January, 2018

Introducton

Tracking the relationship of our patriarchs with G-d, we find that in the story of Joseph, G-d hardly features, except as it says in the beginning of Joseph’s narrative – “G-d was with him”.

Early in the beginning of this narrative, G-d appears to Moses (at 80 years of age, though). And they remain close through the rest of Moshe Rabeinu’s life. However, Moshe is a complex character. He is know as supremely humble, yet right from the start argues with G-d.

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Note: One of the commentaries mentions that Joseph tried to keep the Hebrews separate from Egypt, but after his death the Hebrews tried to assimilate, but were instead enslaved. Thus, it is necessary to keep the people separated. However, modern Jews have tried to assimilate, and this has just enabled the rise of antisemitism, and anti-Israeli sentiments, as predicted.

Chapter 1

n1-7] Righteous generation passed

Even after selling Joseph and lying to their father, they rose to become spiritually pure! No punishment, no repercussions or redemption, pure enough to prevent enslavement of our people.

The grandchildren were not regarded as spiritually pure, which speaks of the incredibly swift descent of moral integrity. Yet it occurs one step at time. Just as a spiritual ascension is a relatively slow and tedious process, so is the descent.

v1:1-5] Names of the sons of Israel (again). This is a repeat of Genesis 46:8 except far more briefly.

English	Hebrew
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah	רְאוּבֵ֣ן שִׁמְע֔וֹן לֵוִ֖י וִֽיהוּדָֽה
Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin	יִשָּׂשכָ֥ר זְבוּלֻ֖ן וּבִנְיָמִֽן
Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher	דָּ֥ן וְנַפְתָּלִ֖י גָּ֥ד וְאָשֵֽׁר

These are the 70 souls who descended to Egypt.

Note: Jacob’s son’s are deemed meritorious, even after selling Joseph and lying. They rose to become spiritually pure! No punishment, no repercussions or redemption necessary. They become pure enough to prevent the enslavement of our people while they were still alive. The grandchildren were not.

This speaks of an incredibly swift ascent of moral integrity of the brothers. Yet it occurs one step at a time, over time. Remember over 40 years have passed.

Likened to stars

Here is the concept of stars as emissaries of G-d, Who Knows each one’s “name”.

“He counts them when they come out and when they are gathered in”.

Note: What a lovely concept of stars. Firstly as emissaries of G-d. Secondly, that He knows each by name. In this age, we distance ourselves from the stars, although we might explore them scientifically in exhaustive detail, they do not play a significant part in most of our lives—even for those scientists who study them day in and day out. Most of us have excluded them from any but the most superficial influence. Even astrology is dismissed in our time.

Today we distance ourselves from the stars. They no longer play any significant part in our lives, as we have excluded them and any influence they might have on our cosmos beyond what says tells us.

Twelve constellations

n1:12] Constellations

Question: Is this a foreign influence?

Example of our Sages using “science” to elucidate the text.

N The number 12 has appeared as an important number in a many ancient cultures. Today we are left with some of them. As in $360^O$ in a circle; or 24 hours to the day, 60 seconds to the minute, 60 minutes to the hour; 12 inches in a foot. The twelve constellations are the same twelve that form the basis of astrology. This is an example of Judaism perhaps absorbing teaching from foreign source that is used both to influence and elucidate the text (from Gur Aryeh).

v1:6] Joseph, his brother, and all that generation (that came from Canaan) died. N Thus the above is a list of all the people that had died

n1:6] Generation maintained spiritual level: Patriarchs

v1:7] The people were fruitful and swarmed

Steps to enslavement

1. Labour tax
2. “Abort” male babies
3. Throw male babies into the river (children?)
4. Search & seizure

v1:8] New Pharaoh

- Did not know Joseph
n1:8] A new pharaoh ascends the throne. The political atmosphere changes. Question: In those days this occurred through ascension to the throne, nowadays that occurs through elections — or does it? For it seems to me that little changes through elections. I wonder if it was the same in times past?

v1:9-10] Too many of us.→
n1:9] Outsiders Take advantage of the newcomers
v1:11] Tax collectors
v1:12] Continue to multiply - despite oppression
*n1:12] Levites NOT enslaved? Why?
v1:13-14] Enslaved
n1:13] ויקצוּ The newcomers now disgusted them.

n1:15-22] Infanticide

Infanticide

v1:15-22] The justification for this infanticide seems to have been based on a prophecy that the saviour of the people was going to be born in this generation (Sotah 12b).

v1:15] Midwives: Shifrah & Puah, which some claim are Jochebed & Miriam, Moses’ mother and sister (Sotah 11b). Question: Why different names?
v1:16] "Kill the boys"→
v1:17] Midwives feared G-d→

