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The Torah leaves us
basically unprepared for its description of the events that are recorded
for us in this week’s parsha. When we last left the family of Israel at
the conclusion of last week’s parsha of Vayechi, the Jews found
themselves comfortable, affluent, protected and settled well in the land
of Goshen.
The Torah does not
describe to us the process by which this situation so radically changed
into becoming a slave state for the Jews. It only tells us of a new king
who didn’t know Yosef and, for reasons not explicitly mentioned in the
Torah, became a hater and persecutor of the Jews.
The Torah seems to
indicate that this is almost a natural state of affairs – to be expected.
The Egyptian exile begins on a high note, deteriorates into abject sorrow
and attempted genocide and ends with miraculous redemption. The Torah
does not dwell upon any motives for the occurrence of this pattern of
events. What did the Jews do wrong? Why was the Pharaoh such a hater?
What were the economic or social factors of the time that allowed for
such a dramatic worsening of the Jewish position in Egypt?
The Torah addresses
none of these issues. It is almost as if the Torah wishes us to
understand that these things happen blindly in human history. And,
particularly in Jewish history, that the attempts of historians and
sociologists to explain these irrational events and behavior patterns are
really useless.
As has been often
pointed out, all subsequent Jewish exiles – Babylonia, Spain, France,
Germany, Eastern Europe, the Moslem Middle East – all seem to eerily
conform to this original Egyptian template. As usual the Torah leaves us
with more questions than it provides answers for. In effect, that is why
the Torah is called the book of human life.
We are also
unprepared to recognize the savior of Israel in the person of Moses. We
are told how he was miraculously saved from the crocodiles of the Nile by
the daughter of the Pharaoh and raised in the royal court. He sympathizes
with the brutalized Jewish slaves, defends them, and is forced to flee
from Egypt.
We hear nothing
regarding Moses for the next sixty years until he reemerges as a shepherd
in Midian, married to the daughter of Yitro, the local religious chief
who, at this time, is still a pagan. Hardly the resume’ that one would
expect for the leader of Israel, the greatest of all prophets and the
teacher of all human kind.
Where did his
holiness and greatness stem from, how was it developed, who were his
mentors and what were his experiences over those long decades of separation
from his people? The Torah gives us no clue or answer to these questions.
It effectively points out that greatness oftentimes comes from unexpected
sources and from people and leaders who operate outside of the usual
establishment circles.
All of life is a
mystery and certainly the Jewish story remains in its base an
inexplicable one. This sets the stage for everything else that will now
follow in the Torah. It is why the Jewish people, when accepting the
Torah pledge to God that “we will do and then perhaps try to understand,”
if we wish to understand first we will never come to do. The Divine hand
guides us but it is never subject to our rational thoughts and
explanations.
Shabat shalom.
Rabbi Berel Wein
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