Parashat “Shemot” (Exodus 1:1-6:1)
for the week of December 25th, 2010
What has been the secret of the Jewish people’s strength? This week’s portion, Shemot (the first in Exodus) seems to suggest that our power resides in large numbers. We read that the Israelites in Egypt were so fertile that “…they multiplied and increased very greatly, so that the land was filled with them (Ex. 1:7).” Then, the new Pharaoh warns that “…the Israelite people are much too numerous for us (Ex. 1:9)” and need to be controlled. Rabbi Andrea Weiss points out that even the use of the word, “people” in reference to the Israelites (who previously had been called only ‘the children of Israel’) ‘…marks a new era in Israel’s history.’ She explains that ‘…an extended family or clan, has now become a people.’ But as Rabbi Weiss also points out, it is ironic that the king feels threatened by a people who, despite their rapid population growth, still constitute a small minority in Egypt.* But is it truly strength of numbers that makes the Israelites a “great” nation?
Interpreting Pharaoh’s warning that the Israelites have grown ‘much too numerous for us’ (lit., “mighty and great”), the Hasidic teacher, Rabbi Sholom Rokeach** draws an analogy to a few days after the Torah was read. He notes that all of the prayers offered began, “May it be the will of our Father in Heaven...”. Only the last prayer began with “Our brethren, all of the House of Israel…” and did not start with the phrase “May it be the will of our Father in Heaven.” The rebbe explained that at such a moment, when all of Israel felt itself to be standing united as brothers, there was no need to pray that it would be a time of God’s favor because no time could be more favorable in God’s eyes.***
Our people’s strength, according to the Belzer Rebbe, is not in vast numbers but in our unity, in our sense of Jewish connectedness, in our feelings of responsibility and love for each other. According to this interpretation, what Pharaoh feared was not so much the Jewish population explosion but rather our potential to act as one—the great potential power that comes from being joined by a common purpose rooted in deeply shared values.
These days, one can’t help reading the Belzer’s profound observation with feelings of longing, concern and regret. Echoing the general mood of discontent, anxiety and intolerance in the country, too much discourse within the Jewish community has grown harsh, accusatory and destructive. Whether the subject is relations with Muslim Americans, the peace process in Israel, intermarriage, Jewish religious observance or our relationship with the Jewish State, we too often seem unable to talk (let alone differ) without descending into vitriol. That development is especially worrisome because of another teaching about Jewish unity, the one that says the Second Temple was only destroyed because of sinat chinam (‘causeless hatred’) among Jews.**** If our people’s great strength comes from feeling that we stand together as brothers and sisters, then one of the biggest threats to our future arises when we forget that we are one, that we must be one, even when we disagree about the best way forward.
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*Commentary on Exodus 1:9 in , The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, eds., Tamara Cohn Eskenazi & Andrea L. Weiss (New York: Union for Reform Judaism Press, 2008), pg. 308.
**Rabbi Sholom Rokeach (1779-1855), also known as Sar Shalom (‘Minister of Peace’) was the first Belzer Rebbe. Belz is a town in Poland/Ukraine.
***This commentary on Exodus 1:9 is quoted in Itturei Torah (Tel Aviv: Yavneh Publishing House Ltd., 1985) Vol. 3, pg. 10. I’ve provided the English translation.
****See, for example, Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yoma 9b