Shemot – Names
Exodus 1:1 – 6:1
Essay from The GLIMPSES of the TORAH
Analysis of Psychological Causes of Human Behaviour in the Torah
© INNA ROGATCHI
With ART by MICHAEL ROGATCHI ©
2020, 2022 – 2026
The Rogatchi Foundation
Parsha Shemot opens the second book of the Torah with the chapter under the same title, the Names. The Torah tradition provides a special, elevated meaning for naming. When it is done ( apart from those representing evil ) it means more than a usual mentioning. It means an emphasis, double-weight and verification. It adds a special merit. In this motion, the names of all the Tribes have been provided in the Shemot, most likely, as the respectful commemoration of them at the moment of the sons of Jacob generation’s leaving the stage of life.
At the same time, very much in the mode of the Torah narrative, here also the end of something means or leads to beginning of something else, in a reflection of the Judaism philosophy and perception of life. It is in this way that after mentioning of the Tribes families names, the parsha Shemot brings to us some of the names of the Moses family, with all the family appearing in the Torah together for the first time – opening the new chapter not only in the second book of the Torah, but in the life and history of Jewish people.
Here appears Moses’ parents, Amram and Yochebed, and his siblings, sister Miriam and brother Aaron. The marriage of Moses’ parents was the marriage between a nephew and his aunt in the period when such marriages were not forbidden by the rules of Judaism yet. It also means that Moses , Aaron and Miriam all had the genetically enforced super-line, all coming from Levi, as both their mother Yochebed who was Levi’s daughter, and their father Amram who was the son of Levi’s son Kehot, were direct and closest relatives of Levi, thus making Moses and his siblings twice grandsons of Levi, so to say. This is an extremely strong and highly mattering genetic potential.
With developing the Moses’s story, his miraculous saving from the Nile river, and his high-end upbringing at the Pharaoh court, the parallel between him and Joseph appears very graphic, with only difference that Joseph appeared at his time Pharaoh court when he was 17, while Moses grew up as the adopted son of the Pharaoh daughter Bithiah since he was a baby. But the principle of their development is strikingly close: both Jewish boys were thriving as the Egyptian royalties, with no impact of anything Egyptian or royal on their both personalities of organic strong Jewish men whatsoever. This is highly unusual, if not to say unique. But this, so similar parallel in both Joseph and Moses life-lines in its beginning, their both strong and devoted withstanding of their Jewish personality amidst total and quite strong Egyptian environment around them in their formative years does explain, from yet another perspective, that deeply touching devotion that Moses had for Joseph.
After all, he was the only one amongst thousands of people whom he was preparing to lead out of Egypt , who was interested to find and to take with him Joseph’s remnants, not merely remembering Joseph’s will, plea and hope, but also being absolutely committed to fulfil it. The only one – as it is emphasised in the Talmud and other primary Jewish sources. Just to think about it.
Reading, analysing and studying this parsha, we normally concentrate on Moses’ family and the dramatic twists of their lives, with a good reason. Miriam’s character of a strong and extremely smart and decisive Jewish woman is shown here in her life-saving actions, with a rare vision, even pre-vision, understanding and knowledge of what to do, and with a phenomenal sense of timing. Moses’s mother Yochebed is set in this parsha as a model of the forthcoming in a vast number and at the different periods of history a special character of Jewish mother, with our moms’ absolute devotion, bottomless love, their unique hearts, their incredible selflessness, their warmth, gentleness, protection. Their beauty, their smartness, their stunning resourcefulness. In short, the best of what life can actually provide to a human being. All this had been set for our extremely lucky in this respect people initially by Sarah and all following matriarchs, and further on by Yochebed, that special loving and brave mother of Moses.
