Rabbi's Drash

This parashah Bo – בא speaks about the “birth of the nation Israel”.  Up to this time we were tribal with our forefathers, our leaders and the 12 children of Jacob. Now something greater is beginning.  This birth then and now brings with it the idea of man’s struggle where we seem to be in a constant battle with G-d or perhaps our struggle has to do with us being a part of G-d’s plan not matching our own plans. We need to understand that Israel was chosen not because we were the best but the least. Great empires have come and gone yet we remain. We have been abused, raped, destroyed almost to the point of annihilation yet G-d remains faithful. The birth of a nation was not a whimsical idea in the mind of G-d’s but serves to shows that He was always in control all the while establishing His Torah.

G-d made us a nation of individuals and wants us to be unified. He has not called us to be uniform. When an army is formed, the men wear uniforms and are not allowed to think for themselves. Religious people erase the identities of the people and in so doing destroy them.  Each of us have been made in a marvelous way with a little of Himself in each of us.

Read more: Bo- Approach

וארא

Most of us have become so immersed in religion that we simply cannot understand G-d's direct revelation to us.  We have the tendency to hold onto what man has taught us instead of seeing the truth of Scripture.  If you are student of literature, you may study the Scriptures from the point of view of what man can do.  It thus becomes man's book instead of the Book of what G-d does.  Much of our halachah began with superstition and not actually what the Torah said.  We need to be careful not to put men's writings above G-d's.  In Vaera וארא  we see the precedence established concerning the use of the “name of G-d”—Ani Adonai, Ani haShem- אני יהוה

Rabbi Benno Jacob in his excellent commentary on the book of Exodus brings us an interesting perspective about the Tetragrammaton, יהוה the Name of G-d.  He was able to clarify the ideas which had developed in his day where the usage of Name of G-d had been given power and could then be used like an icon.  This had developed during the Greek period two centuries before the Common Era, BCE when they were influenced by Artaparrus, the Egyptian Greek Jew whose writings brought to us the idea of the other religions where by pronouncing the ineffable Name of G-d, some type of power was placed in our hands.  He brought the idea of comparing the god of Egypt with the G-d of Israel, making the mistake that the G-d of Israel was better than “Rah” the god of Egypt.  They had the idea that if they pronounced the name of their god it would be like hocus-pocus endowing them with the power to do anything.  After this idea was introduced into the Jewish writings, it motivated the rabbis to make the decision that we should avoid pronouncing the name of G-d due to its possible misuse thus protecting the sanctity of G-d’s Name.  They believed that  יהוה was so holy, powerful and pure that it couldn't be pronounced and thus was removed from the mouth of humanity.  Instead of making His Name known as He told Moses, we kept it a secret.  Here is only one of the many ways that man has changed the word of G-d.

Read more: Vaera - I Appeared

We read in the Haftarah portion, Jeremiah 1:5 which is related to the parashah Shemot שמות “'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you…”   I have “consecrated” you…the word used in Hebrew is kadosh meaning sanctified.  This is a generic adjective dependent upon who does the consecration. You can be consecrated by Satan.  To what are we consecrated? In today’s world we all have idols and follow them religiously…some follow politicians, others wealth, others follow religious leaders who lead them to destruction.  Only G-d can lead us to truth and I want to challenge us today to take our calling seriously. Shemot is the book Redemption—Sefer Yetziah ספר יציאה, the Exodus, in which we will see the calling of Moshe and the challenges he faces someone who took his calling seriously. As you will see, it is not an easy thing to do but whether we choose to follow G-d or not, we will face trouble in this world. In the end the Garden of Eden will be restored and it will all make sense. Moshe was chosen before he was born and what he would be called to do was already in G-d’s blueprint. When G-d called out to Moshe from the burning bush “senna” סנה, Moshe responded “Hineni”- here I am.  G-d said to Moshe, “Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I am the G-d of your fathers, the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. This is the formula by which we can recognize the one and only true G-d. All of us who worship the true G-d, worship the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Read more: Shemot - Names

In this portion, Vayechi  ויחי we are passing  from the time of the Patriarchs to our special redeemer, Moshe, moving to forming Israel as a people, a nation which will go through slavery only to be redeemed in order for them to fulfill their purpose as a people chosen by G-d. As the story of Genesis comes to an end, we are being led to a larger, more universal picture, where G-d creates a people through whom all of His desires and Will would be brought to the world. As G-d’s messengers they would always tell the rest of the world about the true G-d of creation…He is the Creator of all things. He didn’t only create one people; He created all of humanity. Our sages say that G-d designed the blueprint of everything and this is what we see written in Torah.  There is a saying that Messiah is eternal. Before the world was created, Mashiach was already created. Various religions speak of this saying that he existed with G-d from the beginning all the while trying to place him in an equal status with G-d.  When G-d’s blueprint fell out of the hands of the Hebrews into the hands of the Gentiles, everything was read in a different way taking things out of context.

Read more: Vayechi - He Lived