Shemot (Exodus 1:1-6:1) and Haftarah (Isaiah 27:6-28:13; 29:22-23): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary
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Shemot (Exodus 1:1-6:1) and Haftarah (Isaiah 27:6-28:13; 29:22-23): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary
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Overview
The complete set of weekly portions is available in Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin’s book The JPS B’nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary (JPS, 2017).
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780827615304 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The Jewish Publication Society |
| Publication date: | 08/01/2018 |
| Series: | JPS Study Bible |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 24 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Torah
Shemot: Exodus 1:1–6:1
When we last saw Jacob's family, they had settled down in the Goshen region of Egypt. Everyone was happy. Everyone was (finally!) getting along. Generations have now passed since Jacob's son Joseph and his brothers have settled in Egypt. The Israelites have grown numerous, and probably prosperous as well. But the new Egyptian king doesn't know, and could care less, about everything that Joseph had done for Egypt. The Egyptians become afraid of the Israelites, and Pharaoh decides to enslave them. Then he embarks upon an even more evil plan: to kill Israelite children.
All seems lost — until a hero emerges: Moses, born into slavery, adopted by Pharaoh's daughter, a man who figures out that the Israelites are his people, and will have the God-given courage to approach Pharaoh and plead for his people's freedom.
Summary
• Jacob's children and descendants have become comfortable in Egypt. But a new king arises who institutes a program of oppression and enslavement. (1:1–14)
• Two midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, defy Pharaoh's orders to kill Israelite children, and they become the inventors of civil disobedience. (1:15–22)
• A Hebrew boy is born. His parents, fearing for his life, send him floating in a basket down the Nile River. Pharaoh's daughter finds him, adopts him, and gives him the name "Moses." (2:1–10)
• Moses realizes that he is a Hebrew. He fights back against Egyptian oppressors, ultimately fleeing from Egypt to the land of Midian. He marries Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, a Midianite priest, and they have two sons. (2:11–22)
• Moses encounters God at a bush that burns but is not consumed by fire. God gives him his mission: to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. (3:1–4:23)
The Big Ideas
• Jewish history has a predictable pattern. The beginning of Exodus establishes the pattern for much of Jewish history: thriving, success, increased vulnerability, and, ultimately, persecution. This pattern has changed, however, in the United States and other places around the world.
• Women's roles are crucial in Judaism. The redemption from Egypt could not have happened without the heroic acts of righteous women: Shiphrah and Puah; Jochebed (Moses's birth mother); Miriam (Moses's sister); and Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted Moses.
• It's a mitzvah to protest immoral orders. In fact, that is how people become moral heroes. Here, the lesson of Shiphrah and Puah is crucial. They silently protested the evil plans of Pharaoh, and they saved the lives of the Hebrew children. They were the "inventors" of civil disobedience.
• To be a Jew means taking care of your own people, and other people as well. That is the lesson of Moses's early life. He begins by intervening when he sees his own people being persecuted (yet, how does he know that these are his people?), and then he intervenes when shepherds are harassing Jethro's daughters. Jews cannot only think and act on behalf of themselves; they have to think and act on behalf of others as well.
• The Jews are an eternal people. God deliberately speaks to Moses out of a bush that burns but is not consumed by fire — which is a symbol of Jewish history. The Jews have often suffered but they have not been consumed by their suffering.
Divrei Torah
They Said, "No!"
You know how there are "coming attractions" from the next episode at the end of some television shows? That's what the first chapter of Exodus is — the coming attractions for all of Jewish history. Jewish immigrants in Egypt thrive, just as Jews have thrived in many times and places. A new king forgets what Joseph had done for Egypt; in the past, new governments often forgot previous Jewish contributions to their societies. Increasingly, the Egyptians think of the Israelites as a foreign element. The Egyptians begin to question the Israelites' loyalty to Egypt — just as Jews have often been seen as disloyal foreigners in the lands in which they have lived.
Then: persecution, slavery, mass murder. It's all too familiar.
Enter two of the most extraordinary characters of the Hebrew Bible: Shiphrah and Puah, a pair of midwives, whose job it is to help women give birth. Pharaoh commanded them to kill Hebrew infant boys and to let Hebrew girls live. But they refused to do so.
