Bar-Ilan University
Parashat Va-Era 5772/January 7, 2012
Parashat Hashavua Study Center
Lectures on the weekly Torah reading by the faculty of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. A project of the Faculty of Jewish Studies,
Paul and Helene Shulman Basic Jewish Studies Center, and the Office of the Campus Rabbi. Published on the Internet under the sponsorship
of Bar-Ilan University's International Center for Jewish Identity. Prepared for Internet Publication by the Computer Center Staff at Bar-Ilan
University.
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Binyamin Salant1
The Founding Speech
The narrative of G-d's revelation to Moses at the burning bush is followed by a lengthy dialogue
between the Lord and Moses, in which Moses repeatedly declines to accept the Lord's mission.
When finally he accedes, but his mission to Pharaoh starts off unsuccessfully, with the condition of
the Israelites deteriorating even further, Moses complains to the Lord, challenging Him with two
questions: "Why did You bring harm upon this people? Why did You send me?" (Ex. 5:22). He
continues with the exclamation, "Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has dealt
worse with this people; and still You have not delivered Your people!" (Ex. 5:23). The previous week's
reading concludes with the Lord comforting and encouraging Moses: "You shall soon see what I will
do to Pharaoh" (Ex. 6:1), and then comes the festive declaration at the beginning of Parashat Va-Era.
The founding speech – a perfect chiastic oration
The first seven verses of this week's reading (Ex. 6:2-8) are a founding speech, delineating the way to
redemption for the emergent people:
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Binyamin Salant lives in Kibbutz Sa'ad.
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6:2 G-d spoke to Moses and said to him:
"I am the Lord.
6:3 I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai,
but I did not make Myself known to them by My name Y-H-W-H.
6:4 I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan,
the land in which they lived as sojourners.
6:5 I have now [lit. also] heard the moaning of the Israelites because the Egyptians are
holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.
6:6 Say, therefore, to the Israelite people:
I am the Lord.
I will free you from the labors of the Egyptians
And deliver you from their bondage.
I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary
chastisements.
6:7 And I will take you to be My people,
and I will be your G-d. And you shall know that I, the Lord, am your G-d
who freed you from the labors of the Egyptians.
6:8 I will bring you into the land which I swore [lit. "raised My hand"] to give
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
and I will give it to you for a possession,
I the Lord."
These seven verses are replete with ideas: referring to G-d's revelation to the patriarchs, mentioning
three of the names of the Holy One, blessed be He, referring to the covenant, promising the land,
knowing the Lord. At the end of the speech, combined with the promise of bringing them to the land
they will possess, appears the extraordinary expression: "which I raised My hand to give to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession" (Ex. 6:8). Most of the classical exegetes
(Sa'adiah Gaon, Rashi, Ibn Ezra and others) hold that this refers to the Lord's oath at the end of the
speech, giving it great force and serving as a stamp of official approval for the promises given in the
speech. It is for good reason that this speech has evoked from our commentators descriptions that
might sound phraseological: Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch comments on the words, "I am the Lord,"
appearing at the beginning of the speech: "At this moment a new world is established among
mankind"; Casutto describes the speech as being written in "lofty poetic style," "a festive
formulation";2 Nehamah Leibowitz calls it "lofty and majestic";3 Rabbi Elhanan Samet dubs it the
2
Perush al Sefer Shemot, Magnes Press, Jerusalem 1959, p. 51-52.
3
Iyunim Be-Sefer shmot, Jerusalem 1984, p. 87.
2
"founding document," "a polished literary crystal."4 One could go on and on. This short speech
reviews the past and looks to the future. Leibowitz presents it poetically in order to bring out its
perfect chiastic structure, a shape that is indicative of the points of emphasis and the significance of
the speech.
The speech is framed by the opening and closing declarations, "I [am] the Lord." These words, "I am
the Lord," appear once more, precisely at the mid-point of the passage, apparently serving as the
dividing point of the two halves that comprise the speech: the first, characterized by verbs in the past
tense, the second, by verbs in the future.
Knowing the Lord
Completing the frame of the declaration is the statement of verse 7: "And you shall know that I, the
Lord, am your G-d." The theme of knowing comes appears elsewhere in this speech in the words
towards the beginning, "but I did not make Myself known to them by My name Y-H-W-H" (Ex. 6:3).
Much has been written about the term, "knowing the Lord," therefore suffice it to note that in our
view one way of understanding this theme appears further on, in Exodus 33:12-13 (Parashat Ki-Tisa),
when Moses asks the Lord, "pray let me know Your ways" (Ex. 33:13). Knowing appears there four
times: "You have not made known to me…I have singled you out [using the same Hebrew verb y-d-`]
…let me know…that I may know". Ibn Ezra's Short Commentary on this passage puts it succinctly:
"The meaning of pray let me know Your ways is that the creatures G-d created have not the power to
know Him, but only His ways; and whoever knows His ways, he shall know Him." A similar approach
to explaining the names of the Holy One, blessed be He, as well as His ways, is presented in the
marvelous homily of Abba bar Mammel on the response to Moses' question: "when they ask me,
'What is His name?' [what shall I say to them?]" (Ex. 13:3). Abba bar Mammel answers (Exodus
Rabbah 3.6):
G-d said to Moses: "You wish to know My name? Well, I am called according to My work;
sometimes I am called 'Almighty G-d', 'Lord of Hosts', 'G-d', 'Lord'. When I am judging created
beings, I am called 'G-d' [as in Ex. 21:6, where some hold Elohim is used in the sense of
"judges" – translator's note], and when I am waging war against the wicked, I am called 'Lord
of Hosts'. When I suspend judgment for a person's sins, I am called 'Almighty G-d', and when
I am merciful towards My world, I am called 'Lord'.
Expressions of Redemption
As we said, this speech contains a wealth of topics. The theme of the choice of words pertaining to
promising, redeeming and delivering, collectively known as the expressions of redemption, is
mentioned as far back as the Talmud: the Sages established the obligation of four cups of wine at the
Passover Seder, one for each expression of redemption. This ruling appears for the first time in the
Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Pesahim (10.1). The reasons for this practice are also presented there,
according to Rav Huna citing R. Benayah: "For the four redemptions," and according to R. Joshua b.
Levi: "Four cups of deliverance." This practice became established halakhah (Shulhan Arukh, Orah
Hayyim 372.13). Actually, the speech contains more than four expressions of redemption. The
4
Iyyunim be-Parashat ha-Shavua, 2nd series, Ma`aliyot Press, Jerusalem 2004, p. 262.
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gemara discusses a fifth cup, for the verb "I shall bring",5 and the midrash, as well as some exegetes,
present a variety of opinions regarding the separation of the four cups from the fifth, for bringing to
the land. We find most acceptable the view that four of the expressions of redemption were realized
in the exodus from Egypt, whereas the fifth expression and all the other words of promise would only
be realized when the Israelites came to the land.6
Contemporary Bible commentators have discussed the number of expressions of redemption, some
of them coming up with seven:

