Weekly D'var - January 25, 2025
01/27/2025 10:10:36 AM
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VA’EIRA
Josh Gutstein
January 25, 2025
At the start of this week’s Parsha, we find a non-confident, doubting Moshe. It reminds me of a quote from Dolly Parton. I bet this is the first time many of you have heard Dolly Parton and Moshe Rabeinu in the same sentence. You see, Dolly Parton once said, “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” I love the sentiment, but finding out who you are is easier said than done. Moshe always had a drive for justice, but at the start of this week’s Parsha, Va’eira, we find Moshe questioning his role as a leader. And a leader is who we know Moshe to be. We can look to Gd’s interactions with Moshe to find a model on how to encourage him to reach his potential. Specifically, I want to call our attention to the trick of turning Aaron’s staff into a snake. This familiar, but often thought insignificant spectacle, was in fact the turning point of Moshe becoming our great leader.
As I said, this parsha starts with Moshe being anything but confident. Last parsha, Moshe attempted to demand that Pharaoh release the Jews to pray in the wilderness. This didn’t work of course and led to an increased brick manufacturing burden on the Jews. This week, we hear that Moshe spoke to the Jews, repeating the reassuring words of Gd, and they didn’t pay him any mind “because of shortness of breath and hard work.” But Gd wants Moshe to get back out there and demand to let the Jews out of Egypt. Moshe is incredulous: “The Children of Israel have not listened to me, so how will Pharaoh listen to me? And I have blocked lips!” (Exodus 6:12)
The Torah then lists the heads of the leading Jewish households, concluding, “This was Aaron and Moshe… this was Moshe and Aaron.” (6:26). This is commonly interpreted to mean Moshe and Aaron are worthy of speaking to Pharaoh to release the Jews. As if to highlight how far we have to go, the story continues that when Gd says to Moshe, tell Pharaoh everything I said to you, Moshe says again, “I have sealed Lips, and how is Pharaoh going to hear me?! (6:30)
Moshe is 80 years old, and does not yet look like the leader we know. And so begins the divine master class on turning Moshe into Moshe Rabeinu.
First Gd addresses Moshe’s speaking ability concerns, concerns that resurfaced from when Moshe told him the same thing in their first interaction at the burning bush. (2:10) Now, Gd says, ראה, See here, נתתיך אלוהים לפרעה, I will place you in the role of god to Pharaoh, ואהרון אחיך יהיה נביאך, and your brother Aaron will be your Prophet. So right off the bat, setting the stage of the imbalance of power between Moshe and Pharaoh. Which at this time, must have been a crazy thought to Moshe.
Gd then tells him two things: 1. אתה תדבר כל אשר אצוך, You will say everything I command. You will not have to think, just repeat what I say. And 2. אהרון אחיך ידבר אל פרעה, Aaron, your brother, will speak to Pharaoh, or as Rashi says, interpret for him.(7:2) Gd in effect says Moshe, having a stutter or garbled speech is not an issue, you have my words and your brother. This pacified Moshe, as the Torah notes, he listened to Gd’s plan as it says “ויעש משה ואהרון כאשר ציווה אדוני אותם כן עשו” (7:6)
Next, Gd sought to build up Moshe’s confidence by previewing what would happen when he approached Pharaoh.
Gd starts by saying that Pharaoh is going to say to them, “תנו לכם מופת” Provide a wonder for yourselves. Pharaoh in essence will say, “Impress me!” Pharaoh has his own wise men and sorcerers who can impress. Having grown up in Pharaoh’s court, Moshe likely grew up with the sorcerers of Egypt, and heard and saw the results of their incantations. I imagine they must have made an impression on the young Moshe that is not easily shaken off in adulthood. Pharaoh is not going to bend to Moshe’s demands when his sorcerers can do the same tricks. Here, Gd prepares Moshe for his likely showdown with the sorcerers.
So before Moshe could wonder what his spectacle is going to be, Gd lays out exactly how the performance will go. Gd says, “you say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh- it will become a snake.’” (7:9) Gd selects, for the attention-grabbing spectacle, the old staff-to-snake trick. Looking back, when Gd first told Moshe of his destiny at the burning bush, Moshe did not see anyone believing he was a prophet. To empower Moshe, Gd told him to throw his staff down. At that time, when it turned into a snake, Moshe was shocked.(2:3) Now, Gd starts with this same wonderous act so Moshe is practiced and knows exactly what will happen.
