We know their excuse, what's ours? At the beginning of the sedra, G-d instructs Moshe to say to the Jewish People that He will be taking them out of Egypt, will be giving them the Torah ("I will take you unto Me as a nation, and I will be for you G-d"), and will be bringing them into Eretz Yisrael. That, as we've often said, is G-d's Three-Pronged Plan for us. It is His will that we leave Egypt, get the Torah, and live in Eretz Yisrael. It was His will over 3300 years ago, and it is His will today, and forever. But know reflect upon the pasuk right after this dramatic, monumental promise/ prophecy. Moshe spoke as instructed to B'nei Yisra'el and they didn't listen because of their exhaustion and hard labor. They didn't listen! G-d told them that He was taking them out of slavery to freedom, that they were to be G-d's special nation, etc. and they didn't listen. Good excuse? Let's say that it was. Note two things. First, when G-d tells Moshe to go to Par'o, Moshe "argues" that he is an ARAL S'FATAYIM and a K'VAD PEH, he cannot/doesn't speak well, and if his own people didn't listen to him, how is Par'o expected to listen. Moshe did not blame the people for not listening to him. Later, after the Torah gives us the genealogy of Moshe and Aharon, the Torah returns us, so to speak, to the point where G-d is sending Moshe to Par'o, and Moshe's contention that Par'o will not listen to him because of his difficulty in speak- ing; the Torah does not even mention that B'nei Yisra'el didn't listen, a further indication, perhaps, that in their circumstances, it was excusable for them not to have listened to Moshe and the promises he brought to them from G-d. It is not just promises that we are dealing with here. It is G-d's expectations of His people. It is G-d's desire, so to speak, that we keep the Torah and that we live a Torah life in Eretz Yisrael. Prophets from Moshe Rabeinu and onward have repeated this Divine Plan and Will to the people in a variety of ways. And each new way that the call to faithfulness to G-d, to keeping the Torah, to living in Eretz Yisrael does not replace the previous way it was expressed. It adds to it. Prophecies that are contained in the Torah and the rest of Tanach are for all generations. Every one of those promises and prophecies are spoken to us. Today. Otherwise, we would not even know about them. There have been generations and periods of Jewish History in which the Jewish People didn't listen to the prophecies because of exhaustion, hard labor, despair. And, perhaps, those who didn't listen can be excused because of their difficulties. Only perhaps. But let's not judge past generations or other Jews. Just ourselves. When G-d says to us that He is taking us unto Him as a nation and is to be our G-d - do we hear? Do we listen? Do we respond positively? When we hear the call to live in Eretz Yisrael - the old and new call, do we hear? Do will listen? Do we do something about it? If not, G-d forbid, what's our excuse? [The Parshat Va'eira Homepage]
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