This drash, Va'era had such depth and so many different facets that I didn't know where to begin. We learn about our own faith, G-d's faithfulness and especially how G-d chooses leaders.

G-d can make a leader out of anyone. Moses was chosen to be a leader from birth and the circumstances of his life were carefully orchestrated to prepare him for the role. He had a miraculous birth and was saved as a baby from death as we saw in last week's drash. He was raised as a G-d in the home of Pharaoh, had the best of educations away from his people yet always knew his heritage.

Moses was extremely shy and yet would one day be called upon to lead a multitude of people. When G-d calls us, He gives us the gift(s) that we will need for the task at hand. We are given talents at birth which G-d can use but a spiritual gift can only come from Him; in this way, we can't boast about what we do.

A true leader leads by G-d's gift as opposed to the person who imposes his leadership and becomes a dictator. True leaders lead in G-d's will.

Benno Jacobs, a Jewish scholar wrote a book on the analysis of Exodus where he wrote about every word in the book. He writes about the two expressions "Ani Adonai" and "Anochi Adonai". Both are translated "I am G-d…" but both have very different connotations. In both cases the Hebrew is hvhy (Yud Heh Vav Heh- YaHWeH) and the differences are expressed by Ani and Anochi.

He differs from the Rabbis who say that G-d never revealed Himself to our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob using this Tetragrammaton based on chapter 6 vs. 3. Jacobs states that G-d did reveal Himself to them as YHVH however G-d would now be revealing Himself to Moses and the people in another manifestation of his character as G-d.

He was known to our patriarchs as El Shaddai. The word Shad means "breast" giving us the understanding that G-d was a nurturer, a caring and loving G-d for the first stages of the birth of our nation. Now at this next stage of the development of nation of Israel, He would show Himself to be a G-d of action, a Mighty G-d who would show us His Mighty Arm.

In Chapter 6 verses 5 to 7, He tells us what He will do in 7 actions including the Arba l'shonot shel geulah- the principal words of redemption which the Rabbis call the Arba Kosot or the 4 cups (taken at the Passover Seder).
This is the process of the salvation of Israel.

The text describes G-d's action in favor of Israel with seven (7) laconic words:
v hvhy yna Ani Adonai v' - I am the Adonai and …
1) I will ytaevhv (v'hotzeti) bring you out from under the burdens…
2) and I will ytlehv (v'hitzalti) free you from slavery
3) and I will ytlagv (v'gaalti) redeem you
4) and I will ytxqlv (v'lakachti) take you to me for a people.
5) and I will yytyhv (v'hayiti) be your G-d.
6) and I will ytbhv (v'heveti) take you to the land.
7) and I will yttnv (v'natati) give you for inheritance.

In the first four words, G-d is describing his plan of action for the salvation of Israel from which we can draw the idea of our own personal salvation. He removed us from the under the bondage of the world, freed us from the yoke of sin, redeemed or purchased us through the death of Messiah, and adopted us as his own. The other words represent the reciprocal relationship with Israel and the acquisition of the land of Israel.

To this point, Israel had heard about G-d but now they would personally acquire faith in him and see His personality through His mighty deeds.

In this portion, we begin with the first 5 plagues where G-d is giving Pharaoh the opportunity to make up his own mind about releasing Israel. After that, G-d hardens Pharaoh's heart and he has no chance of turning back. This can be compared to sin in our lives. If we keep repeating a sin without repenting, our hearts become hardened to it and we no longer want to let it go.

The word hsrvm morashah, meaning inheritance is only found in two places in the Scriptures, here in verse 8 and in Deuteronomy 33:4 "bvqy tlhq hsrvm hsm vnl hve hrvt."
(Torah tzivah-lanu Moshe morashah Kehilat Yacov.) Moses commanded us Torah, the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.

The Rabbis, here interpreted as 'kal v'homer" - from the light to the heavy. One morashah depends on the second morashah. The inheritance of the land cannot be fulfilled without the inheritance of Torah. When we keep Torah, we will keep the land. The time is coming where we will see this day fulfilled.

Another important aspect of "Ani Adonai" is that here G-d is saying I am G-d who will be revealed to the rest of the world. Not only will the sons of Jacob see the Mighty Arm of the Lord move, the Egyptians themselves will witness the true G-d defeating their god, Pharaoh and all their gods of Egypt as depicted in the 10 plagues. As I mentioned before, Israel had already heard of their G-d but now they, along with the nations would have be given personal revelation. This was the beginning of the journey of faith for all the people who would follow the G-d of Israel. G-d would give us his "signs", his direction. He was the cloud by day and the fire by night guiding us.

How do we apply this to our daily lives apart from the excitement of studying the depth of the Scriptures from the Hebrew perspective?

G-d hardened the heart of Pharaoh and can harden our hearts if we are not careful. We do not need to worry about our salvation because that is G-d's job. He didn't save Israel because of anything they did; there was nothing they did to deserve being taken out of Egypt. We don't save ourselves by anything we do. G-d chooses us and now the next phase of the journey is "to work out our salvation" Over the next weeks we will discuss what this really means.

Both Judaism and Christianity have become work based religions where we need to work for our Salvation and then work to keep it. Israel was helpless as we are helpless and G-d does it all for us.

As today, there were those who believed and those who did not, those who were religious but not faithful, those who were fanatic but not dedicated and those who were narrow minded but had no truth. As in Egypt, we can fall into the trap of allowing the foreign culture to corrode our values making it impossible to be objective about wrong from right, where immorality becomes morality.

Let us learn the true identity of Ani Adonai and what it means in our lives when G-d introduces himself to us personally.

     Rabbi Percy Johnson
     [nxy [b lantn

     © 2008 Use by Permission

     Kehilat She’ar Yashuv