The opening verses of this
Parasha reiterate what we have read recently in Parashat Va’yigash; namely, the
names of the sons of Yisrael who had gone down to Egypt Israel
According to Nehama Leibowitz[1], by
their settling and establishing a foothold in Egypt
"The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete”; “yet” (in the
above quote) is "ad heh'na," literally "thus far."
In Vayikra (Leviticus) 18: 25 we read: "For the land is defiled; therefore
I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its
inhabitants." From the time YHVH made His declaration to Avraham it took
well over 600 years for the Amorites’ (a generic name for the Canaanite people
groups) iniquity to be "sha'lem," “complete.” The 'quota of their iniquity' is only made full
when the Children of Yisrael enter the Land of C’na
Let us return now to the present situation in Egypt Israel Egypt Europe , which culminated in Hitler’s “final solution”). Interestingly,
at the very end of last week’s Parasha, Yoseph charged his brothers concerning taking
his bones back to the land, whenever YHVH would visit (pakod)
them (Gen. 50:25). In our Parasha, at the very beginning of the book of Sh’mot
(Exodus), we read about the “might” of the People of Yisrael. Both bone
and might share the same root of a.tz.m (ayin, tzadi, mem). This root
lends itself to several significant words, which we will examine more
thoroughly in Parashat
B’ha’a’lot’cha (Numbers 8-12). Suffice it
to say here that Yoseph’s bones “multiplied” greatly, in accordance with
the promise granted to his sons, although at present this blessing appears to
be a potential source of a harsh adversity.
Thus, to counter this (hypothetical) threat of a population explosion,
the king takes a number of measures, all of which are expressed in verbs
denoting suffering, suppression and servitude, found in chapter 1:11-14. First
they "set over them" - “sa'rey mi’sim” - tax collecting
princes, to (literally) "afflict
them with suffering." However, "the more they afflicted them, the more they
multiplied and grew” (v. 12). The verb "grew" is "yifrotz,"
of the root p.r.tz which we examined in Parashat Va’yeshev (Gen. 38:29), where
we noted that it means "to break forth." This caused the Egyptians "to loath" or "abhore"
(“va’yakutzu”) them, and in turn they made them do rigorous labor (“va'ya'vidu” - a.v.d. - labor, work;
while “eh’ved” is “slave”). "And they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of work in the field. All their work in which they made them work
with rigor" (v. 14 italics
added). In verses 13-14 the root a.v.d (ayin, vet, dalet) - work, labor, slave
- occurs five times, impressing upon the reader the sense of perpetual toil.
The commentator Benno Jacob [2]
observes that the initiators of the acts of ritual enslavement are always
mentioned (in their acts of harassment) in the plural, whereas the Israelites
are referred to in the singular (in verses 10-12 each reference to the
Israelites reads "he", although not translated that way in English). The
commentator goes on to say, "Israel
The only two
characters singled out here are the midwives (who are mentioned by name). They
were assigned the heinous task of doing away with every Hebrew male newborn. Their
defiance of the king's edict (1:17) results in Yisrael becoming even more
numerous and mighy – rav and atzum (the same term
we looked at above, stemming from the root a.tz.m, v. 20b). These two Elohim-fearing women testify of the full
involvement of Yisrael's Elohim with His People, even at a time when the Nation
was being forced into conditions of bondage and forgetfulness. However, whereas
"am Yisrael" as a whole was occupied with endless and huge building
projects for their taskmasters, it says about the midwives that Elohim
established their "batim" – 1:21 literally “homes,
houses" and also “families, dynasties” (translated
“households”)!
The subjugating process increasingly gathers momentum; taxing (1:11)
turns into hard labor (v. 11), then to enslavement (vs. 13, 14) and to
'limited' infanticide (v. 16), which finally becomes an imposition on the
entire Egyptian nation, compelling it to engage in a full-blown genocide by
exterminating every Hebrew male newborn (v. 22). Thus, the 22 verses of Sh’mot’s
first chapter recount a long and eventful span of time.
The next chapter reports a sudden development. Nehama Leibowitz comments,
"One family, father, mother, and daughter emerge from the gloom of this
faceless mass."[3] The
anonymity is only gradually broken, though, as the protagonists of this first
part of the chapter remain nameless, albeit distinct. The only specific name in
this narrative is the name that Par’oh's daughter gives the baby whom she
finds. It is to be Moshe, "because I drew him out of
the water" (2:10 emphasis added). And as we observed in Parashat Miketz
(Gen. 41-44:17), this name is probably an Egyptian one, as "mes" or
"mesu" in ancient Egyptian mean "child" or "son,"
[4] yet the Hebrew language adapts to foreign
terms by employing puns or a 'play on words' (such as the in the name
"Bavel," Gen. 11:9). There is, however, one other instance in
Scripture where the root m.sh.h (mem,
shin, hey) is used: "He drew me out - yimsheni - of many waters,"
sings King David (2nd Sam. 22:17; Ps. 18:16), being an apt
description of Moshe’s current condition, and also of the future predicament of
his people, when they too will face a large body of water. The basket that baby
Moshe was put in is called "tey'va," the identical word used
for Noach's ark! The gigantic structure and the little basket are both havens
of safety and protection, out of which deliverance (having also the association
of water) with large-scale ramifications was destined to emerge.
