Where the Wild Things Are Frightened

The brothers strip Yosef of his precious coat, stain it with blood, bring it home and show it to their father. They ask, "Is this your son's jacket or not?" (37:32)

Why the scam? Would it not have been more compassionate for the brothers to simply deny having seen Yosef at all? Why traumatize Yaakov with nightmares of violence?

II

"Yisroel loved Yosef more than all his [other] sons" (37:3). Clearly, Yaakov believed Yosef to be a Tzaddik. However, the reality was not so simple. The Torah tells us explicitly that "Yosef brought negative reports [about his brothers] to their father" (37:2). In the brothers' opinion, Yosef was not the righteous son he appeared to be; he was a Rasha who spoke Lashon HaRa and informed on them. The fact that Yaakov had positive feelings about Yosef was, as the Torah attests, due to the fact that Yosef was a בן זקנים, "a son of his old age" (37:3). The recent precedent of a father misjudging his beloved son was fresh in everyone's mind and the brothers undoubtedly felt that Yaakov had been fooled by Yosef just as Yitzchok had been fooled by Eisav. (For more on the brothers' fear of Yosef as a reincarnation of Eisav, see this post.) 

Understanding the brothers' perspective explains their seemingly outrageous behavior after they throw Yosef in the pit. 

"They took him and cast him into the pit. The pit was empty, it had no water. They then sat down to eat bread..." (37:24-25). 

To eat bread?! Is the Torah telling us that the brothers were heartless?

According to the Rashbam (37:28), the brothers never sold Yosef. They just left him in the pit where he was discovered by the Midianites who sold him to the Yishmaelites. Unaware of these developments, Reuven is shocked to find the pit empty and reports his discovery to the brothers (37:30). (Rashi interprets events differently, but the Rashbam's narrative is undoubtedly the most straightforward reading of the text, cf. Sifsei Chachomim ad loc.). 

The pit was infested with snakes and scorpions (Rashi to 37:24), and so the brothers naturally assumed that Yosef had been poisoned. Reuven says as much years later when he criticizes his brothers. "I explicitly told you not to sin against the boy, and you did not listen! And now his blood demands [justice]" (42:22). The term "blood," especially in the sense of demanding justice, is a reference to a homicide victim, as we see in Hashem's words to Cain, "The voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the earth" (4:10). (Consistent with his view that the brothers sold Yosef, Rashi interprets the expression differently here.) 

Presuming Yosef had been killed by the snakes, it is perfectly understandable why the brothers sat down for a feast, for this is exactly what the Halacha dictates one must do when a brother guilty of informing passes away:      

כל הפורשים מדרכי צבור... וכן המומרים והמוסרים, כל אלו אין אוננים ואין מתאבלים עליהם אלא אחיהם ושאר קרוביהם לובשים לבנים ומתעטפים לבנים ואוכלים ושותים ושמחים - "Anyone who abandons communal norms... heretics and informers, we do not morn their passing. Rather, their brothers and other relatives dress in white, eat, drink, and rejoice" (Shulchan Aruch Y.D. 345:5). 

III

After the flood, when Noach exited the ark, Hashem made a striking statement: "The fear of you and the dread of you will be on all the wild animals of the earth, on all the birds of the sky, on all that crawls on the ground..." (9:2). The Midrash explains that it had been common for animals to attack members of the wicked generation prior to the flood. Hashem was promising that going forward animals would be afraid to touch the righteous family of Noach (Midrash Aggada). The Talmud affirms the point: 

אמר רמי בר חמא: אין חיה רעה שולטת באדם אלא אם כן נדמה לו כבהמה, שנאמר נמשל כבהמות נדמו - "A dangerous animal will not attack a person unless it thinks he's an animal" (Sanhedrin 38b).

In other words, wild animals don't attack Tzaddikim. The famous story of Daniel in the den of lions is a case in point. Daniel attributed his miraculous salvation to the fact that Hashem "found him innocent" (Daniel 6:16).

Returning to our original question about the brother's behavior, we can now understand that staining Yosef's coat with blood was not, חס ושלום, a callous act. On the contrary, it was a well-considered way of informing Yaakov that he was wrong about Yosef. Yosef was a Rasha, evidenced by the fact that animals were unafraid to attack him. The brothers were attempting to ease their father's pain, consoling him with proof that Yosef deserved to die and was unworthy of mourning. Certain that Yosef had been bitten by a snake, the brothers considered a blood-stained coat to be a truthful presentation of Yosef's fate. 

Rejecting the suggestion that Yosef was wicked, Yaakov "refused to be consoled" (37:35) and insisted on mourning the loss of his son for the rest of his life. Although excessive mourning is ordinarily prohibited, Yaakov was affirming his view of Yosef's righteousness, for an exception is made for the greatest Tzaddikim. Yaakov himself is a case in point (50:3), as is Moshe Rabbeinu (Devarim 34:8). (Yaakov's and Moshe's "period of crying" lasted seventy and thirty days respectively, compared with the three days dictated by Halacha, cf. Moed Koton 27b.) 

