Togetherness (For Parshat Yitro)

i

The people come to Moses to inquire of God, to know God’s Law, from morning to evening.

Moses’ father-in-law says to him: this work is too heavy for you to bear alone.

You will surely wear away.

So Moses brings able men out of all Israel, to share his burden.

*

God and Moses are together, up on the Mountain.

The rest of the people are below.

God says to Moses: Go down, warn the people, lest they break through to HaShem to gaze; and many… perish.

Moses joins the people, below.

Then, God utters the Commandments.

ii

You can stand alone with God, close with God.

Or you can come to God as one person, amongst the whole people.

*
The second path is our way.

Witnessing (for Parshat BeShalach)

i
The Children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron.

Would we had died by the hand of HaShem in the land of Egypt, the people say, when we sat by the pots of meat, and when we ate our fill of bread: for you two have brought us out into this Desert to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

*
Then God sends the people manna—nourishment for their Desert life.

And when God promises that He will provide food, the Presence of HaShem appeared before the people.


ii
These people have watched God deliver the Ten Plagues.

They have seen God split open the sea, and drown the Egyptian army in it.

They have sung: Sing to HaShem, for He has triumphed.

*
But these are lofty things.

These are national things.

Hunger is a personal matter.


iii
God says: Each man is to gather the manna according to his own appetite, for himself and for those in his tent.

Each man's own hunger has its encounter with God.

Each man's family encounters God.

God says: I am the God Who even tends to each one of you.

*
It is in this relationship that the people find the Presence of HaShem.


________
Shabbat Shalom, Abe


Please pray for the recovery of Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah

Verses cited: Exodus 16:2-3,10,16
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History is a Moment

i
If you do not send out My people, God warns Pharaoh, then I will bring locusts into your midst:

Locusts the likes of which neither your fathers, nor your fathers’ fathers have seen—since the day that they were upon the earth…

*
God frees Israel from Egypt.

Israel leaves Egypt in such haste, the people took their dough before it was leavened into full bread.

And God says: you shall eat unleavened bread each year, recalling this haste.

ii

God sends a plague that neither the Egyptians’ fathers, nor their fathers’ fathers have seen.

He wipes the worth of their history away.

He makes unleavened bread triumphant:

Bread that does not rise

Bread with no story, no history.

God crowns the moment over history.

iii
If this is so, then each person must ask: Do I live up to the flash of God in the world, this moment?

There is no more history than this moment to rely upon, to fall back to.

______________

Shabbat shalom, Abe

Please pray for the recovery of Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah

Please donate to disaster relief for Haiti now.

Verses cited: Exodus 10:6, 12:34, 12:15

HaShem (for Parshat VaErah)

i
God makes Man. And the Man searches among all the creatures for a partner. He finds none.

God makes the Man sleep; the Man wakes, and the Woman is there.

The Man was searching for a different creature, not for the Woman.

So his plans are upended (to his delight) in joining with another.

*

The Man and the Woman sin in the Garden. God expels them.

But God also makes garments for them, cloth against the harsh world.

God has joined these two people together, upturning the course of things.

God comes to terms with Sin, the upturning of all.

*

(And this is the story that first uses God’s name HaShem.)

ii

Moses’ father went… and took a wife, in the face of infanticide against the Israelites.

Moses is born.

*

God says to Moses:

I am HaShem.

I have not made myself known to the world by My name HaShem until now.

I, HaShem, will free the people from their long slavery.

*

Joining another, Moses’ father upends his world.

So HaShem answers in kind, upending the world.

__________

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

Please consider donating this week--even a small amount--to help the people of Haiti through their time of urgent need.
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Please pray for the recovery of Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah
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What we Learned in Egypt

i
Moses’ mother must send Moses into the river in a basket: because the Egyptians are vigilant to find hidden Israelite sons, to kill them.

Pharaoh’s daughter sees the basket and takes it from the water. She opens it and she sees Moses.

She adopts Moses as a son. She names him Moses—Moshe; an Egyptian name to say: she drew him from the water.

*
The Egyptians draw out, uncover, pry out what is hidden.

This is the trait that gives Moses his name.

ii
And Moses gleans from this trait.

He journeys out from the Egyptian royal court, to his kinsmen; he witnessed their burden.

He goes out into the desert, he sees the vision from God of the burning bush; he says: I will turn from my path to understand this vision (after Israel cried out).

From his life of wealth, Moses seeks out hidden injustices.

In a time when Israel cried out—when God’s help is missing—he seeks the mysteriousness of God.

Egypt has taught Moses—who teaches us.

iii

To seek what we do not see:

That is the lesson of Egypt.

That is the lesson from the land of our suffering, from our suffering.

___

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

Verses cited: Ex. 2:10-11,23; 3:3

Please pray for the recovery of Ahuva Rachel bat Orah

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