Torah This Week
Welcome to Torah This Week, where you will find thoughts and reflections by CLAL faculty and associates on the Torah portion of the week.
PARASHAT SHEMOT
(Exodus 1: 1 - 6:1)
Moses, who had grown up in Pharaoh's palace, chances on a horrifying scene of
injustice, an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Moses does not act impulsively, but rather looks
about, to see if there is someone else to save the Hebrew slave. Seeing no one, Moses
feels compelled to intervene and kills the Egyptian. The tradition has difficulties
reconciling the image of Moses as the teacher of Torah with Moses as a man of force. This
is reflected in the following discussion. One rabbi tells us, "Moses struck the
Egyptian with his fist and killed him." But the other sage explains, "Moses
overpowered his enemy by uttering God's name".
These two different interpretations reflect a debate with profound contemporary
implications: Should the Jew respond to enemies with physical force or rely upon God to
save the Jewish people from destruction?
For 1800 years, rabbinic Judaism in the face of exile and political powerlessness
developed a rich and creative culture of learning, piety and prayer. Covenantal
consciousness was nurtured primarily by a sense of dependency upon God and patient waiting
for the "appointed time," when God would redeem us from the suffering condition
of exile. To assume power was to rebel against God -- we were, so to speak, to use God's
name.
The political renewal of the Jewish people in this century challenges this understanding.
The existence of the State of Israel and the radical shift from political powerlessness to
power prevents Judaism from being exclusively described as a culture of learning and
prayer. We now must bring covenantal consciousness beyond the circumscribed borders of
home and synagogue into the realm of power and politics.
The rabbis cited above saw Moses as either using force or using God's name. Our challenge
is to integrate the two -- to be passionately concerned about the moral/covenantal quality
of our army and our politics -- to develop a sense of covenantal holiness in an
unprecedented moment of Jewish power.
(Irwin Kula)
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