Smoke and Mirrors


Verse per verse: The Weekly Storah

By Lauviticus

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Exodus exits this week, mission accomplished: the Hebrew Nation is born and
on its way home. The book ends with the last moments of preparation for
cutting the ribbon – activation of the brand new sanctuary to the Deity who
delivered deliverance. Poetically, the saga that started with slaves
building bricks of bitterness concludes with a community of artisans
erecting a home for God. Another book-end motif of the birth-myth of the
Hebrews is the profound, but underplayed role of the women. In this weekly
double Torah Episode 'Vakhel Pekudei' – lost in the lists of generous
contributions to the tabernacle, hides a word – and hides a story about
survival, sexual arousal, and feminine intelligence – hinting at the erotic
and mystical dimensions of the sacred.

It all begins innocently enough; when it was time for the construction of
the Sacred Sink – a washing station for the tabernacle employees – the
Levites. This is the only plumbing device featured in the plans for the
mishkan, and the construction called for brass or copper, but the source of
this donated metal proved to be a source of some contention.

Exodus chapter 38:8
And he made the laver of brass, and the base thereof of brass, of the
mirrors of the serving women that did service at the door of the tent of
meeting. (JPS)

Who are these women and what are they doing at the tent's threshold and
what's with the mirrors? The Hebrew ' b'marot hatzov'ot' does not
explicitly mention women, but the verse identifies the keepers of the
mirrors as 'feminine' and 'assembled' leading to multiple translations:
"mirrors of the women who assembled," " mirrors of the ministering women
that ministered at the door of the tent of meeting.", " women who performed
tasks," "women who served at the entrance," "mirrors of the
women-work-force" or "crowds of women who crowded before the tent".
The Pseudo Jonathan delivers a curious version – covering up a bigger story:


'And he made the brazen Laver, and its foundation of brass, from the brazen
mirrors of the pious women, who, at the season, came to pray at the door of
the tabernacle of appointment, standing with their oblations, giving thanks
and confession, and returning to their husbands, the mothers of righteous
children, who had been purified from the uncleanness of their blood.'

Brazen mirrors?? What this translation alludes to is a lesser known legend,
quoted by Rashi – tracing the mirrors all the way back to Egypt, where they
served as sex toys – raising the oppressed and repressed Hebraic libido and
bumping up the population surveys: 'When their husbands were weary from the
hard labor, they would bring them food and drink, give them to eat and take
the mirrors. Each one would look into the mirror together with her husband
and tease him with words saying: "I am more beautiful than you." In the
course of this they would arouse their husbands' desire and copulate.'

Moses, according to the legend, did not want those 'brazen mirrors' in his
new tent, but the Holy One, intervened, instructing the inclusion of these
sacred objects of vanity in the very place where bodies would be sanctified
for divine service.

The Hebrew word for 'mirror' is very similar 'mar-aa' and is also related to
the Hebrew word for 'vision'. Thus, as the second book of Moses ends, amid
smoke and mirrors, the visionaries, midwives, artists and freed slaves join
to tell the hopeful tale of freedom over oppression – political, sexual,
religious and aesthetic. Just in time for Passover.

Next time you wash your hands in your bathroom sink, ponder, where in your
personal sanctuary is the erotic elevated into the sacred?

Next week – Leviticus: welcome to God's kitchen.

Revel


Verse per verse: The Weekly Storah

By Lauviticus

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The weekly Torah episode is Ki Tisa – Hebrew for 'The Census' – in which, among other special guests, the infamous Golden Calf shows up. Moses, up on the mountain is downloading revelation, while his brother Aaron is down below – in charge of the impatient masses - hungry for their fix of the divine dose. The gods they know from Egypt are tangible and sensory – they have faces, eyes, and glitzy substance you can dance around. They have no patience for an abstract faceless God. And so, the first religious fundraising campaign takes place, and one sacred young bull emerges from the fires, a product of countless earrings. The people are ecstatic and they point at the idol exclaiming ‘This IS your deity, Israel!’ – the ancient predecessor to ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’. This would have been a funny story had it not ended so tragically, what with the wrath of Moses, the breaking of the Ten Commandments, and a civil war with 3,000 casualties. What are we make of this story, and what possible relevance may it have for modern times, when worship, money, idolatry and fundamentalism all seem to be so hopelessly interwoven? The Israelites really believed they were celebrating the divine, but how far do good intentions go? All they wanted was fast food and instant gratification – don’t we all? One key to help untangle this theological mess may be hidden in the one Hebrew word used to describe what exactly they did on that day – a word, not surprisingly, translated in a variety of different ways.

