Dear friends;

I hope you’ll enjoy the following parsha summary followed by a Dvar Torah;

” Parsha in a Nutshell “

G-d reveals Himself to Moshe. He promises to take out the Children of Israel from Egypt, deliver them from their enslavement, redeem them and acquire them as His own chosen people at Mount Sinai; He will then bring them to the Land He promised to the Patriarchs as their eternal heritage.

Moshe and Aaron repeatedly come before Pharaoh to demand in the name of G-d, “Let My people go, so that they may serve Me in the wilderness.” Pharaoh repeatedly refuses. Moshe’s staff turns into a snake and swallows the magic sticks of the Egyptian sorcerers. G-d then sends a series of plagues upon the Egyptians.

The waters of the Nile turn to blood; swarms of frogs overrun the land; lice infest all men and beasts. Hordes of wild animals invade the cities, a pestilence kills the domestic animals, painful boils afflict the Egyptians. For the seventh plague, fire and ice combine to descend from the skies as a devastating hail. Still, “the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he would not let the children of Israel go; as G-d had said to Moshe.”

“ Dvar Torah “

Moses! The Torah records for us later on, that we shall never see such a great prophet ever again. But the greatest prophet of all times, seems to have failed his mission at the beginning. Last week, we read of how Moses was sent by G-d to lead the Israelites to freedom, and how his initial efforts met with failure. Not only did Pharaoh not agree to let the people go; he made the working conditions of the Israelites even worse. They had to make the same number of bricks as before but now they had to gather their own straw. The people complained to Pharaoh, then they complained to Moses, then Moses complained to G-d. “Why have you brought trouble to this people? Why did you send me?”

Also, at the beginning of this week’s parsha G-d tells Moses that he will indeed bring the Israelites to freedom, and asks him to relay the message to the people. So Moses told this to the Israelites but the Torah says that they did not listen to him because “their spirit was broken and because the labor was harsh”.

It seems that Moses has failed. The people did not believe in him and they did not listen to his words, because Moses had brought them messages from G-d before and they had done nothing to improve their situation. Since, Moses had failed to deliver in the past, they had no reason to think he would do better in the future.

Also, Moses predicted his failure from the start. When Moses first met G-d at the burning bush, G-d told him to lead, and Moses kept refusing on the grounds that the people would not listen to him. He told G-d that he was not a man of words. He was slow of speech and tongue. He lacked eloquence. He could not sway crowds. He was not an inspirational leader.

So the fundamental question is; did Moses really fail?! Was he the wrong pick? Would the people reacted differently, if it was someone else delivering the words of G-d?!

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks says that the reason that the people did not listen to Moses had nothing to do with his leadership or his ability to speak! In fact it had nothing to do with Moses at all.  They did not listen “because their spirit was broken and because the labor was harsh.” In other words, they did not listen to him because of the shortness of breath and from the hard labor. It did not matter if they had Moses or anyone else as a leader at this point. Moses did not fail. People failed to hear the words of G-d.

Rabbi Sacks says that we can learn from here that in order to improve people’s spiritual situation, first we need to improve their physical situation. The well-being of the soul is dependant on the well-being of the body. Spiritual achievement is higher than material achievement, but we need to ensure the latter first, because a person suffering from great hunger, thirst, heat or cold, cannot grasp an idea communicated by someone else, let alone he can arrive at it on his own. In other words, if we lack basic physical needs, there is no way we can reach spiritual heights. When people’s spirits are broken by harsh labor they cannot listen to a Moses. If you want to improve people’s spiritual situation, first improve their physical conditions.

Yes my friends, in order to climb to spiritual heights, we must first have satisfied our material needs. When it comes to the poverty, Judaism is a religion of  protest, not acceptance!  God does not want people to be poor, hungry, sick, oppressed, uneducated, deprived of rights, or subject to abuse. He has made us His agents in this cause. He wants us to be His partners in the work of redemption. That is why so many Jews have become doctors fighting disease, be good lawyers like the brain injury lawyer Vegas firm expert fighting injustice or educators fighting ignorance. Helping to ease poverty, curing disease, ensuring the rule of law and respect for human rights: these are spiritual tasks no less important than prayer and Torah study.

Ultimately, We need to work in order to provide for ourselves and for our family. Sitting and learning Torah the whole day and letting our family live in poverty and hard conditions is not the best way to achieve spiritual heights.

Remember, when the physical world is harsh, the human spirit is broken, and people cannot then hear the word of G-d, even when delivered by the greatest prophet of all times……

Shabbat Shalom & Regards;

Martin