Shemoth: otherness

This book of the Torah is a story of liberation. This parsha describes the struggle for identity, finding the self that needs, and eventually gets, liberation.

 

וְאֵ֗לֶּה שְׁמוֹת֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל הַבָּאִ֖ים מִצְרָ֑יְמָה אֵ֣ת יַעֲקֹ֔ב אִ֥ישׁ וּבֵית֖וֹ בָּֽאוּ׃

Now these are the names of the children of Yisra᾽el who came into Miżrayim, with Ya῾aqov; every man came with his household.

The children of Yisrael came to Egypt with both their individual and group identities.  The previous parsha, Vayechi, that last chapter of Genesis acknowledges ( and sometimes celebrates) the distinct identities of the 12  brothers who spawn the tribes.

The Hebrews kept their individuality, at least their collective identity. They are recognized by Pharaoh as a nation…and thus a potential enemy. This is the first mention of the Jewish replacement theory. The need for college quotas and ghettos was born with Jewish identity… and it remains part of that identity to this day. The recognition of a threat from Jewish competition  unified the Hebrews of ancient Egypt, the Jews of Babylonia and Rome and Russia and Poland and Germany.  American Jews, like their Egyptian ancestors, are ambivalent.

 

The Israelites were tasked with maintaining the great plan of Joseph, the grain stores that made Egypt the source of sustenance for the region; the food in the famine that brought the Israelites out of the Promised Land and seduced them into becoming Goshenites, nearly Egyptian. The model of Joseph’s (semi) assimilation must have looked very tempting. I imagine that when my parents looked at their Americanized cousins, in their cars and furs, the old ways of Shabbos and tefillin became less appealing… at least for a while. The emptiness of the commercial and the charm of identity had to  be rediscovered

The Egyptians tried to outsmart the Hebrews. They were levied with community service until the burden became overwhelming. The mention of their fecundity despite the fatigue is evidence that the intention was to slow the birthrate. But it did not work.

וְכַאֲשֶׁר֙ יְעַנּ֣וּ אֹת֔וֹ כֵּ֥ן יִרְבֶּ֖ה וְכֵ֣ן יִפְרֹ֑ץ וַיָּקֻ֕צוּ מִפְּנֵ֖י בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were mortified on account of the children of Yisra᾽el.

 

The confusion of the immigrant stranger and envy of the free Egyptian melted the Hebrew pride. They reached a point of acceptance that allowed for the edict of infanticide. The male Hebrew babies were to be drowned. Women, experienced in subjugation – the Hebrew midwives, the daughter of Pharaoh – would not violate their humanity and accede to this craziness. They may have known that violating the laws of men can have fewer consequences than imagined.

In the middle of the parsha, we are introduced to a new entity: the Gd that directs Moses ( and Aaron). This strange, and at first nameless, being has a mysterious nature, Gd can not be understood. Moshe must demonstrate curiosity and turn to the burning bush as a prerequisite to the revelation. The mission of liberation is not forced on anyone; were it not for Moshe’s sense of wonder, it may not have happened.

Gd remains deeply mysterious, turning the staff into a snake and making the grabbing the snake by the tail a test of obedience; making Moses a leper (an outcast disgusting to himself) and removing the stigma by accepting it, bringing it to his breast; recalling the blood stain on the water from the edict of infanticide.

Just as Moses sets on his assigned mission, Gd’s anger turns to Moshe and tries to kill him. It adds to Gd’s mystery.  The mission may be just, and one might presume that Gd will help bring it to fruition and, at the same time, Gd can kill the messenger. The situation is rescued, once more by the woman. The plot continues.

Moses requests a three day festival for the Hebrews, a break, a vacation. The Pharaoh may have recognized that this could reawaken the separate identity of the Hebrews. Certainly it would interrupt the work, the routine that constituted the actual enslavement. The ask was an opportunity to deepen the servitude by further demeaning the Hebrews, calling them lazy and making the demand close to impossible. Perhaps the Pharaoh went too far; but the immediate consequence of his decision was the rejection of Moses and his message. Egypt won the first battle . Eventually this win planted the seed of otherness into the Israelites and it sprouted as liberation.

And the otherness stuck.