Parsha Themes Archive

1. The final plagues.
2. The Exodus itself!
3. Mitzvot (some of these count as more than one mitzvah):

In Parashat Shemot, Hashem commands Moshe to report to the elders of Bnei Yisrael that God has appeared to him and announced the coming redemption. Moshe asks Hashem what Name he should report to Bnei Yisrael to refer to the God who has appeared to him. Hashem responds enigmatically, “Ehy-eh asher ehy-eh” -- “I shall be what I shall be.” It remains unclear whether this is a name, a description, both, or neither.

Moshe seems unsatisfied by Hashem’s mysterious response; in any event, Moshe remains silent, awaiting further details than Hashem at first provides. Hashem “tries again,” instructing Moshe to tell the people that the God “Ehy-eh” has sent him to announce the redemption to the people. Moshe, unsatisfied, still does not respond, so Hashem seems to give in, telling Moshe to tell the people that “Y-HVH, the God of their fathers, God of Avraham, God of Yitzhak, and God of Ya’akov,” has appeared to him.

This enigmatic event in Parashat Shemot sets the stage for Parashat Va-Era, which begins with Hashem’s spelling out for Moshe that the Avot (Avraham, Yitzhak, and Ya’akov) somehow had access only to the name “E-l Shad-dai,” but not to the name “Y-HVH”; they knew or experienced Hashem as “E-l Shad-dai” only. Of course, a quick check of Sefer Bereishit (Genesis) shows that the name Y-HVH appears 165 times. If “Y-HVH” is so ubiquitous in Sefer Bereishit, in what way can we understand that the name was hidden from the Avot? Stranger yet, Hashem explicitly refers to Himself by this name in several conversations with the Avot! Clearly, He cannot mean that the Avot did not *know* this name, as many mefarshim point out. Instead, Hashem is telling Moshe that the *aspect* of Himself which was manifested to the Avot was only the aspect of “E-l Shad-dai,” not the aspect of “Y-HVH.”

What do “E-l Shad-dai” and “Y-HVH” mean? What aspects of Hashem or modes of divine behavior do they represent? One way to look for differences between them is to examine in what contexts they each tend to appear:

“E-l Shad-dai” is a fairly rare name for Hashem in Tanakh (the Bible). It appears five times in all of Sefer Bereishit; once in Sefer Shemot (Parashat Va-Era); once in Sefer Yehezkel (Ezekiel); and three times in Sefer Iyyov (Job). In Bereishit, it appears in the following very similar contexts:

E-l Shad-dai appears to be the Covenant-Maker, offering a promise of nationhood, land, and relationship with Him. E-l Shad-dai is also a protector, invoked by Ya’akov to protect his sons.

Now for the more difficult name: what does “Y-HVH” mean? Some mefarshim suggest that it indicates that Hashem is eternal/timeless: they understand this name as a combination of “hayah,” (“was,” spelled HYH), “hoveh,” (“is,” spelled HVH), and “yihyeh” (“will be,” spelled YHYH). But if the purpose of Hashem’s statement here is to communicate to Moshe that He will now begin to manifest Himself in a new way, a way in which He did not manifest Himself to the Avot in the past, this is a difficult interpretation: what does Hashem’s eternity have to do with His acting one way or another now? And was Hashem not just as eternal in the time of the Avot?

Perhaps we can use some elements of the above interpretation to suggest a different one: the state-of-being verb which is at the root of this name (“HVH”) does not indicate simply that Hashem exists, but that He is *present.* This aspect of Hashem -- His manifest and obvious presence in the world -- is the aspect which was not made known to the Avot. This does not mean that the Avot were unsure of His existence, but that He did not generally make Himself publicly manifest in the physical world in their lifetimes; He did not openly interfere with the natural order of the world. The patriarchal experience of Hashem is primarily a visionary and covenantal one: the Avot see Hashem in prophetic dreams and trances; He promises them a destiny of nationhood and relationship with Him. But He does not perform open miracles before them. In this sense, He is not present *in* this world in open ways, although He guides the events of the world; He is not yet ready to reveal Himself as Y-HVH, the One who is present in the world.

All this is about to change: Hashem is about to emerge not just as a reality in the ultimate, spiritual sense, but as a concrete force in the events of history. He is about to make the front page.