Michael’s Motherhood ( Next Year in Jerusalem) painting tells about it in the best possible way, with our never ending dramas, our moms’ main priority in life for their children, our strength and ability for overcoming against all odds and through any storms that are pushing non-stop our way. The work is both elegant and dynamic, which is a rare and worthy combination in visual art. It is created in a very coherent palette, thus making its strong , almost passionate message, tangible but intentionally constrained, in a noble, not over-reacting way. And finally, it brings out the ongoing drama of Jewish life and history, the drama which very often falls on the protective shoulders of Jewish mothers, from Sarah and Rebeccah to Yocheved and so many others all the way through the history. In a paradoxical way, this work , while portraying an open, ongoing drama, strengthens a viewer instead of making him depressed and weaker. When art that speaks about suffering strengthens, it is both the most unusual and most healthy outcome. It is a deed by an artist.
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In my understanding, there are two unsung heroes in Parsha Shemot, additionally to its main protagonists, a man and a woman. Yethro, who will become Moses’ father-in-law, and whose role in Jewish way of life and history will be quite meaningful, due to his personal qualities and his ability to think and to see the core of matters, was known to Moses many years prior to becoming his father-in-law. It was Yethro, the one of the most notable wise men in the Pharaoh court, who saved the boy Moses from an evil-inclined powerful people in the household who with a power instilled into them by the evil forces, if not fully realised but still sensed the threat to the Egyptians en masse that will come from Moses, eventually. In both Midrash and Talmud, the story about Yetro saving the life of the adopted son of Bithiah is told in detail.
We also know, from the same primary sources, that soon after saving Moses, Yethro did become disillusioned with the pagan practices and preaching, and left the Pharaoh household making a pretty clear moral choice. Due to that fact and his principal disagreement to preach the paganism, Yethro, previously very popular and influential on the top of the Egyptian hierarchy, following , naturally for this kind of regime, with wide subduedness by the middle and lower lawyers of the Egyptian society , has become a pariah in the eyes of them all overnight, which forced him to retreat to his own place of living and to work for providing his family by himself with his seven daughters. Still , Yethro did not mind, was not depressed, and lived as he believed was right, which was and still is a privilege of strong and independent minds.
That man saw and understood many things and phenomena that most of the ordinary and non-ordinary people of his time and environment had no clue about. One of such provident samples has to do with Moses’s stuff. As we learn from the Talmudic sources, the miraculous stuff that has been created on the Sixth Day of the Creation, went from Adam to Abraham and further on the line of the patriarchs , reaching Joseph from Jacob. After Joseph’s death, his household was looted by an Egyptian mob, with the stuff ended at the Pharaoh household. The stuff had such a self-protecting power that nobody who would approach it , trying to grab it, could not do it. Except Yethro.
Leaving the Pharaoh court for good, Yethro took the stuff with him, being the only person who could physically – and metaphysically – do it. Secluded with his family at his home far from the Pharaoh court ‘s glitter and menace, Yethro was wise to place the stuff in the middle of his garden. And again, nobody was able to reach the stuff, and the stuff was a blessing and the most powerful protection for Yethro’s household and the family. Leaving the court and stating publicly his disillusionment with pagan practices and belief, Yethro had all the reasons to be in need of protection, indeed. When Moses entered the Yethro’s home after meeting him and his daughters , including his future wife Zipporah , at the well, the first thing that grabbed Moses’ attention on the spot, was the stuff that stood proudly in the centre of the Yethro’s garden. Coming closer, Moses saw the signs on the stuff and was able to read and understand that. It is then, according to the Talmudic sources, when Yethro realised fully who was the man whose life he saved in the boy’s childhood at the Pharaoh’s court, and at that moment Yethro decided to give his daughter Zipporah as the wife to Moses. And we know how Yethro was supporting and helping Moses ever since.
