VAERA 1993

In the beginning of the Torah portion Vaera we learn about G-d's answer to Moshe Rabbeinu.  Moshe complained at the end of last week's Torah portion Shmos that since he had come to try to save the Jewish people from Egypt their condition had only gotten worse and Moshe said, "Lord, why did You do ill with this people?  Why did You send me?  Since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name the conditions have gotten worse for this people and You have not saved Your people."  G-d, in this Torah portion, spoke to Moshe and He said to him, "I am Yud Kay Vahv Kay."  He uses the name for G-d which is Yud Kay Vahv Kay.  He said, "I appeared to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob with the name El Shadai, which means G-d almighty, but My name Yud Kay Vahv Kay I did not make known to them."  Also He goes on to say, "Also, I heard the cry of the sons of Israel that are in Egypt that they are afflicting them and enslaving them and I will remember My covenant.  Therefore, say to the sons of Israel, I, G-d, I will bring you out from under the burdens of Egypt and I will I save you from that work and I will redeem you with an outstretched hand and I will take you to Me to be a nation."

It seems strange that this should be the reply that G-d gave to Moshe Rabbeinu.  What does it mean, "And I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with the name G-d almighty but My name Yud Kay Vahv Kay I was not known to them"?  Also, why does He have to mention so much, "I took them out from under the burdens of Egypt and I saved them from the work, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and I will take you to Me to be a nation"?  What is G-d saying here?  It seems very redundant.

Actually, it is also not true that G-d did not appear to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by the name Yud Kay Vahv Kay.  He did.  Yud Kay Vahv Kay is mentioned in conjunction with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Rashi explains that it means that G-d made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but He did not fulfill them.  The word Yud Kay Vahv Kay means G-d Who fulfills His promises.  Other rabbis say, no, that what it means is that when Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob became the fathers of the Jewish people the name Yud Kay Vahv Kay was not used, but instead the name El Shadai was used, G-d the nurturing G-d.  The word Shad in Hebrew can also mean breast, so it means G-d Who suckled the people, G-d Who nurtured the people, G-d Who appeared to them as a G-d Who was nurturing them and helping them and enabling them to get over the rough spots of life.  The rabbis say the reason we have three fathers is because there are three ways co approach G-d.  Abraham found G-d through nature, through the study of nature, through what we would call science and reason, that he saw that the sunset in the evening so the sun could not be G-d.  He saw that the stars and the moon came out but that they were covered with clouds.  He saw that the wind blew away the clouds, etc.  Therefore, none of these things could be G-d.  He reached the conclusion that G-d was something beyond all these physical manifestations.  Isaac, on the other hand, perceived G-d through personal experience, through his being bound on the altar.  Jacob perceived G-d through history.  That is what the rabbis explain the ladder that he saw that rested on the ground and reached to the heaven represented.  It represented Jewish history and nations that were ascending and descending.  