It takes the death of the king (2:23) for the Children of Yisrael to
"groan" and "cry out" -"va'yiz'aku"
- and “their cry" - "shava'atam" - goes up
to Elohim. Notice that here the verb “to cry out” is different from the noun
“cry.” In other words, by the time the cry (“za’a’ka”) reaches heaven,
it turns into a "sha'v'a" (sh.v.a. shin, vav, ayin), a noun
which is "akin to deliverance or salvation" (y.sh.a - yod, shin,
ayin) [5]. Thus,
the cry already contains within it the response! And so we read that Elohim
"heard," "remembered," "looked" (or
"saw"), and "acknowledged" (2:24-25).
Chapter
3 elaborates on the implementation of the above verbs through the person of
Moshe and his mission. It will be by Moshe that YHVH will reveal Himself to His
People. Moshe spends time in the desert, "midbar,"
"tending the flock of Yitro (Jethro), his father-in-law… and he led the
flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of Elohim”
(3:1). "Midbar" stems from the root d.v.r (dalet, vet/bet, resh),
meaning “speech,” but this
root also supplies us with “to drive” (as in “push out”) and “defeat.” It
shares the same root with "pestilence" or “plague,” and with the Holy
of Holies in Solomon's Temple
YHVH reveals Himself to Moshe, talking to Him in the place of silence and
desolation, thus indicating that His Presence and sovereignty are not limited
by the way things (also of the root d.v.r - davar = thing) may appear in
the natural. The sea, for example, that will face the Israelites in their
future escape, will turn into "dry land" which will enable their
passage. Incidentally, this “dryness” or “parched land” is called
"charava" (Parashat B'shalach, Ex. 14:21), of the root ch.r.v (chet,
resh, bet/vet). The particular desert location referred to here is called “Chorev”
(Horeb, 3:1) and also stems from the root, ch.r.v (chet, resh, vet), which
means “desolation or waste,” forming also the root for
"cherev" - “sword” and “churban” – “destruction.” Not surprisingly,
in this part of the world where water is scarce, “dryness” and “destruction”
are almost synonymous.
Elohim’s plans for His people may be elicited from some of the terms used
here. He declares that He Himself "will go down" to rescue His people from Mitzrayim (Egypt Egypt
The long
discourse that the reluctant Moshe has with YHVH is about to end when YHVH
tells him: "Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you
what you shall say" (4:12).
Similar words are repeated in verse 15, with the promise to instruct him and his
brother A’ha’ron (Aaron) as to what they will have to do. It was likewise a totally submissive Yeshua who expressed a
similar idea during His earthly ministry, "The son can do nothing by
himself, he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the
Father does, the son does also" (John 5:19, see also 8:28; 12:49; 14:10).
Moshe and A’ha’ron comply and go to see Par’oh. In 5:4 we read: “And the king of
Egypt
We noted above that, because of their lowly state the Hebrews were
referred to in singular person. In 4:22 they are referred to once again in this
manner; but this time for an entirely different reason. Here YHVH calls Yisrael,
"My first born son." Later, when Moshe and A’haron address Par’oh,
they say to him: "The Elohim of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let
us go three days' journey into the desert and sacrifice to YHVH our Elohim…”
(5:3). However, the non-normative spelling of “has met with us” – nikra – can
be read as “who is named”, rendering this excerpt as, “The Elohim of the
Hebrews who is named after us [the “us” implying Avraham, Yitchak and Yaacov]…”
Even though by the end of the Parasha the lot of the Israelites is made
(temporarily) even worse than it had been before Moshe's audience with Par'oh,
the People, who at the beginning of Sh'mot are presented as a forgotten and
maltreated mass, are now the object of YHVH's direct intervention. It is,
therefore, with these words that our Parasha ends: "Then YHVH said to
Moses, 'Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand he will let them go,
and with a strong hand he
will expel them out of his land'" (6:1).
In Parashat Sh’mot we see
once again the sovereignty of YHVH over the schemes and intentions of the
enemy. Just as in the case of Yoseph, whose destiny the enemy attempted to
disrupt, yet YHVH used this very plan to catapult him into the place that He had
designed for him, so is this principle also true in regards to Moshe (and in an
even greater sense to Yeshua, see 1 Cor. 2:7, 8). The very man whose command
should have brought about this infant’s death, ended being the one in whose
palace the infant was protected, raised, and groomed for leading the Israelites
out and away from under his despotic and tyrannical control and dominion.
1 New Studies in Shemot, by Nechama Leibowitz, trans.
Aryeh Newman,
Eliner Library, Jerusalem
2 Ibid
3 Ibid
4 The New Brown, Driver,
Briggs, Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon,
ed. Francis Brown,
Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody ,
Mass.
5 Ibid
6 Ibid
Hebrew Tools for Everyday Use
In Parashat Sh’mot there are some very useful words for simple usage in
Modern Hebrew, such as “sh’mot” – “names”, “shem” – “name”; “taxes” – “missim”;
“built” – “ba’nu”; “houses”, “homes” - “batim”; “worked” or “toiled” – “avdu”; “speaking”
– “diber”, etc. Let’s try to put some of these to use.
What is your name (masculine)?
Ma shim’cha?
What is your name (feminine)?
Ma sh’mech?
Many taxes
Harbeh missim
The builder built houses
Ha’ba’nai ba’na batim
The children of Yisrael worked hard
B’ney Yisrael avdu ka’sheh
Elohim spoke to Moshe in the wilderness
Elohim diber el Moshe bamid’bar
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