Perashat Shemot 5776

Perashat Shemot 5776

We all know the method that is used to ask for something big; we ask for something small first, and then ask for more and more and more. 

As children, we would ask for a candy, then when we are given from a handful to choose from, we ask, may I also have this one? And this one? And of course, the adult giving us the candy feels bad and gives us a few more candies than our original request. 

What about when we asked our parents for money?  We start with a small request, and then as they are ready to give us, we ask for more. The same is true when we would ask the teacher for a better grade or a free pass.  We always find ourselves asking for more, once we convince the person to give us something. 

This week we begin Perashat and Humash Shemot. We read how Joseph, his brothers and that entire generation passed on. Many decades have also passed. The Israelites are now deeply enslaved by Pharaoh and his taskmasters. The harsh decrees range from heavy taxation to discrimination, and from  enslavement, to even the killing of the male babies. 

G-d hears the cries of the Israelites and their prayers. He responds by choosing Moshe to liberate them. Moshe and Aharon appear in front of Pharaoh and make their request: “The G-d of the Hebrews called upon us to go for a three-day journey in the wilderness and we shall bring offerings to Him.” Pharaoh answers them, “Who is G-d that I should heed His voice to send out Israel?”

Was there a need for Hashem to hide the fact that they were to be leaving permanently, and not just bringing sacrifices and returning? Certainly Hashem was capable of getting Pharaoh to agree to anything. In fact, He even had to harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not agree to let them go earlier. Did Moshe and Aharon think that if they convinced Pharaoh to let Israel out for only three days, they can ask later for more? And how much more? Six days? Six months? Forever?

Interestingly enough, Moshe and Aharon did not ask Pharaoh for freedom and liberty from slavery. They asked him to let the Israelites celebrate Hashem and bring offerings to G-d. Time and again, Moshe requested, “Let my people go, so they could serve Me;” it was never, ‘Let my people go so they could be free!’

Perhaps the idea was to teach Pharaoh a lesson, that indeed there is a G-d, and that G-d is the one who created and runs the world; that Pharaoh is not G-d and he is also subject to G-d’s command. The Egyptian deities had to be destroyed in front of the Egyptians and the Israelites, so that they would all know, beyond a doubt, that those deities are not real. Pharaoh and the Egyptians, as well as the Israelites, had to learn that Hashem is the G-d who runs the world, and that their fate was in His hands. Their life, stability and freedom depended on G-d, and on Him alone. 

It wasn’t until the Israelites called upon Hashem from their desperation, that they were answered. It wasn’t until Pharaoh and the Egyptians proclaimed, “Who is like you oh Hashem?” that they were saved from total annihilaton. 

Had Moshe and Aharon merely asked for freedom from slavery, it is possible that Pharaoh would have acquiesced more easily based on a humanitarian appeal. Maybe he would have found the moral basis to let them be free. Then, there would not have been a religious struggle between the Israelites and the Egyptians. It was specifically the belief in Hashem, both from Pharaoh and the Israelite’s side, that needed to be the driving force in the emergence of the Nation of Israel. The world had to see that Pharaoh had given in to Hashem and acknowledged his presence and omnipotence. 

For the Israelites, freedom alone would have meant nothing.  It would not have made them into a nation; a unique people with belief in G-d and His Torah. Freedom without Torah itself is slavery; it means to be servile to the whim of a human leader or to the fad and fashion of society. Freedom without Torah, is slavery to the relative morality and ethics of the day; it is slavery to the decadence of the culture of the time, and to the dictates of civilization. We see this happening in our times, right in front of our own eyes. All those countries and peoples who rise up seeking freedom and battle the governments that rule them, do not end up finding freedom, but time after time, end up being more repressed by the tyranny of a dictator or a theocrat. 

It is said about the Tablets containing the Ten Commandments, that when Moshe brought them down from Mount Sinai, “The Tablets of the Law, were G-d’s handiwork, and the script was the script of G-d, engraved [חרות] on the Tablets.”  Our Sages teach us that the word חרות – Harut meaning engraved, should be read as Herut – meaning freedom. This is as if to say that freedom can only be attained through the wisdom of Hashem engraved in the Torah. Real freedom is to live as G-d created mankind to live; otherwise, one is subject to one’s own passions, the mores of society, the despotism of a tyrant, or the authoritarianism of the prevailing fashionable culture.