Ex 32:6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt-offerings, and brought peace-offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to make merry.

The Hebrew word used here is LETZACHEK meaning to laugh, mock, or play. It is, famously, the word that gives Isaac his name – ‘the one who will laugh’. It is also a word repeated through the Bible to denote sexual play, general foolery, and, possibly, bloodshed.

In this case, the translators give us ‘rose to make merry’, while the King James and JPS offers ‘rose to dance’ and Artscroll likes "got up to revel;" The Pseudo-Jonathan translation uses the quaint "rose up to disport themselves with strange service’.

The fact is that , as usual, no single word in English will serve up the array of meanings in the Hebrew from the innocent to the erotic, from the pagan to the playful. In the end we like "revel" because this word both stands alone and appears inside the English word "revelation." Revel makes a connection between what is occurring on the top of the mountain and what is happening at its base. This almost reminds us of the holiday we just celebrated – Purim – where the instruction is to celebrate the divine truth by being completely intoxicated –a sacred paradox, a fusion transcending what is top and bottom, mind and body, right and wrong.

Lauviticus would like to suggest: ‘ And eagerly they woke up early on the next day, and lit the fires, and offered the meat; and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose to revel. ‘

Tell us, honestly, had you been there, at the foot of Sinai, with no Moses in sight, would you have reveled??

Oracle


Verse per verse: The Weekly Storah

By Lauviticus

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This week’s Torah tale, ‘Tetzave’ – Hebrew for ‘Command’ describes the couture of the tabernacle team, just in case you haven’t had enough of the red carpet coverage of the Oscars. This year, the text is linked to yet another high drama – the scroll of Queen Esther, which will be publicly chanted on Saturday nights to the sound of groggers. Purim, the Jewish Carnival, owes its name to the Babylonian word ‘Puru’ – ‘lottery’, an etymological and historical nod to the pagan origin of the holiday and its namesake. Originally marked as Babylonian New Year, Puru was celebrated with drinking, masks, and a ritualized lottery in which the fates of the coming year were divined, presided over by Ishtar and Marduk – top ranking deities. Intriguing elements of fate, lottery, and the seemingly random turn of events are part of the Purim story, where Esther and Mordechai preside (replacing Ishatr and Marduk) But as fate would have it - Esther has more to do with this week’s torah text, and especially to the lost Hebraic art of fortune-telling, a skill conducted by the High Priest using a weird an oracular object whose precise purpose may have been lost in translation.

Chapter 28 in Exodus describes the High Priests’ elaborate uniform, complete with a golden breastplate, decorated with twelve gemstones for the twelve tribes of Israel. This device is not just decorative – it is a functional, wearable, very expensive and very beautiful communication device:

"Place in the breastplate the Urim and Tummim, and they will be over Aaron's heart when he comes before God. Aaron will carry the judgment of the Children of Israel."

‘Urim and Thummim’ is not translated into any of the known English versions of the Bible, leaving the reader to rely on footnotes and classic commentary. Most opinions agree that this is the name for a fortune telling apparatus, used by the High Priest as vehicle to determine major policy decisions, straight from God. Various oracles are not unusual in religious societies, then and now – Tibetan practices, for instance, comes to mind. Literally translated, ‘Urim’ means ‘Lights’ and ‘Thummim’ may mean ‘Perfect’ or ‘Truth’. In the Biblical book of Samuel, for instance, the device is used as a binary oracle – responding to people’s questions with a ‘yes or no’ output – activating several of the gemstones to ‘light up the truth’. Do we go to war? Who is the next leader? Questions like these and others seem to have been reserved for the oracle’s usage though it is possible that more mundane issues of mass appeal were addressed as well (‘who will win best actor?’) Eventually, mysteriously, the device vanished and its usage discontinued. But the obscure technology lingers, surprisingly, The Urim and Thummin have become an essential part of Mormon symbolism, supposedly used by Joseph Smith to received revelation and translate unknown tongues. And they also showed up in New Haven - prominently displayed on the Yale Universality Shield – where, since 1736 the Hebrew motto has been translated in Latin as ‘Lux et Veritas’ – ‘Light and Truth’.

