Torah Thought – Va-era

Torah Thoughts
Parshat Va-era Exodus 6:2 – 9:35
January 24, 2009 28 Tevet 5769

A few months ago, we studied the three distinct Creation stories in the Bible – the story of the seven days of creation, the story of Adam and Eve, and the Noah story. Jewish tradition has always looked at these stories with the understanding that they are about theology, not science or history, but attempts to understand our relationships with G!d and the universe.

This week, we continue reading about the Exodus from Egypt – the Ten Plagues which G!d used to attain the liberation of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. But many people have asked recently, do we believe the story of the Ten Plagues or the Crossing of the Red Sea are historically accurate; can they be scientifically proven? Is the Exodus from Egypt an allegory, just like the creation stories? Indeed, there have been assertions recently that because there is a lack of archeological evidence proving the Exodus, it never happened.

The problem for me is one of belief. Do I really need to have proof to believe in something? Quite the contrary: it seems to me that if I have proof, I don’t need to believe. Does belief imply a foolish lack of care with regard to veracity of the belief: is belief blind? Is it naïve to believe in the miraculous experience of the Ten Plagues, and the parting of the Red Sea, and to think that miracles could happen in other ways at other times? What do I really expect the Biblical text to tell me about humanity, G!d, and our relationship with G!d if I can’t rely on it to be historically accurate or archeologically verifiable? Does it make a difference if I believe in G!d, but not that G!d could do, or did, the miracles associated with the Exodus from Egypt?

The Exodus is the # 1 most important event in our history as Jews. We relate just about everything to it. We were slaves in Egypt; we were strangers in a strange land; we know what oppression is; we know what miraculous liberation is. As a result of the Exodus from Egypt, we are unified as a people, and become the people who struggle with G!d and the Book we received, which we could only receive as a result of leaving Egypt. We are reminded that G!d brought us out of the land of Egypt to be our G!d, to give us the mitzvot, (acts of commandment which are to our benefit to do), to make us people who connect with G!d through Jewish tradition. Because G!d brought us out of Egypt, we are supposed to honor our parents, remember and observe the Shabbat, not murder or kidnap, and recognize the validity of all of the other rules by which we are supposed to live. Everything we do as Jews is based on this unique experience of G!d being involved in this one-time, never repeated, event.

What was the purpose of the Ten Plagues? Some people will say they were to convince Pharaoh to let our people go. But that doesn’t make sense. If G!d wanted to get Pharaoh to do something, anything, all G!d would have to do is zap Pharaoh. Pharaoh can’t possibly be the goal. Was it the Egyptians, then? Once again, that’s not likely. The purpose of the plagues was to enable the entire people of Israel to understand and see a connection to a powerful, caring and involved G!d. The plagues were not about Pharaoh or the Egyptians; they are about us and G!d, Revelation of G!d. Our ancestors, living in Goshen had not had any contact with G!d for nearly 400 years, since the time of Joseph – no phone calls, emails, letters, nothing. They didn’t know from G!d. The Ten Plagues were a crash course introducing G!d, our G!d, not the Egyptian Pharaoh, who thought he was god, to our people and to us.
We are supposed to see ourselves as if we personally left Egypt, as if we personally experienced these miracles, so that we can and will see G!d involved in our lives, and caring and about us. That’s really hard to do at the same time as we deny that it happened!

The burning question remains: did it happen? Or did something happen, but not what we have described in the Bible? Or, if something did happen, why is there no proof? I believe the proof is in the question – in the fact that 4,000 or so years later we’re still arguing about it. No matter how I answer this question, there will be other people with lots of other approaches to understanding what it means to consider this unique example of G!d’s intervention in the world. I believe it happened not because there is archeological or historical or scientific evidence of it, but because there is religious evidence: we are here and our religion is derived from this experience of leaving Egypt. This experience is how I know G!d, how G!d was revealed to me, when I left Egyptian bondage. The basis for everything else I do as a Jew is traceable to this introduction of G!d to our people.

There is a connection between the allegories of creation and the Ten Plagues. All are stories of miraculous involvement of G!d in the world. But the Exodus from Egypt goes beyond story, beyond allegory, right to the heart of what we believe we are and what we are supposed to do being who we are.

May it be Your will, Holy One of Blessing, to enable us to see your involvement in our own lives and the lives of all humanity. May we be blessed with the courage to believe that which can’t be proven, and the confidence to live our lives in accordance with our beliefs. May we see ourselves as if we personally struggled with slavery in Egypt, and learn from that experience to trust in Your compassion to lead us from our own personal darkness into the light. As You were there for us in our worst of times as a people, so may You also be there for each of us in our darkest hours.

