Exodus Cycle Three Shemoth 1:1 to 6:1

Shemoth

The parasha Shemot moves to a rhythm of signs and miracles. Wondrous things happen. Here are some. Two midwives resist the order of Pharaoh and are not punished. Rather… rewarded with houses. A baby is later saved by his wise Israelite mother who puts him in a little ark or basket in the rushes. The baby (Moses) found by the Egyptian Princess, becomes a Prince. Moses kills a slave-driver…not a good thing to do. But look what happens. He goes into self imposed exile from the exile of Mitzrayim and once there God speaks to him (from the burning bush). It’s a long conversation. God says that the Israelites, in harsh servitude to Pharaoh, must be freed by Moses so they can be in servitude to God for three days on the mountain. The three day temporary deal soon changes to a full-on demand for freedom. But that’s the next parasha so let’s not go there yet.

What we want to recognize here is that we have one strong story, one we know well. There’s a goal (the freeing of the Israelites)and there are main characters. Moses. God. Pharoah.

What I believe though is this story, if true or not, is understood not through the scope of history, nor through the elements of myth. Rather through the distortion gifted to us by time and by our personal and ancient intimacy with God. In other words, we “get it” through the very sacred-ness of the document, so teeming with the millions of sparks of all who have studied it…i.e. through soul-study. And in this broader picture we are all one. The cries of the Israelites are our cries. Cries of longing, of disgust, of pain, of strength as we move forward from a place of thick darkness (despite the building barriers) to get closer and closer to God’s radiant embrace. And all of us…yes, even Moses…are tools of a magnificent power. They (we) dance and move within a deeper structure, a background, a setting…so that this power can bring us to Him. In other words, God is creating an experience that vibrates within our very bones so we can be in it and be catapulted by it. If you like, it’s almost as if the rhythm is already created and we…the Israelites…are simply responding to it viscerally, when (ironically) it is presented to us (in Torah) with exquisite simplicity. So if we just open our eyes beyond this earthly plane to patterns in Torah we are given the opportunity to be logical-primal about the divine power. We can witness the infusion of that-light into our every happening, And it's where we want to go....right into those openings where soul becomes matter and matter becomes soul.

Let’s look at one example (of many)…of such an opening.

It revolves around the use of the root word ayin tzaddik mem. Azmotay. Bones. In Genesis 50:25 Joseph says to his brothers…when God visits you (in a deep way) you must bring my bones out of this place. This is how Genesis ends. Joseph dies and his body (and his bones) are buried in a tomb in Egypt. So these bones, this structure of our human selves. are now not only in Miztrayim but buried there, stuck and waiting to be revived.

This is easy to overlook as important. However, bones are a focus of our sages. It is said in Talmud, for example, that the number of human bones is 248…the number of positive commandments in Torah. The Jewish Encyclopedia reports that a tanna (Simeon of Kitron) of whom only one haggadic saying has been preserved says that on account of the bones of Joseph, which the Israelites brought with them out of Egypt, that the sea opened before them (Mek.) We find bones at our very seed-of-being. Adam, once Eve is created from his rib (bone) says that Eve is bone of my bones (Gen 3:23). In my opinion, our bones contain the emanation of gevurah, those fused divine sparks, so that the vessel to attract more sparks…our human vessel…is physically and spiritually possible. Bones, according to Eziekiel, rise from the dust and walk on their own. Bones carry the rhythm and matter of God. In referring to them in the plural, they defy human separateness.

So now we begin Shemot. We witness the counting of names, of ourselves as memories, as tribes, whether physically alive or dead. And then we read about the growth of our people once the twelve sons of Jacob have passed. We read that their bones (yatzmu) became very many. This is often translated as their population or as their strength. But really it’s the same root word mentioned above. So, while Joseph says that his bones must be taken out of Mitzrayim now suddenly there are many many bones and (given the repetition and choice of the root word) the bones themselves have grown exponentially in magnitude, almost as if they have been birthed within the tomb of Joseph himself.

It is the march of these bones, these divine sparks in their most solid earthly human form, this miraculous structure within the structure of the earthly plane, that is the setting here, that dictates the movement and push and pull of our prophets and dark Kings and our God-name even from their very births. It is the guttural yearning of this build up of bones that sets the earthly drama moving and creates the openings for the radiance to kiss us with staffs that become snakes and skin that turns white. It is the manifestation of Ein Sof that grows and climbs from a deep and stuck grave in the form of bones to the place of poked yipkad….true radiance. This is our pattern, our way-of-being, our ancestry, our future. The story, as fun and exciting and symbolic as it is… is just the fabrication so we can find openings to the holiness. And these openings are everywhere. As the Sfas Emes says… holiness can be revealed in this world only through the openings that Israel makes.

So, may we make those openings. May we see them. May we focus on them with intent. May we know we are in the dance of the bones rising from the grave. May we see the openings as the reality..the true pattern…and not as magic beyond our ability. And may we embrace our primal selves and be the bones that carry the names that fuse the divine sparks and march us straight into oneness and the primal bright point-of-God to beyond all name beyond all story.