Casutto writes that the "divine actions for the benefit of Israel are described in seven
statements," and further on he says "in seven expressions of promise."7

Nehamah Leibowitz: "Then comes a sequence of actions…seven times…a stream of acts of
deliverance and salvation."8

Menahem ben-Yashar enumerates eight expressions of redemption, including the verb "you
shall know".9 Indeed, one must ask whether the words "And you shall know" are meant as an
imperative, a condition, or a promise. Rabbi Hayyim ben Atar, author of Or ha-Hayyim
explains (loc. cit.) that "you shall know" stipulates a condition; only if the Israelites fulfill it will
the words, "I will bring you into the land," be fulfilled. Nehamah Leibowitz, who cites Or HaHayyim, believes that "you shall know" is a promise, and she groups it together with the
sentences in the Lord's speech which she calls "a stream of promises."
Rabbi Barukh Ha-Levy Epstein, author of Torah Temimah, presents an interesting view, explaining (on
Ex. 6:6) why in the Jerusalem Talmud, Tractate Pesahim (mentioned above), the Sages made do with
four cups for four redemptions. He maintains that "quite deliberately" the word "expressions" is not
used there, rather "four redemptions":
Redemption is a single matter, whether it be spoken of in one, four, or ten different
expressions. But the idea becomes patently clear with respect to four redemptions, for when
we look closely we see four different matters in these four statements, each and every one in
itself being an entire matter of its own, worthy of special note (emphasis mine, B. S.).
We must remark that indeed the expressions of redemption refer to one act that extends from their
exodus from Egypt through their coming to the land, but this redemption was comprised of stages in
a protracted process, and these are the various expressions of redemption.
Upon conclusion of this lofty speech, the response of the Israelites is described: "they would not
listen to Moses, their spirits crushed by cruel bondage" (Ex. 6:9). This response is indicative of their
5
Pesahim 108a. Also cf. M. M. Kascher, Haggadah Shelemah, Jerusalem 1965, p. 94-95.
6
On this idea, cf. Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Sheva Shanim shel Sihot al Parashat ha-Shavua, Jerusalem 2008, p. 213.
7
ibid, p. 52-53.
8
ibid, p. 91.
9
Daf Shavua on Parashat Metzora and Passover 2000 (no. 336).
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extreme hardship. In their condition they were incapable of taking in the tidings brought them in the
speech. They seem to have been oblivious of any immediate objective in this founding speech,
intended to chart their way. The Lord indeed heard their cry of distress, but the Israelites could not
sense their approaching redemption or even the tidings of future redemption when they might come
to the Promised Land. This idea is well-put by Nehamah Leibowitz, with her deep empathetic
appreciation of their condition:
A generation that has been subjugated and repressed, tortured and beaten…simply
cannot take in what is said to them. Neither the words of consolation…of deliverance
from slavery, and certainly not the majestic foretelling of the far distant future regarding
a patriarchal land and Kingdom of Heaven.10
Translated by Rachel Rowen
10
ibid, p. 95.
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