25 December 2010 | 18 Tevet 5771

There are so many things that keep us restrained and shackled.  Although I like to believe that I am free, I know that there are things in my life that hold me back.  We all have these things -health concerns, mental or emotional constraints, financial burdens - which all can contribute to feel like the entire weight of the world is resting on our shoulders.  Breaking free of such limitations is never easy and often times we miss opportunities to escape.  This reality is not new.  In fact, this week, we begin reading our people’s journey into slavery and then out again. It is in the beginning of this incredible saga that we find a subtle mention of this human condition.

Parshat Shemot begins as follows:

These are the names of the sons of Israel who came (Habayim) to Egypt with Jacob… (Exodus 1;1)
 
Even though this sentence seems simple and unambiguous, there is in fact a challenge in translating it.  Unlike many modern languages which conjugate verbs in three different tenses - past, present and future, Biblical Hebrew doesn’t follow this same system.  Instead, for the Bible, actions are either completed or incomplete.  For instance, if I walked to the store this morning, then the verb “walked” is complete because I have completed my walking in the morning. If I report that I am walking to the store right now or that I will walk to the store tomorrow, then these actions – “walking” and “will walk” are both incomplete since I am still in a state of walking or haven’t yet begun to walk, in the case of tomorrow’s store excursion.  The Torah, instead of using a completed verb form to describe those who entered into the land of Israel, our Holy Scriptures use a verb (Habayim) which appears to be incomplete.  Therefore, the sentence would be more accurately translated as, “These are the names of the sons of Israel who are coming to Egypt with Jacob.” 

Since the decent into Egypt, slavery and eventual redemption is truly ancient history, we can understand why the translators of this edition of the Torah choose to use a past tense/completed verb rather than providing a closer rendering of the Hebrew.

That explanation notwithstanding, I believe it behooves us to search for a deeper explanation to our Hebrew text which infers that the decent into Egypt is incomplete and therefore continuing to this very day.

Personally, I don’t think that this text is pointing to the historical reality of our ancestors. They were redeemed from their bondage through plagues, miracles and courage, all of which took place thousands of years ago and was definitely “completed.” I feel that the text is talking about us and that this journey is much more personal.  Today, we all find ourselves descending into our own personal Egypt; our own individual bondage which burden and cripple us.  And like our ancestors, we are often given signs which serve to open our eyes inspiring us to rise up and have the courage to walk into a sea of freedom.  Our Torah can’t talk about the decent into Egypt as an event in the past until, with God’s help, we can pull ourselves out of our own personal Metzriem. Only then can we truly say that our people have been redeemed.    

Shabbat Shalom