Hitting Bottom
We are living in times that parallel the generation of the Exodus. Many Jews have descended so low, in terms of their Jewish identities and affiliation, that we might think that their situation is hopeless. Are we a hopeless bunch of people who are beyond rehabilitation and spiritual growth? Or are we worthy and able to be liberated by a Moses-like leader, we call, Moshiach, who relates to the people , nurtures them and facilitates their liberation? The answer is a resounding yes!
The Burning Bush
G-d’s first revelation to Moses occurred through and at a burning bush.
To be sure, Moses was endowed with the spirit of G-d from the time he matured and left the comfort of the palace to see the way his brethren were suffering. As Maimonides in his Guide for the perplexed explains, it was the spirit of G-d within him that did not let him rest, upon realizing what was happening to his fellow Israelites. It was this spirit of G-d that motivated him to defend a Jewish slave.
Nevertheless, the first real direct communication G-d had with Moses came years later when he was in Midian tending a flock of sheep.
Why did G-d wait until Moses had fled Egypt, lived in Midian for many years, before He would initiate the dialogue with Moses about the exodus of the Jewish people?
Second, why did G-d choose to use a burning bush through which to make His first communication to Moses, the first leader of the Jewish people and their liberator?
Rashi explains that the choice of a sneh, a thorn bush, was to indicate that G-d empathized with their suffering He too, was confined to a rather lowly thorn bush.
Why was the Miracle Necessary?
The question still begs itself, why did G-d have to make the bush burn and not be consumed? This “Chanukah-like” miracle was completely unnecessary. When G-d communicated with the Patriarchs, He did not employ a mechanism that altered the natural order of things. Why did Moses have to be exposed to G-d’s prophetic energy through this specific supernatural phenomenon?
When G-d revealed Himself to Moses to ask him to be their liberator, He knew that Moses would demur. Moses, in fact, stated that he did not believe the Israelites were deserving of being redeemed. After all, the very reason Moses had to flee Egypt was the existence of informers who were prepared to report him to Pharaoh, as Rashi explains in this week’s parsha. What had changed, Moses argued, to justify their liberation? And if G-d wanted to take them out anyhow, why did He need Moses?
Moses selection by G-d to liberate the Jews from Egypt was motivated by the desire to have Moses serve as their mentor and guide. Moses was to uplift them and prepare them so that they would be worthy of being liberated. In addition, Moses’ inspiration and guidance was needed to help them cope with their new status as free people, something a slave oriented society finds it hard to achieve on its own.
Moses was therefore skeptical. How can I liberate them? They are not worthy and not ready. Therefore, Moses argued, why can’t G-d liberate them Himself? What role could he Moses, a mere mortal, possibly serve?
The Jews Were Ready
In anticipation of Moses objections, G-d waited all these years because the Jewish people had just then reached their lowest point. Their suffering had so crushed them, that they were now ready to be liberated and nurtured in the same manner as an addict might have to reach rock bottom before he or she will be receptive to help.
How did G-d demonstrate that the Jewish people were ready? By revealing Himself in a lowly thorn bush, G-d was trying to show Moses that the Jewish people, on the one hand, had descended to the very nadir of their existence as slaves. They were as lowly as a thorn-bush. .
On the other hand, by showing Moses, that the flame did not extinguish, G-d intended to show Moses, that the souls of the Jewish people cannot possibly be extinguished. No matter how low they might have fallen, they were still in possession of a fiery spirit that will never burn out!
G-d was, in effect, telling Moses and us: “Don’t ever underestimate the power of a Jewish person to bounce back!” The resiliency of the Jewish nation is arguably one of the greatest miracles of existence.
“Therefore,” G-d exhorted Moses, “now is the most opportune time to reach ‘in,’ into the Jewish heart and soul, and fan its flame so that it is not only deserving to be liberated, but is ready as well.”
Parallels to Today
We are living in times that in many ways parallel the generation of the Exodus. Many Jews have descended so low, in terms of their Jewish identities and affiliation, that we might think that their situation is hopeless. If G-d wants to liberate them in spite of their unworthiness, He certainly can.
The question is, are we a hopeless bunch of people who are beyond rehabilitation and spiritual growth? Or, in spite of how low we might have fallen, are we worthy and able to be liberated by a Moses-like leader, we call, Moshiach, who relates to the people , nurtures them and facilitates their liberation?
The answer is a resounding yes!
Moses, the “first redeemer,” was told that even the lowliest Jew—the thorn-bush Jew—has an eternal flame burning in him or her, and is worthy and ready to be uplifted. Our generation has also been told by our spiritual leaders, particularly the Lubavitcher Rebbe, that there is no Jew that is unworthy of being liberated. Moshiach’s task of uplifting every Jew so that he or she is liberated will be realized when all of us, serve as his emissaries to appreciate and nurture the eternal flame of every Jew. This would certainly hasten the process of the Redemption that we have been waiting for, for close to 2,000 years.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Shmos by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
