January 24, 2004 D'var TorahDear BSO Congregant, This coming Shabbat, January 23 -24, 2004 - Shevat 1, 5764, we will read Parshat Va-Ayra (annual cycle - Exodus 6:2 - 9:35; triennial cycle - Exodus 8:16 - 9:35). There will be a Maftir Reading for Shabbat Rosh Hodesh from Numbers 28:9-15. The Haftarah for Shabbat Rosh Hodesh is from Isaiah 66:1-24; 66:23. This Torah portion begins by informing us how unknown God was to the Israelites in Egypt. God instructs Moses to remind the Israelites of the covenant established with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob many generations prior. The promise of that covenant will not be forgotten. It is renewed through the following words from Moses to the Israelites:
“…And I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God. And you shall know that I, the Lord, am your God, who freed you from the labors of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and I will give it to you for possession, I, the Lord.” (Exodus 6:7-8)
However, Verse 9 informs us, “But when Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to Moses, their spirits crushed by cruel bondage.”
Last Shabbat afternoon at our Minha service the phrase, “They would not listen to Moses,” jumped out at me. The text was now telling me that Moses was not succeeding in getting the message across to the Israelites because the Israelites thought the message came from Moses, not God. While I trust that Moses quoted God verbatim and ended this speech with the phrase, “Ah-nee Adonai-I the Lord,” the Israelites were really not yet ready to listen. All they heard was Moses, the former prince of Egypt, speaking words that seemed foreign and remote. They were not able to differentiate the message from the messenger, and in this case, Moses was the messenger, but the message was from God.
Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase, “The medium is the message.” The ways in which messages are packaged and presented are extremely important to the person receiving the message. Our generation knows that at least as well as any generation that ever existed in history. How a message is packaged and presented has a tremendous impact upon the success of the message reaching its intended audience. Just ask Howard Dean, John Kerry, John Edwards and Dick Gephardt.
Moses had the right message, but he didn’t have an effective medium. That is created in the rest of this and next week’s Torah portions. Parashat Va-ayra is the first of the two Torah portions where we read about the ten plagues. Perhaps no message was ever more dramatically and powerfully presented than the message which eventually reached even the palace of Pharaoh – the message that slavery is unacceptable and only God is worthy of worship.
Exodus 6:9 reminds us that Moses could say the right words, even words that came directly from God, but when the congregation isn’t ready to hear and listen, the message falls on deaf ears. I know this lesson quite well with our own congregation. There are often times when I am ready to deliver a sermon or share a certain idea. I attempt to do so, and formulate it in ways that I hope will be interesting and appreciated by the congregation. But sometimes, the timing just isn’t right. Sometimes, the way I present it makes the message seem as if it’s simply my agenda, as opposed to a message derived from our common Jewish tradition which hopefully will speak to most, if not all, of us.
Moses is indeed “Moshe Rabbenu-Moses our teacher,” the first and greatest rabbi. He was persistent and eventually, after much encouragement from God, he succeeded in presenting this message of freedom and the renewal of the covenant to the Israelite people. When he did so, his congregation finally realized that the words he was sharing were not so much his own as much as they were “Divrei Elohim Hayim – the words of the God of life,” for the Israelite people, and often, for all of humanity.
There will be no e-mail D’var Torah next week. Our Friday night service will begin at 7:30 PM Candle lighting time is 4:58 PM Our service on Shabbat morning, will begin at 9:15 AM (this will be the time of Shabbat morning services through February 21). Our Shabbat Minha service will begin at 1:45 PM, after Kiddush Konversation. Our service on Sunday morning, January 25 will begin at 8:45 AM. There will also be a Sunday evening yahrtzeit minyan at 7:30 PM. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Philip Pohl
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