Shabbat Table Talk
This week's teaching commentary was prepared by Elizabeth Young, BTh, MA; Etz Hayim-"Tree of Life"; Bat Kol alumna 2001-2006Parashat VaeraErev Shabbat, January 23, 2009
Week of 17 to 24 January
Torah portion: Ex. 6:2-9:35
Haftarah: Ezek. 28:25-29:21
Sunday Readings for 25 January: Jonah. 3:1-5, 10; Psa. 25:4-9; I Cor. 7:29-31;Mk. 1:14-20
"The Israelites would not listen to me; how then should
Pharaoh heed me, a man of impeded speech!" (Ex. 6:12)
The forces at play in this enigmatic statement are complex. Behind Moses' plea of impeded speech is a story of dilemma and dialectic: of the tension between the constraints of freedom and constriction that both power and disempower. Moses, a Prince of Egypt and, at the same time, an Israelite, finds himself rendered impotent; his voice is "speechless." Moses declares he is aral sefatayim (of "uncircumcised lips"). Rashi translates aral sefatayim as "blocked lips" since in every place in the Torah where the noun orlah occurs it is related to a "blocking" e.g., "their ear is impeded"-they are blocked from hearing (Jer. 6:10); the house of Israel is "impeded of heart"-they are blocked against understanding (Jer. 9:25).
What is the nature of this "block" which Moses' experiences as his impediment? Let us first consider Moses' first action as an adult. We are told that Moses saw the burdens of the Hebrews, he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, and he saw there was no one about and he struck the Egyptian..." (Ex. 2:11-12). Here we see the action of one who is drawn through a sense of justice and compassion to act [not withstanding the deplorable action of murder/manslaughter.] However, Moses' action does not make him a champion of the Israelites; the result is, rather, that he fears their taunting (2:14) and is alienated, both from his people by adoption (the Egyptians) and his people by birth (the Hebrews). Zornberg comments that the Israelites' worthiness of redemption is, in consequence, questioned by Moses [a theme developed by generations of commentators] and becomes one root of his condition, "uncircumcised lips," (The Particulars of Rapture, p. 26).
Thus it is that, assailed with fear, anxiety and frustration, Moses finds himself in exile in Midian. The one whose name means "drawn out" is indeed, drawn out, this time by God, yet he experiences the alienation of being "cast out." Moses' sense of alienation reflects the exilic pain of the Israelites. He experiences what the Zohar calls "the Exile of the Word." Moses' alienation is, however, a time of revelation. His naming of his son, Gershom, [because,] "a sojourner I have become in a foreign land," reflects the use of the same term (ger/sojourner) with regard to the Israelites (Ex. 6:4). Moses, like them, is a ger in a foreign land. The "simple" implication is clear: Moses regarded Egypt as home whilst to the Israelites, Mitzrayim is a foreign land; an experience of constriction. Moses' sojourning, however, brings him to another place-a place wherein he too knows and recognizes Mitzrayim*. The Sefat Emet, however, has something more to teach us regarding the implications of Moses' sojourning. The same word, ger, also refers to a proselyte: "the act of converting is a way of drawing everything back to its root." In this way Moses' exile is a time through which Moses is "drawn out," back to his root-to God, to Israel, to the experience of constriction: Miztrayim. Indeed, reflects the Sefat Emet, the act of sojourning is, for all exiles, in every place and time, a journey back to the wholeness of connectedness with God (cf. The Language of Truth, p. 88). Such a "journeying" experience, however, carries with it the dialectic of tensions: religious yearning, ideologies, and opposing worldly realities.
The weight of these tensions upon Moses is revealed in our parashah. Despite, or even, because of Moses' "sojourning", he experiences the conflict of constriction expressed in terms of "impediment"-a psychological barrier that situates Moses in involuntary opposition to the desire and design of God in procuring liberation for God's people. Moses' "blocked" speech remains an obstruction to himself and to others. This man who can dialogue with God has a fundamental blockage in human communication. Midrash has seen this inability to speak as a handicap that goes to the very core of Moses' psyche: Moses is paralyzed by failure: failure, thus far, to bring Pharaoh to let the people go, and failure to gain the confidence of the people who will not listen to him. Moses cannot make them listen. Moses "uncircumcised lips" have rendered him impotent. The enormity of Moses' condition of impotence is expressed in a classic example of kal vachomer (an extrapolation from a lesser premise to the greater.) "If they who have so much to gain cannot hear me, Pharaoh who has so much to loose will never listen to me." Moses' inadequacy is imposed upon him by the sheer fact that others will not listen to him.
Scripture instructs us, "Listen my people, that I may speak," (Psa. 50:7) an injunction that might be paraphrased, "if you do not listen I cannot speak." The Sefat Emet reminds us of the necessity of "listening" in order to hear: for the prophet prophesies "by the power of those who listen" (p. 90). Selective deafness renders the spoken word "dumb."
The Zohar offers us another insight into the nature of Moses' "uncircumcised lips." Moses, says the Zohar, is simply "voice." His speech, which is his word, was in exile so he was obstructed (blocked) from expressing words. "He said, ‘How will Pharaoh listen to me when my word is in exile? For I have no word! I am voice; word will be lacking for She is in exile.'" (Matt, The Zohar, p. 91).
What does this mean: "I am voice, word will be lacking for She is in exile"? In the mystical world of the kaballah the "voice" is articulated through Shekhinah, identified with speech. Moses' voice has no speech because Shekhinah is in exile with Her people, Israel. It is when Moses' voice and Shekhinah (speech) are united at Mount Sinai and the Torah is given that voice is reunited with speech and then the word, which is Shekhinah, (known as Elohim), "spoke all these things" (Ex. 20:1). Moses' healing and effectiveness is in the wholeness that is completed when voice and speech are united at Sinai.
Our considerations thus indicate that Moses' "blocked" speech is a product of both "no word", and "no listening" i.e., on behalf of Moses and on behalf of Israel (and Pharaoh.) Moses' blocked speech is also a metaphor for the tensions that exists between exile and redemption, between the "now" and the "not yet." The Sefat Emet suggests this is what delayed the giving of the Torah. "Speech was in exile as long as those who were to receive Torah had not yet readied themselves to hear the word of God" (The Language of Truth, p. 90). Such readiness requires emptiness, the removal of everything that obstructs, so that one becomes as a ger, a sojourner: only then can one "listen/hear" the fullness of Torah.
Thus we pray, "O Lord open my lips ..." i.e., "remove my aral sefatayim" (Psa. 51:15) in a prayer that prepares the heart to encounter the word of God without the distractions of the world.
For Reflection and Discussion: [1] Mitzrayim/the place of constriction must always remain with us. Zornberg suggests its value is immeasurable since it remains the eternal moment of danger. "To tell of release and freedom-the narrative of hope-a continuing dialectic is necessary." Do you own experiences of Mitzrayim help you relate to this statement? [2] How am I bound up in worldly things? What restrictions do my uncircumcised lips place upon me or others? Do I contribute to, or prevent others, from listening/hearing Torah?
Bibliography: Fox, The Five Books of Moses (New York, 1995); Green, The Language of Truth (Philadelphia, 1998); Matt, The Zohar, Pritzker Ed. Vol. 4 (Stanford, 2007); Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture (New York, 2001); The Sapirstein Edition, The Torah with Rashi's Commentary: Exodus (New York, 1999).
*Mitzrayim, the Hebrew word for Egypt, derives from a Hebrew root word which means "a place of constriction." See: http://www.etz-hayim.com/resources/articles/mitzrayim.php.
