Hello my friends and welcome to Names!

Ok, for some of you, welcome to Shmot (which means names in Hebrew), and is the name of this week’s parsha (Torah portion), as well as the name of the second book of the Torah (which some of you know as Exodus).  In it we find the beginnings of our hero Moshe (Moses).  So, let’s not waste another minute.  Let’s jump right in…

The parsha begins with us recounting who came with Yaakov (Jacob) into Egypt and how quickly the children of Yaakov multiplied and filled up Egypt.  We then read of a new king in Egypt, one that did not know of Yoseph (Joseph), who, out of fear, told his people to start oppressing them.  This led to faster proliferation, which led to harsher methods of population control like killing all the male babies.  The midwives wouldn’t do it, so the Egyptians resorted to tossing them into the Nile.

Moshe’s mother places him in a basket and places him in the Nile where he is found by the daughter of Pharaoh who raises him as her own.  Moshe grows up knowing he is from the children of Yaakov,  and one day kills an Egyptian task-master who is beating one of his brothers.  This soon becomes known to Pharaoh and Moshe flees for his life.  He winds up in Midyan where he helps the daughters of the priest of Midyan water their sheep.  The priest gives him one of his daughters as a wife and he becomes a shepherd for the priest.

The Egyptians out for Moshe’s blood eventually die, and the children of Yaakov cry out to haShem (god) who remembers his promises to Avraham, Yitzhak (Isaac), and Yaakov to take the people out of Egypt and bring them to Cnaan.

So, one day, Moshe sees a thorn bush burning without being consumed.  He stops to check it out, and winds up talking with haShem who tells him to meet his brother because he, Moshe, is going to lead his people out of Egypt.

Moshe returns to his father-in-law and tells him what has happened and asks for permission to go back to Egypt.  His father-in-law gives it and tells him to go in peace.  On the way, he meets an angel who is ready to kill his first born son, until Moshe’s wife, Tzipporah, circumcises him.

Meanwhile god tells Moshe’s brother Aharon to go meet up with Moshe.  They meet and go and gather the elders of the family together, and the elders listen to Moshe’s story, and believe it, and they all go to Pharaoh to ask for a trip to the wilderness to worship their god.

Pharaoh says no and makes things harder for the children of Yaakov.  The people complain to Moshe, who complains to god, who says to just be patient, that “We have Pharaoh right where we want him, for with a mighty hand will he send the people away!”

This is where the parsha leaves us hanging.  Quite the cliff hanger.  Makes it hard to wait till next week to read what happens next, right?

Well before we get there, let’s see what this parsha is telling me to share with you.  I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to say until I started writing this.  Then it really hit me:  we have two very good examples of a very important principle.

This principle is that nothing is so important that you can ignore your responsibilities to start something new.

Before I show how I see it in the parsha, I want to share a teaching in the Gomorrah/Talmud (a sacred text from our people’s oral tradition) that says that when the meshiach (messiah) comes, if you are busy planting a tree, you should finish planting the tree before going to see the messiah.

We see this same idea in the parsha.  First we see it right after Moshe talks with god at the burning bush.  Does he drop everything and high-tail it back to Egypt, leaving burnt rubber behind him?  No.  He has a responsibility to his father-in-law to make sure his sheep are well taken care of.  So, he brings the sheep home, and then he tells his father-in-law what happened and asks him for permission to leave.

Now, when he asks for permission, it isn’t that Moshe is a child.  It is really that Moshe wants to make sure that the sheep, HIS responsibility, will be taken back by his father in law.  Once he knows that obligation is discharged, he feels he can leave.

The second place we see this idea, even more strongly, is after Moshe takes his family and starts on his way back to Egypt.  It is time for his son to get circumcised, but he is in too much of a hurry.

How many times have we been this way?  If we have an obligation to someone else, we will take care of it before we pursue something very important and urgent.  However, when it comes to something we, ourselves need, when it comes to a personal obligation, we ignore it for this seemingly more important thing.

The Torah, however, is telling us not to do this.  What happens when we ignore our own needs?  We get hurt, maybe even die.

Moshe decides it is more important to go back to Egypt than it is to circumcise his son.  As a result an angel comes down ready to kill him.  The only thing that can save him is to fulfill his obligation.  Thank god he had a wife who could figure this out and do the circumcision.  The moment that is done, the angel leaves Moshe alone, and the rest is, as we say, history.

What an important teaching to give us.  And one that is so hard for us to do!  At least it is for me 🙂 However, I hope everybody can take this teaching to heart and learn that nothing is so important that you should forego your obligations to others, and especially to yourself.

A bonus question:  what is the connection between the Moshe almost losing his firstborn here, and Pharaoh and all of Egypt actually losing their first born before letting us go?  I don’t have an answer, but I would love to hear your thoughts.  Feel free to write a comment to this blog.

If you want to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.