Around the Shabbat Table

Shabbat Parshat Va’era

This week’s Haftarah comes from the book of Yechezkel. Yechezkel was a prophet
during the final years of the first Temple and beginning of the Babylonian exile.

At the time that the prophecy in the Haftarah was said, Babylonia was becoming a huge
empire and Israel was on the decline. Israel was obligated to pay taxes to
Nebuchadnezar, the king of Babylonia, and was losing territory to the Babylonians.
Israel and Egypt formed an alliance to fight Babylonia, their common enemy.

When Nebuchadnezar’s troops marched against Israel, Egypt did not join her allies. The
Jewish people fought the battle on their own. Yechezkel could not understand how the
Jewish people could form an alliance with Egypt. Did they not know that their trust
should be placed in the G-d of Israel, not in the Egyptian Pharaoh?

Many say that history repeats itself when we don’t learn from it, and this is a perfect
example of that.

This incident, prophesized about by Yechezkel, reminds us of an incident that occurred

right after Yosef died. At that time, the relationship between the Jews and the Egyptians
was different from the one we hear about when we tell the Passover story of Egypt.
They were friends. Egypt was facing an invasion from Cyprus coming from the Nile.
The Egyptians asked the Jews to join them in battle. As the troops of Cyprus got closer,
the Egyptians withdrew, leaving the Jews to fight by themselves. With the help of God,
the Jews defeated Cyprus. You’d think they’d learn from what the Egyptians had done.

During the time of Yechezkel, when the Jews were left to face their enemy alone,
because of putting trust in Pharaoh, not in G-d, Yechezkel tells the Jewish people not
the worry, because G-d promised that one day the Jews would gather and live safely
and comfortably in Israel. He tells the Egyptians that when the sun rises on the Jews, it
sets on the Egyptians.

The generation living at the time of Yechezkel is not so different from our generation.
We don’t always rely on what we know is right in our hearts, or on G-d or our families,
we rely on other things, other nations, other people, often on specific other things,
nations and people that were our downfall.

In Parshat Va’erah, Pharaoh’s hatred of the Jews was so deep that he refused to free
the Jews even as he saw his nation destroyed by plague after plague. Egypt was
devastated and he would not let them go. When he finally agreed to free the Jews, he
changed his mind and chased them down. In the end, the Egyptian army, the same one
that was chasing the Jews to enslave them, the same one that abandoned against
Cyprus when they were friends, then same one that during the time of Nebuchadnezar
would abandon the Jews to fight on their own again, marched to their death, into the
sea.

Texts to wrestle with

”Behold, the Children of Israel are many and mightier than we. Come let us be wise
against them, perhaps they will increase and join our enemies and wage war against us”
(1:9-10)
Why would Pharaoh be concerned that a nation that he was ruling over would somehow
gain the power to become “many” and “mightier than we” so much so that they’d be able
to defeat the Egyptians?

If Pharaoh knew that there was a possibility that they did have some sort of G-d
connection, that they would likely be able to fight back, why didn’t he just let them go?

________________________
“And the God of Justice spoke to Moshe saying, I am the G-d of Mercy.”

This verse seems to not make sense, how can one be both Just and Merciful at the
same time?

How can we ourselves be both Just and Merciful?

What situations force us to do just that?

How is God

Questions for your family table:

When G-d sees how much the Jews were suffering from the slavery, He tells Moshe that
he is ready to pull them out of slavery. God knows that when Moses tell this to the Jews,
because they are so defeated from years of slavery, they will not be able to listen or
understand what is about to happen. God tells Moses to get Aaron, and with him, go tell
Pharaoh that it is time to let the Jews go. Moshe asks a good question.

If G-d’s own people won’t listen or be able to perceive of a free nation of Jews, why
would Pharaoh?

How would Pharaoh’s mentality differ from that of the Jews?

How does your state of mind effect how you hear things?

________________________
On the same note, when Moshe is sent by G-d to speak to Pharaoh, he is told to take his
brother as speaker. The man who is being chosen by G-d as the new leader of the
Jewish people is told that he shouldn’t do it on his own!

Is Moshe really not able to give over the Words of G-d?

Are any of us really able to do the important things in life without our editors?

Who are your editors and what makes them qualify as worthy and capable?

Towards an Action Agenda

G-d sends Moshe with a spokesman, because Moshe feels unable to get this important
message across on his own. We to have representatives, both in the religious world,
and in the secular world, who we can appeal to help get out important points, to the right
people, in the right way, to make sure that our world is one of both Mercy and Justice,
for everyone. Pick an issue that you’ve been hearing about in the world, and appeal to
those that can get our important messages across, to do so for you.

To find your government representatives, click here.

________________________

As Jews, we strongly believe that we are given the ability to make right and wrong
decisions, even in situations when the decision is not so clear or easy to make. One
example of a time when decisions were not so easy to make was during the Holocaust,
when many non-Jews, had to decide whether or not to risk life and limb, to help their
Jewish neighbors.

Read about some of these people by clicking here.

You might then share this information with others in an effort to help them make tough
choices. Use the examples shown by these great people to make your own choices!