Partners with God (Shabbat Shemot)
Over the past many months, here and at our weekly Torah study, we have examined our lives through the lens of Genesis, explored what it means to be created in the Divine Image, endowed with the capacity to think and act in godly ways. Today, we begin the book of Exodus. Parashat Shemot quickly sets the stage for us as we gather our individual stories into the collective story of a people: Joseph dies after a period of prosperity for the Israelites in Egypt. A new Pharaoh rises and enslaves them with hard labor. And then the pivotal moment arrives in Chapter 2, when the Israelites’ suffering is too much to bear. The Torah says:
“their cry for help…rose up to God. God heard their moaning, and God remembered God’s covenant…” God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them (Ex 2:23-25).
Every time I read this passage, I can’t help but ask myself, ‘Wait a second, did God forget the covenant? Wasn’t God paying attention to our ancestors before they asked for help?’
Our tradition reassures us, no, God was always there: zachar, the Hebrew word translated here as remember, is not just about recalling things from the past – it also means noticing something in the present moment; being concerned in a way that leads to action. The Talmud tells us “the gates of tears are never locked.” Because humans are created in God’s image, what happens here on earth affects the Divine. An ordinary person crying for the loss of a loved one or filled with compassion for others reverberates in the Heavens above.
A midrash portrays God as affected by human action: it says, when God looked on the enslaved Israelites in Egypt, what God saw was not just the people’s suffering, but that despite their misery, the Israelites tried to help each other. Instead of each person looking out for themselves, when one would finish making their quota of bricks, they would help out a weaker neighbor.
This is the God we meet in the book of Exodus: Ehyeh asher Ehyeh, variously translated ‘I Am That I Am’ and ‘I Will Be What I Will Be’. God is not some distant supreme being, orchestrating our every step, but a God of becoming; a Presence unfolding alongside and through us, that takes notice of us when we take notice of one another.
The moment the Israelites respond to each other’s pain with compassion is also the moment the Holy One is able to partner with them, detailing for Moses, a plan for how they’ll partner to get the people free. So, as we seek freedom from our own struggles, may we be inspired to make space for our hearts to respond to our own and each other’s pain and exhaustion with patience, with kindness, with appreciation.
As we do, may we sense the ways God is with us, made visible through our own godly actions – crying, and hoping, and loving us into the year ahead.