Note: What I find fascinating here is this relationship with G-d that pops up in strange places.

v1:18] Pharaoh summons midwives
v1:19] Hebrew women are too capable
v1:20] G-d benefited the midwives; people multiplied
v1:21] Midwives received houses built by G-d for them
n1:21] “G-d rewarded them with houses”. Some say they were not literally houses, but dynasties that their bloodline would produce. Note: However, it is far more likely, under such autocratic rule, that they would have been arrested and possibly executed for not carrying out the pharaoh’s wishes. The polar “you are either with us, or you are against us”.
v1:22] Pharaoh: Kill ALL baby boys… everyone, including the Egyptian.
n1:22] לכּל־עמי: The pharaoh’s edict included all the people! Question: How could that be?

Chapter 2

Levi marries a Levite, Jochebed (v1). She has a son, whom they keep hidden for three months (v2). She puts him in a basket of reeds, and places him in the Nile (v3). Miriam, his older sister, watches over him (v4). The princess, Pharaoh’s daughter, happens to be at the river. She sees the baby in the the basket, and exclaims, “He must be a Hebrew child” – and saves it (v5-6).

n2:1] Question: Jochebed was 130 years old when she gave birth to Moses?
n2:4] Know: Example of G-d’s drawing the “outline” and we “enact”/live the details!
n2:5] Nothing is impossible

v2:7] Miriam approaches the Pharaoh’s daughter.
v2:8] “Go”
v2:9] Brings Jochebed (Moses’ mother) to take him and nurse him. She nurses him for six years, after which she hands him over to the princess’ keeping. The princess names him Moses—an Egyptian name, meaning “came out of the water” and she takes him as her son.

Question: Surely if she realised he was Hebrew, she should have left him in the water. By taking him, she was disobeying a direct order from the Pharaoh. Which took courage—illustrating that not everyone agreed with his cruel edicts. Secondly, how could she have claimed it as her own, especially if she was not yet married—would that not be a smear on her status?

Note: Notice the 1d absolutist attitude here. There is no discussion, no choices given, no this or that. Perhaps it is that if the princess of the Pharaoh tells you to do something, you do it…

v2:10-25] Moses

v2:10] Grew up as son to the pharaoh’s daughter.
n2:10] Name - Monios

The princess gave him the name Monios, which was translated to Moshe in Hebrew.

Note: There is an interesting comparison here between Moses and Buddha. They both were raised as princes. They left when they were still young. They both were absent before they emerged onto the scene, and changed their worlds. Buddha spent 40 years under the Bodhi tree, but before that he might have spent 20 years exploring the various paths available to him. Moses fled to Midian (some think he might actually have spent most of that time in Africa), and was gone for 60 years before returning to save his people.

v2:11] Burdens of brothers
v2:12] Struck and killed an Egyptian taskmaster
n2:12] She used his name

As he was three months old when Jochebed placed him in the river, he would already have had a name. This is a name we never learn. But, here, we learn from Jochebed, that he had a name, for she used it…

v2:13] Two Hebrew men fighting
v2:14] Call him “killer”
v2:15] Flees to Midian. Waits at well.
n2:15] Fled He was 20 (or was he 12)? He returns at 80.

v2:16] Seven daughters approach the well.
n2:16] Minister Reuel – who is either Jethro, or else is the son of Jethro.

v2:17] Water the sheep. Moses helps.
v2:18] Reuel/Yitro/
n2:18] Jethro has 7 names (4:18)

v2:19] The Egyptian man
v2:20] Where is he?
v2:21] Married Zipporah, daughter of Yitro
v2:22] Son Gershon “stranger in a strange land”
n2:22] גרשֹׁם Gershon - גר שׁם, lives there, stranger in a strange land.

n2:23-25] 210 years: That is the time of our people were in Egypt. We lived there for 116 years before the oppression, and then another 86 prior to our exodus.

v2:23] King dies. Israelites cry out.
v2:24] G-d hears.
v2:25] Saw - good

Chapter 3

n3:1-10] Integrity

Note: It was a time when people had respect for one another that they knew that societies were built on the foundation of honouring the other’s space. Today we have laws that are enacted to ensure that, though they need to be fortified by fences and soldiers.

v3:1] Approaches Mt of G-d, Horeb, with flocks of Jethro, chief of Middan.

v3:2-5] Moses’ first prophecy

First he notices the fire in the thorn bush that is not being consumed, then the angel calls to him. Only then does G-d talk to him. The reasoning here is that G-d did not want to overwhelm him, as this was their first interaction, so He introduced Himself by stages.

