Shemoth: Identity and Liberation in the Face of Oppression

 

Shemoth: Identity and Liberation in the Face of Oppression

 

The Book of Names opens with the children of Israel entering Egypt with both their individual and collective identities intact. These are the same brothers who had sold Joseph into slavery, now becoming slaves themselves. Their descendants face the  challenge of maintaining their otherness in the face of systemic oppression.

 

The Hebrews kept their collective identity, and this very distinctiveness marked them as a potential threat in Pharaoh's eyes. This is perhaps the first documented instance of replacement theory—the fear that a successful minority might somehow overtake the majority. The need for quotas and ghettos was born with Jewish identity and remained part of that legacy. This recognition of Jewish competition as a threat has unified Hebrew communities throughout history, from ancient Egypt to modern times.

 

The story turns on the production of bricks, mentioned at both the beginning and end of the parsha. These bricks create a symbolic connection between Egyptian bondage and the Tower of Babel—both massive projects that earned divine disapproval. The manufactured uniformity of bricks replaced the natural irregularity of stones, creating a lower class of brick makers and degrading the status of builders. Industrialization, the production of uniform, replaceable parts, is a tool of subjugation. It transformed the Hebrews into an exploited workforce. The altar was  built with uncut stones.

 

When Pharaoh orders the murder of Hebrew male infants he is reverting to the common method of dealing with a threatening foreign people.  Until the secret decree commanding the   drowning of the first born sons, the guest population was tolerated. The murderous turn of the host country against the guest Jews is a major theme in our history and a foundation of Zionism.

 

 Here, the story introduces its first heroes: the midwives who refuse to carry out this genocidal decree. Whether they were Hebrew (as the Talmud  and Rashi suggest) or Egyptian (Sforno, Kli Yakar, Malbim), their moral courage is an important model for  resistance against evil. They hide behind a flimsy excuse, claiming Hebrew women, being more animal-like than Egyptian women, give birth before the  midwives arrive; yet their rebellion is tolerated. Like the Germans who refused to participate in the Einsatzgruppen during the Holocaust, they demonstrated that standing up for good over evil can sometimes succeed and  without punishment.

 

Into this world comes Moses, saved by Pharaoh's daughter in an act of rebellion against her father's decree. An act that also  substantiates the kindness and sense of justice in some Egyptians. She knows exactly what she's doing when she rescues a circumcised (ibn Ezra) Hebrew child, and her actions, including returning him to his mother early in his life, shape Moses' development.  Moses grows up with an intertwined, dual identity: Hebrew by birth, Egyptian by upbringing, equipped to be both oppressor and oppressed; and understand neither.

 

When Moses kills the cruel overseer, he acts from this unique position. His attempt to make peace between fighting Hebrews reveals his true nature—they recognize him as different because anyone else would have enjoyed their battle or wagered on the winner. It is Moses’ behavior that betrays him as the killer. Moses must flee, becoming a stranger in Midian where he marries and names his son Gershom: "I was a stranger in a foreign land."  I was an Egyptian in Midian; I was a Hebrew in Egypt. What will I be if I go to the Promised land?

 

The divine revelation at the burning bush introduces a new mysterious appelation: a Gd whose name means "I will be what will be." This cryptic answer suggests that the future, in all its dimensions and possibilities, will happen. If you have the goal in mind, you can ride the waves of events. But all of the events that Gd has planned will come to pass.

 

Gd’s signs and wonders will convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go.  Moses must convince  the Israelites  to leave their place of birth and employment. They had become invested in the great project, their life's work, and will  not leave until Pharaoh himself sends them away.

 

The Jews have continued to build names for themselves in great transnational human endeavors: in medicine with Paul Ehrlich and Jonas Salk, in science with Einstein and Bohr, in politics with countless others. This role in humanity's great projects is an aspect of Egypt that we carry with us.  Our connection to Torah prevents the work of achievement  from dominating our lives and enslaving us.

 

The story of Shemoth reminds us that resistance to evil is possible, that identity evolves over a lifetime, and that liberation requires not just freedom from external bondage but freedom from internal guidelines.. As the old masthead of the Jewish Daily Forward proclaimed: "The liberation of the workers depends upon the workers themselves." Choose your meaning.