Musing from Parsha Va-eira

1 - "But I did not make Myself known to them by My name Adonai..." Technically true, although many examples exist in which genesis' key players know/respond to God by this name. So what can be gleaned by this technicality? Maybe that this is the first time God makes this introduction, signaling the uniqueness, the importance, even the love behind appearing (va-eria) to Moses. (Mind blown not as much as heart moved.)

2 - I know this has been debated throughout the centuries by many a wiser mind than mine, but the only way I can comprehend God needing to remember (and the corollary, that God can be forgetful) is if I exchanged it with the word "acknowledge" (although the corollary here, that God can be ambivalent, is still disturbing.)

3 - So interesting how the word "redeem" is used here  (6:6) - to free - as opposed to the Christian Bible, where it often (always?) means to forgive.

4 - "And I will take you to be My people and I will be your God" (6:7). Is it just me or does this line just crackle with passion? (Fanning self.)

5. - That the Israelites did not initially listen to Moses, (6:9) "their spirits crushed by cruel bondage", really speaks to their oppression. Good to remember as this informs their later actions (Golden Calf, constant complaints, fears and terrors).

6. - The Women's Commentary notes how the genealogy of Va-eira (used to reaffirm Aaron and moses' lineage?) is unique as it mentions women, which other Torah censuses do not. Toda raba, Women's Commentary!

7. - I personally love that God chooses a representative with a thick tongue and refuses to allow that be an impediment for Moses.

8. - Ugh, the whole I-will-harden-Pharaoh's-heart and the free-will-versus-destiny debate. The only way the Exodus works as the tension-ridden exercise in which God can wield power and work those "wonders" is if Pharaoh is stubborn. If Pharaoh submits early on, then there is no excuse to bring about plagues, there is no Angel of Death, indeed there is even no Pesach - indeed, could it have even been called an Exodus? Would the Israelites have ever become a people/nation?
What bothers me is twofold: 1) if God is constantly hardening Pharaoh's heart, how can we blame Pharaoh at all in what follows? Yes, I know, that God *can* control the actions of a nation's leader speaks to God's awesome power - but if God can control emotions and thoughts, why not just force Pharaoh to say, okey-dokey, y'all can go, don't let the door hit you on the way out? In fact, who is more to blame for the plagues - Pharaoh or God? Perhaps this was a bit of an overreach of The Torah's authors? 2) Why have God harden Pharaoh's heart at all? The beginning of Exodus sets up the ruler as a petty and paranoid tyrant who isn't above overt oppressions to keep a people down. That he would have refused Moses' requests and even challenged God's authority to the point of the last plague would actuallu seem justified by what we already know of his character.
(Question: when God says God will harden Pharaoh's heart, does that mean directly or indirectly through the contest of control which has been initiated through Moses/Aaron?)

9. - "And the Egyptians shall know that I am Adonai..." (7:5) Because the "wonders" are not just for the Israelites but the Eyptians, too. Because no one multi-tasks like God multi-tasks.

10.: Rods turning into snakes which swallow each other - was this the first phallic measuring contest?

11. I guess it speaks to Pharaoh's absolute tyranny that even when Moses/Adonai brings such suffering upon the Egyptians that they cannot force their ruler to acquiesce to Moses?    

12. regarding water turning into blood: There is a lot of academic/Anthropological research/literature on how blood is seen and used - and feared - by ancient people. One theory - which I agree with - is that blood is only seen as purifying/contract binding when it is controlled by a man/men/Man. When we see it under the control of Moses/Aaron or Adonai (such as in 7:19-24) there is no accompanying horror of impurity. yet when blood is not controlled by Man - in other words, when it pertains to Women - it is always seen as impure.
Discuss.

13. Critical to remember, as Rabbi Sharon Sobel of Temple Isaiah of Stony Brook has reminded us, the Torah sees God as connected to the land; within the land there is God (8:18). Whether you believe that or not, or how much you believe that or not, how much this informs everything else is kinda stunning to appreciate.

14: I personally love how, even this early on, the idea of distinction-making is occurring (8:21-23).

(And for the record, I would have linked clips to "The Ten Commandments" or "Gods and Kings" here for kitschy-cool visuals but am still waiting for a telling of a Middle Eastern people that isn't so blindingly white[washed].)