Reflections from Rabbi Ellis

This week we start a whole new book of the Torah, Shmote. We are now starting the second part of the Torah. The last twelve weeks we witnessed the weaving together of twelve brothers into one family, one tribe. The next four books of the Torah will deal essentially with this generation, where we transition from a family into twelve tribes and then into one nation.

We start with a new creation story this week. The previous book of the Torah started with the creation of the world from nothing. The beginning of the Shmote is the creation and oppression of the nation of Israel or at least the Twelve Tribes. The whole next four books of the Torah are about the challenge of integrating disparate tribes into one nation.

Parsha Shmote is a Parsha of heartbreak and disappointment. Things just keep on getting worse.  Eleven lines in and we are already being oppressed and abused. The Egyptians go on to murder Jewish children, finally the Pharaoh decrees the death of all male children, and we haven’t even finished the first paragraph. Moshe’s birth is amazing, and his deliverance is astounding, but his performance disappoints everyone this week, especially himself. It’s hard to find any challenge that was met, rather Moshe runs from and into failures.

It’s a lot to take and Moshe is unable to, understandably. Moshe takes big steps as a youth and as an old man trying to make things better for the Jews and in both cases, he fails to do so. At the end of our Parsha his actions have even made our situation worse. Both as an Egyptian and an Israelite Moshe is unable to create any positive outcome for his brothers. He is all out of options, and this is just the first time he met Pharoah.

The result of all great change is disappointment. Regardless of how necessary or beneficial the change might be, it will always be followed by disappointment. The question is not whether we can stay true to our vision when times are difficult, it is whether we can stay true to our values when they have let us down. Isn’t that supposed to be the bargain, right living gets right rewards or at the very least a little less suffering in this world.

Moshe believes that diplomacy is better than war. There must be a way to get the Children of Israel out of Egypt without destroying this land that fostered two people. Moshe soon learns that the new Egypt is the same as the one he left and appealing for justice will just be met with aggression and murder. Moshe is unable to get Pharoah to restrain himself and so he has no choice but war. Moshe meets only with disappointments in his efforts, but there is no change.

Often when we strive to create change in our lives, we meet with a wave of disappointment long before the sought change. How can I be disappointed if nothing happened yet? The answer is that the main part of the change occurred the moment you commit to it.  Disappointment comes often to show us the effectiveness of the change we have just started to create.

Shabbat Shalom!

Yehoshua