Shemoth: Courage

I wish I had courage. It would seem that wanting it should be all it takes, but it is clearly not.  It is overcoming the fear of the consequences. Courage means choosing the outcome I want and acting to achieve it. This week's parsha is a study in courage.  I want to take a lesson from the stories. 

It begins with a failure.  The Children of Israel are enslaved.  There are no protests.  The Pharaoh recognized this guest nation as a force that can ally with his enemies and a people that can leave. 

וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אֶל־עַמּ֑וֹ הִנֵּ֗ה עַ֚ם בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל רַ֥ב וְעָצ֖וּם מִמֶּֽנּוּ׃ 

And he said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us.

הָ֥בָה נִֽתְחַכְּמָ֖ה ל֑וֹ פֶּן־יִרְבֶּ֗ה וְהָיָ֞ה כִּֽי־תִקְרֶ֤אנָה מִלְחָמָה֙ וְנוֹסַ֤ף גַּם־הוּא֙ עַל־שֹׂ֣נְאֵ֔ינוּ וְנִלְחַם־בָּ֖נוּ וְעָלָ֥ה מִן־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ 

Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the land.

The threatening nature of the Israelites motivates their bondage.  Despite the power that the Pharaoh sees in the Israelites, they allow themselves to be subjugated. 

One sentence is devoted to the process of enslavement: 

וַיָּשִׂ֤ימוּ עָלָיו֙ שָׂרֵ֣י מִסִּ֔ים לְמַ֥עַן עַנֹּת֖וֹ בְּסִבְלֹתָ֑ם וַיִּ֜בֶן עָרֵ֤י מִסְכְּנוֹת֙ לְפַרְעֹ֔ה אֶת־פִּתֹ֖ם וְאֶת־רַעַמְסֵֽס׃ 

So they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor; and they built store cities.” for Pharaoh: Pithom and Ramses

They were taxed. Misim,  מִסִּ֔ים, translated as taskmasters, contains the word mas, tax.  Obligations to the government were imposed upon  them in order to  עַנֹּת֖וֹ, aniso, translated here as oppress them.  But the root is related to ani, poverty. They were impoverished, made dependent...enslaved by their circumstances. They became wage slaves, and declined from there to depend upon the government for food and shelter. 

The Egyptian authorities impose an edict of infanticide. Jews are no longer entitled to life by virtue of their humanity. They ask that the midwives, Shifra and Puah, enforce this law... but they do not because they fear Gd. They obey an authority that is greater than Pharaoh, but an entity that is less likely to enforce the law in an identifiable way. They are courageous. They are models of when to follow a principle that supersedes the law of the land; when not to follow orders. 

Shifra and Puah are models for me. When insurance companies deny coverage for treatments, the path of least resistance is to accept their decisions. I fear Gd. 

Pharaoh's daughter could not bring herself to that mercicless state.  She could look away from the anonymous mass murder, but confronted with a crying infant, she took pity upon baby Moses.  After all, the rules had been followed: the Hebrew infant boy had been cast into the river - but in a boat. Clever. She mothered the foundling. Her pity was so great, it made her strong. The Talmud ( alluded to in today's daf yomi[Megillah 13]) implies that these acts made her an Israelite. My kind of Israelite.

When Moses reacts to the cruelty  of the taskmaster  by murdering him, he has combined courage and passion.  Such an act could have started a revolt, it could have demonstrated that the oppressed are not powerless. Instead, Hebrews detect the behavior of the revolutionary in Moses; and they are ready to  turn him in.  They are invested in the system that Moses threatens to overthrow. The people are not ready for liberation.  Moses runs away.

When he comes to the well at Midian,  he protects the daughters of Jethro from the local shepherds. Moses ( like his mothers) is a protector.  Jethro's daughters do not invite him to their home until their father instructs them to go back for him.  They are not brave enough to welcome this challenge to the status quo, but father Jethro is. At last... a mensch.

At the burning bush,when Moses casts his staff on the ground, and it becomes a snake, Moses runs away. Moses is a person and experiences fear.  But when he is told by Gd to grab the snake by the tail, to hold the wrong end, to relinquish control of the biting head; he does as told. He  obeys the Divine message that does not make (common) sense. Is this courage or  (deranged) zealotry? That boundary  is a challenge.   Moses  has left the realm of ordinary people.  

To bolster his credibility, Moses is told to show these signs to the elders of Israel.  It is not only the marvel that is convincing, it is the symbolism. When you cast down your staff, your solid support, what kept you upright on unsteady ground -  it becomes a serpent, a threat, an enemy from the primordium.  It is only your act of  casting off the tradition that you should have leaned on, the history that should have given you the pride and confidence, that allows you to be enslaved. You have made the symbol of truth into the symbol of deception, the rules to live by, when cast down, bite you and inject a lethal poison. It is dangerous to grab that slithering surrender, but when you do,  then it becomes part of the heritage, the story of redemption joins the legacy. 

The liberation can make you disgusting, like a leper. If you accept it, you overcome it. 

The oppressor has poured the blood of your people as if it was water from the river.  No More!

Moses and Aaron request a holiday to rally their identity,  ro reunite with their heritage, to unionize? Pharaoh reacts by making  the Israelites'  task more degrading, he makes it impossible.  Pharaoh calls them a name: nirpim

וַיֹּ֛אמֶר נִרְפִּ֥ים אַתֶּ֖ם נִרְפִּ֑ים עַל־כֵּן֙ אַתֶּ֣ם אֹֽמְרִ֔ים נֵלְכָ֖ה נִזְבְּחָ֥ה

He replied, “You are shirkers, shirkers! That is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’

JPS translates the word as "shirkers": people who want to minimize  their efforts. I see another meaning in this word. The dictionary: 

רָפָה (v) heb

1. to sink, relax, sink down, let drop, be disheartened

1. (Qal)

1. to sink down

2. to sink, drop

3. to sink, relax, abate

4. to relax, withdraw

These people had sunk in their own estimation, so Pharaoh could order them to do anything, including the impossible.  He need not worry that they would rebel. But if they went to sacrifice and derived strength form their Gd and their unity, they would not be so pliable. 

I need to gather strength every day from the Gd that demands mercy for the innocent and oppressed.