SHEMOS 1987

In the Torah portion Shmos we learn about the birth of Moshe Rabbeinu, about how he was chosen by G-d to be His agent in delivering the Jewish people.  In the very beginning we learn, "Vayeelech Eesh Beis Levi and a man went out from the house of Levi - Vayeeka Hazbas Levi and he took a daughter of Levi."  It does not mentioned Moshe's parents.  It does not mention their names at all.  All it mentions is that a man went out of the house of Levi and he took a daughter of Levi.  It is not until the next Torah portion that we learn who Moshe's parents were.  We do not learn about it in this week's Sedra.  This seems very strange.  Also, we learn here that Moshe's real name was supposed to be Tov - And she saw him Kee Tov, and she saw that he was good.  The rabbis explain that his mother actually gave him the name Tov, but the name that the Egyptian princess Batyia gave him was the name that stuck because she went against the dictates of her father to fulfill a higher law.  She understood that in this world you have to have compassion and kindness, and she was willing to save even a little baby who her father said had to be killed, because what harm could a little baby have done to hurt anybody so that this baby should not be saved?  In fact, she is the only one in the Bible who has G-d's name attached to hers.  This is the only one we find in the first five books of the Bible, the Torah.  Her name is Batyia, which means the daughter of G-d.  Many Jewish women still bear her name, Bessie, Bashi, etc.  They are all derivatives of Batyia or Bashia.  She was a good person, and because of that G-d chose the name she gave Moshe for that name to stick.  That was the name that also G-d used to call him because G-d recognized her compassion and kindness and caring.

We learn later on about who Moshe's parents were, but in this Torah portion we do not learn who Moshe's parents were.  We also learn that Moshe did not want to go down to save the Jewish people.  He did not think he was worthy, but G-d insisted, and Moshe eventually agreed.  G-d, though, when Moshe claimed that he could not talk, agreed that Aaron, Moshe's brother, would go with him and help him.  Most of the time when we learn about G-d speaking to Moshe and Aaron, we put Moshe's name first, but once in a while Aaron's name was put first.  The rabbis explain that this is because Aaron and Moshe were "schula - equivalent."  The question can be asked, how can we say that Moshe and Aaron were equivalent?  After all, Moshe had greater powers of the mind than Aaron.  He was a stronger leader.  It was to him that G-d gave the Ten Commandments.  Moshe seems to be the greater man.  Aaron, on the other hand, had qualities that Moshe did not have.  He could relate to people easily.  He was a pursuer of peace.  Moshe was more interested in truth, not peace.  He all know we have to balance the demands of truth with peace.  The rabbis say Moshe and Aaron were actually dependent upon each other because without Moshe Aaron could not fulfill his role, and without Aaron Moshe could not have fulfilled his role.  But how is it that we say they were equivalent, equal?  It would still seem that Moshe was the greater man.

The rabbis say the reason they were equal was because they fulfilled their potential.  They lived up to their spiritual possibilities.  They developed themselves in such a way that they brought credit to themselves and their family because they developed themselves as much as it was possible.  Moshe had different abilities than Aaron, and Aaron had different abilities than Moshe, but they were equal because they developed their potentialities.

In the Haphtorah we learn how the Jewish people mocked education, how they mocked it and even made a little rhyme with it.  They said, "Precept by precept, line by line, here a little, there a little."  In other words, they said all religion is boring.  He have heard it all before.  We are not interested in it G-d, tell us something new.  All these prophets keep telling us the same thing, be good, etc.  We heard it before.  It is boring.  They, of course, did not understand that the message of Judaism is necessary every day of our lives.  We do not say that just because we ate yesterday, we don't have to eat today.  We don't say that because we had a salad three days ago, we don't have a salad today.  We don't say that because we had meat last night, we don't have meat today.  Just as food is necessary for a human being to maintain his physical energy, so the words of Torah and spiritual development are necessary every day in order to develop a person's spiritual energy.  If people stop praying and stop learning then they lose that spiritual energy.  They are not on the same high level they were before.  It is the same if a person stops eating; he loses quickly his physical strength.  If you stop studying, you lose your strength spiritually.  There is so much depth to these words.  They don't really repeat, but people think they do.  After all, the food we eat today is not exactly the same as yesterday.  There is more we get out of it every day, and the same thing applies to our spiritual lessons.  Even if we don't get more out of it, we still need it to maintain our spiritual energies.

They made a study of identical twins that was recently published, twins that were separated at birth and raised by different parents.  They found something very astounding.  They found the twins resembled each other to a very great degree.  Even though they never had any contact with each other and were raised by families with different value systems (one twin was raised in Germany and one in America, one was raised in New York and one in California), they found these twins liked the same colors, cars.  They even married similar women, etc.  In the argument between nature and nurture, nature is very important, that each of us are born with certain potentialities, that each of us are born with certain possibilities, and these really cannot be changed.  However, this study pointed out, too, that this natural ability only accounted for 60-70 of a person's development, but there was an important part for nurture to play, whether it was 20%, 30%, or even, as some people say, 35%.  Yet, it is very important the education that a person receives, the home environment.  It is true that we all have our potentialities.  It is true we cannot change these potentialities.  You cannot give a child with an TO of 90 a scholarship in physics to Harvard.  He would not be able to learn anything.  We are all limited by our G-d-given potentialities.  However, how we develop them and whether we develop them is dependent also upon our home, and that is why the quality of the home is so important.  Moshe and Aaron's parents were not mentioned here because we did not know how they were going to turn out,  We did not know how Moshe would turn out.  It said that a man went from the house of Levi and he took a daughter of Levi.  It was only after Moshe started to fulfill his mission, started to come down to save the Jewish people from slavery, that his parents are mentioned,  We see by this act that he had fulfilled his potential, that he had lived up to his possibilities, and his parents then deserve a lot of credit for it.
That is why education is so important.  We, too, in our community are all surrogate parents.  The rabbis tell us that it is the responsibility of the community to see that all children received a Jewish education.  We should make sure the children have the right environment and educational tools so that they can remain Jews.  They can feel empathy with the Jewish people.  They want to be Jews.  They want to practice Judaism.  If they are just born to a Jewish family, that is not enough.  That may only indicate that they have certain possibilities, but whether they develop them is determined by their parents and community.  We should all do our best to make sure that our children are given the right environment and education so that we will be known later on as their parents because they will want to remain Jewish.

I am reminded of the story they tell about Gorbachev and Reagan.  They called each other on the phone.  Gorbachev said, ^I just had a wonderful dream last night.  I dreamed I was in Lafayette Park right across from the White House and there was a huge rally with everyone yelling, 'Long live the working class,' and there was a huge red banner right in front of the White House which said All power to the Communist party'''.  Reagan said, "That's amazing.  I also had a very interesting dream.  I was standing in front of the Kremlin in Red Square and there was a huge crowd shouting and yelling, and there was a huge big banner right in front of the Kremlin,"  Gorbachev asked, "What did the banner say?"  Reagan answered, "I don't know.  I don't read Chinese."

In life if we want our children to follow in our footsteps, if we want them to feel empathy with the Jewish people and want them to be Jewish, we cannot just rely on the fact that they are born into a Jewish home.  We must give them a Jewish education and upbringing.  We must make sure that the lessons of our tradition are ingrained in their hearts and minds.  Only in this way will the, continue in it,  May they all continue to do so.  Amen.