Parashat Va'era

Parashat Va’era
Tevet 26, 5772 ~ January 20, 2012
Jay Koppelman

Several years ago a hideous crime, a parent’s dreaded nightmare, was brought dramatically to the attention of the American public. A thirteen year old boy, apparently much loved, was kidnapped from a quiet neighborhood where he lived. The only clue was a general description of a rapidly speeding vehicle racing through the otherwise quiet neighborhood.

Working from that description, the police were able to identify a number of suspect vehicles which eventually lead them to the kidnapper. Thankfully, along with the kidnapper they discovered the kidnapped boy apparently safe and in good health. But along with that discovery they uncovered yet another long unsolved kidnapping. They found a second victim who had been held by the very same kidnapper for over four years.

That child, it turned out, had been allowed a fair amount of independence and yet had never reached out to seek his parents. How can this be so? Not so surprising, after all, say psychologists who tell us that this is not at all uncommon. They call it the Stockholm Syndrome which only tells us that it is common enough to have a name – a name we probably all recognize.

Psychologists tell us that in order to survive in wretched circumstances we tend to identify with and accept things we can’t change. Kidnapped children, abused spouses and oppressed people in all sorts of situations, whether oppressed as individuals or collectively as groups or even as whole populations come to accept some of the worst conditions imaginable with a degree of equanimity because to do otherwise would have horrible consequences.

And what has this to do with Va’eira the second parsha in the Book of Exodus? In this parsha we find Hashem speaking to Moshe telling him of his plan to take the Children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, to redeem them and take them for his own chosen people and then to deliver them to the Land of Israel thus fulfilling his promise to Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaacov.

The parsha then goes on to relate how Hashem instructs a still reluctant Moshe how to approach Pharaoh in his bid to free the Jewish slaves and then describes the powers Moshe ultimately employs in his confrontations with Pharaoh and his court. And finally it describes the first seven plagues that Hashem turns upon the Egyptians.

For over 200 years the Jews had suffered in slavery. But the prospect of following the lead of Moshe to seek their freedom was not a welcome one. They had made their accommodation with the ugly reality of their existence and feared the consequences of a search for freedom. We saw in Shemot how the Jews rejected Moshe’s bid for leadership on their behalf and here we see it once again.

“Moshe spoke thus to the children of Israel, but they did not hearken to Moshe because of [their] shortness of breath and because of [their] hard labor. The Lord spoke to Moshe, saying, ‘Come, speak to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and he will let the children of Israel out of his land.’ But Moshe spoke before the Lord, saying, ‘Behold, the children of Israel did not hearken to me. How then will Pharaoh hearken to me, seeing that I am of closed lips?’”

The Jews were a people out of breath, out of spirit and consumed with their labors. They had fully accommodated to their horribly unchangeable reality and couldn’t see a way to call out to Hashem though he was nearer than they could ever imagine. Even with the power of Hashem at his disposal, Moshe still couldn’t really conceive that he could succeed on the Jews’ behalf.

Well we are here today, living our lives as Jews because ultimately Moshe did undertake his leadership role and the Jews followed, though with ambivalence and reluctance. Thankfully, our burden today is not to escape from slavery though we do have enormous tasks before us. Today we have much to do to help secure the survival of Israel and to build a Jewish community that will carry the mitzvot forward to future generations. We must banish any ill conceived sense that we cannot do these things. We can do these things. Hashem is nearer than we can ever imagine.