As presented by Audrey Schumacher Turner

Moses - Our First Volunteer

The Torah describes Moses in a variety of familiar ways: floating baby, prince of Egypt , avenger and protector of slave and shepardess. Prophet. Leader of Jews, figuratively and literally.

Last week's portion also describes Moshe in an unfamiliar way: insecure. Declaring himself unworthy, unsure and unskilled in dialogue and negotiating technique, Moses asks God for assurances that Moses is a correct and worthy choice to lead the Jewish people out of bondage. How can Moses question God's choice? At least one commentator, Rabbi Leff out of Baltimore, expanding on ideas learned from Rabbi Weinberg, Dean of Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, posits the following explanation: that God wants Moses to volunteer for this task, and so does not order Moshe to undertake it. God listens to Moshe, answers his questions and pleas for assurance. Still, Moshe is not ready to commit himself, even after God's assurances. And what assurances does Moshe ask for? Trappings of office, stage presence and negotiating skills. And God provided. Moshe even asks for a substitute, but God doesn't let him off the hook - Moshe must tell Aaron God's words and together they will go to Pharaoh.

As Rabbi Leff points out, the parsha states, "And the Lord became angry with Moses..." Rabbi Leff interprets this to mean that God finally commands Moshe to return to Egypt and lead the Jews out of bondage. Argument over. All volunteers take a step forward.

Talk about a reluctant volunteer! Moshe was volunteered by his ultimate supporter, and over his lifetime metamorphed into the Leader God knew him to be.

We all at one time or another may need our egos stroked or our insecurities calmed before we feel ready to volunteer for some project at our children's schools, or when Sisterhood or Men's Club or Temple Board or Committees come calling. We may not feel worthy to accept responsibility, but like Moshe, our biggest supporters see our value when they suggest our names in the first place. And by value, I'm not referring to a congregant's ability to stroke a check, make a contribution (though, don't let me discourage anyone from doing such a mitzvah - contact Franklin Wolf for further information). Volunteering is a function of time. And Time has its own value, which from so many of Beth-El's unsung volunteers, cannot be measured.

Many congregants would volunteer, but don't know how to help. Volunteerism isn't about big projects: you don't have to free the entire Jewish people from bondage, just help with Bingo or call Franklin and let him know you want to work on a committee because you have expertise or interest in a certain area. Or maybe one of Sisterhood's Clusters or Men's Club's events, or the Religious School is your volunteer venue of choice. We need your time. Come be like Moshe. Be a volunteer and reveal the leader within.

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As presented by Cheryl Smith

Isaiah 27:6 - 28:13, 29:22-23

Sh'mot

The Haftarah for this Shabbat is found in selected verses from Isaiah chapters 27, 28, and 29. The prophet warns the people of Judah, the Southern Kingdom, that they will suffer the fate of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, which had fallen to the Assyrians in 721 B.C.E. and been taken into exile. The parashah in the book of Exodus begins with a description of the Hebrew people dwelling in the land of Egypt - a land that is not their homeland - and foreshadows the Exodus and the long journey home. So, too, today's reading from the prophet Isaiah concludes with the fulfillment of the central hope of the people of Israel -- the return to their homeland from the distant corners of Assyria and Egypt . This will be a new exodus, a counterpoint to the original epic found in the parashah.

Our reading today introduces us to the themes of exile and oppression that we will continue to consider in the coming weeks and months leading up to Pesach. The Hebrew word for Egypt is "mitzrayim," which is also used to connote a place that is physically restrictive, a place of confinement. The Hagaddah we read during the Seder meal teaches that we are to feel as if we, ourselves, had been in Egypt , and had felt the bitterness of slavery and experienced the redemption by God. In contemporary terms, "mitzrayim" refers to any place where we find ourselves feeling cut off, without choices, without freedom of movement, longing for reconciliation with God and with our true selves.

But the Haftarah for this morning does not leave the Hebrew people in exile without hope for deliverance. And neither are we left in our personal mitzrayim, without hope for deliverance. We are given the means of our liberation through the very words we pray with every recitation of brachot, all of which being with the familiar phrase, "Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe. . ." The subtext of every bracha is the affirmation that there is NO place, NO act, NO moment that is devoid of the presence of God, if we are attuned to it. Jacob discovered that truth when he laid his head upon a stone and dreamt of a ladder reaching to heaven with angels ascending and descending upon it.