Shiphrah and Puah were the originators of civil disobedience. They are the first people in the Torah to question and defy authority. When a bus driver in Montgomery, Alabama, told Rosa Parks to sit in the back of the bus, where African Americans were then supposed to sit, she refused. It was as if she were channeling Shiphrah and Puah. Perhaps Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was thinking of them when he said: "An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law." King was sitting in jail because he refused to obey an unjust law, and he urged nonviolent civil disobedience against segregation.
An interesting question: Were these midwives Jews or Egyptians? The text says that they were m'yaldot ivriot (Hebrew midwives). But according to an alternative understanding of the Hebrew grammar, you can also read that as "midwives for the Hebrew women."
So, were they Hebrew (Israelite) women? Their names are certainly Hebrew. But would Pharaoh really have had Hebrew women kill their own people? It is far more interesting to believe that they were, in fact, Egyptians who saved Jewish lives. Otherwise, how could Pharaoh have told them to kill Jews? The Roman Jewish historian Josephus says that the midwives were certainly Egyptian: "for this office was, by Pharaoh's orders, to be performed by women who, as compatriots of the king, were not likely to transgress his will."
Shiphrah and Puah were good people who saved Jewish lives. It is easier for people to help save their own kin than people they don't know, and much more difficult for people from the "in" group to help people from the "out" group. Think of the "righteous gentiles" who rescued Jews during the Holocaust. If Shiphrah and Puah were, in fact, non-Israelites, it makes their actions even more courageous.
Time to Grow Up
Every kid asks this question, usually right around bar and bat mitzvah time: how do I know that I have really grown up?
Let's ask Moses that question.
Moses is a Hebrew, but Pharaoh's daughter found him and raised him as her own child, in Pharaoh's palace. Moses could have had a very cushy life. But, at a certain point, he figures out that he is a Hebrew. How does he figure that out? The Torah doesn't say.
But we do know this: Moses sees an Egyptian torturing a Hebrew slave, and he kills the Egyptian. It would have been nice if Moses didn't have to do that. When the text tells us that Moses "turned this way and that" before killing the Egyptian, maybe he wasn't looking to see whether there were any witnesses around. Maybe he was looking to see whether there were any other people around who could help. But no, Moses was totally alone, and he had to act with courage and with speed.
The next day, Moses sees two Hebrews fighting, and this time he doesn't respond with force. Rather than letting his fists do the talking, he asks a question. Like all good Jewish questions, it starts with "Why?" "Why do you strike your fellow?" (2:13).
At that moment, Moses's childhood ends. As you journey through your teenage years, and as you approach adulthood, you will figure out that a major part of growing up is learning to ask good questions. That has always been the Jewish way: to ask questions whenever possible, and to act decisively when necessary.
The next stop on Moses's journey to maturity is when he flees to Midian, and he sees shepherds harassing Jethro's daughters at the well. Moses sticks up for the women, and drives the harassers away. Moses has no real responsibility for them; they are not his family or his people. But, at that moment, Moses goes beyond the borders of his own family and people and intervenes for the sake of others.
As I have written: "Bonding yourself with your people; responding to their pain; questioning injustice; responding to the pain of those who are outside your people — these are all essential moments on the journey toward adulthood."
We all need role models who can teach us about standing up for ourselves, and for others. For Jews, Shiphrah and Puah are those role models, and so is Moses.
In the words of the sage Hillel: "In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man." Of course, Hillel didn't just mean "men." He meant that it is everyone's job to stand up, be counted, and make a difference. In a situation when no else is willing to stand out and stand up, making a difference can make all the difference!
Connections
• What actions of Moses do you most admire? What actions of Moses do you wish that you will be able to emulate?
• In what way does chapter 1 of Exodus establish a pattern of Jewish history? In what countries has that pattern existed?
• What Jewish women do you admire most?
• From what people do you think that Shiphrah and Puah came — Egyptian or Hebrew? Does it matter? Why or why not?
• Would you have the courage to defy illegal orders or unjust laws? Would you risk your life to save someone you don't know? In the spirit of these two remarkable women, what can you do for other people who need your help?
• What historical figures have behaved like Shiphrah and Puah?
