שמות

Parashat Shemot begins the book of Exodus. It opens with the names of Jacob’s sons who came to Egypt, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. Altogether, Jacob’s family numbered seventy people, and Joseph was already there.

After Joseph and his generation died, a new king ruled Egypt who did not know Joseph. He saw that the Israelites were growing many and feared they might join Egypt’s enemies in war. So he set taskmasters over them and forced them into harsh labor with bricks and fieldwork. They built store cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses. Yet the more they were oppressed, the more they spread.

Pharaoh then ordered two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to kill baby boys at birth. But they feared God and did not obey. Finally Pharaoh commanded all his people: every newborn Hebrew boy must be thrown into the Nile, while the girls were allowed to live.

A man and woman from the tribe of Levi had a baby boy. His mother hid him for three months. When she could not hide him any longer, she made a basket of reeds, sealed it with pitch, and placed the baby among the reeds at the Nile’s edge. His sister watched from a distance.

Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe and noticed the basket. When she opened it, she saw a crying boy and felt pity. “This must be a Hebrew child,” she said. The sister stepped forward and offered to find a Hebrew nurse. Soon the baby’s own mother was hired to care for him. When he grew older, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and named him Moses, saying she had drawn him out of the water.

As an adult, Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and struck the Egyptian down. When Pharaoh tried to kill him, Moses fled to Midian. There he defended seven sisters at a well, stayed with their father, and married Zipporah. They had a son named Gershom, because Moses had been a stranger in a foreign land.

After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under slavery, and their cry rose up to God. God remembered the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and took notice of their suffering.

Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro when he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. He saw a bush blazing with fire, yet not burning up. From the bush God called, “Moses! Moses!” and Moses answered, “Here I am.” God told him to remove his sandals, for the ground was holy, and said He would rescue Israel and bring them to a good land.

Moses asked what name he should tell the Israelites. God answered with one Hebrew phrase, “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh,” meaning “I will be what I will be.” God sent Moses to gather Israel’s elders and to speak to Pharaoh, asking to go three days into the wilderness to sacrifice.

Moses and Aaron later went to Pharaoh, but Pharaoh refused and made the work heavier, ordering the people to gather their own straw while keeping the same brick quota. The Israelite overseers were beaten, and Moses cried out to God. God replied that Moses would soon see what He would do: Pharaoh would let the people go because of a greater might.