High priest, Mormon prophet, Persian Queen, or Yale grad, all share the human desire to meet – or to become - the oracle – to know what’s ahead. But then comes Purim, an obligatory non-sense driven holiday, on which we are instructed to precisely not know – not know what is ahead or behind, right or wrong, good or bad. Purim is a rude holiday, marking the ‘as if’ lottery of existence, the randomness of life, the chaos which is the ups and downs of reality – come what may. Maybe.

The moon if full this coming weekend, the oracle of the High Priest meets the mask of Queen Esther: a sacred arsenal of truth seeking tools, conveniently packaged for efficient use. Go for it, and have someone drive you home

Sister Act


Verse per verse: The Weekly Storah

By Lauviticus

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The weekly Torah episode is T’eruma – Hebrew for ‘The Donation’ – in which fundraising is born, blueprints are drawn, and the first Jewish synagogue comes into being, detail by detailed detail, down to the hem of the priestly gowns. If you are not interested in interior design, the next few Torah portions are a challenge as they basically describe the erection of the Mishkan – Hebrew for ‘Tabernacle’, the mobile dwelling home for the Divine, down to the last crimson stitch, golden bolt and donor listing. But there’s more here than meets the eye. Modern synagogues may look nothing like this biblical ancestor but many of the basic patterns that constitute the symbols, symmetry, and mystery of sacred Jewish architecture at this time, owe their origin to this desert tent, covered with goat skins. And one of the elements that link the modern temple to the original Mishkan is the often overlooked, lovingly mocked, and secretly feared perennial pillar of religious society: the Sisterhood.

Women’s wisdom, artistry, and generosity are mentioned several times in the description of the Tabernacle, but it is ultimately an all male operation run by a hierarchy of the sons of Levi. Or is it? One verse in this week’s episode presents a literal ‘cover up’ of one interesting detail of the holy tent, revealing a glimpse into the repressed origins of the sisterhood societies. The verse describes the walls of the tent, billowing curtains of purple and blue linen:

The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another. (Exodus 26:3 King James Bible)

Some translators substitute ‘curtains’ for ‘cloths’, ‘drapes’ or ‘tapestries’, and they also differ on the word ‘coupled’ – often preferring ‘joined’.

But we find it very curious that none of the known translators into English (or Aramaic) pick on the real translation challenge in this verse – the unusual Hebrew words that can only be literally translated as; ‘ And the five curtains will link together, ‘AS A WOMAN TO HER SISTER.’
That’s right – the original sisterhood - and no credit due. The image is startling – the walls of the home for the Shekina – Hebrew for ‘The Divine Presence’, is depicted in the image of the protective feminine: sister holding sister.
Perhaps this is an instance where there are shadings of words in the original that just will not come into English, challenging the translators to render the intimate and erotic sense of these seemingly dry details of construction.

The translation of the sister-eros into a mere mechanical joining of the curtains raises an even larger issue. What other traces of the divine feminine are hidden in the furniture and furnishings of the original Hebrew home for Divine Love?
Behind these curtains, we suspect, more surprises await in the following chapters. It’s always in the small print and where you are least expected. Stay tuned.

Mishpatim: The Charge to Recharge


verse per verse: The Weekly Storah

By Lauviticus

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Remember when your cell phone ran out of power just as you needed it most? Or worse – your car out of gas in the middle of nowhere, or worse yet – you, on any given day of overload, experiencing ‘major burn out’? These may seem like modern problems, but they’ve been addressed thousands of years ago, and in this week’s Torah episode, Mishpatim – Hebrew for ‘Laws’, the vital law for anti-burn-out is reiterated, among a motley crew of laws and regulations for kosher (aka holistic) living.

