Hebrew scholar and Jewish academic Irene Lancaster reflects on power, leadership and slavery in Exodus 3:14.
When Moses experiences G-d in the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:14), he asks Him "Who shall I say has sent me?" to the children of Israel and to Pharaoh. G-d answers: "Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: I will be has sent me to you." G-d is therefore to be known as "I will be".
The following Sedra is known as ‘Va’era’: "And I appeared" (Exodus 6:2-9:35). Here, G-d tells Moses, "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob with the name ‘Mighty G-d’. But by the name YHVH I was not known to them."
The terms "I will be" and YHVH are linguistically related, from the Hebrew verb ‘to be’ or ‘to become’. YHVH is therefore a verb rather than a noun. Observant Jews don’t pronounce the name YHVH and use euphemisms, such as HaShem (the Name). In fact the Name is made up entirely of Hebrew vowel sounds and is therefore unpronounceable.
Translations have struggled with an appropriate translation of the Name, using Greek and Latin terms for ‘Lord’. However, Greek and Roman views of lordship have to do with status and dominance, based on their own experiences of human leaders.
The Hebrew slaves experienced lordship as their immediate overseers. These were the epitome of power, culminating with Pharaoh at the top of the pyramid. The concept of G-d as depicted in the Burning Bush is wholly different from earthly power and expresses a transcendent and yet immanent Presence which is indefinable in human terms.
In his book, Shemot: The Book of Exodus Rabbi Nathan Cardozo states that, "Within religious thought and experience, there is the awareness that we must allow G-d to enter via what appears to be chaos and chance. Were everything to be worked out and predictable, we would close the door both to G-d and to real life."
For Rabbi Cardozo, this type of ‘chaos’ is depicted in the names "I will be" and YHVH, as pronounced by G-d to Moses.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), best known for his close friendship with Martin Luther King, as well as for his books ‘The Sabbath’ and ‘The Prophets’, encouraged us to think of G-d not as a great power but as being "concerned with everydayness". As life is unpredictable, so too G-d acts in ways that seem unpredictable to us.
Rabbi Cardozo therefore suggests that "the purpose of Halakhah [often translated as ‘Jewish Law’] is to disturb - to disturb a world that cannot admit that it doesn’t have all the answers".
In this view, it is often difficult for Halakhah-observant Jews to remain connected to "the spirit of Halakhah" (p 44). It is easier to espouse "conformity for the sake of conformity".
Rabbi Cardozo depicts Halakhah as "an anarchic, colourful and unequalled musical symphony that requires room to breathe". By this he probably means that the disparate parts of life come together to form a whole under the baton of the conductor. The conductor holds the entire experience together, but very loosely indeed. Everything in a musical performance is based in trust - much the same as in abseiling, for example.
Rabbi Cardozo lives in Israel and has served in the Israeli army (IDF). Therefore he might sympathize with the view expressed in a recent sermon given in our own Shul. Here a contrast was made between the Israeli and Diaspora attitudes to life.
One of the most obvious differences is that in Israel you act first and cogitate after the fact. In addition, it is incumbent on Israelis to question authority. In Israel, authority has to be earned. Argument is an essential ingredient of life.
Therefore it is regarded as a plus if children argue with parents; pupils argue with teachers; patients argue with doctors; and trainee soldiers argue with commanders.
This country is very different. It is built on well-honed hierarchies, vested interests and the silencing of people with chutzpah. Religion is no exception, and moreover has been used through the ages ‘to comfort the troubled.’ Maybe we should think rather of religion as, on occasion at least, being there ‘to trouble the comfortable’!
This is maybe why the reaction of both Pharaoh and the children of Israel to the request of Moses and Aaron to "let My people go" is thoroughly negative.
Pharaoh has never heard of G-d as YHVH. In that case, how does Pharaoh know that Moses isn’t a fraud? "Who is YHVH that I should listen to His voice to let Israel go (5:2)?"
Why indeed? In his own territory Pharaoh is himself a powerful deity. How dare Moses and Aaron suggest otherwise! Moreover, releasing the slaves would spell the end to Egypt’s economy, based on slave labour.
Pharaoh therefore continues: "I don’t know YHVH, and moreover, I won’t let Israel go." The G-d of the children of Israel doesn’t fit in at all with Pharaoh’s structured scheme of things, based on a rigid hierarchy, where Pharaoh himself stands at the top of the pyramid.
In fact, Pharaoh’s reaction to Moses’ request is not to decrease, but to increase the severity and pointlessness of their hard labour.
The Israelite foremen then complain to Moses and Aaron: "We are in bad odour in the eyes of Pharaoh and his advisors because of you. You have placed a sword in his hands to slay us" (Exodus 5:21).
Moses asks YHVH why He didn’t deliver the slaves Himself. He doesn’t need Moses as an intermediary. The intervention of Moses and Aaron with Pharaoh and the slaves has only made things worse.
So dreadful are the sufferings of the slaves that they cling to their servitude and cannot imagine any form of redemption other than through the will of their slave-master.
Although Moses argues that he is of "uncircumcised lips", i.e. not verbally fluent, G-d has mentioned the four stages of redemption He promises the children of Israel: "I will bring you out … deliver you from bondage … redeem you with an outstretched arm … and take you to Myself as a people" (6:6-7).
After that he will bring the freed slaves over the Reed Sea into the Wilderness en route to the Promised Land which He had already promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as their heritage.
Thus, the first seven plagues described in this Sedra do not soften Pharaoh’s heart. But the main lesson of Va’era from the Jewish point of view is that doubt was hard to remove because of the enslaved condition of the children of Israel. In addition, Moses was doubtful about his own abilities.
There are two differing types of leadership depicted here: the Pharaonic and the Mosaic.
Above both lies the Ineffable Name of G-d which goes beyond past, present and future and yet is also the eternal Comforter, as we will see.
