The Torah portion read this week, Va’era -- which is the second portion of the book of Shmot -- presents a pivotal theological point in the history of the Jewish people -- and yet, all too often this point is not noticed and not taken to heart by Jews or by Torah scholars. The text begins in chapter 6, "And God spoke to Moses, saying, `I am - -; and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob as God Almighty -- but by my name - - I made Me not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojourning, wherein they sojourned. And moreover, I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel: I am - - and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their burdens, and I will redeem you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgements; and I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God. And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.’"

Now, you may well ask, why is this such an important passage?

Moses introduces here a concept so radically different and new that to this day it is not completely understood. What is this concept? It is monotheism taken to its core, to its completion. Moses is charged by God to speak to Pharaoh and get the Israelites out of Egypt -- but that happened at the burning bush, in the last portion. It occurred, further, that Moses asked God, at that point in the story, ‘whom shall I say sent me?’ and he was given the answer ‘Eheye asher Eheye." Here the text expands and explains the previous discussion concerning the name, and establishes a principle of faith. God tells Moses that he is relating to the children of Israel because of a covenant He made with their fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. ‘and I remembered My covenant.’ However, He makes it very clear that His relation with the patriarchs was quite different -- He was known to them as El Shada’y -- Lord of Hosts -- which is to say as an active interacting God, a one-on-one God who was very personal and unstructured. Now, with the entire people Israel, He shall have to be much more structured, and He will be known by the "shem hameforash" -- the explicit name -- which is the four letters yod he vav he, which are known in English by the Greek name ‘tetragrammaton’ -- the four consonants. We, in Judaism, have long insisted that the tetragrammaton cannot be pronounced. The Christian world, and academe called it Jehovah or Yahwe. We have claimed that it is derived from the four letters used in the verb ‘being’ (Was-is-will be -- haya-hove-yihye) while ‘they’ claimed that it was an actual name, like Moloch, Mordoch, Astarte, or Ra.

Yet, in the text of the Torah portion this week we read the message, ‘I am yod he vav he and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their burdens, and I will redeem you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgements; and I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God. And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.’ God, to the Jews, has a name made up of four letters, not a "proper name" as we would call it, but a code name for verbs -- and there are four verbs that demonstrate His relationship with "dor Mitzra’yim" -- the generation of Egypt: He will ‘ bring out,’ He will ‘deliver,’ He will ‘redeem,’ and He will ‘take’ Israel to be their God. They, and all the coming generations, will ‘know that I am the Lord your God who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.’

Thus Moses established a concept of God that was revolutionary as it was simple. Not a cult of personality but a witnessing of action. Judaism’s God is not Master of the universe because he is a Super-human being but because He is "Koneh Shamayim va’aretz." God demands our love not because He wishes to enslave us but because He is willing, nay insisting, on setting us free. It is knowledge that is setting us free. The knowledge of God, true knowledge, free of superstition, free of pre-conceived ideas of what we can do to gain His favor. For He is the God of action, the God of creation, the God of Truth. The truth that is not relative, not manipulated and manipulative, but the truth of nature, which is His truth, as we say in the concluding words of the third paragraph of our creed, the Shma -- eloheikhem emet. Amen veamen.

This week's Torah portion continues the saga of Moshe Rabenu, our great emancipator Moses, in his mission to remove the Israelites from Egypt. It begins with a quick reiteration of the relationship of God to Israel. The text reads, "God also spoke to Moses and said to him: "I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as àì ùãé -- God Almighty, but by my name 'é ä å ä -- The Lord' I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they resided as aliens. I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites whom the Egyptians are holding as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the Israelites, 'I am the LORD, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.'"

You recall that last week we read that when Moses first spoke to Pharaoh, the Egyptian not only refused to release the Israelites, he actually increased their burdens. Moses became and agent of Israelite suffering. Therefore, when God again dispatches him to the king's court, "on the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, he said to him, "I am the Lord; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I am speaking to you." Moses does not want to do Israel any more harm. "But Moses said in the Lord's presence, "Since I am a poor speaker, why would Pharaoh listen to me?" God has to explain to His servant the role he must play in this great saga. "The Lord said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and I will multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh does not listen to you, I will lay my hand upon Egypt and bring my people the Israelites, company by company, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them."

