This week we begin the book of Shmot.
Our Sages give a name to each of the Five Books of Moses.
For example, the book of Genesis is called the book of Creation.
That makes sense.
Genesis is about the creation of the world and the creation of the family that will birth the Jewish nation.
The Book of Shmot is given the appellation of the Book of Redemption.
That is a little more difficult to comprehend.
Shmot begins with the challenging story of the family of Jacob becoming enslaved, of a Pharaoh who no longer knew Joseph, and the story of a very dark and tragic time for the Jewish people.
The beginning of the book of Shmot actually seems to reflect the opposite of Redemption entirely.
Our Sages teach us that what looks very dark and dangerous, the slavery, is actually the beginning of Redemption.
Redemption emerges from exile. The descent into exile was a necessary step to rise to be able to go back to the Land of Israel. The exile is the crucible of fire from which the Jewish people emerge as a nation.
We would not be able to arrive at the point of salvation without first undergoing the process of slavery.
This idea is borne out in a detail mentioned in the Torah portion.
Moses is rescued from the Nile by the daughter of Pharaoh and is raised in the royal household. Nonetheless he knows of his Jewish roots and never forsakes them. He leaves the palace to seek the welfare of his brethren and at one point he sees an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Jew. Moses intervenes to save the Jewish slave and kills the Egyptian. This act turns Moses into a fugitive and he must run for his life or he will be executed for killing the Egyptian. As the story unfolds, Moses runs to the land of Midian. He arrives at the town well, the local meeting place and he is in the right time and place to come to the aid of the daughters of Yitro who have gone to the well to water their flock. They are being harassed by the local shepherds and Moses comes to their defense. When they return home, unusually early, due to Moses assistance from their daily harassment, their father asks how they have returned so quickly.
The daughters answer their father saying, an Egyptian man saved us.
Some of the commentators take the practical approach and say although Moses was not Egyptian, he dressed the part and sounded like an Egyptian, so the conclusion that he was in fact Egyptian is logical.
But another commentator gives a more homiletical answer.
It was the “Egyptian man who saved us”does not in fact refer to Moses, but rather to the Egyptian man who was beating the Jew who spurred Moses to action and began a cascade of events which led to Moses escape and ultimately being right where they needed him to be at just the right time.
The Egyptian who was beating the Jew in an effort to destroy him was at that moment planting the seeds of redemption which would bring Moses to saving the daughters of Yitro when they needed salvation.
The very darkest times precede and give birth to the light.
Something that looks and seems very tragic, may in fact be the beginning of a trajectory to hope.
Those are very apropos words for these days.
It is very hard to find words at this time.
We are living on a precipice.
Our hearts are full of hope and prayer and we can barely breathe with the possibility of our hostages release. They must come home at long last after the incredible suffering they have endured.
At the same time there is such a feeling of despair.
It comes at a very high price.
We have lost so many precious lives in this terrible situation.
We cannot perceive that their sacrifice could be in vain.
It’s a very dark time.
But there are glimmers.
It’s always darkest before the dawn.
There is a Divine plan unfolding.
We pray for salvation.
May it indeed by the beginning of the era of redemption.
Shabbat Shalom and so much love!