Parashat Shemot 5782

by Rabbi Margie Cella

This week’s parashah begins the second book of the Torah, which tells the story of the Exodus from Egypt.

It begins by naming all those who came to Egypt with Jacob; once there, their numbers increased so greatly that “the land was filled with them.” A new pharaoh, fearing their growing numbers, launches an effort to oppress and enslave them. He decrees that all male Israelite babies are to be drowned in the Nile. One woman defies this decree, hides her baby for 3 months, then places him in a basket in the Nile; he is rescued by the pharaoh’s daughter, who raises him as her own. This baby is Moses, the future redeemer of the nation.

After slaying an Egyptian taskmaster for beating an Israelite slave, the adult Moses escapes to the desert, where he encounters the seven daughters of Jethro, priest of Midian. One of them, Tzipporah, becomes his wife. When tending the sheep, he encounters a burning bush, from which God speaks to him, commissioning him to go back to Egypt and lead the people to freedom, despite Moses’ many protestations that he is not the right person to do so. When Moses and his brother Aaron tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go free, he becomes angry, decreeing that they will no longer be given straw to make the bricks, though their quota will remain unchanged.

In the haftarah, Isaiah foretells a future return – a new exodus—of the people of Israel from Egypt and Assyria. Moses asked Pharaoh to allow the nation to worship Hashem in the desert; Isaiah prophesied that they would serve God on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

These two texts are connected b’yachad through several words that appear in both. Ha-baim  describes those who came to Egypt (Exodus 1:1) and those who will come to the land in the future (Isaiah 27:1). God’s awesome signs will be performed bekirbo, in the midst of, the Egyptians (Exodus 3:20), Isaiah foretells that Jacob’s descendants will realize the wonders that God has done in his midst—using the same word. Egypt was filled with (va-timalei) the Israelites (Exodus 1:8), while the land in the future will be filled with (u-malu) fruit.

The Torah reading ends on an ominous note; the haftarah promises a hopeful future for Jacob’s descendants.