An unsung female hero of the Parsha Shemot is Serah. The text of the Shemot parsha does not mention Serah explicitly, but according to the Midrash and other Jewish sources, the events described in this part, has her role as a key-one. And at least in one more substantial episode from the Torah narrative, Serah has played a special and important role , as we learn from the Talmudic sources. According to the rabbinical tradition, she was daughter of Asher, possibly adopted one, and if that was the case, she is mentioned as the granddaughter of Eber. In the highly dramatic and full of possible emotional implications episode of Joseph returning home with his brothers in the parsha Vaygash , the Tribes were seriously worried of what might happen to Jacob if he would be told straightforwardly and on the spot that his beloved Joseph is alive and is about to meet him soon. Jacob’s heart might not sustain such a shocking, even if positively so, news without necessary psychological preparedness. To make it happen, the Tribes tasked Serah, an exceptionally beautiful ( as all Asher’s daughters) their niece, to sit near Jacob, with lute in her hands, and to play and sing gently, including into her solo from time to time a small phrases like “Joseph is alive”, “Joseph is about to come’, “Joseph will see his father soon”, the things like that. Serah’s solo set up Jacob’s sub-consciousness in the proper mode, so when he was informed sometime after that Joseph is alive and coming indeed, it did not come as a high emotional risk for him. It was probably the earliest psychological training in the history of humankind. At least, the earliest among the registered ones.
In the parsha Shemot, Serah plays a pivotal role twice, first time acting as a fact-checking authority, and second time as a historian or archivist with a decisive knowledge. When Moses appeared to his people, they were not convinced at all. Not to mention that some of them, like those two who reported him to the Egyptian authorities years before in the episode that had prompted his escape for his life, did not like him from the beginning. Interestingly enough , that vicious couple of low informers is believed by the Torah commentators to be the same Abiram and Dathan who would later on bring another serious mess among the Jews igniting, on purpose, the mean conflict with Moses and Aaron.
When Moses, fulfilling the Creator’s will, appeared to Jews and started to speak with them, most of them had their doubts in the beginning. Some of them ran to the wise woman who was the only one surviving of the generation of the Tribes ( as Serah was blessed with an exceptionally long life), to check what she was thinking about this newcomer. Listening to what the doubters had to say about what Moses said and how he did it , wise and knowledgeable Serah was not impressed either, saying that that man was a commoner without a mission. The people speaking with Serah then said that Moses did pronounced the phrase which they did not quite understand, ‘ I will indeed remembered”/or visited, ‘pakod pakadeti’, and Serah immediately recognised the code phrase ( known as ‘pakad-pakad’) that was known in her generation ( and previously, from Abraham onward) as a special message and the sign from the Creator indicating His chosen ones for the mission. It is hard to imagine what might happen – or might not happen – with enslaved Jewish society in Egypt without Serah and her recognition of who Moses was that she explained to the people who were doubting him.
Later on, the same woman, Serah, would be the one who only knew and remembered what had happened with the remnants of Joseph when Moses ran to her to inquire about her possible knowledge after frantically searching for Joseph’s bones prior to leaving Egypt. Among all the people who were preparing to leave ( those 20% brave and convinced ones), Moses was the only one who was occupied with the matter. After his search proved fruitless , he turned to Serah, who did remember what had happened with Joseph’s coffin, or rather the lead box with his remnants, and where the Egyptians had put it. They had placed it in the Nile, to bless the river that was in their culture much more than a river . It was the element that commanded their way of life, a cosmos of Egypt. Moses ,who went to the Nile’s bank and started to pray fervently, did succeed in finding the resurfaced lead box with Joseph’s bones in it. But he would not know where to search unless wise and special Serah would not tell him. Given the importance and not obvious underlining of all remarkable episodes ( there are many more) in which she was playing a decisive role throughout her remarkably long life, it is logical to conclude that Serah is one of the most interesting and meaningful personages of the Jewish tradition.