The brothers' plan backfired. Aware that Tzaddikim receive divine protection and confident in Yosef's righteousness, Yaakov was left with no choice but to question the voracity of the brothers' story. This explains the surprising assertion of the Midrash (quoted by Rashi to 42:36), that Yaakov suspected the brothers had either killed or sold Yosef. 

[Although Yaakov felt a need to protect himself from wild animals when he slept outdoors (28:11), that was not because he doubted Hashem's promise, ח"ו. Rather, the אבות were always careful to avoid relying on miracles (עיין רבי ירוחם ליבוביץ ז"ל, דעת חכמה ומוסר, ריש חלק א באריכות).]

Of course, Yaakov was correct in his judgement. The snakes and scorpions did not attack Yosef. As Hashem promised Noach long ago, even animals that crawl on the ground would never dare harm a true Tzaddik. But the divine protection of Yosef goes well beyond the animal kingdom. Yosef is untouchable. Yaakov called him עלי עין, "above the evil eye," because the forces of evil have no power over him (Rashi to 49:22). More than that, all attempts to do Yosef harm boomerang into blessings. The brothers threw him into a pit, as did the wife of Potifar, but these crimes only served to launch Yosef's meteoric rise to power. Only a man of extraordinary righteousness is worthy of such extraordinary divine providence.

At the very end of the story, after the passing of their father Yaakov, the brothers are terrified that Yosef will finally take revenge. Appealing for mercy, they offer to be his slaves (50:15-18). Yosef responds with this observation: "You planned to do me harm but Hashem directed it for the good" (50:20). What relevance does that have to the question of revenge?

Yosef may be saying that I couldn't hurt you even if I tried, but in light of the above, Yosef is making a different point. To paraphrase his response: 

"You are afraid that I will take revenge?! You still think I am wicked and evil?! Not only did Hashem protect me from your attempted murder, He turned it into the best thing that ever happened to me! What greater proof of righteousness can there be than that?" (For a different approach to this conversation, see the end of this post.)

IV

Fascinating parallels exist between the Yosef story and the Exodus story. In the Yosef story, the brothers are afraid of Yosef, view him negatively, and decide to sell him as a slave, while Yaakov recognized Yosef for who he was and elevated him into the position of firstborn, gifting him with an extra portion of inheritance (48:22). More than that, Yaakov entered Yosef into the pantheon of forefathers, declaring Yosef's sons to be on par with Reuven and Shimon (48:5). In the Exodus story, the Pharaoh is afraid of the Jews, views them negatively, and decides to enslave them, while Hashem loves the Jewish People and declares them to be "my son, my firstborn" (Shemos 4:22). Both stories share the common elements of fear, misjudgment and persecution of the righteous. 

The consequences also match. The brothers' attempt to eliminate Yosef is what puts him into power. Similarly, Pharaoh's decree to throw the baby boys in the Nile leads directly to the rise of Moshe. (For more on the boomerang effect, see this post.)

This last point greatly impressed Moshe's father-in-law Yisro. 

Yisro rejoiced over all the goodness that Hashem did for the Jewish People, saving it from the hand of Egypt... "Now I know that Hashem is greater than all forces, for [the Egyptians were destroyed] with the very thing that they plotted against them." (18:9,11). They were cooked in the pot which they cooked up (Rashi ad loc. from Sotah 11a). 

In life of Yosef and in the miracles of the Exodus, divine intervention is evidence of divine love, and divine love is evidence of righteousness (cf. Rambam, Hilchos Teshuva 7:6). Given the complexity of life, righteousness is difficult to define and impossible to judge. People, even great people like Yosef's brothers, can easily get it wrong. Only the all-knowing Almighty knows the truth (cf. Rambam ad loc. 3:2). 

V

Another parallel between the Yosef story and the Exodus story can be found in the fourth plague, מכת ערוב.

Hashem said to Moshe, "Arise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh; He will be going out to the water. Tell him, so said God, 'Send out my people and they will serve me. For if you don't send out my people, I will send the arov against you... On that day, I will differentiate the land of Goshen upon which my people stand; no arov will be there, so that you shall know that I am God in the midst of the earth'" (Shemos 8:16-18). Arov: A mixture of all types of wild animals, snakes and scorpions attacked them (Rashi ad loc.).

Here, when Hashem wants to illustrate the difference between Jew and Egyptian and demonstrate His presence and providence, He uses snakes and scorpions. The choice of animals is interesting. Elsewhere in Tanach, when Hashem calls upon animals to attack His enemies, He uses flying insects (Devarim 7:20), bears (Melachim II 2:24), and lions (Rashi to Bereishis 7:16), not snakes and scorpions.

