introduction

This week we begin the reading of the book of Exodus, originally called in Hebrew Sefer Y’tiyat Mitzrayim: The Book of the Going out of Egypt. From the Greek the book got its English name and in Hebrew it became known as Shemot: named after its first sentence which reads “Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt with Jacob….” (Exodus 1:1).

summary

This long parashah of more than six chapters details the dramatic change in the fortunes of the Hebrews in Egypt. It recalls the arrival of a new royal dynasty which, forgetting the service of that great agrarian reformer, Joseph, enslaves the Hebrews and seeks to kill all male Jewish children. One child, Moses, is conceived, born, floated on the Nile, discovered, adopted by the Pharoah’s daughter, and is raised in the Egyptian court. Following his killing of an Egyptian taskmaster, Moses flees to the Midianite desert where he experiences God in the burning bush and seeks to evade the implication thereof. Three – perhaps four – times he rejects the call to leadership: he considers himself unsuitable, he does not know God’s name, he may not be believed, and he is ineloquent but, reassured by God and accompanied by Aaron, his brother, he returns to Egypt to utter the famous cry: ‘Let my people go’.

commentary by Rabbi Danny Rich, Chief Executive, Liberal Judaism

The Divine encounter with Moses takes place via a thornbush by which Moses stands without his shoes.

The Midrash tells of a certain idolator who asked Rabbi Joshua: ‘Why did God speak to Moses out of a mere thorn bush?’ Rabbi Joshua replied: ‘Had it been out of a carob or out of a sycamore, would you ask the same question?’ Nevertheless God spoke to Moses from a thornbush to teach that there is no space free of the Divine Presence, not even a thornbush.

Here the Midrash affirms that God’s presence is never far away. But why barefoot? Because the correct path is always full of thorns and rocks. If one wears shoes one does not feel them. Walk barefoot, however, and you become sensitive to the smallest thorn or pebble.

Perhaps, to discover God requires a tuning into a sensitivity to every possible opportunity.

Equally important, every person’s path to God is individual, maybe described in a different language, and called by a different name.

Let me conclude with the poem found in Siddur lev Chadash

Each of us has a name given us by God
and by our father and mother.

Each of us has a name given us by our stature and smile
and the clothes we wear.

Each of us has a name given us by the mountains
and walls within which we live.

Each of us has a name given us by the planets
and by our neighbours.

Each of us has a name given us by our sins
and by our aspirations.

Each of us has a name given us by our enemies
and by those we love.

Each of us has a name given us by our leisure time
and by our work.

Each of us has a name given us by the seasons
and by our blindness.

Each of us has a name given us by the sea
and by the way we die.

by Zelda Mishkousky (b. 1914: Ukraine & Palestine/Israel)
translated by Chaim Stern

click here to contact us, or phone 07891 439 646