{"id":61341,"date":"2019-01-02T12:52:21","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T17:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=61341"},"modified":"2019-01-02T15:41:55","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T20:41:55","slug":"cc-family-edition-the-god-who-acts-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/cc-family-edition-the-god-who-acts-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"C&C Family Edition: The God Who Acts in History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Covenant & Conversation: Family Edition<\/em>\u00a0is a new and exciting initiative from The Office of Rabbi Sacks for 5779.\u00a0 Written as an accompaniment to Rabbi Sacks\u2019 weekly\u00a0Covenant & Conversation<\/em>\u00a0essay, the\u00a0Family Edition<\/em>is aimed at connecting older children and teenagers with his ideas and thoughts on the\u00a0parsha<\/em>. Each element of the\u00a0Family Edition<\/em>\u00a0is progressively more advanced;\u00a0The Core Idea\u00a0<\/em>is appropriate for all ages and the final element,\u00a0From The Thought of Rabbi Sacks<\/em>, is the most advanced section. Each section includes\u00a0Questions to Ponder<\/em>, aimed at encouraging discussion between family members in a way most appropriate to them. We have also included a section called\u00a0Around the Shabbat Table<\/em>\u00a0with a few further questions on the\u00a0parsha<\/em>\u00a0to think about. The final section is an\u00a0Educational Companion<\/em>\u00a0which includes suggested talking points in response to the questions found throughout the\u00a0Family Edition<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Download as PDF<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Covenant and Conversation on OU Torah<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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The Parsha in a Nutshell<\/strong><\/p>\n

In\u00a0Va\u2019era<\/em>, the story of the exodus begins in earnest, with an unprecedented series of divine interventions into history. Time and again plagues hit the Egyptians. Moses repeatedly asks Pharaoh to release the people. Repeatedly, Pharaoh refuses. An immense drama is taking place. All the power of imperial Egypt is powerless against the God of creation and redemption.<\/p>\n

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The Core Idea<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are at the lowest point in Israelite history so far. They have been enslaved. Pharaoh has decreed that every Jewish male child is to be killed. Moses is sent to liberate them, but the first effect of his intervention is to make matters worse, not better. Now they have to provide their own straw, and still make the same number of bricks as before. At first they believed Moses when he performed the various signs God had given him, and told them that God was about to rescue them, but now they turn on him and his leadership.<\/p>\n

None of this, however, has been accidental. The Torah is preparing the ground for one of its most epic assertions: It is in the darkest night that Israel has its greatest visions. Hope is born in the depth of despair. There is nothing natural about this, nothing inevitable. No logic can give rise to hope; no law of history charts a path from slavery to redemption, exile to return. The entire sequence of events has been a run-up to the single most formative moment in the history of Israel: the intervention of God in history \u2013 the supreme Power intervening on behalf of the supremely powerless, not (as in every other culture) to endorse the status quo, but to overturn it.<\/p>\n

This is a world-changing idea. What is revolutionary in Judaism is not simply the concept of monotheism \u2013 that the universe is not a blind clash of conflicting powers but the result of a single creative will. It is that God is\u00a0involved\u00a0<\/em>in His creation. God is not simply the force that brought the universe into being, nor is He reached only in an individual\u2019s private soul. At a certain point He intervened in history, to rescue His people from slavery and set them on the path to freedom.<\/p>\n

QUESTIONS TO PONDER:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  1. Why do you think Jewish history had to start at such a low point?<\/li>\n
  2. Judaism believes that God acts in history (as seen so clearly in the Exodus story). What are the alternative ways to look at God and history?<\/li>\n
  3. Why is this idea more clearly seen here in the Book of Exodus rather than the Book of Genesis and the stories that have preceded this one?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    It Once Happened…<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Several years after the destruction of the Holy Temple, Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Eliezer ben Azarya, Rabbi Yehoshua, and Rabbi Akiva were going up to Jerusalem. When they reached Mount Scopus, the site of the Temple came into view, and they tore their garments in mourning. When they reached the Temple Mount, they saw a fox dart out from the spot where the Holy of Holies had stood in the Holy Temple. The rabbis began to weep, but Rabbi Akiva laughed. They said to him: \u201cAkiva, you never cease to amaze us. We are crying, and you laugh!\u201d But Rabbi Akiva said, \u201cAnd you, why are you crying?\u201d<\/p>\n

