Divrei Rav Josh- Parshat Shemot: Our Ongoing Relationship with Torah

But how is Torah “useful”? Surely, for the rabbis, part of that had to do with law, norms of behavior by which Jews have lived their lives for centuries. But I think it means something else as well…reading [texts] as understood by the tradition is not a passive enterprise. It involves one’s whole self; it forces involvement, passion, and self-reflection. Ultimately, it may lead one toward change….For the Jewish tradition, reading is more than reading: it is a love affair with the text.

• Professor Barry Holtz, Back to the Sources: Reading the Classic Jewish Texts

In the above passage, my teacher, Barry Holtz, reminds us that the purpose of studying Torah is not to receive a piece of information one time, and then assume that the information never needs to be revisited or re-examined. Instead, Holtz invites us to understand the study of Torah as a piece of an ongoing process, one that began at the beginning of the Jewish people’s story, and one that continues until this day, a lesson that is alluded in this week’s parasha of Shemot.  

When Moses encounters God at the burning bush, Moses asks God how God should be identified to the Israelites, when Moses returns to Egypt and attempts to begin the process of taking the Israelites from slavery to freedom.   In response, God provides an answer that commentators would closely analyze for generations.  The Torah states:

“Moses said to God, “Behold, when I come to the Children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your forefathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His Name’- What shall I say to them?”   God answered Moses, Ehyeh asher Ehyeh “I shall be what I shall be.”   And He said, “So shall you say to the Children of Israel, ‘I shall be has sent me to you’” (Shemot 3:13-15).

The vagueness of God’s answer that his name is Ehyeh asher Ehyeh leaves the biblical reader to wonder not only how we are to interpret this very bizarre “name,” but why God would answer this question in a manner that would leave Moses with more questions than answers.   In attempting to answer these questions, our commentators ultimately see the phrase Ehyeh asher Ehyeh as indicating something essential about the ongoing relationship that God will create with the Israelites, not only in Egypt, but throughout the rest of Jewish history.

Citing a midrash that is found in both Midrash Shemot Rabbah 3:6 and Bavli Berakhot 9b, Rashi argues that Ehyeh asher Ehyeh alludes to the fact that God will help the Israelites during their current time of trouble in Egypt, and in future times of trouble when other nations attempt to persecute the Israelites.  Rashi states:

“I shall be what I shall be”- I shall be with them during this trouble, what I shall be them at their subjugation by other kingdoms.  Moses said before Him, “Master of the World!  Why am I to mention another trouble to them?  This trouble [Egypt] is enough for them.”   God said to him, “You have spoken well.   Say thus, etc.” (Rashi on Shemot 3:14).

In this commentary, Rashi argues that the term Ehyeh asher Ehyeh alludes to the ongoing relationship that will commence with the Israelites and God in Egypt, and will continue in any further instance of persecution the Israelites might face in a future time or place.  While the midrash appears uncomfortable with the fact that Moses should allude to persecutions that have yet to occur, ultimately the commentary reminds us that God’s care for the Israelites will not cease, no matter the time or place.

Expanding upon the idea that the Israelites and God begin and ongoing relationship when Moses meets God at the burning bush, the Ramban notes that we should understand Ehyeh asher Ehyeh as stating a principle about the nature of the eternal relationship between God and the Jewish people.  The Ramban states:

“What is the meaning of Ehyeh asher Ehyeh--”I shall be what I shall be.”   “As you are with Me, so I am with you.   If they open their hands to give charity, so I shall open My hands, as it says, “God shall open for you His godly treasure” (Deuteronomy 28:12).”   (Ramban on Shemot 3:13).

According to the Ramban, while Ehyeh asher Ehyeh alludes to God’s role in bringing the Israelites from slavery to freedom, this expression also alludes to the many ways in which God will remain involved in the life of the Jewish people, everything from acts of hesed, to forming a special relationship to the Jewish people’s destiny through the giving of the Torah.   In her modern commentary on this passage, Aviva Zornberg writes in The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus that both Rashi and Ramban allude to the idea that God’s statement of Ehyeh asher Ehyeh should remind us that the redemptive process begun in Parshat Shemot does not end when the Israelites leave Egypt, but rather exists for eternity.  Zornberg writes:

“...but even the Torah...is to be understood by human beings, in a mode of ongoing revelation.  In its absolute dimension, beyond human reach, the Torah is called “the Torah of Moses our Teacher” so that once again we are reminded of the tension between Moses and that dimension of God which invites continuous revelation” (Aviva Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture, 75).

Zornberg reminds us that the story of the exodus is archetypal of the entire story of the Jewish people, a process of ongoing revelation and relationship, one we are responsible for carrying on today.  Just as God states in the Torah that he form an eternal relationship to the Jewish people, the Jewish people are then tasked with forming an eternal relationship with God and God’s Torah.

When we teach our students the core narratives of the Jewish people, one of our most important tasks is helping our students realize that the Torah’s narratives not only happened to us in the past, but rather represent a process that is still playing out in the present.  In doing so, we demonstrate the continued relationship of these stories to who we are as Jews, and as human beings, an essential message at all levels of Jewish education.   May we embrace the task of helping our students recognize that God’s call of Ehyeh asher Ehyeh is an invitation for each of us to live in ongoing relationship with God and the Jewish people, a call that each of us must embrace.

Shabbat Shalom!