|
|
||
HOME
|
|
Drash
for Shabbat Shemot Our Torah portion, Shemot, chronicles the names of the people, in conjunction with a series of sentinel events, which becomes the prologue for the book of Exodus. Exodus has evolved from our story, the liberation of our ancestors, to the popularized stories portrayed by Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments and DreamWorks', The Prince of Egypt. This theatrical transformation is both easy and simple as the principles that define the events are timeless and as applicable today as they were thousands of years ago; question authority despite self doubt, help those who cannot help themselves, and failure precedes success. It was a dark time for the Hebrews. Jacob’s descendents, who had initially been welcomed, thrived, and prospered among the Egyptians, now found that they were enslaved, forced to perform tortuous backbreaking labor, and threatened with extermination under a royal decree by Pharaoh to drown all male children that were born to them. Moses survived his birth not just through his mother’s love and defiance but because the midwives, who had been ordered to kill the newborn male Hebrews, defied Pharaohs’ authority. When God reveals himself to Moses at the burning bush, rather than obediently following his instructions, Moses defies divine authority by arguing with God until the Lord becomes angry. As Exodus unfolds Moses repeatedly suffers self doubt, questions his ability to lead his people by blindly following the Lord, and continues the theme of defiantly arguing with God until God’s authority and wisdom becomes self evident. As a young man Moses is forced to flee Egypt after he defends and saves a Hebrew’s life by killing the Egyptian who was beating the Hebrew slave. His first act after he escapes to the land of Midian is to aid and rescue seven women who are turned away from gathering life giving water for their fathers’ flock of sheep. Moses repeatedly assumes the role as a provider of aid during, and after, his transformation into the leader of his people. As Shemot comes to a conclusion, Moses cries out to God that in spite of his own best personal efforts, he has failed both God and his people. Rather than liberating the Hebrew’s, his labors have only made their deplorable situation worse. A terrible failure that precedes a success that is literally of biblical proportion. Question authority despite self doubt, help those who cannot help themselves, and failure precedes success. These universal concepts keep replaying throughout our lives and are symbolic, albeit in a miniscule proportion to Moses’ experience, of what our children learn through their Bar and Bat Mitzvah experience. There are no Jewish parents present who have not had to respond to the defiant pleas of their self doubting 12 year old child, "I can’t do this, or this is too hard, or I’m not going to Hebrew school anymore, or I’m not going to meet with the Rabbi or Cantor today…" as their religious training intensifies on the cusp of their transition into the responsibilities of religious adulthood. The Mitzvah project that they perform provides aid to the less fortunate members of our community. And finally, as they stumble and fail individual steps of the B’nai Mitzvah process they go on to achieve the success of completing a time honored rite of passage, their Bar or Bat Mitzvah, which connects them with their Judaic ancestors, their families, and the Jewish community at large. Shemot teaches us, that despite troubling times, great leaders are not born into greatness but are sculpted by the events, the people around them, and their personal faith in something larger and more important than them self. From simple and humble beginnings we revel in the greatness that our children, as they are molded by teachings of faith and knowledge seasoned with a combination of predictable and unpredictable events, bring into our lives and into our world. Shabbat Shalom.
|
