Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Hashem telling Moses, “Va’era – I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” and promising to bring the Children of Israel to the Promised Land. Moses and Aaron repeatedly come before Pharaoh to demand, “Let My people go,” but Pharaoh refuses. In response, Aaron’s staff turns into a snake and swallows the staves of the Egyptian sorcerers which had also turned into snakes, but Pharaoh remains obstinate.
A series of plagues then begin to descend upon the Egyptians: The waters of the Nile turn to blood; swarms of frogs overrun the land; lice infest human and beast alike; wild animals invade the cities; a pestilence kills the domestic animals; painful boils afflict the Egyptians. For the seventh plague, fire and ice combine to descend from the skies as a devastating hail. Still, “the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he would not let the Children of Israel go…”
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְיְ֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה רְאֵ֛ה נְתַתִּ֥יךָ אֱלֹקִ֖ים לְפַרְעֹ֑ה וְאַהֲרֹ֥ן אָחִ֖יךָ יִהְיֶ֥ה נְבִיאֶֽךָ׃ Hashem said to Moses, “See – I have made you God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet… - Shemot (Exodus) 7:1, Parshat Vaeira
The Talmud relates the following story: Rabbi Yohanan was a great miracle-worker and healer. When he visited a sick person, he would ask, “Are these afflictions dear to you?” If they would answer, “Neither they nor their reward,” then he would take them by the hand and they would be instantly healed.
One day, Rabbi Yohanan fell sick. Rabbi Hanina went to visit him and asked, “Are these afflictions dear to you?” Answered Rabbi Yokhanan, “Neither they nor their reward.” Just then, just as Rabbi Yohanan had done for so many others, Rabbi Hanina offered his hand and healed Rabbi Yohanan. The Talmud then asks, “Why did Rabbi Yohanan need Rabbi Hanina’s help? Let him heal himself!” It then answers its own question: אֵין חָבוּשׁ מַתִּיר עַצְמוֹ מִבֵּית הָאֲסוּרִים – A prisoner cannot release himself from prison! - BT Berakhot 5a Just as a prisoner needs someone else to open the jail cell from the outside, so too a teacher can help us get free in the spiritual sense. But just as the prisoner still has to walk out of the jail cell on their own, so too a teacher can “unlock” our inner prison by imparting knowledge, but we still have to “walk out of the jail cell” ourselves by doing the inner work of meditation. And yet, in the case of getting free from our own minds, there must be a part of ourselves that is already free. Otherwise, it would be impossible to see beyond our limited perspective and we would be stuck forever. The part that “sees” was never stuck in the first place: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיְ אֱלֹקֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁלֹּא עָשַֽׂנִי עָֽבֶד – Blessed are You, Divine Being, our own Divinity, who has not made me a slave… - Morning Blessings. No matter how stuck we become, our essential identity is still bigger than the “me” – bigger than the patterns of thoughts and personal stories with which our consciousness tends to identify; our essential identity, beyond the “me,” is always already free. Of course, when we are stuck, we lose consciousness of this fact; we call this being unconscious: הֵ֤ן אֲנִי֙ עֲרַ֣ל שְׂפָתַ֔יִם וְאֵ֕יךְ יִשְׁמַ֥ע אֵלַ֖י פַּרְעֹֽה׃ – “Behold, I have sealed lips – how is Pharaoh going to listen to me?” -Ex. 6:30 But Hashem reassures Moses in an incredibly surprising way: רְאֵ֛ה נְתַתִּ֥יךָ אֱלֹהִ֖ים לְפַרְעֹ֑ה – See! I have made you God (Elohim) to Pharaoh...” Moses is God? What does this mean? But the key is in the first word: רְאֵה Re’eh – See! That which sees, the awareness that looks through your eyes, is the master over all the other elements of the “me” – it is the God within, your essential identity. If you don’t know that, you identify with all those other elements – with feelings, with thoughts, with memories, with ideas – all those strands that make up the web of the personality, of “Pharaoh.” But as soon as you hear the Divine command to see (meaning, receive the teaching to be aware), then the Exodus can begin, and your essential identity can start to awaken. And even deeper – your awareness is not only the master over your personality; it is much more than that: וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר אֱלֹקִ֖ים אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֵלָ֖יו אֲנִ֥י יְיְ׃ – Elohim said to Moses, “I am Hashem.” Shemot (Exodus) 6:2. The first Divine Name, Elohim, means the divine personality; it is the deity. The second Name, the unpronounceable Yod-Hei-Vav-Hei, is far more expansive – It is Existence Itself, not a divine being merely within Existence. The message here is that your אֲנִ֥י ani, your essential identity, is not something separate from the rest of Existence. Your essential identity is Existence, waking up as you, within yet beyond the “me.” The awakening of your essential identity beyond your personality is actually something very simple. And while it may take years of learning and practice for this awakening to stabilize, it takes no time at all to shift into an awakened state – that is, to become present; this is meditation. Over time, this practice of seeing the fullness of this moment as it is leads to a shift in identity, a shift into knowing yourself as the seeing, and even deeper, as Being Itself, the Divine, seeing through your eyes. This realization one of the many fruits of meditation. In this week Shabbat Va-eira, the Sabbath of Appearing, may we practice bringing our wakefulness into every encounter, moment by moment, bringing ourselves and our species closer to our Divine potential…
Read past teachings on Va'era HERE
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