Torah Thoughts – Vayigash

Torah Thoughts

Genesis 44:18 – 47:27   Parshat Va-yigash

January 3, 2009   7 Tevet 5769

As we near the end of the book of Genesis, b’raysheet, I have been looking at the promises. G!d promises make to Abraham into a great nation, that all other nations will see Abraham and his descendents as blessings. The rest of the Torah is about the fulfillment of this promise. I always saw this end of the Book of Genesis as sort of a stopping point. There’s a kind of break in the story. We go from having a family focus to a focus on the nation. But the family foretells the promise for the nation.

In this week’s Torah portion, Joseph and his brothers reconcile. He reveals his identity, which he had hidden from them when they came to him looking for supplies during a famine in Israel. He tried to figure out what to do with these brothers who attempted to kill him, who sold him into slavery. Despite the hardships of his first years as a prisoner and as a slave, Joseph is now a major big shot in the land of Egypt. In this week’s Torah portion, he is The Man to see if you wanted to survive the famine in Egypt. Joseph sees his dreams fulfilled: his brothers all come to him and bow to him, and his father, Jacob, finally comes to the place where he is in power.

The process is interesting: Joseph’s dreams are fulfilled through major, significant struggle. His life after being sold into slavery was not easy, we can be sure. Yet he lives to see his dearest dreams fulfilled. The process, the journey leading to redemption, seems to be a major theme with his father as well. Jacob is repeatedly dreaming, hearing blessings, yet they seem to go unfulfilled for a long time. When Jacob left his parents’ home after tricking his father and brother, he met up with G!d in a dream (remember the ladder?). At that time, G!d promised, “All the families of the earth will bless themselves by you and your descendents. Remember, I am with you; I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land.” (It’s similar to the blessing Abraham received, but Abraham didn’t get the blessing in dreams.)

Then after 20 years, when Jacob finally gets out of servitude to Laban with his wives and his kids, he wrestles with an angel, again in a dream, and is blessed again on his journey. In this blessing, Jacob’s offspring will include kings and the land of Canaan for his descendents. Now, in this week’s Torah portion, Jacob leaves the land of Canaan with a blessing from G!d saying, “Fear not to go down to Egypt, for I will make you there into a great nation. I Myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I Myself will bring you back.”

So we have this sequence of blessings in Jacob’s life, from leaving Canaan to coming back and then leaving once again, all with the promise that the descendents will inherit the land, that a great nation would come to occupy it. They are very strong blessings, the kind of blessing that leave little doubt that they will be fulfilled. G!d is very convincing in this series.

Yet, if we look at the process between the blessings, there seems to be a parallel in the experiences of Joseph: it doesn’t come easy. Jacob worked for 20 years to just get out of the clutches of Laban. The promise for Jacob was after wrestling with the angel was for the distant future. And now again, with Joseph, we read of a promise that foretells that there will be tremendous upheaval before its fulfillment. For some reason (and let’s face it, we all know the story) G!d will have to personally intervene to bring the people back from Egypt. Here the parallel with Joseph is even clearer: he goes to Egypt and becomes a slave. Jacob leads the family to Egypt, and they become slaves.

The process of fulfillment of the blessings is not an easy one. Why did Joseph have to suffer on his way to becoming a big shot? Why did Jacob have to go through all the struggles with Laban in order to come back home with his family? Why do his descendents have to go through slavery in order for G!d to bring them out personally? Wouldn’t it have been better for Joseph or Jacob, or our people, to just get what was promised?

Even in the Bible, when G!d is actively intervening, there is a sense of partnership. People have to do their part, and that may involve struggle, challenge, failure, and hardship. In some ways, we become better people for it. Jacob seems to have mellowed, learned to be more fair and reasonable, through his challenges. Joseph was a conceited brat as a kid, and now has clearly grown up and became a real “mensch”,  a good guy, through his struggles. The people of Israel, through their journey from slavery to freedom, seem to learn nationhood in relationship with G!d.

The journey is the journey. It’s the important part; it’s where we grow and become better people. Fulfilling the blessing without personal growth would be easy, but meaningless. Many of us would have preferred a different experience, a different journey than one filled with difficulty, pain or loss, as I’m sure both Jacob and Joseph would have. But we don’t get that. All we seem to get is awareness that G!d is with us. So no matter what the journey, we really have nothing to fear. We are not promised a life without challenges or struggles; we are promised that we may be able to find meaning, healing and hope in our personal journeys.

May it be Your Will, Holy One of Blessing, to help us to find the fulfillment of our own dreams, yet to find comfort on our difficult journeys to that fulfillment. Help us to rid our lives of resentments, hatred, enslaving habits, illness and fear that are the prisons of our own existence. May we see our lives as the fulfillment of Your promise to our ancestors.