    The rabbis responded: \u201cWhat? Shall we not weep? The place about which Scripture states (Bamidbar 1:51), \u2018And the stranger who draws close shall die,\u2019 has become a den of foxes! Indeed, this is a fulfillment of the verse, \u2018For Mount Zion which lies desolate, foxes prowl over it\u2019 (Eikha 5:18).\u201d<\/p>\n

    Rabbi Akiva answered them: \u201cThis is exactly why I laugh. For just as we have seen the prophecies of Jerusalem\u2019s destruction have come to pass, so too, know that the prophecies of her future consolation shall also be fulfilled. I laughed because I remembered the verses (Zekharya 8:4\u20135), \u2018Old men and old women will once again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with his staff in his hand because of advanced age; and the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.\u2019 The Holy One, blessed be He, has declared that just as the first prophecies have been fulfilled, so shall the latter. I am joyous that the first have already come to pass, for the latter shall be fulfilled in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Said the rabbis, \u201cYou have comforted us, Akiva, you have comforted us. May you be comforted by the footsteps of the Messiah.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Adapted from Midrash Raba Eikha, 5<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    QUESTIONS TO PONDER:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    1. What do you think is the connection between the message of this\u00a0Midrash<\/em>\u00a0and the message of\u00a0The Core Idea<\/em>?<\/li>\n
    2. Is it hard to have the faith in God and Jewish history displayed by Rabbi Akiva in this\u00a0Midrash<\/em>? Do you find it difficult or easy yourself?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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      Thinking More Deeply<\/strong><\/p>\n

      God\u2019s speech to Moses that delivers the world-changing idea discussed in\u00a0The Core Idea<\/em>, in\u00a0Exodus 6:2-8, is breathtaking in its grandeur and literary structure. But what will concern us \u2013 as it has successive generations of interpreters \u2013 is the proposition signalled at the outset: \u201cI appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as the Lord Almighty, but by My name God I was not known to them.\u201d A fundamental distinction is being made between the experience the patriarchs had of God, and the experience the Israelites are about to have. Something new, unprecedented, is about to happen. What is it?<\/p>\n

      Clearly it has to do with the names by which God is known. The verse distinguishes between\u00a0E-l Shaddai<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cthe Lord Almighty\u201d) and the four-letter name of God which, because of its sanctity, Jewish tradition referred to simply as\u00a0Hashem\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 \u201cthe name\u201d par excellence (which is translated above simply as \u201cGod\u201d).<\/p>\n

      As the classic Jewish commentators point out, the verse must be read with great care. It does not say that the patriarchs \u201cdid not know\u201d this name; nor does it say that God did not \u201cmake this name known\u201d to them. The four-letter name appears no less than 165 times in the book of Genesis. God Himself uses the phrase \u201cI am\u00a0Hashem<\/em>\u201d to both Abraham (Genesis 15:7) and Jacob (Genesis 28:13).<\/p>\n

      For the sages of the Midrash,\u00a0Hashem\u00a0<\/em>signified the divine attribute of compassion: God said to Moses, \u201cYou wish to know My name? I am called according to My deeds\u2026When I judge creatures, I am called\u00a0Elokim<\/u><\/em>. When I wage war against the wicked I am called\u00a0\u2018Lord of hosts.\u2019<\/u>\u00a0When I suspend judgment for man\u2019s sins I am called\u00a0E-l Shaddai<\/u><\/em>. When I am merciful towards My world I am called\u00a0Hashem<\/u><\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

      For Judah Halevi and Nahmanides, the key difference has to do with God\u2019s acts within and beyond nature. This is how Halevi puts it in\u00a0The Kuzari<\/em>: This is perhaps what the Bible means when it says, \u201cand I appeared to Abraham\u2026as\u00a0E-l Shaddai<\/em>,\u201d namely, in the way of power and dominion\u2026. He did not, however, perform any miracle for the patriarchs as he did for Moses.<\/p>\n

