VA’ERA_EXODUS VI:2-IX:35
These chapters relate what happened after Pharaoh enslaved the Hebrews and God instructed Moshe to return to Egypt to gain their freedom. The biblical text explains the development of the events that eventually led to Yetsi’at Mitsrayim, including the plagues that the Egyptians suffered before acceding to the exodus. Va’era, “and I presented myself, or appeared,” is the first word of this Parsha and refers to the fact that God manifested Himself to the patriarchs under the Name of El Shadai because He had concealed the nomenclature of HaShem (Jehovah).
This statement led some Bible critics to think that, since God had originally used the Name of El Shadai, it can be concluded that the Tora is a composite of two texts. One that identifies God as El Shadai and a second source that calls Him HaShem. Echoing this difficulty, Rashi, in his indispensable commentary on the Tora, opines that the second name was not used because HaShem means “the God who keeps His word” and since the promises that the Creator had made to the patriarchs had not yet materialized, they only recognized the Divine characteristic implied by the designation El Shadai.
What does El Shadai mean? It is the God who said “dai“, and “it is enough”, the same word used in the famous chant of Dayeinu, repeated in the Passover Haggada. Perhaps, El Shadai refers to the God who demands that a limit be placed on human desire, one of the foundations of Judaism. Many explain that Judaism teaches the control that a person must exercise over himself. From a certain perspective, almost everything is allowed; what is forbidden is abuse. It’s like that with regard to food and sex, for example.
Judaism places a framework and describes the boundaries within which the person must act. Judaism does not exalt abstention from food or sex. It regulates the activity: it punishes the glutton in accordance with the law of “Ben sorer umoré” and with the commandment of “Lo tachmod” which forbids cohabitation with the wife of the neighbor. In a world that differentiated only between good and evil, Judaism taught that one of the fundamental problems is excess.
The Name of HaShem refers to the “essence” of God, to the fact that His word is unchallengeable and always fulfills the commitment He assumes. God had promised the patriarchs that their offspring would inhabit the land of Canaan, and now they were in bondage in Egypt, a strange land with no visible possibility of breaking the chains of slavery. Therefore, Moshe’s task was tortuous. He had to prove that God would fulfill the promise, despite the intolerable slavery imposed by the Egyptians.
Although the formal instruction Moshe had to fulfill was to get Pharaoh to allow the Hebrews to leave, at the same time, he had to convince enslaved people that salvation was a real possibility. Moshe had to sow faith in the people, the one God of the patriarchs who would fulfill the promise, as His Name, HaShem, testifies. Because faith is not a blind belief, nor the hope of the realization of an event in the face of the impossibility of its occurrence, faith can become a horizon when a person concludes that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Moshe had to restore the people’s self-confidence. He needed to demonstrate the fallibility and fragility of the Egyptian gods. That is why the biblical text will affirm in later chapters “Vayar Israel et hayad hagedola…, vaya’aminu baShem uveMoshe avdo“, “And the people saw the ‘great hand of God’…’ and the people believed in HaShem’ and in His servant Moshe “.
A theologian of another religious confession exalts: “because it is absurd, I believe”. The people “saw” the “strong hand and outstretched arm of God” because they defeated the Egyptian gods, broke Pharaoh’s will with the 10 plagues, and He parted the waters of the Red Sea. Faith is born and strengthened when the individual concludes that the event in question is a possibility, however distant and difficult its realization may seem.
