We are almost at the end of the Jewish month of Tevat, getting ready to go into the month of Shvat, and we find ourselves in the throws of the 10 plagues that god has sent against Egypt.  How did we find ourselves in such a predicament?   We are here because god won’t allow Pharaoh to let a bunch of slaves go out on a 3 day journey to make a sacrifice to their god.   What in the world is god trying to tell us with these events?  Well, let us look into these events a little more closely and see what we can see.

If you recall, the parsha (weekly Torah portion) from last week ended with Pharaoh making life harder for the Hebrews just because Moshe (Moses) asked if they could take a few days off in the wilderness to worship god, and Moshe asking god why he asked Moshe to go to Pharaoh.  Why is he the one to make life worse for his people?

This week, we have haShem (god) answering and telling Moshe that he has heard the groan of the people and is going to take them for himself as a people and bring them to the land that was promised to Avraham, Yitzhak (Isaac), and Yaakov (Jacob).  Moshe doesn’t believe that Pharaoh will listen to him because his own people won’t listen, and he has a speech problem.  HaShem commands them (Moshe and Aharon) to go to Pharaoh anyway.  And then we get a segue where we here about the leaders of each of the twelve tribes.  After this interlude we return to our story…

Moshe tells god that Pharaoh won’t listen to him because of his speech problem.  God answers by laying the whole plan out:  Moshe tells Pharaoh to let his people go, god hardens Pharaoh’s heart, and god gets to perform his signs upon the land of Egypt.  This will continue until the Egyptians figure out that god is god, and they let the Hebrews go.  We are then told that Moshe was 80 and Aharon was 83.

So off they go, and all goes according to script.  Moshe and Aharon go to Pharaoh and Pharaoh asks for a wonder.  Aharon throws down his staff and makes a serpent.  The court mages do the same and Aharon’s serpent eats the mages’ serpents.  Pharaoh’s heart gets strengthened, and he ignores them.  The next day, Moshe meets Pharaoh while he is bathing, and turns the water to blood.  Pharaoh has his heart strengthened and ignores them, just as god had said.  We see the same scenario repeated with frogs, with the addition that Pharaoh asks Moshe to talk to god and make them go away.  We then have lice, wild beasts, a plague against all the animals of the Egyptians, boils, and hail.  And this is where we are left hanging.

Well, what can we learn about all this?  A lot.  Last year, I talked about how this was a teaching on how to break old habits.  This year I see it a little differently.  What struck me was the question of why was god making Moshe go thru this process of talking to Pharaoh when he knows that it won’t do any good?  After ever interaction, it seems to read that it went just as god told Moshe it would.  Why is god doing this to poor Moshe?

The answer to me is that he wants Moshe (and us) to learn, understand, and internalize three things:  perseverance, trust, and process.  Let’s start with process.  Why didn’t god just boom, take the people out in one fell swoop.  I think it is for the same reason that he didn’t create the world in one instant:  she wanted to teach us that in this world, big, important things take time to complete.  This leads to the question of why?

The answer to that can be found in a story that we find in the first book of Kings.  In chapter 18 of Kings, we hear how the prophet Eliyahu (Elijah) went up against the priests of Baal, whom the people were following.  Eliyahu made a sacrifice and the priests made a sacrifice, but only Eliyahu’s sacrifice was accepted.  The people were swayed back to god and the priests were rounded up and killed.  Chapter 19 begins with king Achav telling his wife, Jezebel, about the incident, and she sends a message to Eliyahu saying she will kill him.  Eliyahu flees and when he is safe, he asks god to take his life.  This is what is in the bible.  I also recall reading or hearing a story that Jezebel wrote in her message to Eliyahu that he might have won the battle for the people, but in six months time, they would be back on her side worshiping Baal.  Eliyahu knew she was right, and that was why he asked god to take his life (anyone out there familiar with the story and knows the source, please leave a comment below- thanks).

What we can take from this story is that a single event, even a miracle from god, is not enough for somebody to internalize change.  And getting back to our story, this is why god makes Moshe go thru the process over and over again.  He wants to instill in Moshe the idea of perseverance and trust that haShem knows what he is doing.

And how does trust play into this?  Well, haShem is telling Moshe that he will take the people out of Egypt, but not immediately.  First a number of events must take place.  Moshe has to trust that even though he has a speech problem, and even though things seem to be getting worse, this voice and this vision he is having of the divine is true and will happen.  Can you imagine being Moshe?  I think that is why we keep hearing that things went just as god said, to give Moshe a little bit of confidence in his trust.

And finally we come to perseverance.  God tells Moshe that Pharaoh won’t listen.  Moshe must be very frustrated having to go and talk with him knowing it won’t do any good.  Why does god make him go thru this?  The teaching here is that one has to go thru process, even when one knows he will not succeed immediately in order to attain his final reward. Without the work and effort, one cannot have true redemption and success in the deepest levels of her being.

These lessons are not just for Moshe.  If they were, we might not be reading about them.  But we are reading them, and so they are also meant for us.  You see, no big change can ever happen without these three things.  If change happens quickly and without much effort, it won’t last, for the very act of fighting and persevering for something is what solidifies it inside of us.  And the only way that we can persevere is if we have faith that even if it looks like nothing is improving, or even changing, if we keep trying with sincere effort, change will happen and things will get better.  It is kind of how I feel about getting these thoughts out every week.  I started this a few days ago, and, god willing, it will be published on the blog very soon. 🙂

I bless you all that you may find within yourselves faith and perseverance so you can finish the process of whatever you might be going through.  I wish all of you a good week and a good month/Shavuah tov v’chodesh tov,

Ok, I can already hear the questions coming… what if what you are trying to do is not for the good or is not going to be successful?  Am I not suggesting with this Torah that we should keep going anyway?  My answer is  that these questions are addressing another topic that hopefully we will find an answer to later on.  What is being taught here is how to be successful with something big that IS for the good and IS doable.  How and when do we know that it is time to cut our losses is the subject of another discussion.  Thanks for asking though and keep those questions coming!  🙂

If you care 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.