SHEMOS 1988-2

Today we begin the second book of the Torah, Shmos.  The word "Shmos" in Hebrew means "names."  In English this second book of the Bible is called Exodus.  In reality the name Exodus is more fitting for this second book than the word "names."  Exodus refers to the content of this book.  Exodus is the seminal event of Jewish history.  We remember the Exodus from Egypt in all the prayers.  We remember the Exodus from Egypt.  It is what cemented us as a people and allowed us to go forward to accept the Torah and to be G-d's partner in creation by trying to implement the Torah's teachings in the world.  The rabbis have seen fit to call this second book of the Bible "names" and not "Exodus."  What's more, if the rabbis did not want to call this book Exodus, why didn't they call this book "the giving of the Torah" because in it we learn about how we received the Torah and the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai?  Why was it that that name was not chosen?  Or this book could have been called "Mishkan," the book that had to do with the creation of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, but, yet, the rabbis chose a prosaic name, the name "Shmos - names," to indicate the name of this book.  Why should the word "Shmos" have been singled out to be the name of this book?  What's more, this book starts out with the words "V'Ayla - and these are the names of the sons of Israel."  Why doesn't it just say "these are the names of the sons of Israel."  Why "V'Ayla Shmos Yisroel"?  Also, near the end of this Torah portion, the first Torah portion of the second book of the Bible, which is also known as Shmos, we learn how after Moshe received the charge to go down to redeem the Jewish people from Egypt, it says, "And Moshe took his wife and his children and he made them ride on a donkey and he returned to the land of Egypt and Moshe took the staff of G-d in his hand."   We can understand why Moshe had to take the staff of G-d, but why did the Torah have to go into such detail to say he took his wife and children and made them on a donkey.  What do we care whether he made them ride on a donkey or not?  What difference does it make it they went on a horse or in a wagon or they walked?  Why does the Torah have to tell us, the Torah which is so sparing in deatils?

The rabbis explain that it is true that the word "Chamor" in Hebrew means "material things."  This is in contrast to "Ruchnias" which refers to "Ruach" or "spiritual things."  This sentence then means that Moshe took his wife and his children and made them go above material things.  That is very nice, but why did the Torah have to say he made them ride on a donkey?  The donkey here obviously has a deeper meaning.  The rabbis explain that this is the same donkey that Abraham saddled when he went to the Akedah for the binding of Isaac, and this is the same donkey that the Messiah in the future will ride upon.  What is the meaning of this statement that this is the donkey that Abraham saddled when he took his son Isaac to the binding of Isaac and this is the same donkey that the Messiah is going to ride upon in the future?

It seems to me that all these questions are interrelated, that if we look at the reason why this book is called Shmos we will see that this book really deals with Jewish identity, about who we are and what we are.  The names that we call ourselves are significant.  I am not talking here in the sense of Halachic identity of a Jew.  That is clear.  Halachic identity of a Jew is one who was born of a Jewish mother or one who was converted according to Halachic principles with the mikvah and, if a male, circumcision, with the acceptance of the mitzvahs.  But here we are talking about what it is that gives a Jew his identity.  Obviously, the Torah gives us identity but we were a people even before the Torah.  The Jewish people were a continuation of the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  They preceded the Torah.  Even though there are certain commentators that say that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob observed all the Torah, yet, they did not have the Torah as we know it today.  The Jewish people preceded the Torah.  There was a certain identifiable trait among the Jewish people even before we accepted the Torah, and that is why Pharaoh recognized this, and he was the first one to call us a nation.  He said, "Behold, the nation of the sons of Israel are many and mighty.  Let us get wise to them lest they will increase and when a war will happen they will be added on our enemies and they will fight against us and go up from the land."  "The Jews are a fifth column, a virus in our midst.  They are a cancer which we have to excise."  These are the words which Hitler said just 50 years ago and which are nothing more than echoes of what Pharaoh said 3500 years ago.

The Jewish people were recognizable for certain traits that they had, and these traits were symbolized in a great sense by the names that they chose, whether they called themselves by Egyptian names or by Hebrew names meant something.  That's why it says, "And these are the name of the sons of Israel."  The rabbis explain every time it says "Ayla" it means that this is a new subject which does not have any connection with the previous subject.  When it says "V'Ayla" it is a continuation of a subject.  When this books opens "V'Ayla Shmos - and these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt," it means that this is the identity of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt.  They had the same identity, the same concerns, that the core of values of the Jewish people were identical when they were just a family or when they went down to Egypt and became a nation or after they accepted the Torah, that their core values were the same.  The Torah showed us how to implement these values in the world, but the basic core of Jewish values were the same.  We can always tell whether a Jew wants to stay close to these values by what names he gives to his children.  If he names his children after some English lord, Archibald, Marvin, Irving, etc., then you can tell that his values are no longer Jewish values.  He is looking to imitate other ways.  We could tell in the first immigrant generation that came to America that they shunned Jewish names because they were ashamed of their Jewish heritage and they wanted to assimilate into America.  Some of them realized what they were doing and held back.  I have a friend of mine in New York who is a very famous orthodox rabbi whose name is Fabian.  His mother, of course, realized by the time he came to school age that his Jewish identity was important, although she did not change his name.  It is very important what you call your children.  If you called your children Hortense or Guenevere, if you are calling them names that have relevance to an English culture but not the Jewish culture, it means something as to where you are going and what direction you are seeking.  On the other hand if you name your children Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rachel, Ruth, Naomi, etc., it means something, too.
That is also why we learn about this donkey.  Why do the rabbis say that this was the same donkey that Abraham sat on on the way to the Akedah`j Because there are several core values which the Jewish people have always espoused and which we must continue to espouse if we are to retain our identity as Jews.  Those Jews who give up these values leave Judaism very quickly.  As I have mentioned many times before, if all the Jews who would have been born Jews would have stayed Jews we would have 60 or 70 million Jews in America today.  In the time of the Roman Empire, according to some accounts, there were 13 million Jews.  There are as many Jews then as there are now.  The Jewish people have always maintained certain core values.

