By Rabbi Paul L. Saal

A Drash on Va’eira (Exodus 6:2-9:35)

This coming Shabbat will fall precisely three weeks after the New Year  in accord with the western secular calendar, the one by which a majority of Jewish people worldwide conduct their normal life’s business. Many of us made New Year’s resolutions; work harder, work less, spend less money, make more money, eat better, exercise more, swear less, etc. In reality the civil New Year is rarely a time for serious reflection, rather a brief interlude in the tumult of life, a short lived celebration that often provides a “farewell tour” for the very behaviors that we have flippantly resolved to abolish, a not too subtle reminder that we really don’t want to change. So we are free only to make the same resolutions a year later, ten pounds heavier and 365 days closer to our expiration date. Much like the ancient pagans, we subscribe to a calendar whereby we are presumably bound by the endless cipher of nature’s repetitive cycles, and an unscalable wall of inevitability limits our human potential.  

by Jason Palmer
Associate Rabbi, Congregation Ohr Chadash, Clearwater, FL

[And] these are the names of the sons of Isra'el who came into Egypt with Ya'akov; each man came with his household: Re'uven, Shim'on, Levi, Y'hudah, Yissakhar, Z'vulun, Binyamin, Dan, Naftali, Gad and Asher. All told, there were seventy descendants of Ya'akov; Yosef was already in Egypt.

With our reading of the parasha for this week, we once again begin our journey through the Book of Exodus. Many have pointed out, while observing the “vav / and” that opens our text, that the Book of Exodus is truly a continuation of the material found in Genesis. Likewise, this text also has a remarkable thematic dependence with the book of Genesis. The book of Bereisheet, which was read during previous weeks, is the record concerning the creation of the people of Israel and the events that culminated with the first exile of Egypt. The book of Shemot provides the Torah’s account of Israel's redemption from the severity of the first exile under a harsh taskmaster in Pharaoh, and the people’s commitment to serve the one benevolent King. Genesis begins with God intimately walking with his people in the Garden; Exodus concludes with the Divine Presence, once again, literally dwelling with his people in the Mishkan. Nachmanides suggests the following: While Bereisheet and Shemot are two separate books within the Torah, Exodus is the sequel to the text of Genesis.