Parashat Ya'ayra - Moses, the son that Jacob deserved

רפואה מן התורה

Healing from the Torah

Parashat Va’ayra
Exodus 6:2-9:35

     

     In this parsha we see the beginning of some real fantastical stuff.  Here the miracles by the hand of Moses and Aaron will prove to be more powerful than the magic of Pharaoh and his sorcerers, reminding the reader of Solomon’s dedication of the Temple in 1 Kings 8 where the Kavod (glory) of God cannot be contained in the natural.  In fact, that is a big part of what we read throughout Exodus, acts of God beyond human comprehension that happen during Israel’s journey through the wilderness.  In this drash, however, we are going to stick with the human part and look at Moses and Israel in particular.  As such, I would like to suggest that the result of Israel’s slavery can be compared to Jacob, whereas Moses represents the restoration of the failures of Jacob’s sons.
     When Jacob is told that his son Joseph was killed by a wild beast he experienced a deep seated grief where he mourned for many days and said, “for I will go down to the grave mourning over my son,” refusing to be comforted by his children.  In this parsha when the Hebrews are greatly distressed and burdened by the demoralization of their slavery it says that “they did not listen to Moses because of shortness of breath and hard work.”  For those who know me, you know that I am the last person to compare the power of grief from death to a grief that may come from an overwhelming unfairness in life, but the results are similar; Jacob and Israel could not be comforted.
     Likewise, Moses and the sons of Jacob cannot be compared, but unlike Jacob’s sons who did nothing for the pain that they caused their father, Moses dedicated himself to Israel’s sufferings.  We first saw this when he struck-down the Egyptian task master who was abusing the Hebrew slaves, and in this parsha again and again we encounter his willingness to go before Pharaoh and stand up to the powers and might of Egypt. This reminds me of an Albert Einstein quote that says, “the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”  Moses clearly realized that the evil of Pharaoh and his leadership had to be stopped.  This appropriately fell during the week that we remembered Martin Luther King, who stood up to the white raciest power of his day that ultimately took his life, but right till the end he never quit even though he knew his was in danger.

     We are introduced to a people who were broken, discouraged and lacking hope which is why Israel could not hear or receive what Moses said to them.  Rashi attempts to address this although what he said can be taken in two ways that are true and distressing.  True, because Israel at times can be its own enemy, not doing what is needed in order to correct or better a situation, either good or bad.  Distressing, because how can you blame Israel for the pain they endured as slaves under the heavy oppression of Pharaoh?  But out of this comes Moses, a man who despite his own weaknesses, fears and liabilities commits to the repair of his own people regardless of the challenges before him.  Yet in his own discouragement after being shut down by the Hebrews, he is further dismayed by what he sees as the failure of God’s redemptive promises, saying “My Lord, why have you harmed this people you have sent me to” (cf. Ex. 5:27). Moses is about life and justice and has no problem telling God that he has a grievance over being sent for what appeared to be nothing.  Moses took on the challenge of being God’s man, but I am just as convinced that he was unaware of the depth of this venture before him.

     Did Moses react that way out of a sense of failure or just too much expectation?  Rabbi Joshua Mikutis in the Mussar Torah Commentary correctly observes that “despite the fact that [Moses] is able to represent himself as God’s messenger, something falls flat.  The Israelite's are simply too overwhelmed by their circumstances to internalize Moses’s message.”  R’Mikutis writes about Moses the man who had to deal with his own sense of failure in relationship to ענוה, or humility.  Now this is not meant to be a lesson on humility, but for Mikutis, without humility Moses’s battle regarding failure would have been much worse.  In this case humility is the key to truly know one’s place in the world, because it is about control as opposed to surrender.  Here, surrender for Moses meant that he needed to recognize he could not wave his shepherd’s staff over the people and fix their pain, more so than he needed to act with the conviction to keep going despite how they responded.  Likewise, if Moses operated in the world of expectation the results would be similar, mad at God, mad at Israel and mad at self.  Moses had no clue that at 80 years of age this would be his new job, a job that demanded he call upon his understanding of the Divine as he intervened for Israel’s sake.  But more than that, Moses did for Israel what Jacob’s sons did not do for their father; Moses put Israel’s plight above his own.  Yet, beginning in this parsha and right through the end of Moses’s life we can turn to the famous words of Perkei Avot that say, “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it” (cf. Avot 2:21).  Moses did not quit even when he did not see the results that he wanted.
     How hard is it to feel a sense of accomplishment in doing our best even if we do complete what we have been given?  Better yet, what may interfere with the ability to do so?  I think that is what R’Mikutis is getting at with failure and expectation in relationship to humility.  I will only speak for myself, but I know I deal with that and I have to have ענוה in order to have the patience to accept what is beyond my control as well as embracing what I am capable of doing the best that I can.  Moses our Teacher has just as much to teach us from who he is beyond the words that he spoke.

Shabbat Shalom!