Divrei Rav Josh- Parshat Vaera: Affirming Our Past and Future

At some point, every student experiences a brick wall in their educational journey, whether it is a problem that they cannot solve, a class they struggle to pass, or a social issue that appears intractable.   As educators, when a student hits that brick wall, we are faced with the task of helping them evaluate how to move forward, while also making our supportive presence known to them in the present.   A similar challenge is placed before God and Moses at the beginning of Parshat Vaera, where Moses is facing a crisis in leadership, after his first attempt at asking Pharaoh to free the Israelites ultimately results in Pharaoh worsening the servitude of the Israelites, and the Israelites telling Moses that they wish Moses never stuck his nose into their business.   

Parshat Vaera opens with God speaking to Moses to help Moses develop the wherewithal to inspire the Israelites to find hope amidst their despair.  However, God’s initial statement to Moses is decidedly ambiguous.  The Torah states:

“And God spoke to Moses, and said to him: I am the Lord.  And I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai, but by my name Adonai I did not make known to them” (Shemot 6:2-3).

At first glance, if one was hoping that God’s statement to Moses would be an emphatic assertion of God’s intent to free the Israelites, the statement “I am the Lord” can seem quite disappointing.  However, our rabbinic commentators see God’s statement in this context as telling us far more than God’s name, for the statement that opens Parshat Vaera simultaneously reminds the Israelites about their past, and their future.

Rashi’s commentary emphasizes the importance of God’s statement for Moses as a leader, as God wants to remind Moses that, in spite of the initial setback, God will make good on his promise to take the Israelites out of Egypt.   Rashi states the following:

“I am the Lord”: faithful to reward those following My path.  I did not send you for nothing, but to fulfill the promise I made to the Patriarchs” (Rashi on Shemot 6:2).

Rashi’s focuses on the fact that the statement “I am the Lord” reminds Moses that a setback does not mean that the mission will be for nothing, and that God will make good on his promise, for the same God who made promises to Abraham is now making promises to Moses and, by extension, the Israelites.

Expanding upon Rashi’s commentary, and drawing attention to how this verse in Parshat Vaera is meant to inspire the Israelites in addition to Moses, the Akedat Yitzhak, which is known as a “super commentary” on Rashi, writes that the statement “I am the Lord”  implicitly provides assurance to the Israelites in a moment of need.   The Akedat YItzhak writes:

“The text, in its plain sense, pinpoints three factors prompting the coming redemption:  The first: natural consideration and love.  God’s intimacy with and love for their ancestors should extend to their descendents.  Second: the covenant- God had to honour this promise.  Third, the justice of their cause- the violence and injustice perpetrated evokes Divine retribution against the author of the injustice in favour of the victims” (Akedat Yitzhak on Shemot 6:2).

According to the Akedat Yitzhak, by simply saying “I am the Lord,” God is reminding the Israelites that not only did he come through for their ancestors in the past, but that God intends to protect the current generation in the present.   As a result, God’s statement Moses is far more than a pronouncement of God’s name, but it is also an announcement of what God’s arrival on the scene should mean for the Israelites, and to the Egyptians.   Commenting upon these commentaries, Nehama Leibowitz:

“God revealed himself here as the promise-keeper- a role designed to raise the morale of both Moses and the people.  But more than the present was involved.  God fortified their spirits by reference to the past- to the promise made to their ancestors.   When you went to Pharaoh to speak in My name you did not limit yourself to My role of: “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh”- the existential present and henceforth, but also spoke in the name of Him who had revealed Himself at the dawn of your history, who had made a covenant with your ancestors” (Nehama Leibowitz, New Studies in Shemot: Volume 1, 118).

Leibowitz argues that Rashi and the Akedat Yitzhak recognize how “I am the Lord” is a statement of purpose by
God, a statement of what will take place in the coming years, and why it must take place.  In a moment when the Israelites wanted to walk away from Moses and, most likely, God, God’s statement at the beginning in Parshat Vaera attempts to remind the Israelites as to why the relationship between God and Israel still matters.

When a student experiences the highs and lows of education, many are tempted to assume that struggling in a subject or area of school life necessarily means that their teachers and mentors will one day “give up” on them, that no one would stick it out with someone who seems like a loss cause.  However, what every educator knows, and what our parasha reminds us, is that the first way to help a first crawl out from under the rubble of hopelessness is reminding a student of our presence, and helping them realize that caring adults will helped them through their struggles in the past, and will still guide them through their struggles in the present and future.  May each of us be worthy of fulfilling this essential task in our Schechter community.

Shabbat Shalom!