There are three ways that we can approach G-d.  We can approach G-d through the study of nature, and we know now today, too, that modern science is confirming many of Judaism' s religious positions, and we also know that we can feel G-d and His presence many times in our own life, especially in times of crisis, from personal experience.  Also through the study of Jewish history.  Anybody who lives in the modern era cannot help but feel G-d's presence.  After all, the rebirth of the State of Israel required so many coincidences.  Seven mighty empires had to be destroyed, the Turkish Empire, the Russian Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the German Empire, the French Empire, the Italian Empire, the British Empire before Israel could come into being.  Stalin was a great anti-Semite who was the one who actually saved Israel in 1948.  So we see that we can come to G-d through either the study of nature or the study of history or through a personal experience.  That is why He is called the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac, and the G-d of Jacob.  It is the same G-d but can be approached in different ways.  The relationship that G-d had with the forefathers was a different relationship than He had with Moshe.  After all, why isn't it in our prayers don't we refer to G-d as the G-d of Moshe Rabbeinu, G-d of Moshe our teacher?  After all, Moshe was considered the greatest of all prophets, greater than Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but, yet, he is not referred to as that.  What we mean here is that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had a relationship with G-d like children to their parents.  Of course, in Judaism we know that we refer to G-d as Ovinu Malkeynu, our father and our king.  Moshe's relationship with G-d, though, was different.  Moshe's relationship with G-d was like a partner.  Moshe had a relationship with G-d of almost equals.  Of course, we know that in our partnership with G-d G-d is more equal than we are, but G-d treats us with respect.  G-d treats us with dignity.  We are taught to be responsible and to stand on our own two feet.  That is what the word Yud Kay Vahv Kay means.  It signifies that we have a relationship between two partners who respect each other, who accord each other with dignity, who hold each other responsible for acting in an adult way.  The relationship between Moshe and G-d was the relationship between two adults.  The relationship with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was more the relationship between a parent and a child, and that, of course, is what some of the rabbis explain G-d was telling Moshe and He says, "Therefore, say to the sons of Israel I G-d I will bring you out from under the burdens of Egypt."  Seeklos does not mean burdens but it means first a toleration of the slavery of Egypt.  Savanut in Hebrew also means to be tolerant.  There are many Jews who were very happy with the slavery.  After all, they got meals, maybe just gruel, but they did have certain types of accommodations, although they may be bad accommodations.  They were satisfied with their slavery.  They really did not want to leave Egypt.  They were more or less satisfied with their life.  

It is like when I many years ago was appointed by the county ministerial association to visit the prisons, especially the teenagers, I found that actually many of them wanted to be in jail.  Perhaps their life in jail was better than their home life.  Perhaps there was abuse in their home life, or perhaps all their friends were in jail.  They felt more comfortable in jail.  They felt more secure in jail.  This was a big revelation to me, and the Jewish people, too, enjoyed the paternal relationship that they had with their masters, many of them.  True, sometimes there was cruelty and savagery but on the whole they seemed to get along.  Therefore, G-d had to take them out from the tolerance of slavery.  What He was telling Moshe Rabbeinu was, "Don't worry if you think things are getting bad.  I want the Jewish people to be able to stand on their own two feet.  I want them to be able to say that they do not want slavery, and then I will take them out from under their burdens, their work, and then I will redeem them with an outstretched arm because I will show them that slavery is bad, not just for them but for everybody and then I will take them to Me to be a people and give them the Torah."  Many times it happens that as youngsters grow up, and, of course, a bar or bat mitzvah is a time when a young man or woman celebrates their assumption of responsibility.  That is what a bar mitzvah means, that you are responsible for your actions, that you are willing to stand up and take responsibility for what you do, that you want now to have an equal partnership with people around you, that you want to be treated with respect and dignity and as an adult.  Of course, many times there are problems between parents and children because many times parents do not want their children to grow up.  They do not want them to become a mature partner, an adult partner.  Many times it is the exact opposite.  Children do not want to take the responsibility.  They do not want to be a mature partner.  Of course, as a child grows and as a teenager grows he should be able to accept more and more responsibility.  That's why sometimes the teenage years are difficult because sometimes the parents do not want to let go and sometimes the kids want to assume responsibility and sometimes vice versa, the kids do not want to assume responsibility and the parents want to let go, so sometimes it is not a very easy period, but the essence of having a relationship with G-d and a relationship with man is to assume responsibility, and since the time Moshe came it was told to us that we have to assume responsibility.  The Torah was going to be given.  When Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived the Torah had not been given yet.  The relationship was more that between parents and children, but after Moshe Rabbeinu it became the parents, the responsibility of a relationship between two adults.  That is why we do not say the G-d of Moshe because each individual has to make that G-d his own G-d.  He has to assume a responsibility not of a child to a parent, which is automatic after the child is born, but as a responsible adult, a relationship of a responsible adult, which sometimes never happens.  A person, himself, has to create that type of relationship, and G-d wants us to create that type of relationship.  That is what G-d told Moshe Rabbeinu.  Before the Jewish people can leave Egypt I want them to be able to assume responsibility so that we can have a relationship of adults.  That, of course, my friends, is why Moshe Rabbeinu was chosen to lead out the Jewish people.  He was chosen to lead the Jewish people because he was a person who assumed responsibility for not only himself but for others.  He assumed responsibility for the world, of the three acts that we know about before he was chosen to lead the Jewish people out of Egypt they are all acts of responsibility, of going to his people, of slaying the Egyptian task master who was attacking a Jew, of saving the daughters of Jethro from the taunts and persecution of the shepherds.  He was a man who had a keen sense of justice, how he did not like it when two Jews were fighting among themselves.  Moshe Rabbeinu was chosen to be the prophet in Israel because he knew well how to respect the property of others and the time of others and he was sensitive to their needs.  That is why they say that Moshe was chosen to received G-d' s word on Mount Sinai because he took his sheep out to pasture which definitely belonged to no one.  Unfortunately, many people think that they are being very religious and many people think that they have a relationship with G-d when they are actually just being selfish.  

