperous sitting near the top of the social pyramid because of their relationship to Joseph, they now sit at the bottom in the class of slaves and conquered foreign workers doomed to a life of hard labor and oppression. The Egyptians’ cruelty to the Israelites knows no bounds as described in the Torah. They force hard labor upon them, oppress them, and murder their babies. Pharaoh says, “ Every boy that is born you shall throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.” (Ex. 1:22).

It is against this backdrop of fear, terror and subjugation that the infant Moses is born. Moses who would become the great leader of the Israelites, chosen by God, does not meet the cruel fate of most boy Hebrew children. He is at first hidden by his mother but as he grew it became increasingly difficult to keep him unknown. So when he was three months old, his mother (Yocheved according to the Rabbis) placed him in a wicker basket and set him a sail on the Nile River!

None other than Pharaoh’s daughter rescues Moses while she is bathing in the Nile. She spies the baby in the basket. She recognizes that it must be a Hebrew child but nonetheless takes him in as her own. She offers this child her royal protection.

Her spirit of generosity and caring is in stark contrast to the response of the Pharaoh to the presence of the Israelites. As we will see over the coming weeks as the story of the Israelites in Egypt unfold and the plagues descend in response to Pharaoh’s unwillingness to release the Israelites from slavery, the increasing harshness of his response is met head on by God in the form of the plagues.

And yet, in the opening chapters of Exodus an act of chesed, lovingkindness and generosity performed no less than a daughter of this same Pharaoh!

We learn from this important lessons—that even as we face our enemies who wish to crush us and destroy us, we can not paint each one with the brush of hatred. Individuals still can rise to the level of Pharaoh’s daughter, displaying kindness, peace and love.

It is a reminder to all of us even as our world is more divided.

Posted by Lee at January 17, 2006 10:33 AM