Rabbi Weill's Blog

Dear Friends:

Dam, Tzifardeia, Kinim, Arov, Dever, Shichin, Barad. These are the first seven plagues upon Egypt in this week’s Torah portion, Va’Eira: blood, frogs, lice, swarms, pestilence, boils, and hail.

We often consider the plagues as punishments upon the Evil Empire of Egypt for its brutal treatment of Israel. But the plagues’ real objective was not vengeance. It was rather G-d’s assertion of exclusive sovereignty over the earth.

Egypt – bereft of G-d’s presence – was the perfect venue for this message. When Moses first confronts Pharaoh, the latter tellingly challenges, “Who is Adonai?...I do not know Adonai” (Exodus 5:2).

The plagues are G-d’s answer to Pharaoh’s challenge. In the midst of Egypt’s gaggle of g-ds, G-d unleashes plague upon plague, proclaiming, “I AM HERE. I, THE ETERNAL G-D.”

 “B’zot taidah! Through this you shall know that I am Adonai” (Exodus 7:17).

We would not want to live through the plagues, but we might be envious too, for they left no doubt. For those who witnessed the plagues, G-d was real.

We do not witness divine power in that way. We experience nothing as terrifying and dramatic as the plagues. When we experience G-d, it is not through blood red rivers, heaps of frogs, swarms of beasts, storms of illuminated hail. No, when we experience G-d, it is through something akin to a whisper, a still, small quiet revelation.

Many of us struggle with this, for it is easy to ignore G-d’s soft murmur. We ignore it, deny it, talk over it.  But, friends, we ought to listen, for there is something to hear.

On January 20, 3 pm, we begin our “G-d Talk” class. Each month we will read a theology, and then we will discuss how we strive to hear G-d’s voice. Please sign up. Let us share our journeys, our spiritual strivings. Perhaps we can help each other hear that divine assertion: I AM HERE.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Jeffrey Weill