Parashat Sh'mot (Exodus 1:1 - 6:1)

by Rabbi Pete Tobias of The Liberal Synagogue Elstree

Summary
The opening section of the book of Exodus moves the story of the Israelite people from the arrival of Jacob’s sons (the Children of Israel) in the land of Egypt to a point where, after a period of enslavement, they are about to be led to freedom by Moses.  Events, well known and less familiar, follow one another in quick succession so that the scene can be set for the confrontation between the Israelite leader and the Egyptian Pharaoh (who, despite the assertions of many historians remains anonymous).  These events, and the narrative that frames them, take us through Moses’ childhood, where he escapes drowning in the Nile that is the fate of his fellow Israelite male children as Pharaoh attempts to minimise the threat posed to his people by the burgeoning Israelite population.  The story of Moses being placed in a basket on the river Nile and then found in the bulrushes by Pharaoh’s daughter is well-known, as is Moses’ flight following the killing of the Egyptian taskmaster.  Less well-known, perhaps, are episodes such as Moses’ marriage to Zipporah and the birth of their son Gershom.  At the heart of this parashah is Moses’ famous encounter with God at the burning bush in the wilderness.

Commentary

The burning bush, from which God spoke to Moses, is one of the best-known episodes in the Torah.  Before the encounter, Moses was a shepherd, with mixed (and possibly confused) memories of the place of his birth.  Afterwards, he was – however reluctantly – the man who would confront the Pharaoh and ultimately lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt to freedom and into history.  What was it that Moses experienced, what actually happened to bring about this transformation from lonely shepherd to political leader?  The key is clearly Moses’ encounter at the burning bush.

Was this something like what Moses saw?  Flames consuming a bush and leaving it unscathed?  We’ll acome back to this picture shortly. As the biblical account tells us, Moses was so intrigued by the vision that he turned away from the path in order to look more closely.  Once he got close, he heard the voice of God speaking, telling him that he, Moses, must lead the Israelites from slavery to freedom.  Moses protested that the Israelites would not acknowledge his leadership – a conversation between Moses and God to be repeated in the coming chapters of Exodus.

But we know that Moses does indeed take on the task and that he will lead the Israelites, not only from slavery in Egypt, but to the borders of the Promised Land. The impact of the encounter at the burning bush cannot be overestimated: it changed the course not only of Moses’ life but of the enslaved Israelites and, the whole of western civilisation, since the story of the Exodus from Egypt and its emphasis on the human right to freedom lies at the heart of Judaism the religions that derived from it.

‘The ground on which you are standing is holy ground,’ Moses is told as he approaches this extraordinary vision.  Truly an exceptional and mystical experience.  From this experience, Moses gains inspiration and finds the courage to overcome his own doubts and misgivings to take on the role of leadership.  But the question still remains: was this encounter in the wilderness a unique meeting with God or something less mystical?

In the end, we will never know.  But I think the change that Moses underwent, turning from a lost shepherd to a reluctant leader, was the result of a personal epiphany, a realisation that he had a responsibility to return from his self-imposed exile and play his part in securing freedom for his people.  Perhaps what he saw in the wilderness was a sunset, a natural phenomenon that inspired him and encouraged him to rethink his priorities.

That picture of the burning bush? What I showed above was just a section of it – here is the whole thing.  It’s a picture I took on my mobile phone from the passenger seat of a car of the sun setting behind a row of trees.   Just a Hertfordshire country lane.  And no, I didn’t hear a voice telling me to take off my shoes.  But it made me realise that inspiring visions are available to all of us in the most unlikely of places – how we interpret them and what we do as a consequence of them depends on us.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Pete Tobias
The Liberal Synagogue Elstree

You can hear Rabbi Pete on BBC Radio 2 on Good Morning Sunday with Aled Jones on Sunday 4th February 2007 between 7.30 and 8.00 am and giving a Pause for Thought on Wake up to Wogan on Tuesdays beginning on March 6th 2007