We have now finished reading Bereshit and are beginning the amazing story of the Exodus. Joseph had made his brothers swear that they would take his bones out of Egypt and bury him in Canaan like their father Jacob. Yet unlike Jacob, whose sons buried him in Machpelah just seventy days after his death, it would take at least two more generations before Joseph’s wish could be fulfilled. His brothers had all died in Egypt so how did their descendants know to do that? These stories must have been passed down to their children by word of mouth. What happens when the next generation doesn’t hear the stories of their ancestors?
You and I have the obligation to share the wisdom we learned from our predecessors so that, as our rabbi spoke in his message last week, we can learn from their mistakes and benefit from their wisdom. But how can we recognize the wisdom that is worthy to pass on to the next generation? Most of our inner struggles stem from what we were or weren’t taught growing up simply because our parents weren’t taught because their parents weren’t taught. That’s where the beauty of the Torah comes in. It is a book containing stories that Moses wrote down from the heart of our Creator so that we can learn how to live a meaningful life. It teaches us the value of learning from those who came before us. It teaches us about our role, our purpose, our place in the grand scheme of things. Without it, there’s a hole in our soul that can never properly be filled. Sadly, the Written Torah has, for the most part, been abandoned because mankind prefers its own brand of “wisdom” and has thrown out the GOD Who gave us wisdom. We don’t have to look far to see where that is getting us! But then, as the Second Commandment states, God opens the hearts and spiritual eyes of the third and fourth generations of those who love Him and keep His Commandments. This cycle of forgetting and returning to Him is depicted in the story of the Exodus.
Here in Parashat Shemot, we read about the many women who unwittingly found their purpose, no matter how insignificant their role may have seemed at the time. Two Hebrew women, midwives – Shiphrah and Puah went against the king of Egypt who ordered them to kill all the male Hebrew newborn babies. They didn’t know that their courage would be rewarded; the Torah tells us that God dealt well with them and “built houses for them”. Another woman, a mother, had the courage to save her chosen son from this reign of terror. She hid him in a basket in the reeds and sent his sister Miriam, another brave little soldier, to watch what would happen to him.
Then another woman, the daughter of this merciless king, chose to take a stand against the evil intent of her father. She saved this special Hebrew boy and was given the privilege of naming him. She chose the name, Moses which signifies being “drawn out” (of the Nile) while his Hebrew name, Moshe means “savior or deliver”. She didn’t know what lay in his future or that he would be the instrument to bring about the devastation of her own people. Our brave young warrior, Miriam somehow mustered the courage to ask the king’s daughter if she should find someone to nurse this boy. The reward for her bravery was that not only did her mother get to raise her own child until he was weaned, but she was also paid for it. It’s a marvel to see how our loving GOD works in our lives. These women held no special power, yet something within guided them to stand strong against the tyranny brought about by the most powerful leaders of their day. They weren’t asked to do anything more than the simple tasks laid before them in order to fulfill their roles.
Next, in the saga of Moses, appear seven more women, the daughters of the priest of Midian. When they were at the well to water their father’s sheep, they were driven off by the male shepherds. Suddenly Moses, who had been resting there after his escape from Pharaoh, rose to their defense and watered their sheep. The girls left and went home. Their father questioned them about how they could have returned home so quickly. He obviously knew the daily battles they had to face as female shepherds, but he might not have had any choice since we don’t read that he had any sons. When they told him the story about the brave Egyptian who had saved them, their father admonished them for not having at least invited him home for a meal. Sometimes we wonder why we didn’t do the right thing in certain situations, but once again, our Torah shows us how very human we are.
Next, we read that Moshe was content to be sheltered in the home of the priest of Midian. He had previously led a sheltered life in the palace of the Pharaoh before he was forced to flee. Now at the age of 80, Moses would learn what it meant to step out of his sheltered life and enter the role of deliverer assigned to him by the Creator. He couldn’t have done it without the small part that all those people played – from the midwives in Egypt, to the Egyptian taskmaster beating the Hebrew slave, up to the priest of Midian and his daughters. None of them would have recognized that their small roles in God’s plan led to the great role assigned to Moshe. We have the privilege of reading this and it can help us in the search for and acceptance of our roles.
