Torah Sparks
Exodus 1:1 – 6:1
Our Torah portion moves us into the new era of Israelite peoplehood. The Patriarchal generations have died out and the family of Israel has become a nation. But our birth as a nation takes place under difficult circumstances. This birth takes place in a foreign land and culture. We are strangers in Egypt and subjected to the fear and oppression of a nation greater in numbers, power and rootedness in their own homeland.
Our Torah portion spans a long period of our subjugation and enslavement. Yet, we also encounter the first glimmerings of a change in our destiny. Moses is chosen by God to begin the difficult process of extrication of Israel from Egypt. This reluctant leader finds the start of his mission to be full of challenge and failure. The end of our portion presents a dramatic set of encounters that take place among Moses, Pharaoh, the Hebrew taskmasters and their Israelite peons, and God.
Moses’ demand – commissioned by God – that Pharaoh release the Israelites achieves the opposite effect. Pharaoh makes their conditions of servitude even more stringent. The implementation of this new policy falls to the taskmasters who are, themselves, Israelites. The Torah reports: “And the Israelite taskmasters saw them [- the Israelites] with evil, saying, ‘Don’t dare lessen your [numbers of] bricks!’ day by day.” (Ex. 5:19)
We witness a depressing scene of what seems like wicked collaboration on the part of a select portion of the Israelite people who act harshly toward their own brothers and sisters. Yet, the very next verse presents their complaint to Moses and Aaron: “May God appear to you and judge you for having put us in bad odor with Pharaoh and his courtiers, putting into their hands a sword to mill us!” (v. 21)
What is the nature of their complaint? Are they really deeply concerned for the welfare of their people and furious at Moses and Aaron for making matters so much worse? Have we misjudged the taskmasters? Or are they complaining about themselves and the extra burden that has been placed upon them in enforcing the new rules? Have the taskmasters been extra cruel to the Israelites as they follow Pharaoh’s orders, or have they only been making a show of it? Each reader of the story is invited to imagine what has really happened.
And that ambiguity may color how we read Moses’ response. It is noteworthy that he does not get into an argument with the taskmasters. Instead he turns back to God and holds God responsible for the evil situation that the people are suffering. Why has God not saved them? (vv. 22-23) Moses holds God responsible, and he also blames Pharaoh. But he doesn’t mention the taskmasters at all. Does Moses’ challenge to God simply refer to the servitude of the slaves? Or, does it also include the impossible situation in which the taskmasters find themselves? And does it possibly refer to the tragic deformity suffered within the psyche and conscience of the Hebrew taskmaster?
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi David Greenstein
image: “Twice a Face” © Patrik Theander altered and used with permission via Creative Commons License 2.0
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