The one law that grabs our attention is the one that, perhaps, we need the most: how to take time out, and refresh, or recharge, or recreate. These are all synonyms for one mysterious word that appears here in relation to the keeping of the Sabbath – a word that means both the human soul AND the action that is required for ongoing maintenance of the soul. Somewhere in this linguistic puzzle is, perhaps, a key to sustainable living.

Exodus 23:12

Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your home-born slave and the resident alien may be refreshed. (JPS)

The word translated as refreshed is the Hebrew word naphash, translated elsewhere as ‘rest’, ‘quiet’, ‘pause’, or ‘may-pause-for-breath’.

The word Nephesh makes its first appearance in the creation narratives -Genesis 2:7: ‘And God blew into his nostrils the breath of life and adam became a living being. The word translated here as being is nephesh, which shares the same root consonants as the word naphash for which our translators give us refreshed. The words in Hebrew are akin, but in English that kinship between ‘soul’ and ‘rest’ disappears.

For modern creatures craving sacred time, and effective time management, this word/law retrieves the concept of Re:Creation – another word that has lost its original force (re-creation) and now suggests everything from golf to drugs.

And so Lauviticus would like to suggest:

For six days you will work, and on the seventh day have rest, so that your household rests, and all who work for you, and with you may re-create.

How do you recreate? And is it enough to recharge your batteries?

THE PURPLE PEOPLE

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By Lauviticus

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This weekly Torah episode is ‘Jethro’ – honoring Moses’ Father-in-Law, who was also High Priest of Midian, the indigenous people of the Sinai Peninsula. Jethro journeys towards the Hebrew encampment at the foot of the Mountain of God, bringing along the First Family – Zippora and the two sons of Moses. Not much is told in the text about the family reunion, but we are told that Jethro, impressed by the deeds of the Hebrew Deity, proclaims his faith in this new God. Thus, several commentaries and traditions identity Jethro as the first official convert – a Hebrew by Choice.
Choice – choosing and being chosen - is the key motif in this story. Jethro’s personal revelation is a prelude to the big act of The Revelation – Live from Mount Sinai, complete with thunder, lightning, and thick clouds. The Hebrew people, only chapters ago an enslaved mass, are now invited (and possibly commanded) to make the choice of becoming a sacred nation – a God-Chosen tribe. But unlike Jethro – who returns to the tents of Midian – the Hebrews are here to stay, and under the billowing mountain they become the Chosen People – a dense, challenging and oddly translated expression appearing here for the first time, verbatim from God:
Exodus 19:5 Now, then, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples. Indeed, all the Earth is mine. (KJV)
The Hebrew word SEGULA – translated here as ‘treasured possession’ is elsewhere translated as ‘special property’, ‘’peculiar treasure’, ‘unique merit’ and ‘special treasure’. The Pseudo-Jonathan, translated:’ you shall be more beloved before Me than all the peoples on the face of the earth.’
The word SEGULA has legal overtones denoting valued property to which "one has exclusive possession," and all our translators are struggling with this word/concept that summarizes this binding and conditional covenant.
There’s much to say about the CHOSEN PEOPLE concept and not all of it is happy. The historical ‘othernesses’ of the Hebrew tribe that premiers here this week has yielded both pride – and painful prejudice. In the 2007 Global village, with Anti Semitism (disguised and/or fueled by anti-Zionism) on the rise again, the Chosen issue spans politics, theology, and socio-economic tensions that impact the lives of millions. Can Jewish Identify continue to thrive while deeply examining and deconstructing this notion of ‘elite human squad’?
Interestingly, the original Hebrew term does not in itself imply either exclusivity or pre-eminence. A plausible reading is that God considers Israel a cherished people, a jewel in the crown of nations, but not the crown itself.
In support of this sense of Israel being one special nation with its own unique gifts among other special nations, we note that the word SEGULA may also mean ‘purple’ – as in the color. Although it is famously a regal color - purple is only one hue in a spectrum, and it draws its composition from reds and blues. In the divine palate a color may be distinct yet not superior to other colors. Maybe we are not the Chosen people – what a relief! Maybe this is just a fashion statement (It is Fashion week in NYC!) and not a social boundary…Maybe we’re entitled to be known as The Purple People?
Either way, this is one of those Biblical cases where translation becomes much more than a semantic case in point, and an opportunity for us to boldly explore how our past and present meet to create a better future.
Whether as a parent with children or a leader with colleagues, we all know the challenge of seeing and articulating value without creating invidious comparisons. Where in your family and workplace do you struggle with the issues of ‘special’ and value and how do you remind each person of their unique place?

