Exodus Cycle Six Vaera

The first section of Vaera can be seen as code. It’s a code that is found by scholars not only in Torah but in ancient Greek writings like the Iliad. And if ancient literary juxtaposition doesn’t send you jumping for joy then imagine this: It’s a code that can also be found in computer programming. 

 My guess is that the code goes deeper, into our cellular formation. Doctors and biologists would know more about that than me. In any case, this code is something that is so very human, so very real to our existence and physicality on the most foundational level here on earth that we replicate it wherever we go.  It melds technology and the divine as well as dichotomous cultures. It melds intangible flow within minds to energy bundles created by those same minds.  It’s a code that brings us discreetly and powerfully to an absolute acceptance of technology as not only a way to transmit messages…but as an attempt to walk in God’s ways. In short (and please don’t short out) technology as well as literature can  be seen as religious and prophetic.

My intention here is not to disappoint any science-based agnostics or atheists. It also isn’t to cause any anti-technology souls to groan at the thought of online-congregations. 

It’s simply to show the power we have at our disposal. For after all, this code that begins Vaera does catapult the miraculous exodus from our very self imposed shadow in Mitzrayim. This parashah is (after all) where the plagues begin. Not very pretty. I mean frogs and lice dug up from our own shadows to then be metaphors of those very shadows...  just aren’t great subjects of conversation. Therefore, it’s nice to hope that we can use this code to turn our power into positive rather than hurtful tools for change. We can’t do better than Moses but we can certainly apply the lessons Moses learned to this era…we can build upon the wheel. 

Let’s look carefully at 6:2 to 6:8.  Israeli Bible scholar Leibowitz shows us how these lines can be seen.  First I’m going to present a quick translation/interpretation:

2)I am the Lord.

3)And I caused myself to be seen to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as El Shaddai and my name YAHWEH I did not make known to them.

4)And also I caused to rise-up my covenant with them to give to them the land of Canaan the land of their journeys the land to which they journeyed.

5) And I also heard the cries of the children of Israel that the Egyptians caused in their service and I remembered my covenant.

6) Therefore say to the children of Israel  I am YAHWEH and I will cause your going-out from under the hardship of the Egyptians and I will cause you to be free from their hardships and I will cause you to be redeemed with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.

7)And I will take you to me as a people and I will be to you your Elohim and you will know that I am YAHWEH your God who brought you out from under the hardships of the Egyptians.

8) And I will cause you to go to the land where I lifted up my hand to give it to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob and I will give it to you for a heritage.

9) I am the Lord.

Now, if you look at the italics 1 and 9 meet syntactically. 2 and 8 meet. 3 and 7 meet. and 4 and 6 meet.

Line 5 stands alone on that foundation. Line 5 is literally catapulted by the joining and merging of the sentences around it. And what is line 5 about? It’s about the strong hand of God.

What’s happening here is very clear. Whatever the divine metaphor, the children of Israel will be saved by a power beyond metaphor. This is a power that will also cause a manifestation of the shadow  of the Egyptians (ourselves) so we (he who studies Torah, the witness) will help to heal the Egyptians (ourselves) by not only a visual of the plague but by watching a peeling away of the same plague.  Our very involvement in the divine process is one of the results of logical thinking, of accessing the literary patterns.

And a whole new world of pro-active possibilities opens for us. Please don't misunderstand me. Action is open for us anyway. This syntactical pattern though (or code) is just one of many ways to understand the depth and direction of our action (as is gematria or an analysis of the binyanim). 

Finally, in a world in which what we really care about is our job, putting food on the table and paying the mortgage, this vision can seem very unrealistic and esoteric. The truth is though we don’t go anywhere without some kind of structure. It’s good to recognize it in all things, to apply it to all plans and to make room for it in all relationships.  It will (with pain, anguish, confusion and glory) get us to focus with greater clarity on where we want to go. Just ask any computer expert.

Just ask yourself in your heart. 

Then take another look at Torah.