Do You Hear GOD’s voice?
But when Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to Moses, their spirits crushed by cruel bondage. Shemot 6:9 This week’s parashah, Vaera which means “And I appeared”, begins with a dialogue between the Eternal and Moshe, where God confirms who He is, and reveals a new name to humanity. Shemot 6:3 says that the Eternal had previously been known as El Shaddai, God Almighty, but now He will reveal Himself to man under the name of YHVH. Why? It seems that man has evolved in his thinking and his way of being by trying to supplant the Eternal with the ephemeral and transitory. From creation to the exodus in Shemot, we see human adoration supplanting the Eternal with aspects derived from creation without explaining their level of knowledge. For example, they worshipped the sun, moon, stars, nature – water, fire, air and minerals, and even animals that could produce life or death, such as bulls, sheep, snakes, etc. So, God revealed Himself from that moment as the Almighty God, to establish that He is the Creator of everything and that He contains all we perceive in the physical world.
The idea of the “godman” generated from Nimrod, was now fully established with Pharaoh. Now man would be equal to a god. Pharaoh claimed that he created everything physical in his empire, as prophesied by Ezekiel when he said: “I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, you great monster who lies in the bed of your streams, who says, ‘The Nile is mine, it is my creation. ’” In Bereshit 47:19-20, we read that all of Egypt had been handed over to Pharaoh by Joseph when the Egyptians sold everything to him during the famine, giving up their lands and agreeing to a tax on their produce. Thus, Pharaoh established himself as superior and then became a godman in the eyes of the people, “lord” over everything that existed in Egypt and its empire, and under this premise Israel had been indoctrinated, even coming to consider Pharaoh as its “lord.” However, GOD told Moshe: “I AM YHVH” (6:2), in other words – “Moshe, Adonai is not Pharaoh, as he appears in your eyes and the eyes of others. Pharaoh is a supplanter, a deceiver, Moshe I AM THE ONE WHO IS OVER PHARAOH!” And from there He empowered Moshe to act as Judge before Pharaoh (7:1).
We read that the first command given to Moshe at the burning bush was: “Shal Na’alecha me’al raglechaשַׁל־נְעָלֶ֨יךָ֙ מֵעַ֣ל רַגְלֶ֔יךָ, take off your shoes from your feet.” It is like saying, “Moshe, the shoes that have guided your walk have shaped your thinking; now you must exchange them.” Raglecha can be derived from the Hebrew ragil, meaning a custom. And na’al contains the same letters as na’ul, meaning a padlock. It’s as if the Eternal was saying between the lines to Moshe: “Moshe, you must change your customs and your way of thinking that up until today have blocked you, have been a padlock that has locked you in.” This is essential, because if Moshe did not stop seeing Pharaoh as a godman, he could not have authority over him, nor could he become a liberator and change the people’s slave mentality.
Next, the Eternal taught how He would perform His redemption through these four expressions: “I am the Eternal who I will take you out from under the bondage of the Egyptians”; “I will free you from their slavery”; “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments”; “And I will take you as My people, and will be your God, and you will know that I am the Eternal, your God.” Then He described the genealogy of Moshe and Aaron to clarify that Moshe, who appeared as an Egyptian to Israel, was one of them. Moshe went before Pharaoh, and given the limitation that Moshe imposed upon himself, God allowed his brother, Aaron, to act as his spokesman and prophet. God sent them both, instructing Moshe to go before Pharaoh and tell him to let Israel go from Egypt, to free them and compensate them. Even though Moshe was empowered as Judge for Pharaoh, God said to him that Pharaoh would not want to show any weakness, since his honour and his empire were at stake If Pharaoh recognized that the God of slaves was stronger than the god of the Egyptians, there would most assuredly be a very strong social and religious revolution, which could collapse the kingdom. In addition, the lie had been upheld for so long that Pharaoh vehemently believed it, leading to his obstinacy, foolishness, and the hardening of his heart.
At the beginning, God allowed the Egyptians to perform “magic” to equal the power of the Eternal, manifested in the wonders of Aaron’s staff swallowing the Egyptian snakes, the Nile turning into blood, as does all the water in Egypt, frogs invading the land, lice infesting men and beasts, and now as the magicians said: “This is the finger of GOD.” Hordes of ferocious animals devastate Egypt, a plague destroys domestic animals, sores afflict Egypt, fire and ice descend as devastating hail, and yet, seeing that he is at a disadvantage, Pharaoh still decides not to relent.
However, I’d like to focus on a simple but profound message. At some point in everyone’s life, when we are experiencing difficult times, our confidence and faith weaken resulting in spiritual deafness. The sense of hearing is amazing, in fact, it is said that on our deathbed, it is the last sense that we lose. Moshe had managed to change his mind and come to trust, but this messenger found no echoes in the message that God had given him because the spirit of the Israelites was crushed on account of their cruel slavery.