PACKING

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By Lauviticus

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What would you pack if you ran away from home?



This week, in the portion called ‘B’Shalach’, the great escape known as The Exodus continues, and the Hebrew runaways famously wade in the waters of the Sea of Reeds. (This is also one of the most infamous mistranslations and cartographic errors in biblical history –never meant to be read as the ‘Red Sea’).

No matter what one imagines the Exodus to be – historical, mythical, both or neither – the powerful image of a human mass fleeing towards freedom chased by soldiers is painfully familiar from war torn areas worldwide. And, like many modern attempts to personalize the stories of mass migrations – we focus on what may have been the plight of individuals, capturing the image of one person, or one family, allowing intimate details to tell the bigger, often incomprehensible tales of our lives.



In this story, we are focusing on one word, describing either what the Hebrews packed along, and/or who they left behind.



Exodus 13:18 ‘But God led the people about, by the way of the wilderness by the Red Sea; and the children of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt.’ (JPS Bible)



The Hebrew word ‘CHAMUSHIM’ is most often translated as ‘armed’, ‘harnessed’, ‘equipped for battle’, and ‘bearing weapons’. In 2007, Jews with weapons are not uncommon(mostly Israeli soldiers but also Sandra Froman, the new president of the NRA – a Jewish woman!) but it is startling to think of this image in the translations and imaginations of Bible readers prior to 1948. Later on in the exodus story, once they cross the sea, Miriam leads the people in song, and drums accompany her. It is comforting to know that musical instruments, and not just weapons (and matza) are what our ancestral runways packed for the road, functional and symbolic at the same time.

But there is another way to translate the word ‘Chamushim” – reading it not from the root for ‘weapon’ but from the word for the number ‘Five’ – ‘Chamesh’. Interestingly, various Jewish commentaries and translators stayed away from the weapons motif and went with the breakdown of the people into units of five. For instance, the Pseudo Jonathon translates this verse as: “…and every one of the sons of Israel left Egypt, with five children each. “

Yet another interpretive translation is that of the 11th Century CE commentator Rashi, who quotes Rabbinic sources: ‘Only one of five Hebrews left Egypt, while the other four who refused to leave died during the three days of darkness.’



According to this oral tradition, the Hebrews are not leaving with weapons – they are leaving with diminished numbers and much loss. How many prefer to stay behind in the familiar realities, even if oppressive? and how many choose to leap into the unknown?



One of out five, or one plus five, with weapons and with drums, the heroes and heroines of this ancient journey sing their way across a Sea of Reeds, encounter Manna, thirst for water, and win their first battle, all within four chapters. Next stop: Mount Sinai.



And we, on our ongoing coming out into Self - what do we pack for the journeys across the threshold of new possibilities? And what or who, this time round, do we leave behind?

Labor of Love

verse per verse: The Weekly Storah

By Lauviticus

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This weekly Storah is dedicated to Lisa Goldberg, of blessed memory, who left the earth this past week. She was an inspiration to all those of us striving to acheive labors of love.

This week’s torah episode is called ‘BO’, also known as ‘Showdown in Egypt’. ‘Bo’ means ‘Enter’ – alluding to the divine command for Moses to enter the presence and the mindset of his oppressor – in order to release the enslaved Hebrews and let them go free. In three chapters we get a blow by blow of the final stages of the Exodus - the last three of the ten attacks on Egypt, climaxing with the slaughter of the firstborn and the king’s final defeat. Somewhere between midnight and dawn, lit by the full moon of spring, over a million Hebrew slaves flee Egypt, matzos in hand, ending 430 years of residence.

