Hebrew scholar Irene Lancaster displays on the which means of Exodus for Jews, and the importance of Moses and Jeremiah.
On Christmas Day, Jews world wide opened the E book of Exodus. Because the longest night time handed, with days extending once more, the Jewish individuals worldwide recounted the story of their Exodus from darkness to gentle.
The Jewish individuals, chosen by G-d to be a light-weight unto the nations, has now turn out to be a nation who lastly acknowledge that Egypt is now not the place for them. Led by a reluctant shepherd, referred to as Moses, they set out on their tortuous journey from demise and make for the Promised Land of sunshine, love and liberty.
So, on Christmas Day we began with a child who must be saved from sure demise by the hands of a merciless ruler. This child is saved by the primary act of civil disobedience that the world has recognized – the deliberate coverage of the 2 midwives to save lots of the male infants alive by mendacity to a murderous dictator.
Everybody is aware of the story of the bulrushes and the invention of the child by the daughter of Pharaoh, who calls him ‘Moses’ – not ‘Saviour’, however ‘somebody who regularly saves.’
Moses is due to this fact to be the channel between G-d and the Jewish individuals. He demonstrates his identification together with his personal individuals by observing how they undergo underneath their Egyptian masters, and at last takes motion in opposition to an Egyptian who’s hanging a fellow Jew.
In Chapter 3, Moses encounters G-d within the burning bush. He, as soon as once more, reluctantly, asks G-d who He actually is. However G-d can’t be outlined. A few years later, the good Spanish poet Judah Halevi (1075-1141) would state in his standard philosophical tract, The Kuzari, that the Jewish G-d can’t be named. His ‘title’ is just the best way G-d is on the planet. And the primary actual inkling of this ‘being on the planet’ is available in Exodus 3.
G-d tells Moses ‘I shall be what I shall be’, implying that G-d shall be with the Jewish individuals at any time when and wherever they want Him to be. So in Judaism, G-d is at all times in relationship with the Jewish individuals and at all times responding to their wants. ‘I shall be with you,’ G-d provides, to be able to clarify that when the world is in opposition to the Jews, G-d will at all times be at their aspect.
To make this even clearer, G-d additionally tells Moses that ‘I shall be what I shall be’ and ‘I shall be with you’ can also be ‘the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac and the G-d of Jacob.’ By repeating the phrase, G-d implies that G-d seems to completely different individuals in another way, however G-d will at all times be the G-d of the Jewish individuals.
The Sephardi Haftorah that enhances the start of the Exodus story is taken from the prophet Jeremiah (1:1 – 2:3).
The Exodus story is at all times learn after the top of the competition of Chanukah and earlier than the upcoming competition of Tu B’Shvat (New Yr for Bushes), which in Israel ushers within the first days of spring. This 12 months, Tu B’Shvat falls very early, in mid-January, and we’ve this upcoming competition in thoughts as we learn the phrases of Jeremiah.
Like Moses, Jeremiah proves to be a really reluctant prophet, sure that he’s unqualified to just accept the good mission thrust upon him by G-d. And like Moses, he tries to refuse, although not almost so strenuously or for thus lengthy. He too fears that he will not be accepted. However G-d instructions Jeremiah to go and prophesy and ensures that He’ll defend him from hurt.
G-d tells Jeremiah that solely G-d actually is aware of human beings: ‘Earlier than I shaped you within the stomach, I knew you, and earlier than you exited the womb, I sanctified you; I gave you as a prophet to the nations.’
G-d is evaluating the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt (‘Yetziat–Mitzrayim’) to an individual ‘exiting the womb’ (‘tetze ha-rechem), utilizing the identical phrase for each, which implies to ‘come out’. This deliberate similarity in Hebrew is commonly misplaced in translation.
So, what G-d is telling the Jewish individuals is that solely maturity can result in a real exodus from the current state of affairs. Simply as a child solely leaves their mom’s womb when the child is prepared, in the identical method the Jewish individuals are solely prepared for the Exodus from slavery in Eygpt to the liberty of the Promised Land as soon as they’re totally ready.
In verse 11, G-d asks Jeremiah what he sees and Jeremiah solutions: ‘I see a workers from an almond tree.’ The phrase for ‘almond’ in Hebrew is shaked, an anagram of the phrase for ‘sanctify’ (kadesh) as used earlier within the chapter. The competition of Tu B’Shvat is marked by the looks of the primary almonds in Israel – a time period that signifies, as well as, watchfulness. As soon as once more, G-d is telling the Jewish those that He’ll at all times watch over us and even when occasions are laborious, He’ll at all times ‘be with you’ (the Jewish individuals), simply as He instructed Moses within the burning bush.
The G-d of the Jewish individuals is the G-d of relationship. This has been demonstrated time and time once more in Jewish historical past, in Jewish thought and in the best way agriculture has developed within the Jewish land – now the State of Israel.
On the primary Shabbat of 2022 (January 1st), we proceed the story of the Exodus (6:2 – 9:35) with the tearing down of Pharaoh’s energy and the parallel Haftorah of Ezekiel 28:25 – 29:21. Right here, the Jewish individuals are addressed by G-d as ‘the Son of Man’ and Pharaoh is depicted as a terrific sea monster ‘crouching inside its rivers’.
The time period for ‘crouching’ (‘ha-rovetz’) is used elsewhere to depict the ability of sin (‘sin is crouching on the door’ Genesis 4:7), when G-d speaks to Cain, the primary assassin. And what’s this energy of sin? It’s the sin of claiming ‘I’ve made myself’ (Ezekiel 29:3).
G-d additional tells the Jewish individuals by Ezekiel that alliances with those that want the Jewish individuals hurt, be they political or non secular powers, shouldn’t be relied on. We will by no means utterly belief the ability of the State or different religions, as a result of on the finish of the day, they’re jealous of the Jewish individuals and want us hurt.
As we transfer imperceptibly from darkness to gentle presently of 12 months, with the promise of spring and the onset of sunshine and hope, allow us to consider these many 1000’s of Jewish individuals who have determined that the western nations and their religions, whether or not State religions or not, aren’t any true mates.
Statistics on the emigration to the State of Israel regardless of strict Covid laws are self-explanatory: the most important emigration from the USA since 1973; extra emigration from Canada, France and the UK. Many Jews now not really feel at residence in these nations. Time and time once more, the Jewish individuals have discovered that the powers who must be defending them are not more than ‘damaged reeds’ (Ezekiel 29:6), themselves in a state of collapse.
Over half (57%) of recent immigrants from the primary Western nations of the Jewish diaspora (USA, Canada, France and the UK) are aged underneath 35. This demonstrates that the Jewish diaspora now not feels snug within the West. The powers that be, each non secular and political (or each), might do worse than to review these statistics with care. As a result of what occurred to Egypt as soon as the Jews had left? What occurred to Spain when the Jews have been kicked out? What occurred to Poland and Lithuania and Hungary as soon as these nations began to homicide their Jewish neighbours?
As G-d stated to Moses, solely G-d will at all times be with us. In any other case, we, the Jewish individuals, are on our personal, and it’s as properly to not neglect this.
Dr Irene Lancaster is a Jewish educational, creator and translator who has established college programs on Jewish historical past, Jewish research and the Hebrew Bible. She skilled as a trainer in fashionable Languages and Spiritual Training.