This is Hashem’s cryptic message to Moshe at the beginning of Parashat Va-Era. Just before He embarks on this new phase in His career, so to speak, He breaks the news to Moshe: the exodus from Egypt will not be a quiet one, subtly guided by the hidden hand of Hashem; instead, He will act powerfully with “a strong hand and an outstretched arm,” striking at His enemies with open miracles, warning them to acknowledge and obey Him. Hashem is about to make Himself “present” in the world. This idea is expressed quite clearly by Hashem in the opening of Parashat Va-Era:

Hashem spoke to Moshe and said to him, “I am Y-HVH. I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzhak, and to Ya’akov as “E-l Shad-dai,” but by My name ‘Y-HVH’ I was not known to them. I now uphold My covenant with them, to give them the land of Cana’an, the land of their dwelling, in which they dwelled. I have also heard the groaning of Bnei Yisrael . . . and I recall My covenant. Therefore, say to Bnei Yisrael, ‘I AM Y-HVH! I shall take you out from under the burden of Egypt, and I shall save you from their enslaving, and I shall redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I shall take you to Me as a nation, and I shall be for you a God, and YOU SHALL KNOW THAT I AM Y-HVH . . . .

In Shemot 6:2, Hashem introduces Himself as “Y-HVH.” This, however, requires elaboration: howdoes He plan to express His “Y-HVH-ness” at this poin? In the next pasuk (verse) He explains that the Avot experienced only “E-l Shad-dai,” but not “Y-HVH.” In 6:4-5, Hashem recalls His covenant with the Avot and the suffering of their children. In 6:6, Hashem instructs Moshe to introduce Him to Bnei Yisrael *as* Y-HVH: “Therefore, say to Bnei Yisrael, ‘I am Y-HVH.” This does not mean simply, “I am Hashem”; it means “I am the Present One.” Hashem goes on to amplify in 6:6-8: “I shall take you out . . . I shall save you . . . I shall redeem you . . . I shall take you to Me . . . and you shall know that I am Y-HVH, when I take you out from under the burden of Egypt . . . .” Hashem is about to express the aspect of Y-HVH by bursting onto the world scene in a display of power never before witnessed.

This explanation of the change in Hashem’s mode of interacting with the world leads us directly into our next issue: what is the purpose of the plagues with which Hashem strikes Egypt? Obviously, the plagues have little to do with the goal of taking Bnei Yisrael out of Egypt; if that were all He wanted, He could have accomplished the redemption without decimating Egypt. One well-aimed plague could have accomplished the job. Why must Paro’s heart be hardened repeatedly? Why does Hashem want Paro *himself* to approve the departure of Bnei Yisrael? Fortunately, the Torah provides the answers:

Then Moshe and Aharon came and said to Paro, “So says Y-HVH, God of Yisrael: ‘Send forth My nation, so they may celebrate [worship] Me.’ Paro said, “WHO IS Y-HVH, that I should obey His voice and send out Bnei Yisrael? **I DO NOT KNOW Y-HVH** -- and I will not send out Yisrael.”

By his own admission, Paro needs to become “acquainted” with Y-HVH. Y-HVH is only too happy to oblige him, responding to his arrogant dismissal of the Hebrew God by turning his world upside down and ripping it to shreds. Paro “does not know Y-HVH”? Well, that will swiftly change!

“EGYPT SHALL KNOW THAT I AM Y-HVH, when I stretch forth My hand over Egypt and take Bnei Yisrael out of their midst” (7:5).

Of course, this show is not just for Egypt’s or Paro’s benefit; Bnei Yisrael also need to get to know Y-HVH better:

“YOU [plural] WILL KNOW THAT I AM Y-HVH, your God, who takes you out from under the burden of Egypt.”

It turns out that the goal of the “Makkot,” the Plagues, is to teach both Bnei Yisrael and Egypt a lesson in theology. Hashem is Y-HVH: He is the One Who Is Present. As the plagues demonstrate (as we will see), this presence is manifest in Y-HVH’s control of, well, absolutely everything. Hashem is introducing Himself to the world at large. The introduction is more pleasant for some than for others: if you are an Egyptian slavedriver, you get to know Hashem through the blood in your Nile, the frogs in your bed, the lice on your body, the locusts devouring your fields . . . . If you are a Jewish slave, you get to know Hashem as He spares you from these plagues, takes you out of slavery, splits the sea for you . . . .