And then, when it’s all over, the Passover for the future is instructed – the memory of that fateful night, different from all others, engraved on the collective mind. One word stands out – a Hebrew word that is translated in various ways that put together tell the whole story, mysteriously symbolizing both the agony and the redemption – the bitter and the sweet.

Exodus 12:16 - And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? (King James Bible)

The Hebrew word for ‘service’ is ‘avodah’ – appearing continuously in the Exodus saga, translated as ‘labor’, ‘practice’, ‘employment’, ‘worship’, ‘bondage’, ‘rite’ or ‘ceremony’.
Depending on the context this word either refers to the historical forced labor in the Egyptian brick factories OR to the future ritual commemoration of the Passover Freedom Festival: the Seder. Either way – it’s the same word, and for those of us who have sat through one of those unbelievably long and boring Seders – the slavery motif is not a big surprise. The word ‘Avodah’ became the code word for the worship rites at the Jerusalem Temple, and later for the sequence of prayers conducted in synagogues. The word ‘service’ is still in fairly current usage, describing what has also become, for many of us, a bit more of a laborious oppression than excited celebration.

Avodah is a key concept in Jewish vocabulary. Perhaps, because if focuses on the very basic set of human acts that requires discipline and perseverance, order and obedience. We think of this in terms of worship – but also in terms of industry. The word ‘work’ – signifying what for many is a vocation of obligation and for many others a labor of love, is very loaded with different meanings – and in modern Hebrew – Avoda still means ‘job’.

The many faces of this word remind us of one more bizarre twist on this convoluted concept. ‘Arbeit Macht Frei ‘or ‘Labor Liberates’ is a familiar, sinister quote, used by the Nazis to promote slave labor as ‘effective’ or ‘humane’ procedure. The expression first appears in 1872, when German author Lorenz Diefenbac, a nationalist, used it as the title of his book. In 1928 the Weimar Government used it as a slogan promoting large scale public works campaign to end unemployment. By 1933 it has become a Nazi favorite, famously decorating the thresholds of many death camps.

This story is about thresholds.

As we repeat the Exodus tale this week, ancient and recent history echo our personal yearnings for a life free of all forms of oppression.
So, when the time comes and your child asks you – WHY are we doing this Passover thing? What will you answer?
And, in our daily journeys from the narrow places, when tasks and duties become oppressions, no matter what their goal and purpose – will we remember the labor of love?