v3:2] Angel in bush
*v3:3] Moses turns to look
v3:4] G-d notices he turned, calls out to Moshe…
n3:4] הננִי—I am here. As in “I am present.” Note: It is said that if one could be fully present for one moment in one’s life, it would be a life-changing event.

v3:5] Hallowed ground, remove shoes
n3:5] אַל־תִקְרַב הֵלֹם—Do not come closer. This is hallowed ground, for the mountain is holy. It is the mountain on which the revelation will take place.

v3:6] G-d of your fathers. Moses is afraid.
*n3:7] כי ידעתי

v3:7] I have seen your affliction
v3:8] Promise of land
n3:8] ואֵרד
n3:8] טובה ורחבה Should be 7 nations, but the Gilgashites fled.

v3:9] Your cries have come to me
n3:9] ועתה : Now is the time
n3:9] הלחץ : ghetto. Separated from the Egyptians. Little fraternisation.

v3:10] Hero Story One man prevails alone against a formidable empire.

n3:11-17] Doubts Moses expresses his doubts about his capability to carry out the task that G-d has set before him.
v3:11] Who am I to do such a thing?
v3:12] I will be with you
n3:12] Rewarded. We are rewarded according to our potential.
v3:13] Name?
*n3:13] שׁמ המפורשׁ—The Ineffable Name
v3:14] אהיה אשׁר אהִה
*n3:14] אהֵיה אשׁר אהיה—I will be what I will be. Timeless & eternal.
v3:15] G-d of your fathers sent you
*n3:15] HaShem זה־שׁמי לעלם—that is the name with which I am concealed
v3:16] Assemble elders
n3:16] Message
v3:17] Bring you out of affliction

n3:18-22] Mislead Pharaoh
v3:18] 3 days to
n3:18] פקֹד פקדתי
v3:19] King will refuse
n3:19] ולא ביד חזקה : Relent
*v3:20] Stretch and smile
v3:21] Empty-handed
*v3:22] Neighbour, dweller; empty Egypt

Chapter 4

*n4:1-17] Moses doubts the people
v4:1] Won’t believe me
n4:10] In me
n4:10] לא אישׁ דברים
v4:2] Staff
v4:3] Serpent
v4:4] Tail
v4:5] Believe you
v4:6] Bosom -> hand white
v4:7] Bosom -> hand flesh again
v4:8] Believe last sign
v4:9] Blood of the Nile
*v4:10] Heavy of mouth
v4:11] Who gave man a mouth?
v4:12] I will instruct you
v4:13] What is the message?
v4:14] Aaron - G-d angry at him→
4:14] This verse stands alone. Aaron is on his way to see you. Yet when they leave later on (4:20), Aaron is not with them.
n4:14] ושׁמח בלבו : Aaron was truly happy regarding Moses.
v4:15] You instruct him
v4:16] Will speak for you
v4:17] Staff
n4:17] ואת הנטֵה הזה : His magic staff

v4:18] Jeter, father-in-law, let me return
v4:19] “return”
v4:20] Return with wife and sons
n4:20] Donkey
*v4:21] Perform signs. Pharaoh will not send the people
v4:22] Say this to Pharaoh→
4:22] “My first born son is Israel”
- From a son to a community. A son is the progenitor, the seed of a “people”.
v4:23] "Send out my son"→
n4:23] בִנךָ בכרךָ The firstborn.
[]== Strange piece]{.note}
4:23] G-d threatens to kill Pharaoh’s first born son if he does not let His son go.

n4:24-26] Zipporah and the circumcision
v4:24] Inn
v4:25] Zipporah cuts foreskin of son {Which one?}. “You are a bridegroom of blood to me”,→
v4:26] connected to the Brit.
n4:26] circumcision
4:24-26] Very strange verses. It is strange the conditions under which the son’s circumcision takes place. How did she know that the would appease G-d?

v4:27] Aaron→
4:27] Now G-d tells Aaron to meet Moses in the wilderness (4:14). But he has already packed his family up and headed out through the wilderness.

v4:28] Moses told Aaron
v4:29] Elders
v4:20] Aaron speak words
v4:31] And the people believed
*n4:31] Bow

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Chapter 5

n5:3] G-d’s will
5:3] “The G-d of the Hebrews has become manifest to us,” say our Sages. Is this not a strange thing to be saying, or is it the way of the understanding of G-d’s in those times.

n5:4-5]
n5:6-17] Regent’s thinking
n5:13-21] Road to leadership
n5:22] The wicked flourish

Chapter 6

n6:1] Was this Moses’ punishment?

Portent for the future -> Reached climax - a redemption that will inspire countless souls.