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Parshat Vaeyra
2007
Reassurance from the People That Know You Best
In the beginning of the Parsha, God spoke to Moses and told him that he has heard the groaning and suffering of the Israelites. God told Moses, “I will take you away from your forced labor in Egypt and free you from power, and with great acts of judgment…I will bring you to the land regarding which I raised My hand, swearing that I would give it to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it you as inheritance. I am HaShem.” (Exodus 6:7-8).
Moses told this information to the Israelites however they would no longer listen to him. Everyone can relate to this story, remembering a time you offered heartfelt guidance and then observed as someone chose to act or respond counter to your advice. As young adults, students are learning to negotiate the balance between self-autonomy and learning from the advice of peers and mentors. In this way, students on campus struggle with the same issues as the young Israelite people in this Torah portion. Though they strive for independence, they still seek out leadership and guidance to help them along the way. At the same time we are here as a sounding board for students and are here to listen to their issues about classes, roommates, or friends. I continually talk to my mom, sometimes three or four times a day, about a variety of things and still yearn for her advice and for her to help me through difficult decisions, just as Moses did with HaShem. My mom is like Moses and I am the Israelite. I may not listen to her at times, but in the end I know she means well and is doing what is in my best interest and has helped in shaping me to be the person I am today.
Moses was telling HaShem that he does not have the self-confidence to go and speak to the Israelites. HaShem then spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them instruction regarding the Israelites and Pharaoh, so they would be able to get the Israelites out of Egypt, although HaShem only told this to Moses.
Moses and Aaron go and speak with the Pharaoh, but HaShem knows the Pharaoh will not listen to Moses so he has a plan in mind for hurting Pharaoh. HaShem tells Moses, there are going to be signs that will destroy Egypt. When Pharaoh asks to speak with you [Moses] he will ask you to prove yourself.
Moses goes and asks the Pharaoh “to let my people go.” The Pharaoh denies his request and Moses does as he was told by HaShem. He lays down his staff and it turns into a serpent. Then the Pharaoh calls on his magicians and scholars to do the same thing with their magic tricks, then Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. Still, the Pharaoh remained obstinate. HaShem then instructed Moses to go back to Pharaoh and have him look at the Nile in the morning. Then take the same staff that you turned into a serpent and project it towards the Nile and the river will turn to blood and kill all that is in sight. Tell him that you have received a message from HaShem “to let my people go.” The Pharaoh still refused, thus the first plague came to fruition and the Nile was unable for anyone to drink.
After Moses turned the Nile into blood, six more plagues followed; frogs, lice, harmful creatures (wild beasts), murrain (cattle disease), boils, and hail.
Our students want their freedom when they are on campus. When college freshmen go home after their first semester they have established themselves as independent thinkers with their own rules and no one to look after them every second. When they get home to Mom and Dad’s they are under a new set of rules. They now have to go by their parents’ rules and eventually are craving the freedom they had back on campus. I remember back to when I was home from college after my first semester. My parents gave me rules to follow [and I followed them] such as cleaning up my room, laundry, or to be home at a certain time; however, when I arrived back on campus I did not follow their rules anymore, I followed my own rules. We should not take that freedom we had in college for granted but sometimes we need that extra person to help guide us along even if we are in college and coming home for the first time or have been living on our own for years.
When the Pharaoh realized that the plagues have stopped he returned to his evil ways and did not let the Israelites leave, just as HaShem predicted through Moses.
Prepared by Heather Karlin, Program Director, Hillel in Philadelphia, Drexel University
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