The Parsha begins with the Almighty telling Moses that He is the same G-d Who appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He has heard the cries of His persecuted nation and is aware of His covenant with them. Therefore say to the Children of Israel, “I am G-d, and I will take you out from under the burdens of Egypt; I will rescue you from their service and redeem you…(Exodus 6:2-6) Moses did as he was commanded but the Jews did not accept his message of impending redemption due to the tremendous stress and burden they suffered (they were impatient). The narrative continues with G-d commanding Moses to go directly to Pharaoh and tell him to “let the children of Israel go out of his land.” (v. 7:2). The reader feels the tension building for all participating parties (the Jewish people, Moses, and Pharaoh) but, then suddenly, the story strays in an anticlimactic way. There’s a pause in the action seemingly unrelated to previous or subsequent events. The next twelve verses are a mundane record of the genealogy of Jacob and Leah’s first three children, Reuven, Shimon, and Levi. Levi’s lineage is spelled out in greater detail than the other tribes (Moses and Aaron are from Levi). We know everything about Moses and Aaron, their uncles and extended family. Until now, the story is tense, laden with emotion and conflict and after this anticlimactic genealogical break, the excitement resumes. Why does the Torah suddenly drop the action for no apparent reason? What is the significance of placing so many genealogical details at this time? Rav Shimon Raphael Hirsch (Frankfurt, 1808-1888) sees this as an exposé of a central tenet of Jewish theology. Until now, each attempt made by Moses and Aaron to persuade Pharaoh to release the Jews had been frustrating but from this point onwards, they begin to achieve their goal. They are embarking on a mission which had never been done before or after. The idea of an All Powerful Being coming to the rescue of an afflicted nation wasn’t even fiction in the ancient world. Moses and Aaron would be the emissaries to herald in this event and people might mistakenly attribute divine characteristics to them because no ordinary human would have been able to accomplish the task of leading the delegation against the most power person in the world at the time. In addition, Moses would be the one to bring his people out of the impenetrable Egyptian fortress. It needed to be documented for all time that these emissaries were ordinary human beings, born of a father and mother, and that is why it was so important at this particular time to tell their genealogy. Right from the earliest times it has occurred that men who have shown themselves quite strikingly to be benefactors to their people on account of their ‘godlike” deeds, have been invested after their passing away from this world with a “godly” origin. We know well enough how, later times, a Jew whose geological table was not available, and because it was not available, and he because he brought the world a few sparks of light borrowed from the man Moses, became to be considered by nations as begotten of G-d, and to doubt his divinity became a capital crime. Our Moses was a man, remained a man and is to remain a man…Moses, the greatest man of all time, was just a man, nothing but an ordinary human being. (Hirsch Chumash 6:13-14) Judaism’s greatest gift to humanity was monotheism, which doesn’t just mean a Higher Power, more importantly it means a loving G-d, One Who wants to bestow goodness on humans. Some people say they can’t believe in G-d because there’s so much evil in the world. That means they associate G-d with being kind, and all the evil ‘proves’ He doesn’t exist. But where did they get that idea (that He is kind) from? Was is from the Greeks or Romans, whose gods fought, were immoral and had the same vices as humans? According to Greek mythology, Prometheus gave the human race the gift of fire and the skill of metalwork. Zeus punished him by having an eagle eat the liver of Prometheus as he was helplessly chained to a rock. If Zeus is one’s god, it’s no contradiction that there’s evil in the world. The Jews brought the idea of an all-powerful G-d who fights for a persecuted people. It’s the all powerful yet kind, loving G-d that has been such a challenge for people to believe in when they see all the unnecessary suffering and oppression in the world. Moses and Aaron’s mission was to introduce this “new” G-d to the world but it needed to be done in a way that would be clear that these two were just humans, albeit great humans, like anyone else. G-d placed his trust in humanity but wanted to make sure that people would not deify them and this explains why Moses and Aaron’s genealogy is mentioned here. However, it would have sufficed to tell us who Moses and Aaron’s parents were; why do we also need to have the family of the tribes of Reuven and Shimon, and why do we need to have an elaborate family tree of the tribe of Levi, which tells us who Moses’ cousins were? Although it has been established that Moses was just a mortal human, another erroneous notion might also be believed. One might think that Moses was just an ordinary guy chosen to lead and given the gift of prophecy. A man could be known as a complete idiot today, and tomorrow proclaim the word of G-d. The spirit of G-d could suddenly descend upon an ignorant, uneducated person…[this] phenomenon is not without alleged instance in imaginary or pretended prophets in other circles; and then, the more ignorant, the more uneducated the prophet of today was yesterday, the greater the proof of the divinity of the Call that worked this change. [ibid.] One religion even goes to far as to take pride in the illiteracy of its prophet; the transformation of this person into the transmitter of a work of elegant expression is claimed to be the greatest of all miracles. The Torah lists the genealogy of accomplished people to show that although Moses and Aaron were just humans, they were chosen for the task more than the other tribes and more than the people in their own tribe because they were special; i.e. they had made themselves distinctive. A person must make something of himself or herself before attaining the gift of leadership and prophecy. Only a fully developed mind can understand the word of G-d and transmit it to others. The take home lesson here is clear: G-d wants humans with all their limitations to help their fellows-and no human is G-d. We are tasked with making the most of ourselves and don’t expect G-d to thrust wisdom our way if we haven’t acquired a great deal of it already. Moses’ job was to free the Jewish people from bondage, ours it to free ourselves from the bondage of self. Sometimes it manifests itself by having us feeling insecure and needing others to validate us and our lifestyle, other times it comes to us in the form of arrogance and not caring for the people in our lives. Whatever the case may be, we can’t expect G-d to make something of us before we make something of ourselves. Yet, we have a loving G-d who places His trust in us (humans) and is there to help us-our job is to do what we can and ask for the rest. Good Shabbos

Our Standing Offer    Interested in a one-on-one study? Got a Jewish question you want answered? Is there a specific topic you would like to hear more about? Please contact info@charlottetorahcenter.com and we will make that happen. Good Shabbos   Rabbi Oppenheim Charlotte Torah Center