Now the stage was set for the miracle of miracles to take place…“Freedom from slavery”. This was important enough to be named in the very First Commandment. “I am the LORD your GOD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of slavery….” The cry for freedom lies in the soul of every human being. Although “free to be ourselves” is the cry that every group is shouting for, freedom comes at a great cost and a tremendous responsibility. The children of Israel and the people of Egypt were about to learn that cost. Every generation to follow would have to learn that true freedom can only be attained under the leadership of Moshe’s GOD, the GOD of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We can use the gift of Free Will to choose to do the right or the wrong things. The freedom that chooses to do evil can only bring disaster. That’s what the world is facing now. The formula for the freedom to choose well lies in the Torah and is for all mankind. God tells us that we have no right to add to it or to change it but that is exactly what we have done.
In charge of Jethro’s flock, Moses was led to Horeb the mountain of God. There, an angel of the Most High appeared to him out of a burning bush. The name, Sinai, came from this bush called “Senne Alexandrina”. When GOD saw that Moshe didn’t run away in fear as he had before, but rather approached the bush out of curiosity, GOD called out to him, “Moshe, Moshe”. Moshe responded with that famous word ‘Hineni’– Here I am. How many of us have cried out for justice with an impassioned ‘Hineni’, – “Use me LORD”, but when the going gets tough and fear rises in us, how quickly our cry of Hineni is stifled! Moshe didn’t run away this time, as he had when trying to save the Hebrew people on his own strength. That’s the key! Learning that we don’t have to do things on our own is one of the secrets to living a life of purpose and courage. In fact, we can’t do them on our own. Isn’t the mother of fear the sense that we have been abandoned, that we’re not safe or protected in this world, that there’s no one out there to listen to our deep cries of desperation? That’s the root of the anxiety that surrounds us these days. GOD was now in the process of forming a nation, protected by Him, that would ensure that no one who belonged to this nation would ever be alone; that everyone who lived within it would have a role, a life filled with purpose but those on the outside would live with isolation and abandonment.
Do you wonder what your purpose is in the grand scheme of things? Especially during these times when there are so many more problems than solutions. When we examine the lives of the midwives who lied to save the Hebrew baby boys, Miriam’s mother who hid her son and told Miriam to watch out for him, or the Pharaoh’s daughter who rescued and named the boy, it’s like watching the unfolding of a miraculous drama in which no one could have known the outcome. We can know that the great orchestra leader, the GOD of Israel knows everything from beginning to end. He knows the role prepared for us and what we would have to go through to find it.
Moshe’s old fear of rejection by the people caused him to ask, “Who shall I say sent me?”; that’s when GOD tells him to say to them that אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה “Ehyeh asher Ehyeh” sent him. He knew that he alone could not be a spokesman to his people for GOD. In his book, “IF, the End of a Messianic Lie” Uriel ben Mordechai helps us to understand this expression. He states “Ehyeh is a simple Hebrew word that conjugates the verb ‘to be’ into the first person ‘future’… In biblical Hebrew the future tense more accurately combines past and present making it an action that is ongoing…thus, Ehyeh is best translated as “I shall always be”… He emphasizes that it does not mean, “I AM THAT I AM” but rather it projects God’s existence into the future…”I will always be the One who is.’”This is at the heart of Biblical Judaism. He is the only God, who was, who is and who will always be. There is no other GOD for Israel or for the rest of the nations. This GOD is the one who walks through our lives with us; He is our protector, and He is the one who has prepared our role for us, no matter how insignificant it may seem.
No matter how much faith we may demonstrate to others, there are aspects of our character that force us to question, “Do we really trust GOD?” especially when we see what is going on in the world. That’s when we have to stop, look within and remind ourselves of what we already know from these stories in the Torah as well as the experiences in our lives. Unlike the magic of “easy-believism” that religions promise, ours is a lifetime journey of upward and downward spiraling. During the downtimes, if we can just hold onto the memory of the ups, we will make it through. The downtimes are occasions for teaching and humbling us. These stories in the Torah are about our ancestors who experienced these important lessons, and we can benefit from their mistakes and their victories. Even if we are not native-born Israelites and who knows how many of us there are, the GOD of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is ours. If we can remember that the GOD of Israel is always in control, especially during the times when the earthly kings, from the Pharaoh of Egypt to the modern-day self-proclaimed rulers who boast of their ‘godlike’ solutions to the problems that they created, we will make it through. We simply need to hold on to GOD and to each other when the times are rough, knowing that we are not alone, that smoother days lie ahead and from the smallest to the greatest, we all have purpose.
Shabbat Shalom
Peggy Pardo