The animals of arov are not random. Snakes and scorpions evoke the original event which led the Egyptian exile. Just as the righteousness of Yosef was affirmed by his emerging unscathed from a pit of snakes and scorpions, so too in the plague of arov, snakes and scorpions only attack the wicked and keep their distance from the righteous.

Dominance over snakes gains added significance in light of the fact that the snake is the symbol of the Yetzer HaRa (cf. Bereishis 3:1; Nefesh Hachaim 1:6). The idea can be expanded to include the entire animal kingdom, for all animals ultimately represent the animal within man (cf. Rashi to Yona 4:11). By definition, "righteousness" is the mastery and control of the negative drives. Animals' fear of the righteous is thus an external expression of an internal reality.

VI

The Torah is clear. The purpose of the plagues is to educate Egypt about the nature of God. Hashem wanted the Egyptians to recognize His existence, omnipotence and providence, but there is more. The Egyptians must also understand that the Jews are a holy nation. This is the message of the arov, and this is why Moshe keeps telling Pharaoh that the Jews are Hashem's People and He wants them released from servitude so they can serve Him. It is not a marginal point. As can be seen in Maimonides Principles of Faith, only one who accepts the idea of a Chosen Nation understands the nature of God. And that necessarily includes acknowledgment of the essential holiness, goodness, and righteousness of the Jewish People.

After the seventh plague of hail, Pharaoh finally surrenders to the truth. "Hashem is the Tzaddik; me and my people are the Reshaim" (9:27). This is progress, but Pharaoh's admission falls short, for he has only recognized that he is in the wrong. While Pharaoh may view the Jews as hapless victims, he has not acknowledged their special relationship with Hashem. That will have to wait for the greatest miracle of all, the splitting of the sea.

Dream and Self-Destruct: A New Take on the Torment of Pharaoh

When Pharaoh enslaves the Jews, he puts them to work on two projects: agriculture and construction - בחומר ובלבנים ובכל עבודה שבשדה. What are they building? Not housing (which, with their skyrocketing birthrate, would have been useful) but storage facilities. Huge storage facilities. Cities of storage facilities - ערי מסכנות.

Why does Pharaoh suddenly need so much storage space? According to Rashi in Divrei HaYamim (II 32:28), the word מסכנות is used exclusively to refer to granaries - and Rashi proves the meaning of the word from its appearance here in Shemos! An army of Jewish slaves working in the field is going to produce a huge surplus. Obviously, the Jews are building storage facilities for all the extra food. But why? Why is Pharaoh hoarding grain?

"A new Pharaoh arose over Egypt who did not know Yosef" (1:8). According to one opinion cited by Rashi, this was not a new king. (If it were, the Torah would presumably tell us that the old Pharaoh died, as it says later in 2:23.) Rather, the same old Pharaoh who knew Yosef personally was now ignoring him. But what does that mean? In what way is Pharaoh ignoring Yosef?

Years back, Pharaoh had two similar dreams on the same night. In his first dream, Pharaoh sees himself standing by the Nile River. He watches seven fat cows rise out of the water, only to be consumed by seven skinny cows who also come out of the water. In Pharaoh's second dream, seven fat ears of grain get consumed by seven thin ears of grain. 

Pharaoh awoke terrified. ותפעם רוחו - "His spirit was agitated and was clanging inside him like a bell" (Rashi 41:8). In other words, Pharaoh was having heart palpitations. To get a sense of the intensity of Pharaoh feelings, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar experienced the very same trauma - ותפעם רוחי - when he awoke after having a nightmare about a monster, a nightmare which foretold the destruction of his empire (Daniel, chap. 2). 

Pharaoh has premonitions about his dreams and the interpretations offered by his advisors reflected his fears. They suggested that the dream about the cows means that he will have seven daughters and he will bury seven daughters, and the dream about the grain means he will conquer seven kingdoms and seven provinces will rebel against his rule (Bereishis Rabba 89). However, Pharaoh is unsatisfied. He knows that his dreams are bigger and darker than that.

Called up from the dungeon to interpret the king's dreams, Yosef says that both the cows and the grain represent years (41:26-27). The two dreams are one and the same: seven years of plenty will be followed by seven years of famine, and the repetition indicates that Hashem is hurrying to make it happen (41:32). Yosef was pretty accurate; there were seven years of plenty, however, the famine lasted only two years. With the arrival of Yaakov the drought ended, as evidenced by the fact that the people began planting again (Rashi to Bereishis 47:19).

The premature end of the famine came as a great surprise to the Egyptians. Yaakov's sons understood that the destiny of the world revolves around Yaakov Avinu, but Pharaoh was sceptical. (If the presence of Yaakov can end a drought, why was there a famine in Israel?) Pharaoh could only conclude that Yosef was unreliable. He was a pretty good dream interpreter, but perfect he was not. There were inaccuracies. 