This theme of “da’at Y-HVH” -- knowing Y-HVH (not just knowing Hashem, but knowing Him in His capacity as Y-HVH) is a major theme in the story of the Plagues; it appears not only in the pesukim above, which introduce the whole process of the Plagues and redemption, but also throughout the process:

SHEMOT 7:16-17 -- “Say to him [Paro]: ‘Y-HVH, God of the Ivrim [”Hebrews”], has sent me to you to tell you, ‘Release My nation so that they may serve Me in the desert,’ but you have not obeyed so far. So says Y-HVH: ‘Through this *YOU SHALL KNOW THAT I AM Y-HVH*: I shall strike upon the water in the river with the staff in my hand, and it shall turn to blood!’ “

SHEMOT 8:4-6 -- Paro called Moshe and Aharon and said, “Pray to Y-HVH, that He should remove the frogs . . .” He [Moshe] said, “As you say -- so that *YOU SHALL KNOW THAT THERE IS NONE LIKE Y-HVH*, our God.”

SHEMOT 8:18 -- “I shall distinguish the Land of Goshen on that day, on which My nation lives, so that there will be no wild beasts there, so that *YOU SHALL KNOW THAT I AM Y-HVH IN THE MIDST OF THE LAND.*”

SHEMOT 9:14-18 -- “This time, I am sending all of My plagues at your heart, your servants, and your people, *SO THAT YOU SHALL KNOW THAT THERE IS NONE LIKE ME IN THE LAND.* I could have sent forth My hand and stricken you and your people with a [deadly] plague, and you would have vanished from the land. But for this reason do I keep you standing: to show you My power, and SO THAT MY NAME [Y-HVH] SHALL BE TOLD IN THE WHOLE LAND . . . .”

HAIL (again):

SHEMOT 9:29 -- Moshe said to him [Paro], “When I leave the city, I will spread my hands out to Y-HVH. The thunderclaps will stop, and the hail will be no more, *SO THAT YOU SHALL KNOW THAT THE LAND IS Y-HVH’s.*”

SHEMOT 10:1-2 -- Hashem said to Moshe, “Come to Paro -- for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, so that I can place My signs in his midst, and so that you will tell over in the ears of your son and your grandson what I did to Egypt, and the signs I placed in them, and *YOU SHALL KNOW THAT I AM Y-HVH.*”

There are several additional examples, but I think the point is demonstrated. The reason the plagues must come, the reason Paro’s heart must be hardened, the reason Hashem does not want to whisk the people out of Egypt on a magic carpet, but instead wants Paro to agree to let them go, is because He wants the world, Egypt, and Bnei Yisrael to “know Y-HVH,” the “One who is present.”

As the plagues unfold, there is a constant repetition of sweeping phrases like “in the whole land of Egypt,” “in the rivers, in the streams, in the lakes, in the cisterns,” “in you, your servants, your people, your house, your servants’ houses, your bed, your ovens, your serving-trays,” and many other examples which, taken collectively, shout the message: “Y-HVH controls everything!”

The same message is implicit in Y-HVH’s instructions to Moshe and Aharon, at various points during the plagues, to stretch forth the Mateh Elokim, the divine staff, over the water, the land, and the sky. The message: Y-HVH controls every medium, sky, earth and water. He is not a “local” deity; He is not the God of this river, or that mountain, or of fertility, or diseases, or animals, or weather, or the sun, or death. Y-HVH controls everything. This is a message to be absorbed by both Paro, representative of human power and of the belief in a pantheon of gods who control various spheres of influence, and by Bnei Yisrael. Once Paro gets this message and truly believes it, he will “know Y-HVH” and do what he was told to do in the first place: release Bnei Yisrael.

[It is worth mentioning that the theme of “knowing Y-HVH” is prominent not only here, but in many places in Tanakh, especially Sefer Yehezkel [Ezekiel], where it appears at least 72 times! It is important to compare how this theme develops in each place and to see if it is used the same way in different places.]

Moshe Rabbeinu’s stiffening posture as the plagues progress is a telling catalogue of the growth and development of our most important leader. As we know, Moshe begins his prophetic career with great reluctance, attempting several times (five times!) to avoid being selected to challenge Paro and lead the people out of Egypt. When Hashem finally loses patience and becomes angry with him, Moshe takes the job, along with his brother Aharon as spokesman. Early on, Moshe does exactly as told by Hashem: he reports to the people that Y-HVH has appeared to him, and the people believe him. But when he delivers Hashem’s demands to Paro and Paro reacts by increasing the people’s workload, Moshe turns to Hashem and complains: “Why did you send me to Paro? Things have only gotten worse!”