The tale continues that Moshe and Aaron did as Gd had said and Pharaoh got his wise men and sorcerers and they recited incantations and did the same trick. Each one threw down his staff and each turned into a snake. And Aaron’s staff swallowed all of the other staffs. (7:12)
(Rashi reads it literally, after it turned into a staff, it swallowed the other staffs)
Let’s just say Gd’s snake swallowed the sorcerer’s snakes.
Moshe witnessed not only the staff-to-snake trick, but the snake then did something even more astonishing on its own. For Moshe, and the rest of us, this is the key to understanding how we distinguish between miracles and Magic that also generates wonderous acts. Broadly, miracles attest to Gd’s absolute power and are generated by Gd, sometimes through a messenger on earth, and therefore create overwhelming wonders. The sorcerer’s tricks are performed strictly for himself. Any lingering awe of the sorcerers must have dissolved for Moshe and he must have known then he was on the better end of this power imbalance.
Our Torah and Talmudic sources wrestled when making sense of sorcerers and witches in their times but widely agreed the power and greatness of Gd is the essence of a miracle. The prophet Daniel, for example, interpreted a dream of Nevuchadnetzar that all of the wise men, astrologers and sorcerers could not interpret, saying, “…There is a Gd in heaven who reveals secrets…” (Daniel 2:27). He made it clear he was only a messenger of Gd in interpreting the dream and as a result was able to channel Gd’s power.
The Talmud also has many stories about the idea that a miracle is rooted in and meant to broadcast Gd’s power. In the Mishna, for example, Rabbi Akiva tells the story of a Jew who sold a cow to a non-jew. The Cow wouldn’t work on Shabbat. So the Jew whispered something in the cow’s ear, the cow got up and plowed. The non-Jew said, “I will not let you leave until you told me what you said! I yelled and beat the cow and she would not get up!” The Jew said, “I performed no witchcraft or sorcery, I only whispered in her ear that she was now under non-Jewish ownership so was allowed to work on Shabbat, and she got up and plowed.” So why was this act of the Jew allowed and not an act of sorcery? The story goes on: The non-Jew said, “Now if a cow who has no speech or understanding could recognize her Creator, so shouldn’t I…?” And, here’s the kicker, the Mishna concludes: the non-Jew converted and became Rabbi Yechonatan ben Torta (“Son of cow”) who became one of the third generation of Tenaim in the 2nd century. In this case, the Mishna represents that the Jew is entitled to the power because the miracle furthered Talmudic growth, which is itself a glorification of Gd.
Moshe must have felt a new confidence once he understood that, and if I can say “just,” he was just a messenger delivering the words and spectacles of Gd. The Torah notes, Moshe, our greatest prophet, never failed to relay with each plague that it was a part of Gd’s plan. So the miracles were clearly from Gd and not from Moshe or Aaron.
For the first three plagues, each requiring a standoff with the sorcerers, the process repeated where Gd told Moshe, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand…’” (or some variation of it) and sorcerers attempted to match. The first two times they matched and were overwhelmed by the plague. The plague of lice broke them. They not only could not do it, but said, “It’s the finger of Gd!” By the sixth plague, the sorcerers could not be called upon because they got boils and blisters too. They were no longer a factor in delaying the release of the Jews.
By the time the parsha concludes with the 7th plague, monstrous hail that caused fires, Moshe has his role well understood. The Parsha ends on a cliff hanger, with Pharaoh starting to bend, recognizing Gd and telling Moshe to go pray to stop the Hail. But once the hail stopped, Pharaoh hardened his heart again.
But Moshe discovered who he was and was ready, as they say, to “do it on purpose!” In the preparation for and execution of the staff-to-snake wonder, Gd recognized Moshe’s self-doubt and led him to appreciate the supremacy of Gd’s acts over the tricks of self-serving wise men and sorcerers. This is what it took to end the parsha with a confident Moshe ready forever more to lead on purpose.
Tue, February 11 2025
13 Shevat 5785
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