Moses is God's prophet, a messenger. However, he lives in an age when none hear the voice of God, and few understand His message even when it is brought to them by a chosen singular unique person such as Moses. God suggest, for the second time (the first having been when Moses was at the Burning Bush, when Moses tried to turn down God's request to become His messenger, "What of your brother Aaron, the Levite? I know that he can speak fluently; even now he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you his heart will be glad. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. He indeed shall speak for you to the people; he shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him."), that Moses need not be intimidated by the fact that he is not immediately accepted. The nature of man is such that Moses, because he can relate to God, becomes a god-like figure to friend (Aaron) and foe (Pharaoh) alike.

Is God showing cruelty to the Egyptians by suggesting that he will "harden Pharaoh's heart" to "multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt" to make sure that people know His glory? Not at all! It is not the nature of God to show cruelty -- it is the nature of man. It is because of Egypt's cruelty to Israel that they will now be blinded to the truth that is plainly made manifest to them. This is the nature of humanity. We can learn quite easily in our youth (because of our innocence) -- we are like a clean sheet upon which instruction can be written. If that instruction is good, God inspired, we can live a good life free of God's wrath and its consequence. If we use that clean sheet to inscribe on it evilness -- we end up living the consequence of what we have ourselves inscribed. Once the sheet is written, it can only be changed with great difficulty, if at all. A person raised in mitzvot is not very likely to stray away from the path of God -- and a wicked person is not very likely to pursue the life and preoccupation of a saint. As sergeant Joe Friday used to say, "this are the facts, just the facts, sir." So it is in this world that God has created in order and in harmony. This is why Moses has given us God's instruction, the Torah, that we may learn His ways and walk in his path, and in so doing, choose life.

Amen

This week we read in the Torah the portion Va'era, which is the second portion in the second book, the book of Shemot. Last week we read about the rearing of Moshe Rabenu and his first encounter with Egyptian persecution of the Israelites, which ended with Moshe killing the taskmaster, and making necessary his exile to the Sinai desert. We read of his encounter with Jethero's daughters, his invitation to stay with the Midianites, his marriage to Tzipora -- and his encounter with God at Mount Khorev. The portion ended with Moshe returning to Egypt to redeem the Israelites at God's command, and his initial failure to impress Pharaoh with his mission.

This week the story continues, and we read, "...And God spoke to Moses, and said to him, I am the Lord; And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name The Lord was I not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojourning, in which they sojourned. And I have also heard the groaning of the people of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in slavery; and I have remembered my covenant. Therefore say to the people of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you from their slavery, and I will redeem you with a outstretched arm, and with great judgments; And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in to the land, concerning which I swore to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for a heritage; I am the Lord."

It seems as if God's commission of Moshe begins anew with the above passage. It is as if God says, "O.k., Moshe, you didn't do so well the first time out -- but don't lose heart. You are still my choice to bring the Israelites out of Egypt." Moshe tries one more time to reject his commission, saying that he is "speech-handicapped" -- but God pays no attention to his disclaimer. He commands Moshe and Aaron to go about His business. There is a very profound lesson in this passage!

God has a plan for His creation. It is the "original blueprint" of creation, one might say. Yet, how do we reconcile this blueprint with Man's free will? If man has free will, and we certainly believe, even insist, that he does -- than God's blueprint can be contravened. Thus, God may have wished to see the Children of Israel leave Egypt with the first appearance of Moshe at Pharaoh's court -- but it was not to be, because Pharaoh had his own choices to make, and having lived his life contrary to God's will thus far, he certainly had the choice to continue, and it was almost predictable that he would not hearken to God's call. Human nature is established through repeated experience. 'Mitzvah goreret mitzvah,' one mitzvah draws you to another, 'va'avera goreret avera,' and a transgression draws another transgression. Pharaoh had been living with 'averot' for so long that he no longer knew that they were transgressions. What about God's blueprint? It had to be altered.

What we have to understand is that the alterations, when they happen, become part of the master plan. The world keeps progressing, by God's blueprint, toward the time of the sovereignty of God over all of his creation, in a world that lives by God's law in harmony and security. This ideal time will arrive when all mankind will recognize God's fatherhood and humanity's brotherhood. The path to this ideal is through love -- love of God, love of family, love of life in all the many ways that it is manifested. When we learn to live our lives, all of us separately and together, with integrity and self respect, as well as respect for others, we shall discover that we are working in God's blueprint, and we shall truly be at ease, be secure -- and be free!

