Parshat Va’era: Exodus 6:2 -9:35 By: Rabbi Denise L. Eger

And so the plagues begin. With this week’s portion Va’era, God has sent Moses and Aaron to begin the process to free the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery. This portion describes the first encounters of Pharaoh and Moses and Aaron his brother. But not before Moses and Aaron are coached by God in what to say and what to do.

God lays out the task before Moses at the opening verses of the portion. God places the pain of the Israelites into the context of the covenantal promise made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God explains and connects Moses to the patriarchs’ experiences of the Divine Holy One and tasks him with the job to encounter Pharaoh. “Go tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt to let the Israelites depart from his land” (Ex. 6:11). This is because God has remembered the covenant with the Israelites and heard their moaning. God is ready to make the covenantal promise real for the Israelites.

But why did it take so long? Four Hundred years since Joseph reigned over Egypt according to our sages. Some of our sages teach –that the suffering experienced under this Pharaoh was crueler than any other. In previous generations—though the Israelites lost their land and worked on behalf of the Egyptian royal houses they were still treated as valued workers. But this pharaoh was particularly cruel and evil. His order to murder the Israelite boy children threatened the future of the Israelite nation and the covenant. God had to act now to save the covenantal promise made with each one of us and our ancestors.

But God also in the personage of Moses had a unique and wonderful servant. Moses who grew up caught between two cultures—that of the Hebrews and that of the Egyptian courts was uniquely placed to translate God message to both groups. Moses, although tradition teaches had a speech impediment, was able to convey to both the Israelites and the Pharaoh the call of the Eternal and the promise of both destruction and hope.

Each of us is called to translate cultures daily. We go from the cultures of our homes and families and Jewish tradition to the larger world. We must navigate the vicissitudes of the workplace over against our Jewish ethical framework. And often they are in conflict.

And then the dilemma begins. How to decide? How do we choose what is right in a society that constantly wants to manipulate us into thinking every choice is relatively good –that it has to be good for you even at the cost of integrity, even at the cost of harming others, even at the cost of harming our planet.

Moses is our example. He is known as eved Adonai, God’s servant. He places not his own hubris and ego at the center but he places God’s plan at the center. Perhaps too—this time and age calls upon all of us to once again, place God’s teachings at our core –to guide us “even when no one else looking”.
The Great Baal Shem Tov said (Buber early masters. p. 48)

We say God of Abraham God of Isaac and God of Jacob. For Isaac and Jacob did not base their work on the searching and service of Abraham They themselves searched for the unity of the Maker and God's service.

So too Moses served God completely and fully all of his days—beginning with this week’s call. So let us take our cue from Moses, Eved Adonai, who like our patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob sought God and sought to serve God with all of their being.

Posted by Jimmy at January 21, 2009 11:38 AM