      Rashi\u2019s explanation is the simplest and most elegant: I was not recognised by them in My attribute of \u201ckeeping faith,\u201d (implied by My name \u201cHashem<\/em>,\u201d), namely that I am faithful to fulfil My word, for I made promises to them but I did not fulfil them [during their lifetime].<\/p>\n

      Something was about to change. The patriarchs had received the covenantal promise. They would become a nation. They would inherit a land. None of this, however, happened in their lifetime. To the contrary, as the Book of Genesis reaches its close, the family of the patriarchs numbers a mere seventy souls and they are in exile in Egypt. Now, the fulfilment is about to begin. Already, in the first chapter of the Book of Exodus, we hear, for the first time, the phrase\u00a0Am Bnei Yisrael<\/em>, \u201cthe people of the children of Israel\u201d (Exodus 1:9). Israel has at last become, not merely a family, but a nation. Moses at the burning bush has been told, by God, that He will bring them to \u201ca good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey\u201d (Exodus 3:8).\u00a0Hashem\u00a0<\/em>therefore means the God who acts in history to fulfil His promises.<\/p>\n

      At the heart of most visions of the human condition is what Mircea Eliade (in his book\u00a0Cosmos and History<\/em>) calls \u201cthe terror of history.\u201d The passage of time, with its disasters, its apparent randomness, its radical contingency, is profoundly threatening to the human search for order and coherence. There seems to be no meaning in history. We live, we die, and it is as if we had never been. The universe gives no sign of any interest in our existence. If that was so in ancient times, when people believed in the existence of gods, how much more so is it true today for those neo-Darwinians who see life as no more than the operation of \u201cchance and necessity\u201d (Jacques Monod) or \u201cthe blind watchmaker\u201d (Richard Dawkins). Time seems to obliterate all meaning. Nothing lasts. Nothing endures.<\/p>\n

      In ancient Israel, by contrast, \u201cfor the first time, the prophets placed a value on history\u2026For the first time, we find affirmed and increasingly accepted the idea that historical events have a value in themselves, insofar as they are determined by the will of God\u2026Historical facts thus become situations of man in respect to God, and as such they acquire a religious value that nothing had previously been able to confer on them. It may, then, be said with truth that the Hebrews were the first to discover the meaning of history as the epiphany of God.\u201d Judaism is the escape into history, the unique attempt to endow events with meaning, and to see in the chronicles of mankind something more than a mere succession of happenings \u2013 to see them as nothing less than a drama of redemption in which the fate of a nation reflects its loyalty or otherwise to a covenant with God.<\/p>\n

      Some 3,300 years ago, God told Moses that He would intervene in the arena of time, not only (though primarily) to rescue the Israelites but also \u201cso that My name may be declared throughout the world\u201d (Exodus 9:16). The script of history would bear the mark of a hand \u2013 not human, but divine. And it began with these words: \u201cTherefore say to the Israelites: I am God, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.\u201d<\/p>\n

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      From the Thought of Rabbi Sacks<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Somewhere in the tale of Jewish survival was a mystery of great significance\u2026 there was one people whose history broke all the rules\u2026 [the] encounter with the Jewish story [suggests] the important idea that God might be found not only in nature but in history. And if we search for revelation in history, we will find it, more compellingly than anywhere else, in the history of that unusual people, our ancestors. For almost two thousand years Jews remained a distinctive nation without any of the usual prerequisites of nationhood. They had no land, no sovereignty, no power, no overarching political structures, not even a shared culture. They were scattered over the face of the earth and almost everywhere they were a minority. For the most part they refused active efforts to convert them, and resisted the passive pull of assimilation. No other people kept its identity intact for so long in such circumstances.<\/p>\n

      Radical Then, Radical Now, p.33-36\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>(also published as\u00a0A Letter in the Scroll<\/em>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

      QUESTIONS TO PONDER:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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      1. When you learn Jewish history do you find that it challenges your faith in God or strengthens it?<\/li>\n
      2. What is the most powerful and faith-engendering period of Jewish history for you?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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        Around the Shabbat Table<\/strong><\/p>\n