Parashat VaEra

Shabbat Shalom! It’s nice to be back. In this week’s Torah portion of Parashat Va’era, the plagues of Egypt begin. Moses has spoken to the enslaved people of Israel a couple times, and gone before Pharaoh, and it’s clear he’s going to need some divine intervention to get the Israelites free. But he’s not quite sure that even with Divine intervention, this plan is going to work. Early in the parasha, the Torah tells us: “G‑d spoke to Moses, and said to him: “God spoke to Moses and said to him, ‘I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make Myself known to them by My name HaShem. I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners’” (Exodus 6:2-4).

Commenting on this interesting reintroduction of God to Moses, the Talmud (Sanhedrin 111a) says, “G‑d said to Moses: I regret the loss of those who have passed away and are no longer found. Many times I revealed Myself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; they did not question My ways, nor did they say to me, ‘What is Your name?’ You, on the other hand, asked from the start, ‘What is Your name?’ and now you are saying to Me, ‘You have not saved Your people!’” Rashi expands on this, “You questioned My ways, unlike Abraham, to whom I said, ‘Isaac shall be considered your seed,’ and then I said to him, ‘Raise him up to Me as an offering’—and still he did not question Me.”

Although these quotes point out the potentially contentious nature of the relationship between God and Moses, I find their dynamic actually really interesting and beautiful. In the Torah and especially in many midrashim, God and Moses are constantly challenging each other and calling each other out. They often speak to each other like a married couple and speak of the Children of Israel as if they were literally the children of their union, and disobedient, difficult children at that. Of course, their relationship is by no means that of equals, and Moses still constantly has to pray to God, repent, seek God’s help and mercy, and so on, so maybe not the best model as a whole for how to interact as a married. But the comfort with which Moses feels expressing his real concerns and frustrations with his situation, with the Children of Israel, with God, is an excellent model for a human-Divine relationship.

Even if you don’t believe in the sort of anthropomorphic or direct-action deity shown in the Torah, as many don’t anymore, I think the idea still of accessing a Divine presence and scolding it for an unfair predicament you’re in, while also looking to it for guidance to get out of said predicament, is a totally fair way to engage with the Force of the Universe. It allows for a fair amount of agency and self-reliance, while also allowing for some relief in acknowledging that you can’t account for everything and sometimes crummy situations are going to fall in your lap, and you need someone to blame but it’s clear it’s no person’s fault, so blame God. Or the Universe. Or Murphy’s Law. Whatever you call it, it’s beyond your control and you deserve to shake your first in that general direction.

May you find your voice as Moses does throughout the Torah, may you find comfort in your relationship with the Divine, and may you feel in control of your life in healthy and supported ways. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.