Shemot -- Two for the Price of One

This week, two commentaries for the price of one!

First, a commentary from a historical perspective.

What struck me about this parsha was a recurring theme that can be summed up in the phrase: The Jewish people are awesome and our God is awesome! In Exodus 1:12, we learn that the more oppressed the Jewish people are, the more they increase and spread out. In Exodus 1:14, we’re told that the Jewish midwives do not carry out Pharaoh’s orders because they fear God. So that even though we have no idea what kind of Jewish worship has been going on in Egypt for many years, we are clued in that there is still a strong faith in some. In Exodus 1:19, we learn that the Hebrew woman are “vigorous.” In Exodus 2, we meet our new hero, Moses. And in Exodus 3:19-20, God makes clear that he has a plan to beat the snot out of Pharaoh (kind of spoils the suspense, by the way, since God gives away the big finish before the story even gets started). What I saw behind all this was an intent by the Torah authors to let future generations know that we are a special people, and we have a special relationship with God.

Second, a psychobabble perspective.

We are all enslaved at times in our life, so the Exodus story can be read as a metaphor for how we deal with that slavery. Maybe we are slaves to alcohol, or money, or work, or video games. When we are enslaved by something, we are far from God. When we break free from slavery, we can feel like we have crossed a line in the sand (or a Reed Sea) and entered a new land. Get it? With this framework in mind, let me touch on a couple of interesting moments in Shemot.

First, we have the moment when God “notices” the Jewish people cry for help (Exodus 2:23). I cannot help but ask: Why, oh why, did God let the Jewish people suffer all those years? Couldn’t He have intervened earlier? (also see Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People). Perhaps we can use an analogy to a drug addict to make more sense of this. An addict, it is said, has to “hit bottom” and come to realize the depths of their problem before they can seek treatment. From this perspective, the Jewish people cried out because they had finally realized the depth of their plight.

Second, we have the moments when God makes clear that He will harden the heart of Pharaoh (Exodus 3:19-20). Wouldn’t the story have been just as good without God doing some kind of mind game to make Pharaoh more stubborn? It would have been easy to believe a stubborn Pharaoh without this strange addition. But with Enslavement/Addiction glasses, perhaps we can make more sense of this. Again, it has to do with the concept of “hitting bottom.” If Pharaoh is the stand-in for an addiction, then the addiction has to be at its worst before change can come.

All the pieces are thus put into place: the Jewish people have hit rock bottom, and something or someone will have to save them.