This week we read the second portion in the second book of the Torah. Moshe Rabenu has reluctantly accepted God’s charge to go back to Egypt to release, at God’s behest, the People Israel from Egyptian Bondage. We read the beginning text, "And God spoke to Moses, and said to him, I am the Lord; And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name The Lord was I not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojourning, in which they sojourned." [Ex. 6:2-4] Actually, the text in Hebrew says, "And Elohim spoke to Moses, and said to him, I am Yod Heh Vav Heh; And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of El Shada’y..." Now, many scholars wish to interpret this "Yod Heh Vav Heh" as an actual name, but I, and my heritage, insist that this just is not so. The "Yod Heh Vav Heh" is a code for "God of Creation" or "God of the past, the present and the future." Only last week we read that God said to Moshe, "Ehyeh asher Ehyeh" – I shall be what shall be, and you may recall the Kabalistic interpretation that involved numerology, or Gemmatria, where Ehyeh has a value of 21 and "Ehyeh asher Ehyeh" is the function 21 times 21, giving is 441. Adding the digits we get 9. So, the "value" of God’s name, which is not pronounced at all, is numerically 9. Now we are told that our God was known to Abraham Isaac and Jacob as El Shada’y." This "El Shada’y," in the Hebrew, has a numerical value of 345, and adding the digits we get 12, and adding the digits again gives us 3! So, the God of our fathers is the numerical value of 3, which is the root of 9 – which is the value of its name. Of course, the Hebrew word Emet, truth, also has the value of 441, which is reduced to 9, as mentioned last week. I would like to point out to you further, that many people refuse to recognize God by His name or title, bestowing His qualities on "nature." Interestingly, the Hebrew word for nature is Teva – Tev, Vet, A’yin. Tet is 9; Vet is 2; A’yin is 70. The sum is 81! God revealed Himself at Sinai with the word "I am [the Lord your God...]" – in the Hebrew Anokhi. Aleph is 1; Nun is 50; Khaf is 20; Yod is 10. The sum is 81! And, of course, 81 is the square of nine! So, when God revealed Himself at Sinai, or when He is revealed in nature, we still have the indication of His power, His source, His action upon the forces, the energy that makes all happen!

Now this God is all existence is squaring off with Pharaoh. In our reading, the middle of the tri-annual readings, we come upon this text, "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, I am Yod Heh Vav Heh; speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you." [Ex. 6:29] So we ask, is there a special meaning to the term Pharaoh? And, of course, there is. The root is Peh Resh A’yin. From this root we get two words with opposite meanings – para means to neglect, disarrange, or plunder; and the same para means to pay a debt completely, to set a debt right. The same root letters, rearranged, give us the word araf, which means to break the neck or decapitate. Change the vowels, making the word oref, and it means neck, and in a stiff-necked person, as in Pharaoh! When we go to Gemmatria, or numerology, we find that Peh Resh A’yin (and its anagram, or course,) has a value of 350 which can be reduced to 8. Yod Heh Vav Heh has a value of 26 which is also reduced to 8. Thus we see the battle of wits between God almighty and Pharaoh as a battle for definition of which is the valid and which is the invalid "eight." There is a dichotomy in all of us, between the plundering, disarranging and neglectful part of our nature, and between the redemption of our debt of gratitude to God for our true redemption – setting us free of bondage to want, to make us in the image of Yod Heh Vav Heh, the symbol of all that was, all that is – and the hope for all that is yet to come!

The Torah portion read this week, Va’era – which is the second portion of the second book of the Torah, Sefer Shmot, the book of Names, or as it is called in English, Exodus — presents, in my opinion, a pivotal theological point that is totally lost in the rush to translate the book in a simple and easy-to-understand manner. I am speaking of the following passage: "And I will bring you in to the land, concerning which I swore to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; venatati ota lakhem morasha, ani Adona’y – and I will give it to you for a heritage; I am the Lord." [Ex. 6:8]

Now you may ask, what is so earth-shaking about this passage? I will explain: ‘venatati ota lakhem’ is exactly ‘and I will give it to you.’ ‘Ani adona’y is exactly ‘I am the Lord.’ However, ‘morasha’ is not exactly ‘a heritage’ — and this is where the lesson is lost.