In fact, Rabbi Rivkin writes about the Jerusalem Syndrome where many people when they come to Jerusalem think that G-d has spoken to them and they become prophets.  He asks a question.  How can you tell whether these people belong in a religious institution or a mental institution?  He says you can always tell because when these people have these so-called visions of G-d when they think that they have a fine relationship with G-d, does it make them more sensitive to the needs of others?  Are they more sensitive to the problems of others?  Are they more sensitive to the property of others and to the time of others, or have they become completely insensitive to other people's time and other people's property, to other people's problems, and are they so self-absorbed that all they are interested in is praying longer or medicating more or trying to commune with G-d at all times without concern at all with the people around them?  If they are, then they belong in the mental institution.  They are not true representatives of people who have a true relationship with G-d, but if they become more sensitive to others, more sensitive to other people's time and property and problems, then they are having a religious experience.  Moshe Rabbeinu's religious experience with G-d made him more sensitive to the problems and the needs of others.  That, of course, is what we learn here.  This was a fitting response to Moshe's question of "You made things get worse."  The Jewish people had to stand on their own two feet.  They had to Stop thinking as slaves and stop wanting to be slaves.  They had to be willing to assume responsibility for themselves and for their actions.  They could not say, as many times I have heard people say, "Well, if these people are poor it must be because G-d wanted them to be poor."  That is not the Jewish position.  The Jewish position is we have to go out and we have to help people.  We have to do things for people.  G-d wants us to assume responsibility for this world, to be His partner in creating a world in which there is not only material prosperity but peace and brotherhood, where there is no want, where there is no persecution, where there is medical care for all, etc.  Therefore, in our religion our G-d is not known as the G-d of Moshe because we have to establish that relationship by being responsible people.

I am reminded of the story they tell about a man who said, "You know, my friend Sam Goldberg down the street?  There is nothing I wouldn't do for him, and, you know, there is nothing that Sam Goldberg would not do for me, and you know that throughout all these years we have done nothing for each other."  If a person wants to be a really pious person, if a person really wants to have a relationship with G-d a person has to be responsible, responsible for the fate of the world and for mankind.  He has to be responsible especially to be sensitive to the needs of people around him to his family, to his friends, and only in this way can he establish a true relationship with G-d.  Yes, we say Ovinu Malkeynu.  G-d is our father and G-d is our king.  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob remind us that we are all the children of G-d and we have a relationship with G-d even if we do not assume responsibility, but if you want a true relationship with G-d, a relationship with G-d which will lead us out from the burdens of life and allow us to feel life's glories, that is a relationship that Moshe told us about, the relationship which is signified by the Yud Kay Vahv Kay of G-d' s name.  That type of relationship requires us to be responsible.  Let us all hope that we will all be responsible so the Mashiach will come quickly in our day.  Amen.