Parshas Va’era
At the end of Parshas Shemot, Moshe complained to G-d: “Why do you mistreat your people? Why did you send me? As soon as I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he made things worse. You have done nothing to help your people.”
And G-d’s answer comes in the opening verses of Parshas Va’era.
“And Elokim spoke to Moshe and said to him, I am Hashem.”
The word “Elokim” means both G-d and Judge. There are two types of judges. There are judges who are human and finite, but there is one Judge called Hashem, who is Divine and eternal. Human judges must hand down their sentences immediately, otherwise events may intervene and the sentence might never be carried out. The Divine Judge is eternal and His judgment will be carried out however long it might take, because He literally has all the time in His World, which means forever.
So Moshe, you are not seeing immediate results? You expect the Jews to go out tomorrow, or else your mission has failed? If that is the case, you do not understand the meaning of Hashem.
You Moshe are unlike Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. G-d promised them the land of Israel but He did not fulfill that promise in their lifetime (Rashi 6:4 and 6:9). When Avraham needed to bury Sarah, he did not find a grave site, but had to purchase land at an exorbitant price. So too, Yitzchak had to defend himself against claims brought against him over the ownership of the wells he dug in Canaan. Yaakov had to pay for a piece of land on which to pitch his tent. Yet, they never complained. G-d appeared to them with the name Kel Shakai. The word dai (from which this second name derives) means enough. G-d’s promise to them was enough. They could bank on it, even if the maturity date of the check was in the lifetime of their descendents. They understood that whatever happened to them in their lives was ultimately for the good, in the spirit of Gam zu le’tovah.
However, Moshe you have a point, G-d said. “I have heard the anguish of the people of Israel” (Shemos 6:3). G-d understood that if He would insist on delaying the redemption for another 190 years, there would no longer be a Jewish people to redeem. In order to free themselves from the torture of the slavery, they would have had to agree to assimilate and become Egyptians.
But Moshe, says G-d, you must have faith in the way I do things.
After all, I made a promise to Avraham that his descendants would be enslaved in Egypt for 400 years and I cannot break that promise. At the same time, I agree with you that they have to be released soon. How do I go about deducting 190 years from the 400 years of slavery that I promised Avraham, so that they can leave now after only 210 years?
I can do that by increasing the hardship of their work, by, so to speak, making them work overtime. Now they will have to find their own straw and that extra effort will fulfill the quota of kash, which word has the numerical value of 400. What you Moshe believe was the failure of your mission, was actually its success.
So Moshe was comforted by G-d’s words and continued with his mission.
But the people were overworked and under pressure and they had no time for seemingly empty promises. “They did not listen to Moshe because of shortness of breath and the pressure of work” (6:9).
It was hard for them to believe in a vacuum. They needed to see some concrete results.
And G-d understood this human need. So he brought about the redemption in five stages (based on 6:6-7).
The first stage was immediate. Vehotzeisi, “I will take you out from under the burdens of Egypt.” No longer did they have to find their own straw with which to build bricks.
The second stage was Vehitzalti; they were no longer compelled to do any forced labor at all. But they still remained in Egypt, and as far as Pharaoh was concerned, he might still be able to enslave them in the future.
The third stage was Vega’alti, G-d took them out of Egypt so that Pharaoh would never be able to enslave them again, because he would never see them again (Shemos 14:13).
The fourth stage was Velakachti, G-d adopted us as his own nation by giving us His Torah. That took seven weeks because the people were not yet ready to accept it. They were still complaining about their lot. “Were there no graves in Egypt that you took us out to die in the desert?” they griped to Moshe (14:11). They complained and said, “What shall we drink?” (15:24). They protested, “If only we had died in Egypt as we sat by the pots of meat and we had plenty of bread to eat” (15:3). They disobeyed Moshe and tried to save quantities of the manna for the next day, only to find that it became moldy (16:20). And they had a grievance against the manna and demanded meat instead (Bamidbar 11:4).
It took them seven weeks until they understood that there is no point in competing for more and that the measure of manna that each person found was what was destined for him. “Whoever took more had nothing extra and whoever took less was not lacking” (Shemos 16:18). It took them seven weeks until they understood what Ben Zoma would ultimately tell us: “They will call you by your name, they will seat you in your place, they will give you what is yours and no person can take what is set aside for another” (Yoma 38a). It is only when the people stopped complaining, learned to be satisfied with their lot in life and ceased competing with one another that they were ready to accept the Torah, whose ways are congenial and peaceful.
Finally, at the end of seven long weeks, the people of Israel encamped opposite the mountain as one man with one heart with no complaints and no arguments (Rashi to Shemos 19:2). Now they were ready to receive the Torah.
The fifth stage was Vehaivaisi (6:8), and I will bring you to the land of Israel which I swore to give to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov.
Like our forefathers, we have not yet seen this promise materialize in our lifetime. But we believe this will occur soon and then we will be able to drink the fifth cup of Eliyahu – waiting quietly and patiently each year in the knowledge that this too will happen, all in good time.