by Rabbi Adam Ruditsky
Shalom Yisrael,  White Plains, NY

The Story of Israel hit a new chapter, a story that stars Moses and a new cast of characters. The story that began with Abraham in Genesis 12 now brings us to Israel, who would become a nation in the next few Sedras.  But the story of Judah becomes the foundation to what would happen to Israel. Judah began his life as an unwise spiteful man who sold his brother into slavery, going out on his own to face pain and tragedy with the death of two [of his three] sons and his own shame with Tamar, maturing to be Benjamin's protector, and in the end receiving the blessing of his father that the future kings of Israel, including the Messiah, would descend from his own loins.

A New Day

Shemot (Exodus) begins with a reminder of  the way that Judah treated his brother when he sold him into slavery.  Judah, his brothers, and their descendants are now slaves to a new Pharaoh who "did not know Joseph," and therefore was not as favorable to the sons of Jacob and their offspring. This is not to be looked at as fair play, but it is interesting that Pharaoh, like Judah, was jealous of what others had become, as it says in Exodus 1:8-10;

"Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.  And he said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land."

Joseph was a dreamer who threatened Judah. Israel grew large and wealthy while living in Goshen, something that threatened Pharaoh. We often do not like to see others advance and can become dismayed at another's gain, especially when perceived as a personal threat. The other day, as I met with a local pastor, I was reminded how Messianic Judaism is perceived as a threat somehow, although those who follow it may be unaware of why that is so. In our conversation the topics of our need to be separate came up, our need to be different, to worship on our own terms, and to have theology that may be somewhat different. I assured the pastor that we are not separatists (at least we should not be). I explained that the beauty of the Good News is that both those near by (Israel) and those far away (Nations) make up the body of the Messiah (cf. Eph.  2:17), and our community aspired to stand for those who descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The difference of Moses

The pastor listened but still could not wrap his mind around the concept. In fact "Messianic" became a point of departure for us. During the conversation I found my mind wandering to this weeks parasha, and more specifically 3:13-17 that reads:

"But he said, "O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send." So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and He said: "Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God. And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs."

Of the passage above the section that stands out is, "And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God." A powerful and a mystifying passage to say the least; Aaron is a mouth for Moses and Moses shall be as God to Aaron. Can you imagine what Aaron would have thought if Moses relayed this information to his brother? Surely, it is not saying that Moses is God to Aaron? Although it has been translated "master" in some Jewish versions of the text, the word "lay'lo'heem" (to be as God) is nothing like 'master' which in the Hebrew is generally "adonai" (my lord). Still, Rashi understands the word "master" to be one who is "an authority," a view that is certainly plain in the text. The Midrash said this would be a "proof that the respect is due thy teacher equals the respect due to heaven" (M. Ex. Rab. 3:17).  The word Eloheem is in general not used that way and has been interpreted as judges who judge for God, therefore it can be argued they speak for God as well. In a sense the passage above in this paragraph can [and should I say can] be interpreted in this way: Moses was God to Aaron because Moses was the one whom God spoke to and Moses was then responsible to cast that vision to Aaron – thus Moses is as God to Aaron since God is the one who cast the vision to Moses and not Aaron.

What about Judah?

At the very beginning I made the comment that the story of Judah becomes the foundation to what would happen to Israel. I am not saying that they parody each other more than I am saying that Israel began as a child and then matured sometime later. One can argue that Moses matured from one who ran away from his people after a murder to the one who came back and in his own deficiently allowed God to use him to lead Israel out of Egypt. Messianic Judaism is making that type of progress right now; from a young and stubborn child that got mad at its mother (the church) and went to find acceptance by its father (Judaism) to a movement that knows its relationship to church and comes to Judaism on its own terms while yielding the proper attitude to that relationship. Our maturity is like Moses (cf. Heb. 11:23-26); God gave us something and we are to be faithful to it upholding it by trust.  Our time will come where we will "bud and flower" in whom we are bearing desirable choice fruit (Is. 27:6). It has been said, "Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional," so lets make sure they work together, either as individuals or a movement.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Adam