Rabbi Bahia comments on this portion: “The reason was not that they did not believe in God’s promise or His servant Moses, but it was solely due to lack of breath and hard work. The collective consciousness of the people was very similar to that of an individual who wishes to die because he can no longer bear the pain he is enduring.” The Rambam adds: “It was not because they did not believe in God and His prophet that they did not listen. Rather, they did not heed his words out of impatience of spirit, like a person whose soul is afflicted by its misery and who does not want to live a moment longer in its suffering, even though he knows that he will later be relieved.” Rashi says: “They did not listen to Moshe, i.e., they did not accept his words of comfort.” In this case, the commentators speak of the anguish manifesting short, continuous breathing, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing.
I don’t know what situation those hearing this message might be in. On the one hand, you might be on Moshe’s side, happy to share your joy and the treasure you find in the Torah, but have you established a deep relationship with the person listening to you? In that moment, could Moshe perceive why they didn’t listen to him since the answer was not derived from the messenger’s reflection, but from a third party? On the other hand, we can also be the receiver of the message, but what is our condition? Impatient in spirit that doesn’t have time to sit down and concentrate and pay attention to a message? Distressed with physical symptoms in your breathing? Burdened with work, stress, or physical pain, be it work, physical abuse or illness?
I think that at that moment Moshe could not perceive the Eternal’s eyes of mercy, like an understanding Father who understands the environment of his children. I don’t know if he felt frustrated because he was the “special envoy”, and his words did not resonate. Maybe he even felt useless. I don’t know. And on the other hand, the receiver, focused on his reality, could not open his eyes to different possibilities, since the center of his attention was on what made him a slave, who could not raise his eyes or dare to open his mind. What then is the solution? How can we open our ears? I think the answer is in what we call in Pesach, the four cups of redemption, which is our custom to enunciate at the Seder; it is not a commandment in the Torah, but a beautiful custom. We then find four aspects in which each step to liberation is higher than the previous one. Let’s examine them: First, God knows that He must deal with their physical needs: one cannot deal with the soul without physical freedom. That is why He says, “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” This is something physical – can you concentrate on a service if, for example, you have a headache? If you had a blow that did not allow you to move? This is the first step… relieve physical suffering.
Second, the level of complexity was raised in the short term when it says that God heard Israel groaning; not a prayer, a groan is a basic expression of physical suffering, expressing nothing more than pain. Now, in the same verse 5, it says that God did not see their slavery, God saw their servitude. And later verse 6 says: “I will free you from their servitude.” What then is servitude? Servitude is the mental state that makes free people behave like slaves; it is the feeling that I must continue serving even though our service is no longer required. For example, I remember that we had a nanny who helped us raise our children when they were small, and she also helped us with household chores. Sometimes she would stay in the city for the weekend to run some personal errands and stay at our house. On the weekend, she wasn’t our employee, she was our guest. We would invite her to eat so that she could rest, but even if we went to a restaurant where she didn’t have to do anything, in her mind she was still working because in the restaurant she would clear our plates as if she were working at home! This is servitude – you are free, but you continue to act like a slave out of habit, instinct, or whatever adjective you want to call it. In other words, this oppression is in the mind. Some people continue to think that they are bad, that they are useless, that they can’t, that they are alcoholics, etc. You are FREE! Learn to look at yourself with the eyes that the Eternal sees you!
Third, I will redeem you. That is, I will pay a price for you. Our freedom is not free, it comes at a cost. We were also Pharaoh’s property. Now God is not a thief, He would not snatch another’s property, He would behave under the highest ethics, and He would buy us. What was our value? An outstretched arm and great judgments. This would give us a new nationality; we would no longer be Egyptians, we would now be a new nation, which implies agreeing to live under the laws of that nation – the Torah. This involves not only the body but also the soul. Fourth, “I will take you as My people.” Now that we have decided to live under His kingdom, His laws, He can say: “You are My citizens” “You are My property.” The difference is that GOD rules us with love and kindness, mercy and perfect judgment, while Pharaoh ruled with oppression, pain, and cruelty.
Do you want to hear His voice? Do not be impatient in spirit, free yourself from your troubles, and reduce your stress level. David said in Tehillim 34:5,7: “I sought the LORD and He answered me, and He delivered me from all my terrors…. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and delivered him from all his troubles.” If he had not been delivered, he could not have said: “I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall be ever in my mouth.” Do you know when David wrote this? When he was a slave to Saul, he had fled to the land of Achish, and such was his distress (bondage) that he pretended to be mad (a form of slavery and physical oppression) and then ran away to live in a cave. He may not have heard God’s voice then, but like Israel, God delivered him, in this case from his terrors. My prayer is that God grants us the ability to hear His voice at all times.
Shabbat Shalom
Mauricio Quintero