By: Rabbi Dr John Levi, Rabbi Emeritus of
Temple Beth Israel
, Victoria, Australia
The story of Joseph is over. His descendents have brought his embalmed body ‘home’. And now we begin a new book of the Torah and its opening chapters contain some surprises.
First of all, despite the list of the tribes of Israel, the opening narrative is all about women: the midwives of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, the desperate courage of the mother of Moses, the presence of mind shown by Miriam, and the merciful act of the Egyptian princess. The wife of Moses, Zipporah, will make a dramatic entrance towards the end of the parashah. We tend to overlook their presence because the book of Exodus confronts us with the drama of the bush that will not burn, the revelation of God’s name and the duel Moses conducts with Pharoah (and his magicians) to let his people go.
There is one more element worth considering. Quite recently, in Australia, I attended a special symposium on the role of the judiciary and the framers of the law. No less than three members of the Supreme Court of the United States had been invited to attend and the debate focused on the authority of the law. After all, in a democracy we elect our lawgivers. The ultimate source of power is the people. However we also appoint judges who, in later years, decide what the law means and who can interpret those laws in new and original ways.
As a highly respected Supreme Court judge explained: ‘The most important sentence ever written comes in the story of the Exodus and says “And there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph”‘ (Exodus 1:8). A number of thoughts flashed into my mind. I instantly knew that the judge was Jewish because that sentence is included in the Haggadah. And then I wondered about all the other verses in Jewish tradition that he could have chosen – the Shema, the Code of Holiness in Leviticus, the Ten Commandments. But no, he repeated his not-so-random remark and explained that this verse in the first chapter of Exodus is the cornerstone of civilization itself. Rulers come and go. Regimes will change. The god-like mighty Pharoah was mortal and the monumental pyramids are indications of that immutable fact. And therefore the laws governing human behaviour must be treasured and interpreted and handed on from one generation to the next. And that is exactly the way Judaism works. No one should ever make the mistake of relying on the power of one man who may not ‘know Joseph’.
Progressive Judaism does not hand over our minds and our power to choose between good and evil to another. Even as he stood at the bush that would not burn Moses dared to argue with God and protest that he would be incapable to rescuing his people from Egypt. And the divine name revealed at that time repeats the message. ‘
Ehiyeh asher Ehiyeh’
is the proclamation that has many layers of meaning. From it, however, we clearly learn that God is present in the future as well as the past and the present. It is this infinite timelessness that confronts us as we read the story of a people’s search for freedom in the wilderness of Sinai.
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By: Rabbi Dr John Levi, Rabbi Emeritus of
Temple Beth Israel
, Victoria, Australia
The story of Joseph is over. His descendents have brought his embalmed body ‘home’. And now we begin a new book of the Torah and its opening chapters contain some surprises.
First of all, despite the list of the tribes of Israel, the opening narrative is all about women: the midwives of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, the desperate courage of the mother of Moses, the presence of mind shown by Miriam, and the merciful act of the Egyptian princess. The wife of Moses, Zipporah, will make a dramatic entrance towards the end of the parashah. We tend to overlook their presence because the book of Exodus confronts us with the drama of the bush that will not burn, the revelation of God’s name and the duel Moses conducts with Pharoah (and his magicians) to let his people go.
There is one more element worth considering. Quite recently, in Australia, I attended a special symposium on the role of the judiciary and the framers of the law. No less than three members of the Supreme Court of the United States had been invited to attend and the debate focused on the authority of the law. After all, in a democracy we elect our lawgivers. The ultimate source of power is the people. However we also appoint judges who, in later years, decide what the law means and who can interpret those laws in new and original ways.
As a highly respected Supreme Court judge explained: ‘The most important sentence ever written comes in the story of the Exodus and says “And there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph”‘ (Exodus 1:8). A number of thoughts flashed into my mind. I instantly knew that the judge was Jewish because that sentence is included in the Haggadah. And then I wondered about all the other verses in Jewish tradition that he could have chosen – the Shema, the Code of Holiness in Leviticus, the Ten Commandments. But no, he repeated his not-so-random remark and explained that this verse in the first chapter of Exodus is the cornerstone of civilization itself. Rulers come and go. Regimes will change. The god-like mighty Pharoah was mortal and the monumental pyramids are indications of that immutable fact. And therefore the laws governing human behaviour must be treasured and interpreted and handed on from one generation to the next. And that is exactly the way Judaism works. No one should ever make the mistake of relying on the power of one man who may not ‘know Joseph’.
Progressive Judaism does not hand over our minds and our power to choose between good and evil to another. Even as he stood at the bush that would not burn Moses dared to argue with God and protest that he would be incapable to rescuing his people from Egypt. And the divine name revealed at that time repeats the message. ‘
Ehiyeh asher Ehiyeh’
is the proclamation that has many layers of meaning. From it, however, we clearly learn that God is present in the future as well as the past and the present. It is this infinite timelessness that confronts us as we read the story of a people’s search for freedom in the wilderness of Sinai.