Shemot
The book of Exodus begins with the Israelites enslaved under Pharaoh in Egypt. While every newborn Israelite male is drowned in the Nile, Moses is rescued by Pharaoh's daughter. As an adult, he is forced to flee Egypt and goes to Midyan, where he marries Tzipora and has a son. At the burning bush, God instructs Moses to confront Pharaoh and to lead the Israelites to freedom.
Shemot - Sefton Bergson
Sefton has lived in the Galil since his Aliya in 1980. He has been involved in the creation of the UJIA JAFI Partnership 2000 Living Bridge programme connecting UK and Galil communities through educational and experiential experiences - and in the creation of Limmud Galil.
Last week we finished reading the book of Bereishit (Genesis) which can be seen as the philosophical introduction to the books of the Torah. It houses the great personalities, the Patriarchs and the Matriarchs, whose personality traits and life commitments we have tried to comprehend in a way that will be relevant to our lives. These great individuals responded to a Divine calling and believed they had a part to play in making the world a better place.
Suddenly, as we enter Shemot (Exodus), we find ourselves in a new situation, as members of a family which has been turned into a slave nation, a nation whose fate is influenced and changed by great individuals with courage and conviction. We have, in the opening chapters of Shemot, two different examples of revolutionary figures. Firstly, the midwives, everyday people whose conviction and feelings of responsibility brought them craftily to defy the royal edicts by letting the Jewish male babies live. They did this without protestations and their actions allowed the Jewish people to grow strong and multiply. On the other hand, we have the personality of Moses, the "Prince of Egypt", whose sense of justice and brotherhood brings him into conflict with his immediate social environment and causes him to flee into exile.
Perhaps one of the messages of the Torah is to make us realise that no matter where one is situated in society's hierarchy we all have the ability to change the course of Jewish history and influence reality. The midwives were motivated by classical religious convictions. As the text tells us "They feared G-d" and because of this deep-rooted religious sense they defied a Pharaoh. Moses, the Prince of Egypt, seems to have been motivated by a personal sense of right and wrong. His beliefs and proximity to G-d are not mentioned in the text as a factor in his rescuing the Hebrew slave from the Egyptian task-master, or intervening on behalf of the daughters of Jethro. It is this personality, Moses, who is chosen by G-d to deliver the Divine Message of Deliverance, and later on to be the instrument of the Divine in revealing the Torah to Israel. The "Prince of Egypt" becomes the deliverer and teacher of Israel. Only a personality who came from aristocracy could deliver a message to a Pharaoh in the name of a G-d unknown to the Pharaoh. Only an outsider from the slave community could become a great leader to such a community.
As the story of Shemot unfolds, we follow how the Jewish people are being led from exile back to their homeland. We are made to realise and appreciate that sensitivity to other people's suffering is an essential ingredient to enable us to develop as a nation with a mission. Today, those members of the Jewish people who live in Israel find themselves in a reality where peoplehood is combined with nationhood. It is now more than ever that we must develop our sensitivities to the suffering of the weak, and our passion for justice. These traits will enable us to be custodians of the traditions of Moses and the Midwives and will ensure our being able to carry out Israel's historical mission of being a blessing and light unto the nations of the world.
Another Voice
Then the startling moment occurred: God appeared to Moses "in a flame of fire out of the bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed" (Exodus 3:2). In the face of that startling fact, Moses said: "I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt." The question "why" was never answered. How indeed is it possible for the world to bear the divine?
Perhaps this is the meaning of the burning bush. A new element was brought into being; fire that burns but does not consume. It indicated a new order in God's relation to man, namely, that to reveal He must conceal, that to impart His wisdom He must hide his power. It made revelation possible.
The bush was the precedent for Sinai that was not crushed, for Israel that was not consumed.
Abraham Joshua Heschel (born 11 January 1907): God in search of Man (Chapter 20)