Parasha Vaera
-hebraicstudies.net-
Please
do NOT visit this site on שַׁבָּת - Shabbat or on
the מוֹעֲדִים - Mo’a’dim - Feasts!
Re Tanakh versions:
On this study I use the excellent “Jewish Publication Society” (JPS-1917
version of the Tanakh).
Colour coded
details of our beloved TaNaKh:
1. Torah =
History & Law, 2. Nevi’im = The Prophets. 3. *Ketuvim = all other Writings.
*The Ketuvim - Includes, Poetical books -
Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Megillot, or
Scrolls - Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations of
Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, prophecy of Daniel, and history
of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles I & II.
Please
Note: Some
alterations or (additions) have been made relating to ‘Names’ and ‘Attributes’
of אֱלֹהִים - Elohim, having been corrected like it once was pre the “Masoretic Text”.
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Remember the following truth
from our beloved Torah!
“Ye shall NOT ADD TO THE WORD which
I command you, NEITHER SHALL YE DIMINISH FROM
IT, that ye may keep the commandments of יְהוָה
אֱלֹהֵיכֶם - the LORD your Eloleichem,
which I command you”. Davarim - Deuteronomy 4:2. (JPS-1917).
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Exodus 6:2-9:35
With
Rabbi, Dr. Reuven Ben Avraham-Goossens, PhD.
The Parsha starts out with a rather reluctant Moshe informing the Israelites that אֱלֹהִים - Elohim (God) will soon free them. Of course at first they were completely sceptical. Moshe’s next move was to head to the Pharaoh, and tells him (with Aaron’s verbal assistance) to “let my people go”. Pharaoh requests Moshe prove אֱלֹהִים - Elohim’s power. Thus Aaron threw down his rod and it turned into a snake. However, the Pharaoh brought out his magicians, and they are able to do the very same and turned their rod’s into snakes. However, Aaron’s snake actually devours the magician’s snakes. But nevertheless, the Pharaoh absolutely refuses to let the Israelites go!
Then the rest of the Parsha takes us through the first seven plagues, up through ‘Barad’, being ‘hai’l. The plagues are ‘Dam’ (blood), ‘Tzefardia’ (frogs), ‘Kinim’ (lice), ‘Arov’ (wild animals), ‘Dever’ (pestilance), ‘Schechin’ (boils), ‘Barad’ (hail), ‘Arbeh’ (locusts), ‘Choschech’ (darkness) an finally ‘Makkat Bechorot’ (the death of first born).
After each plague Pharaoh’s refuses to let the Israelites go. It also says that אֱלֹהִים - Elohim hardens Pharaoh’s heart. There has been a great deal of ink spilled by some of our philosophers on this “hardening the heart” thing, with relationship to free will. Some say the plagues were ‘too incredible and terrifying for Pharoah to make a moral choice of his own without the hardening of heart’, thus, in this way אֱלֹהִים - Elohim assisted him with free will. Others say it was a necessity for אֱלֹהִים - Elohim’s broader plan. I also know that the only free will we have is ‘the way in which we do a thing, and our internal feelings about it’.
At one point during one of the plagues, which
was incredibly hard on the Egyptians, his magicians beg him to relent. I had an
interesting conversation with a Torah study group many years ago in the
We are at the lowest
point in Israelite history so far. For our ancestors have been enslaved and
tortured for such a long time. Pharaoh has decreed that every Jewish male child
was to be killed. Well thanks to an earlier Pharoah
sister, Moshe is sent to liberate them, but the first effect of his
intervention is to make matters worse, not better. Now they have to provide
their own straw, and still make the same number of bricks as before. At first
they believed Moshe when he performed the various signs that אֱלֹהִים - Elohim had
given him, and told them that אֱלֹהִים - Elohim was
about to rescue them, but now, believe it or not, they turned on him and his
leadership.
None of this, however,
has been accidental. The Torah is preparing the ground for one of its most epic
assertions: It is in the darkest night that
This is a world-changing
idea. What is revolutionary in our faith is not simply the concept of monotheism,
that the universe is not a blind clash of conflicting powers but the result of
a single creative will. It is that אֱלֹהִים - Elohim
was involved in His creation. אֱלֹהִים - Elohim is not
simply the force that brought the universe into being, etc. At a certain point
He intervened in history, to rescue His people from slavery and set them on the
path to freedom. Which finally happened at the death of the first born!
We Hebrews believes that אֱלֹהִים - Elohim acts in history, as was seen so clearly in the Exodus story. What
are the alternative ways to look at אֱלֹהִים - Elohim
and history?
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Remember
what אֱלֹהִים - Elohim, blessed be He, said the following via
several of our prophets...
“Hebraic Studies” motto is as follows;
“The More Torah, the More Life”,
For Elohim is the One who
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שָׁלוֹם
עֲלֵיכֶם - Shalom Aleichem - Peace be with
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