Parashat Vaeira - January 12, 2013

Last week we studied Parashat Vaeira in the Book of Exodus and focused on chapter 6 verses 2 and 3.  This is the time when Adonai appears with three “names” to Moses.  These two sentences sparked a discussion about the various names for Adonai and we recognized that there are more than 70 names for Adonai in the TANACH!  But are they really names

Underlying this profusion of divine names is the insight that as humans, our nomenclature can do no more than depict God's actions, that is, our experience of God and not anything resembling God's essence. When Moses presses God, the midrash has God say: "You wish to know My name. It is by my actions that I am called. Sometimes I am called El Shaddai or Zevaot or Elohim or Adonai. When I sit in judgment on humanity, I am called Elohim. When I war against the wicked, I am called Zevaot (the head of an army). When I refrain from punishing someone on the spot for his or her sin, I am known as El Shaddai, [I am not quite sure why!] And when I treat my world with compassion, I am known as Adonai" (Exodus Rabba 3:6).

Strikingly, the midrash proves its theological case from the enigmatic phrase used by God in the original dialogue with Moses: "I will be what I will be" (Exodus 3:14). God is not the same in each and every instance. The very vagueness of the formulation with two verbs of being allows for a variety of intersections with God.

The midrash captures the essence of monotheism. If pagan religion raised to the level of deity an assorted number of disparate natural phenomena, hence a pantheon of gods, the Bible insists on a single grand deity who encompassed the diversity of nature and human experience within itself. Existence emanates from but one source of being, refracted into a brilliant spectrum of emotions by human consciousness.

Against this backdrop, we can savor the fact that our parashah uses three distinct names of God in the space of its first two verses: Elohim, Adonai andEl Shaddai (Exodus 6:2-3). Given the meanings the Rabbis attributed to God's names, the midrash construes an exchange fraught with deep tension. The name Elohim (God as judge) suggests a moment of divine impatience: God (Elohim) spoke to Moses. What triggered the rebuke was Moses' preceding assault on God after his first setback: "O Lord, why did You bring harm on this people? Why did You select me?" (Exodus 5:22), a remark laden with disrespect and impudence. God laments the slippage in leadership.

What a pity that the patriarchs are gone! Several times did I appear to them in the guise of El Shaddai and it was sufficient. To Abraham I said: 'Up, walk about the land, through its length and its breadth, for I give it to you' (Genesis 13:17). And yet he found no place to bury Sarah until he bought a gravesite from Ephron for 400 shekels. Similarly with Isaac and Jacob and none of them ever questioned My word. In contrast, to you I revealed Myself as Adonai, and you turn on Me after the first bit of adversity. Accordingly, I shall redeem Israel with compassion (Adonai) but condemn you to die in trans-Jordan [Elohim with El Shaddai perhaps signifying the delay in punishment] (Genesis Rabba 6:4).

This Shabbat we study Parashat Bo, Exodus 10:1 – 13:6 and Jeremiah 46:13-28

Cantor Eichaker

Shemot - January 5, 2013

This past Shabbat we explored the first portion of the book of Exodus – Shemot.  Shemot is both the name of the Torah portion and the entire book, in Hebrew.  Shemot means “names”. 

During our exploration of the portion, we discussed the events surrounding the crowning of the new king, the decree to the midwives, and Moses’ birth and deposit in the river.  We discussed Moses’ life growing up as a Hebrew in the Pharoah’s palace, as Pharoah’s daughter’s son.  We read of the murder of the Egyptian at Moses’ hands, and the discovery that others knew about this crime.  Moses was a stranger in both lands – Egyptian and Hebrew, so he ran off to Midian.  There he found a home and a wife, until God heard the crying of the Children of Israel (literally, the descendants of Jacob/Israel) and requested of Moses that he be the one to lead the people out of Egypt.  Of course, God spoke to Moses out of a Burning Bush.

Our time was complete before we finished the portion, but there was still much to discuss.

A question that arose was:

In verse 1:22, could the “his” refer to God, as in “God’s people”.  I have not found any other references in this way to that, but if the Jewish tradition had that interpretation, they would have capitalized “his” in the English translation to refer to God. 

However, Rabbi Jose ben R. Hanina did comment that this “casting of the sons into the river” applied to all male children, Israelite and Egyptian, because Pharaoh was so concerned that his astrologers had predicted that “Israel’s savior” would be born, that he wanted to make sure that the prediction could not come true if all chances of a male child living were destroyed.  So the

There was also a question concerning a linkage to the experience of slavery with the sacrifice that was later required as a part of “worship” of God.  I am not finding any links in the commentaries I have explored, but will continue to look.  I welcome any of your own thoughts on this.

Enjoy your reading of Va-eira.  I hope it “appears” to be very interesting to you!

  

Rabbi Roxanne J.S. Shapiro, RJE