God's promise to Abraham after he is tested to sacrifice Isaac is that his descendents would be "as numerous as the stars of Heaven . . . and in his seed would all the nations of the earth be blessed." And therein will we find our deliverance from mitzrayim. Indeed, like the stars of heaven, Jews are to bring light to the darkest corners of the universe. We are not asked to flee from the darkness of pain, or poverty, or hunger, but to be in them to bring glimmers of the truth that God is present there, too. When we recite brachot and perform mitzvot in those places of darkness, we affirm that, truly, there are no God-forsaken moments.

The way out of mitzrayim, out of the restricted, confined places of estrangement in our lives is through them. We find our deliverance not by fleeing, not by denying the reality of the darkness, but by remaining present and declaring with Jacob, "Surely, God is in this place, and I did not know it."

Shabbat Shalom

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As presented by Rutledge Dennis

Our Torah Portion for today describes the greatest story in human history: It is the drama of an unique partnership between God and a small struggling people, the Israelites, in which under God's direction and care, a great journey would unfold which would deliver that people from slavery to freedom. It was a journey which would take the Israelites from their seemingly purposeless and non-directed life to a life which would be God-centered and underlined by an unbreakable contract or covenant. Such a life would be very focused and purposeful, and Moses, the greatest figure in human history, would be God's instrument, not only in freeing his people, but equally as important, in the emergence of this struggling and disorganized people into a nation.

There are several overarching themes in today's Torah Portion, one of which is the central theme of group oppression. But today's story is a cautionary tale which alerts us to the fact that nations which at first glance appear to be all-powerful, and whose leaders appear to be omnipotent, are very seldom as powerful as they seem. Conversely, a people, or society, may seem, at first glance, to be totally powerless, yet when all is said and done, they are never quite as powerless as one might suspect. Another theme which reverberates throughout Exodus is the reality that whenever and wherever oppression exists, a heavy price would have to be paid for freedom, a price many are often not willing, at first glance, to pay. Frederick Douglass, the ex-slave and great abolitionist, always advised and warned those who wanted to flee Southern slavery, and those who wanted to fight for justice in the North, that freedom had a price, and that price would be the need for perpetual vigilance and struggle. His favorite motto was: There is no freedom without struggle. This means that those not willing to pay the heavy price for freedom may live not as free citizens, but as perpetual slaves, subordinates, and victims..

There is also another powerful and persistent theme in today's Portion: that of Dualities and Doubleness. First, there is a dual duplicity at work, for here we have Moses' mother, Jochebed, hiding him in a basket in the Nile , and his sister, Miriam, coordinating a strategy whereby the baby Moses would be nursed by his own mother who imbues him with the values and traditions of his people. The other side of this duplicity was demonstrated by Pharaoh's daughter who hides Moses and later raises him as her son. These two examples illustrate duality and duplicity, but the duplicity here is both positive and necessary for they are crucial to the unfolding of God's eventual mission and strategy in cementing a role for Moses and the Jewish people.

Moses is an Israelite who knows it, but he is an Israelite who has also lived his life as a princely Egyptian. He thus has a dual identity. But his love for his people( and his growing identification with his people) is heightened as he witnesses their continued suffering and as he, intervening as an Egyptian flogged an Israelite, kills the Egyptian. By this act, Moses nullifies his dual identity, negating the Egyptian side, thus enabling a single Hebrew identity to emerge. Currently, many scholars have grappled with the idea of dual identity and double consciousness as cultures intersect. Until the moment Moses takes a stand and intervenes and takes the life of the Egyptian, we might assume that he, too, may have grappled with his dual identity and perhaps, double consciousness. But to compound issues of double consciousness and double identity, Moses is forced to flee to Midian, marries Zipporah, and has two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, and so he of necessity takes on yet another identity and adds yet another consciousness, that of the Midianite, for he resides in Midian for forty years.

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Then there are the dual voices of Moses. As a young man, he was full of fire and energy, and did not lack confidence in himself. However, his years as a shepherd in Midian were spent in isolation, and no doubt he was lonely, but he could not forget the suffering of his people. Yet, he could not devise a plan for his people's emancipation. So, when confront by God and asked to be a vessel for his people's delivery, he is now eighty years of age_ no longer the very confident man he had been and now wonders whether he can do it, even with God's assistance. Here we witness Moses' human, all too human, flaws: the world of doubt, uncertainty, fear, and loss of confidence. These are often the same flaws many of us have today as we ponder and confront the enormous tasks we confront in our families, friendships, and as we encounter and must confront powerful individuals and institutions. For Moses, it was the task of confronting a powerful Pharaoh and a powerful Egyptian society with its well-organized military. Like Moses, we often know the seriousness of the problem, and we know we cannot simply wish the problem away: Somehow the task must be completed, and we know someone has to do it, yet we look around hoping someone else, anyone, but ourselves, should/must step up to the plate.

