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Vaera. Two ways of learning to be free

Today is day 476 of captivity of israeli hostages in Gaza, as well as the end of the first week of the beginning of the hoped process of their release.


And believe it or not, parashat vaera recounts the beginning of the negociations between Moshe and Pharaoh, to let the hebrew captives go free.


But there is a paradox there:On the one hand, God says to Moshe: 

בֹּ֣א דַבֵּ֔ר אֶל־פַּרְעֹ֖ה מֶ֣לֶךְ מִצְרָ֑יִם וִֽישַׁלַּ֥ח אֶת־בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מֵֽאַרְצֽוֹ:

“Come and speak to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, so he will send the Israelites out of his land.” (shemot 6.11)



On the other hand, he warns him:


וַֽאֲנִ֥י אַקְשֶׁ֖ה אֶת־לֵ֣ב פַּרְעֹ֑ה וְהִרְבֵּיתִ֧י אֶת־אֹֽתֹתַ֛י וְאֶת־מֽוֹפְתַ֖י בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם:

Nonetheless, I will make Pharaoh insensitive. I will thereby increase My signs and marvels in Egypt. (shemot 6.3)


Why would God send Moshe to a mission that is supposed to meet an obstacle? Why should the Divine close Pharaoh’s heart to Moshe’s plead for Freedom?This question has occupied commentators for millenia.


Today the Mei ha shiloach is once again inviting a luminous insight, different from classical interpretations.


First, he starts by reminding us that at this stage, it is not only Pharaoh who couldn’t listen to Moshe. Bnei Israel also couldn’t, “because of shortness of breath and hard enslavement”


To explain this, the Mei Hashiloach brings the Midrash (Tanchuma, Vaeira, 2):

מן שטיא לית הניא אלא מן קצייא

“ from acacia wood there is no advantage, only from thorns.” 


The acacia, he will suggest, is Bnei Israel. They can’t listen to Moshe. Nothing can come out of such a blockage, until they are capable of opening their hearts to receive words of hope.


The thorns, he suggests, is Pharaoh. And thorns, although they hurt, can help more.Why is that?In the biblical narrative, Pharaoh’s resistance will become the opportunity for the divine to display the “signs and wonders” which are the deeper message of the whole process that precedes the exodus from Egypt.


In real life, obstacles are what make us grow. 


Today, Jews in Israel and in the world, those in captivity and those waiting for them, as the one writing these lines, are receiving a calling to learn from both of them, from Bnei Israel and Pharaoh in both ways: 


On the one hand, now is a time to breathe deeper so we can be capable of believing in messages of hope.


On the other hand, now is a time to use the thorn to grow beyond our current limitations, and do what it takes to set ourselves free.


Shabbat shalom




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