What does it mean when Abraham saddled his donkey to take Isaac to the Akedah?  From this incident of the Akedah we learn that we are not supposed to sacrifice our family to fulfill our ego, that if we feel that we need to sacrifice our family in order to achieve our goals, then we are not acting within the parameters of Jewish values.  Abraham thought he had to sacrifice his son, but G-d told him no.  This became one of the core values of Judaism, that you do not sacrifice your family in order to achieve your goals.  This is one of the reasons the Nazis had an easier time hurting the Jews in the ghettos and concentration camps and they probably would have if we would not have held our families so dear, because everyone knew that if they would desert their family, their family would be taken out and shot, that the Nazis counted every one and if one person was missing they shot the whole family.  The truth of the matter of Jewish survival has always been guaranteed because we have always put family above our own individual ego.  We have tried to satisfy our ambition but not at the expense of our family.  We do not abandon our family because we find somebody prettier.  We do not abandon our family to satisfy our ambitions.  We stick by our family.

The second core of Jewish value is that we do not abandon our people when our people are in trouble.  That is what we learned about in Egypt, and that, of course, is what the donkey of Moshe symbolized.  After all, Moshe never served a day in slavery.  He was raised as the son of an Egyptian princess.  He, according to the Medrash, was the conqueror or Abysinia.  He later held an important position in Midian, but, yet, when G-d called him he did go, although he hesitated to go because he did not think he had the characteristics needed to rescue the Jewish people from slavery.  A Jew does not sacrifice his people for his own ambition, too.  We can see that this trait holds true in America today through our federations and through the other wonderful organizations which help Jewish brethren throughout all the world, how Jews in America held their brethren in the Soviet Union and Ethiopia and Israel.  Wherever a Jew hurts the Jews of America, at least those who are concerned and who want to identify themselves as Jews, have risen up to help.  This is truly amazing, because I know even in our local federation there are many Jews who do not even know an Aleph from a Beis, who have no idea actually what the Jewish religion is, who have never studied a word of Torah, and, yet, they identify themselves completely as Jews and they are Jews, good Jews, because they will never forsake their people.  They give thousands of dollars to help others who they do not even know, but they know that they are their brethren.  Therefore, this is another core of Jewish value, that you associate with your people and you are willing to sacrifice for your people.

The third core value is that we Jews believe that we have to perfect the world, that G-d wants us to help Him perfect this world and make this world a better place.  Therefore, this is the same donkey that the Messiah is going to ride on.  We do not believe that nations should sacrifice themselves or be sacrificed for the common good in the sense that nobody should sacrifice other nations for their own ambitions, as the Germans were willing to do, as other peoples are willing to do.  The Jews have always had a heart.  We have always felt the suffering of others, even people who are not with us always, people who we know suffer, it is also our suffering.  Jews have always been in the forefront of all do-good organizations from almost time immemorial.  It is true already had our core values.  In order to be a Jew we have to realize that we cannot sacrifice our family for personal ambition, we cannot sacrifice our people for personal ambition, and we cannot sacrifice the good of the world for personal ambition either.  We have to be concerned about bringing universal peace and harmony and justice to the world.

I am reminded of the story of an Aggie whose 120 years were up and he went up to heaven.  There he was greeted by the Angel Gabriel who sad, "Because you have been such a wonderful human being, we are going to grant you two wishes.  We are going to grant you two wishes to benefit the world.  Remember, they have to benefit the whole world."   The Aggie looked at him and said, "Well, the first wish I have is no more Aggie jokes."   The Angel said it was granted.  The Aggie said, "The second wish is you have to do something about M and M's."   The Angel asked why he had to do something about M and M's.  The Aggie replied, "Well, they are too hard to peel."   In this story, of course, we learn that concern for the welfare of others does not mean just looking at your own needs but looking at their needs, too.  The core of Jewish values have always been never to sacrifice your family for your personal ambition, to identify and help always your own, your people, the Jewish people, and, third, to make sure the world progresses down the road to universal peace, justice, and harmony and brotherhood.  If we all have these core values then we can work together as Jews, and we can even work together with Jews who do not know much Torah or even have any inclination to learn Torah, because if they have these values eventually they will be drawn close to Torah and they will eventually be able to use the Torah to implement these core Jewish values.  Let us hope and pray that we will be able to implement these values soon so the world will know only peace and harmony and justice and the Messiah will come quickly and in our days.