Hashem responds with a full explanation of His plan: to conduct the world’s greatest public relations campaign, teaching the world about Y-HVH while rescuing Bnei Yisrael from slavery and makingthem His nation. Moshe reports the news to the people, but they are too depressed and busy to listen thim. When Hashem then commands Moshe to go to Paro and present His demands, the “old,” reluctant Moshe returns: “Even my own people, Bnei Yisrael, did not listen to me -- how will Paro listen?!”

Hashem patiently explains to Moshe that he has misunderstood his job. His task is not to get Paro to obey! “Exactly! He will not listen to you -- that is the plan!! In fact, I Myself will harden his heart so that he does not listen, because I want the opportunity to teach him that I am Y-HVH.” From this point on, Moshe demonstrates no reluctance. He now understands that it is not his job to convince Paro to obey by speaking eloquently; it is his job to deliver warnings which will be ignored, so that Hashem can break Paro’s arrogance, so that Paro and Egypt will know that “I am Y-HVH.”

In place of his previous self-doubt, his disappointment with his failure to get Paro to knuckle under, Moshe’s stance becomes one of confidence. Not only does he carry out Hashem’s instructions, he independently invents ways in which to make even clearer to Paro that he is at Y-HVH’s mercy. When Paro breaks down and asks Moshe to pray to Y-HVH for the removal of the swarming frogs, Moshe sarcastically says to him, “Go ahead, lord it over me -- when do you want me to pray . . . to remove the frogs?” (8:5). Paro, not wanting to appear too desperate, says “Tomorrow.” Moshe agrees, adding, “So that you will know that there is none like Y-HVH, our God!” And when Moshe prays, “Hashem listened to *him*,” indicating that the idea of humbling Paro by praying for him is Moshe’s plan, to which Hashem agrees.

Later on, when Paro again asks for Moshe’s prayers to remove the “Arov” plague, Moshe wags a finger at Paro: “I am going out to pray for you . . . but let Paro no longer deal deceitfully in not letting the people go . . .” (8:25). Once again, “Hashem did as Moshe said” -- again, it is Moshe’s idea to use prayer to Y-HVH as a way to get Paro to kneel, as an opportunity to humble and chastise him.

As the plagues continue, Paro’s support among his advisors crumbles and he becomes deeply sullen, grudgingly attempting to compromise with Moshe. But Moshe has begun to sound like a powerful and confident leader; not just like Hashem’s messenger, but as leader of a nation which has been commanded to serve Hashem. When Paro expresses willingness to let some of the people go and asks Moshe whom he intends to take and whom he will leave behind as “insurance,” Moshe confidently brushes aside the offer, asserting that he has no intention of compromising:

Moshe said, “With our old and our young we will go, with our sons and daughters, with our sheep and cattle, for we have a festival to Y-HVH!”

Why should I settle for less, Moshe says, when I can have whatever I want?

Perhaps Moshe’s most dramatic speech to Paro is his final one. After Egypt is stricken with three days of paralyzing darkness, Paro calls Moshe and makes a new offer: Bnei Yisrael, children included, can go to their worship in the desert, as long as they leave their sheep and cattle behind. Moshe rejects this offer as well: not only will Bnei Yisrael take their own animals, but in fact “You, too, will place in our hands sacrifices and offerings for Y-HVH, our God . . . not a single hoof will be left behind . . .” (10:25). Not only will Bnei Yisrael bring sacrifices to Hashem, but Paro will contribute sacrifices too! Infuriated by Moshe’s temerity, Paro throws Moshe out and threatens that if he sees him again, Moshe will die. Moshe agrees: “You have spoken correctly: I shall see your face no more! . . . Your servants will come down to me [after the plague of the firstborn] and bow to me . . . and *THEN* I will go!” Then Moshe, furious (11:8), leaves.

As planned all along, in the end Paro finally “knows Y-HVH” and submits to Him, allowing the people to leave Egypt for their festival in the desert. Next week, we will talk about the Exodus, the mitzvot surrounding it, the splitting of the sea, and other events of Parashat Be-Shalah.

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