What is remarkable here is that having spent more than forty years away from his people, and during these years , thinking about nothing else but their freedom, when it is time to act, Moses is reluctant to take that step and presents an array of arguments to get himself off the hook: "Who am I that I should unto Pharaoh?"; " But, behold, they will not believe me..."; "...for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue", and " Oh Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom Thou wilt send." But he is convinced by God to join in this mission, and does so. Here in stark reality is

the universal and perpetual battle between the need for, and importance of, faith and belief, devotion and dedication, and resolve and determination as they must rise up and win against fear, distrust, and skepticism. Here Moses epitomizes those human frailties which often prevent the most determined among us to act. At this moment he is not the brave and bold Moses we admire but a retreatist. It will take the mighty wrath of God to convince Moses to journey with God, but throughout this grand collaboration, Moses makes it clear that he wants to be the helper, and that it is God who acts, who is Divine, and it is Moses who must follow and obey the Divine decree.

The final example of the duality which permeates this Portion is the dual centers of power in Moses' world. The earthly power was that of Pharaoh, a powerful tyrant. When confronted by Moses and Aaron with the specific mandate from God that he, Pharaoh, must "...Let my people go..." it was natural for Pharaoh to respond with indignation: "Who is the Lord that I should hearken to HIS voice?" Pharaoh's words were direct challenges to God and the manner in which he; Pharaoh viewed himself as the most powerful ruler of both heaven and earth. Claiming such power and force, it is easy to understand why the Israelites were intimidated and had questions as to whether Moses' God could/would deliver the goods, and whether this challenge by Moses' God might actually increase Pharaoh's anger, thus causing them even more misery, suffering, and pain.

Responding to Pharaoh's challenge, God makes it clear that He will intervene affirmatively to rescue His people, and will demonstrate how greatly His powers exceed those of Pharaoh's.

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Throwing down the gauntlet, God says, "You shall soon see what I will do to Pharaoh. He shall let them go because of a greater might. "He did not renege on His promise, and He prevailed. This prelude to the story of Moses' sets the stage to one of the greatest stories of emancipation and the importance of this emancipation in the making of a people, a nation, and a religion. Given the direct intervention by God to relieve a people's misery and servitude, and given the fact that the emancipation resulted in the birth of a people and an organized and institutionalized religion, it is then no wonder, and quite understandable, why this story would be told a thousand fold by Africans in the United States who were themselves slaves, and who then viewed themselves as a modern version of the ancient Israelites. It is also not difficult to understand why Moses and his experience became the symbol and theme for one of the greatest and most beautiful Black Spirituals: Go Down Moses (Let My People Go). This powerful song of defiance, inspiration, and faith was a rallying cry during slavery, during the post-slave era, and again during the Civil Rights Movement. The model and inspiration of Moses led a small, strong, and determined Harriet Tubman to venture into slave territory, utilizing the Underground Railroad, to emancipate her parents and dozens of others. For her bravery, courage, defiance, and dedication to the cause of freedom, she has been called "the Moses of her people".

As the nation celebrates the 75th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we are again reminded of the struggle of Black Americans during the Age of Segregation, and the leadership of Dr. King in this massive struggle. Just as Go Down Moses was a great inspiration for slaves during their enslavement, and for ex-slaves who encountered discrimination after slavery, it was, likewise, an important symbol of defiance and faith as many blacks, and a few whites) faced dogs, clubs, guns, and water hoses. With Moses as one of his models, King fought for freedom. Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and King, as Moses before them, could have taken the easy way out and remained safe. Moses could very well have rejected God's overtures and retained his role as a privileged Egyptian prince. He did not, and could not, because he understood, like all great leaders, that the issues were greater than his personal freedom. The mission was greater than the man and centered on the very survival of a people. To ensure this survival Moses, and later, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Dr. King all understood that you cannot reason with tyrants or with those who would enslave or oppress you. They all knew that obtaining freedom would not be easy. They also knew that continued enslavement was, and could never be, an option.

Temple Beth-El , Richmond , Virginia

January 16 and 17, 2004