And there is one more exceptional woman portrayed in the parsha, Bithiah. Her, the Pharaoh’s daughter’s history in the context of the Jewish – and the world civilisation’s – history is crucial. An Egyptian royalty takes pity on a Jewish male baby, in the midst of the draconian measures against precisely these acts, imposed all over Egypt by the young woman’s father, mighty sovereign of Egypt. Something has driven her from inside, perhaps something that she was not able to comprehend fully at the time. That mighty impulse has prompted Bithiah to save that little boy who was inside that basket floating slowly through the Nile. But Pharaoh’s daughter not only saved the boy. She loved him. Only a loving person would allow the saved boy’s real mother , Yochebed, to nurse him for two years. Only a loving person would bring the boy out with utmost care and love, subduing and avoiding the rigid rules of a cold power to produce an empathy towards a lonely boy from entirely different people , and to make his life as warm and privileged as possible.
I tend to think that Bithiah was given knowledge , probably from the very beginning, even if she did not realise it in full measure at the time. I think that Bithiah might have been infused by the High Force with a subconscious sense of duty, which she might not fully comprehend in the beginning of that moral imperative . It is for that devotion, I believe, that Pharaoh daughter Bithiah , who was subsequently converted, was rewarded by marrying Caleb, according to the Talmudic sources. Caleb, of all Jewish men, the best of them at the time, the most devoted one both to Moses and to the Jewish cause, the most decisive and resilient, the eternal pride of ours. Bithiah’s life and evolution in her unique mission is a very important part of Jewish history, one of its lines that has determined our all’ future.
In this remarkable parsha, there are so many episodes which one can identify as key-ones for the entire destiny of Jewish nation, they are coming in the Shemot one after another. But the most enigmatic one, and one of the most decisive for entire Jewish history is the episode of the Burning Bush. There are some intriguing questions in the phenomenon that still has its grip not only on the Jewish observant people and scholars, but also on many of those of the Christian faith who find the episode as one of the strongest in the Old Testament. In my artwork Burning Bush II from my Songs of Our Souls collection, I have been trying to address the ongoing importance of the Burning Bush from which the Creator did speak to Moses, for every next generation of Jewish people.
Why was the Bush burning, without being consumed by the fire for as long as seven days? Not one, not two, not even three, but that many. As it comes from the logic of human behaviour, it happened because Moses himself could not believe in the sufficiency of his leadership abilities, most of all due to his exceptional humility. We know that Moses was the epitome of humility in the very best sense of it. But the Creator knew the main quality of that stuttering ( because of an incident in his childhood) man, a crystal honesty of his heart. This quality has become the main source of Moses’ leadership that sustained so many daring tests, and which designed the character of the man who led our people out of slavery, not only literally, but metaphorically too, which is of principal importance.
Undoubtedly, in the case of Moses, there was a fantastic genetic lineage. He was the grandson of Levi on both his mother and his father’s sides, the great-grandson of Jacob, and the direct successor of Isaac and Abraham in the third and fourth generations. But there was also the conscious choice of his heart which led him through life, and which was the decisive factor and the main criteria for the Creator’s choice, I dare to believe.
There is no coincidence in the way of the Creator’s choice among the Jewish forefathers to become our patriarchs and the key leaders. Both Abraham and Moses were chosen directly by the Creator for their personal abilities and the honesty of their hearts. It was a foundation stone of their both personalities. This honesty of the heart formed the way of their both faith. It has kept their will to believe unshaken. It has made their beliefs uncompromising, with a special strength. It also contributed largely to their both ability to lead – because due to their crystal honesty, they had nothing to be afraid of, they were both completely uncompromised people in any way, thus having a lasting moral authority under any circumstances.
These kinds of people appear in every generation, as we know. Otherwise, humankind would not sustain. My great-grandfather and my grandfather were men of this kind. I was very lucky to know what the crystal honesty of a strong, convinced in the best morality Jewish person is since I was born. The only thing is that such people are so rare. But it tells about the quality of us, and our preparedness and ability to overcome challenges and give – or not – the way for compromises. Moses did not. And that’s why Bush was in the fire, unconsumed, for seven days, to set up a strong symbol of the strength of the honest heart that gives us, everyone who is open to honest dialogue with itself and the Creator, to live decently.