The word ‘morasha’ appears only twice in the entire Torah, and only once more in the entire Tanakh. The other passages where the word appears are also not translated exactly to fit the word, for that is the nature of a word that is unique and particular. Here are the two other texts: "Torah tziva lanu Moshe morasha kehilat Ya’akov – Moses commanded us a Torah, the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob." [Deu. 33:4] Note that in this instance the word is translated ‘inheritance.’ "Therefore prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord God: Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, lihyotkhem morasha lish’erit hago’yim – that you might be a possession to the rest of the nations..." [Ezek. 36:3] In this case the word is translated quite differently, to mean possession.

So, what is the word ‘morasha’ and why do we have such a confusion?

In the Hebrew we have active and passive forms of the verb. To teach and to learn are examples of such ‘two sides of the same verb’ like two sides of a coin: Lilmod and lelamed. But, what are the two sides of the verb ‘to inherit?’ In Hebrew it is ‘yerusha’ and ‘morasha’ – in English it is less clear: inheritance is what we leave to the next generation — and inheritance is what we get from the generation that was before us. Inheritance is the land we received from our forefathers, and it is our possession. If our inheritance is spiritual or cultural in nature, we can call it a ‘heritage.’

Not so in Hebrew! There is a definite difference between what we pass on to the generation that comes after us — that is ‘morasha,’ and that which we receive from the generation that came before us — that is yerusha. Had the text been written to mean "and I will give it to you for a heritage," the word yerusha would have been used, and the verse would have been as simple and straight forward as one might wish it to be, and as it is in many other places. However, this text is different. Moshe has been commissioned by God to save Israel from the evil yoke of Egyptian slavery, and all he has done in the last portion we read was to make Israel suffer even more than they did before he approached Pharaoh. Now Moshe reproaches God, "Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why have you sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have you saved your people at all." [Ex. 5:22,23]

God answers Moshe and tells him that "Now shall you see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land." [Ex. 6:2] God tells Moshe that he will deliver the children of Israel and remove them from Egypt and have a special relationship with them: "And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." [Ex. 6:7] And then comes that verse which I quoted at the beginning of my talk: "And I will bring you in to the land, concerning which I swore to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; venatati ota lakhem morasha, ani Adona’y — and I will give it to you for a heritage; I am the Lord." And hopefully now you understand the full implication of the text with that word, ‘morasha,’ as part of the text. God tells Moshe that land is not a possession but a trust. God is not giving the land to any one generation, to any one age, to do with ‘as they please!’ It is not a yerusha which one may waste and spoil and give away or dispose of. It is something one has to handle with great care, for each generation that receives it does so with a view to the future. This is the ‘morasha,’ that which you will eventually bequeath to your progeny. As you handle it, ask yourself, what will I be leaving to my children and their children after them? Will they be as happy to receive it as I was when I inherited it from my parents?

Once we understand this passage, we can also understand better the other two times when the word ‘morasha’ was used. "Torah tziva lanu Moshe morasha kehilat Ya’akov — Moses commanded us a Torah, the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob." We are taught that Moshe instructed us is a trust for the entire community, the congregation, of the descendants of Jacob. No one person has a special relation with the Torah — not the priests — the Cohanim, not the special teachers — the great Rabbanim, certainly not a sect or faction that claims to have the complete and absolute truth. The Torah is that which is received by every generation, and by the words of Ezekiel, "Therefore prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord God: Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, lihyotkhem morasha lish’erit hago’yim — that you might be a possession to the rest of the nations..." Also that which the rest of God creation can take from us is still part of our ‘morasha,’ and the prophet is told that God is a faithful steward who will ensure that the ‘morasha’ of the land shall be there for the people when they are ready to live by their covenant with God. Yisrael was destined to live in the land of morasha, with the Torah as his spiritual morasha, his home of the spirit with God. May the people, the land, and the purpose of our very existence, never cease to be our goal, our labor, and our pride to pass on to our children, and may the coming generations know how to accept and appreciate what they inherit.

Amen

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