• Have you ever stuck up for someone who was weaker? What was that experience like?
• How will you know when you have become an adult?
CHAPTER 2The Haftarah
Shemot: Isaiah 27:6–28:13; 29:22–23
One little word — that's all it takes to link this week's haftarah with its Torah portion. The reading in the Torah begins with a report of the Israelites who had come (ha-ba'im) into Egypt and become slaves. That occurrence of ha-ba'im was not so good. Here in the haftarah the prophet Isaiah also begins with ha-ba'im: "in days to come [or, in coming days] Israel shall sprout and blossom." Much better.
In the year 722 BCE, the Assyrian Empire conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel and scattered its inhabitants, who subsequently came to be known as the "Ten Lost Tribes." Isaiah predicts the day will come when the lost tribes will come home. And not only the tribes whom the Assyrians had exiled, but also those exiles who had somehow wound up in Egypt.
This will be like a new exodus from Egypt — yet another link with the Torah portion, in which God promises Moses that the Israelites will be redeemed from Egypt. Those who are faithful to God will become solidly rooted in the Land of Israel; those who are not will be uprooted.
The Mystery of the Ten Lost Tribes
You probably don't know this, because you have probably been asleep in the middle of the night, when there are television shows with names like "The Bible's Mysteries Revealed." One of the favorite topics is: "Whatever happened to the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel?"
Here's what happened to them: When the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel, they carried away the inhabitants and scattered them. And no one knows who and where they are. The Ten Lost Tribes disappeared from history. A legend arose that the tribes went on to live on the other side of the mysterious Sambatyon River (which was said to have stopped flowing in honor of Shabbat). Rumors of other sightings continued throughout history and are rather amazing. One traveler in the 1600s reported that he had found an Indian tribe in South America that could say the Shema.
The Jews of Ethiopia have long maintained that they are descended from the ancient tribe of Dan. And there are three groups in India that observe Jewish customs and believe they are descended from the lost tribes: the Bene Ephraim of Telugu in southern India, the Bnei Menashe in northern India, and the Bene Israel. There is also the Lemba, a tribe in Zimbabwe and South Africa; they observe certain Jewish customs, and a DNA study shows that there may be some Jewish linkages.
Some people thought that Native Americans were part of the lost tribes, and that that is why Columbus may have brought along an interpreter who spoke Hebrew. Others believed that the British are descended from the lost tribes, and that the British royal family is directly descended from King David. There is even a legend that the Coronation Stone on which British monarchs were crowned was actually the stone that Jacob slept on when he dreamed of the ladder of angels!
Chances are, no one is ever going to find the Ten Lost Tribes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. They were probably scattered among other peoples in the ancient Near East. In 1889, Jewish scholar Adolf Neubauer wrote: "Where are the ten tribes? We can only answer — nowhere."
So you might ask: why have people been so fascinated by this subject? Perhaps because to claim that you are a descendant of the people of the Bible is a powerful idea. Jewish teachings, as expressed by the Hebrew Bible, are important to many around the globe, and some have wanted to stake their claim to being part of this remarkable people.
The Talmud teaches: "The Ten [Lost] Tribes will enter the future world, as it is said: 'And in that day, a great ram's horn shall be sounded; and the strayed who are in the land of Assyria and the expelled who are in the land of Egypt shall come and worship the Lord on the holy mount, in Jerusalem.'"
While this has not actually come to pass, think of all the "lost" Jews who have returned to modern Israel. You could say that this miracle has come true.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Shemot (Exodus 1:1-6:1) and Haftarah (Isaiah 27:6-28:13;29:22-23): The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary"
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Copyright © 2018 Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin.
Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS.
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Table of Contents
Introduction,
What Is Torah?,
And What Else? The Haftarah,
Your Mission — To Teach Torah to the Congregation,
How Do I Write a Devar Torah?,
How To Keep It from Being Boring (and You from Being Bored),
The Very Last Thing You Need to Know at This Point,
The Torah: Shemot: Exodus 1:1–6:1,
Summary,
The Big Ideas,
Divrei Torah,
Connections,
The Haftarah: Shemot: Isaiah 27:6–28:13; 29:22–23,
The Mystery of the Ten Lost Tribes,