|
January 24, 2025 - 24 Tevet 5785 Parashat Va'era -Of Hardened Hearts & Tied Tongues
Dear Friends, We are two rounds into Biblical Smackdowns, but there is still a lot of action on the card. In the next match-up, Aaron's sons and the heirs to the priesthood, Nadav and Avihu, thought they were special, but when they messed around in the Mishkan, they found out - and instantly - that they weren't! What did the brothers do to raise the ire of the Holy One? Why did God strike them down so viciously? To unravel these great mysteries, pull up a seat and join me ringside, over Zoom on Monday at 7:30PM, for the next bout featuring God vs. Nadav & Avihu. Sometimes I wonder if Moses, at the beginning of Exodus, felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Like Dorothy in the dream world of Oz, Moses finds himself in a strange predicament, struggling to find his place in the scene. A fugitive manslayer of an Egyptian taskmaster, Moses is called upon by God through the miraculous vision of a bush that is aflame but unconsumed. Though he objects mightily and multiple times, Moses is ultimately sent by God to redeem the Israelites from their bondage to Pharaoh and Egypt. God tells Moses to tell the people and Pharaoh that God will set them free and the results are disastrous with Pharaoh decreeing that the Israelites' harsh labor would be made even more so, without the aid of straw in making bricks. The Israelites, on whose behalf Moses was sent, are none too happy with him either, saying to him and Aaron, "May Adonai look upon you and punish you for making us loathsome to Pharaoh and his courtiers--putting a sword in their hand to slay us." Moses returns to God, asking, "O God, why did You bring harm upon this people? Why did You send me? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has dealt worse with this people, and still You have not delivered Your people." In this week's Parasha, Va'era, Moses must feel like Dorothy returning from her first mission, having done what she was told, but without the successful results she expected. In fact, Moses and Aaron may feel even worse, with both enemy and friend alike angry with their words and actions. God shares a more intimate name with Moses, and again, even more dramatically this time, tells Moses to share the news with the Israelites that they will soon be freed. "But when Moses told this to the Israelites," we read, "They would not listen to Moses, their spirits crushed by cruel bondage." When God implores Moses to share the pronouncement with Pharaoh himself, Moses responds as so many of us would, "The Israelites would not listen to me, how then should Pharaoh heed me?" and then he adds his objection from earlier, "...me who gets tongue-tied!" So, God, it seems to me, needs to tip God's hand and let Moses in on the long game God is playing here: "You shall repeat all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh to let the Israelites depart from his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that I may multiply My signs and marvels in the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh does not heed you, I will lay My hand upon Egypt and deliver my ranks, My people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with extraordinary chastisements." "Stick with Me," God seems to be saying to Moses. "This will be a marathon, not a sprint. And we will win it. Together. But you need to use your voice. You need to use your words, in order for us to succeed." Now is not a time for us to be tongue-tied, to be fearful of speaking our minds. Now is not a time to hold our tongues and keep silent, whether from fear of ineffectiveness or of the wrong words coming out. As a new year is upon us, we must renew our commitment to justice and Tikkun Olam, fighting for what is right for all humanity, as is commanded by our tradition. Not being a polished public speaker nor having prior successful endeavors cannot be a reason to hold our tongues in the face of injustice. And yet, even as we speak up and out for what is right, we simply cannot harden our hearts to each other, to the perspectives and longings of those we perceive as not being in "our tent." Pharaoh's hardened heart is what keeps him from empathy, compassion, and understanding. It perpetuates his inability to recognize the humanity in each Israelite as equal to that of his fellow Egyptians, as equal to all of God's creatures created with the spark of the divine. A hardened heart cannot make justice in the world. It can only sow seeds of further discord, strife, division, and conflict. Let us not be tongue-tied like Moses. But let us not carry hardened hearts within us, like Pharaoh. Let us speak out for justice, with an open mind, and an open heart. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Joshua Strom
|