Moses, Uncut

verse per verse: The Weekly Storah

By Lauviticus

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This past Monday marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day – honoring a courageous leader whose passionate sacrifice and prophetic speeches shaped an Exodus from the bondage of racism, offering dignity and freedom to an entire nation. Imagine a leader of such proportions and scope – with a heavy speech impediment? What if he or she has a stutter or an inability to make a coherent sentence? Oh well, yes, there is that man in the White House, but we mean real leaders, prophetic change agents whose deeds and words motivate revolutions. How much of their power is derived form oratory ability?
Moses, the hero of THAT ancient Exodus, is famously known for just such a challenge. In this week’s Torah Episode, Va’Era, he continues to struggle against the mission that has been given to him at the burning bush – to free his people. In the second round of negotiations with the surprising deity with the ancient Hebrew resonance and new, unfamiliar name, Moses resists the role by claming that his lips are, literally, sealed – preventing him from delivering the Divine word to the King of Egypt. The saga of Moses’ reluctance to accept this historic mantle is interesting enough, but what really grabs the translators’ attention is the idiom he uses for his inadequacy – somehow linking lips to penis, and body to national identity:
Moses, the hero of the original Exodus, is famously known for just such a challenge. In this week's Torah Episode, Va'Era, he continues to struggle against the mission that has been given to him at the burning bush – to free his people. In the second round of negotiations with the invisible Deity, Moses resists the role by claiming that his lips are, literally, sealed - covered by a foreskin. He is speaking figuratively, of course, but what can this mean? That his lips that have not been denatured through a covenantal act, have not been dedicated to Divine service? That they have not been stripped of the covering of Egyptian, the language of his upbringing? Translators have wrestled with this disclaimer in numerous ways:
Exodus 6:12, according to the King James Bible:
And Moses spake before the LORD, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips? (KJV)
Other translations replace ‘uncircumcised lips’ with Impeded speech (Etz Chayim), difficult of speech( Pseudo Jonathan) or Sealed lips (Artscroll), creatively addressing the words AREL S’FTAIM as metaphor for what is otherwise a really peculiar physical condition. The word AREL is usually read as ‘uncircumcised, derived from the primitive root: ‘to strip’ or ‘to expose’.
So what's going on, Moses? Are you uncut and unsuitable or just not cut for the job? Does your reluctance to be recruited for this campaign express itself in a stammering stage fright? Did you press a burning coal to your lips as an infant, as legends tell, so that you are forever marked and scarred? Did your infancy as a hidden child traumatize you, the maternal finger ever pressed over your lips to keep you quiet? Perhaps all of the above. And the best we can do as translators is to offer our own: tongue tied, speechless, Moses refuses the nomination and prefers to stay where it’s familiar, back with the sheep.
Perhaps his progress shows us how personal limitations -- real or perceived--- can be made into advantages, transforming self and society in surprising and inspiring ways. Perhaps, too, his story reminds us of how important it is to have leaders who know their own weakness and find partners who can help them lead. After all, Moses' protests convince the Almighty to add a speechwriter and official spokesman to the Exodus Campaign: Aaron, the original translator or Divine Word. What next? join the reluctant hero and his sidekick for the fight to freedom... frogs and all.

LIVE in Egypt

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By Lauviticus

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This week, Lauviticus welcomes you to the Second of the Five Books,
known to us as Exodus, but in Hebrew known as The Book of Names. Exodus/Shemot takes us beyond the primal myths of Genesis into the socio-political reality of oppression, racism, poverty, human suffering and human hope, and ultimately towards the creation of a community bound by faith, ritual, and order.
The seed of this transformation is located in the prophetic myth of Moses, and in this week's telling of his heroic and humble begining. His birth and that of countless other babies are described as a "swarming" with its implication of a superabundant force. In the face of this prolific fertility, Pharaoh enslaves the Hebrews and issues an edict sentencing infant boys to death. Initially he employs the midwives as his instrument of enforcement, but they do not comply and when confronted, reply with the verse we focus on this week:
The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like
the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous. Before the midwife can
come to them, they have given birth." Exodus 1:19. Etz Chayim Translation
The Hebrew word in question here is CHAYOT – translated as either
VIGORUOUS or LIVELY (King James Bible), EXPERTS (Artscroll) or AMINALS
( Richard Friedman's translation)
All these translations are valid, though seeing the women as animals who do not need midwives for birthing is perhaps the most challenging. Translating chayot as "animals" may be the best way the mid-wives know to explain to Pharaoh that their hands are tied. You know these Hebrew women, they are like animals. Cover story? Or racial slur?
But another way to read this verse is that the Hebrew women are
ALIVE – full of life, zest, fight and determination. They are not degraded by
their circumstances but powerful in their sacred duty of birthing the
future. (Anyone seen the recent film 'Children of Men'? see it for a
powerful reminder of the awe-some and awe-full experience of birth.)
The classic Aramaic translator, knows as the Pseudo-Jonathan, took
this approach as well. In his rendition of Exodus 1:19 he translates
CHAYOT in a way that makes the mothers seems as heroines, not victims:
"The Jewish women are not as the Egyptian , for they are sturdy and
wise-minded: before the midwife comes to them they lift up their eyes
in prayer, supplicating mercy before their Father who is in heaven,
who hears the voice of their prayer, and at once they are heard, and
bring forth, and are delivered in peace."
And so Lauviticus would like to suggest: ‘The Hebrew Women are not like their governing Egyptian sisters – for they are full of LIFE; The Divine is their midwife.’
What, in your life, is so full of life and vitality, that against all
odds, will just burst out and change the world?

Shabbat shalom!