Pharaoh is now plagued not by drought, but by doubt. Yosef might have been completely wrong about the length of the famine. (Indeed, the Midrash cites opinions that the famine was originally destined to last not seven but twenty-eight or forty-two years, cf. Bereishis Rabba 89:9.) Then again, maybe Yosef was right and the famine will suddenly resume sometime in the future? (According to the Midrash ad loc., the famine did in fact resume centuries later in the days of King Yechezkel.) Either way, Yosef was off and that was a frightening prospect. Mistaken about the duration of the famine, he might also be wrong about some of the other details. Yosef claimed that the repetition of the dream indicated that it would begin soon, but what if not? What if the second dream refers to a second famine? The country must prepare itself! This is what the Torah means when it tells us that Pharaoh now chose to ignore Yosef (Rashi to Shemos 1:8). Pharaoh no longer accepted Yosef's interpretation of his dreams.

This explains why Pharaoh put the Jews to work: to prepare for the next famine. The storage facilities used last time will not suffice, for who can say how long the next famine will be? New and larger facilities must be built and the Jews will build them. After all, the famine is the Jews' fault. Dreams always follow their interpretation (even multiple interpretations; cf. Berachos 55b) and Yosef the Jew was the one who interpreted the dreams to mean that a famine will strike Egypt. The Jews created the problem. Let them fix it.

II

Who was right about the meaning of the dreams? Yosef or Pharaoh? The answer is not so simple.

In the seventh plague of hail, the Egyptian harvest is severely damaged (9:25); only the thin and flexible stalks survive (9:32). And in the following plague, the crops that survived the hail are consumed by locusts (10:5). Here we have the destruction and consumption of the Egyptian harvest marked by the number seven. Pharaoh's fears are confirmed: the dreams are still in play! Faced with a new famine, Pharaoh is relieved to have plenty of extra grain in his granaries, but at the same time, the plagues reawaken old fears.

When Pharaoh first entertained the possibility that Yosef was wrong (or chose not to reveal the whole truth), Pharaoh was forced to think out of the box. What if the dreams are not limited to foodstuffs? What if the fat cows represent not years, but the state of Egypt itself? What if, like Nebuchadnezzar, his dreams foretell the catastrophic fall of the Empire?

Pharaoh cannot help but suspect that skinny cows eating fat cows portends the miraculous victory of a weak underdog over the mighty, but fat, Egypt. The enemy looks eerily similar to the Egyptians. Stranger yet, both the victor and the vanquished are sourced in the Nile.

Rejecting Yosef's interpretation, Pharaoh believes his dream to mean that there is a mortal enemy hiding inside the country. The conclusion is inescapable: It's the Jews! Pharaoh warns his people that despite all appearances, the Jews are actually stronger than we are (1:9), and in the event of an invasion, the Jews will join forces with the enemy (1:10). Alarmed by the Jewish population explosion, Pharaoh decrees that all Jewish boys are to be drowned in the Nile. 

Pharaoh is not a madman. His fears are well-founded. In fact, there is far more merit to this interpretation than Pharaoh would ever know. Egypt is compared to a cow, "Egypt is a beautiful heifer" (Yermiyah 46:20), and so are the Jews; the Midrash uses the analogy of a birthing cow to describe the exodus of the Jews from Egypt (Mechilta Beshalach 14:30). Seven starving cows consuming fat cows can thus refer to the seventy Jews who came to Egypt in search of food (Bereishis 46:27) and end up destroying the country. Yosef himself alluded to this interpretation of Pharaoh's dream when he said to his brothers, "Get your father and your families and bring them to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and they shall eat the fat of the land" (45:18). 

Moreover, by the time of the Exodus the Jewish People had almost entirely assimilated into Egyptian culture. The Jews worshiped Egyptian gods (Rashi to Shemos 12:6) and they even looked like Egyptians, "both were uncircumcised, both grew their hair long, both wore shatnez..." (Shir HaShirim Rabba 2:6). It follows that thin cows eating fat cows symbolizes penniless Egyptianized Jews plundering Egypt of all its wealth (12:35-36). Nonetheless, just like the skinny cows in the dream, the Jews remain thin. Hashem starved them in the desert before feeding them Mannah (16:3), and the heavenly Manna had zero fat. (The body absorbed Mannah without producing any waste, Yoma 75b). Only later in the land of Israel do we find that "Yeshurun grew fat and kicked" (Devarim 32:15). The dream is thus a vision of the Chosen Nation living up to its mandate, remaining "thin" and recognizing its dependence on God, despite newfound wealth, independence and the heady illusion of power. 

The thin "Jewish cows" might also indicate that the Jews are exempt from paying for the material and financial damage they inflicted on Egypt. When an animal inflicts damage, payment is collected מגופו, from its own body (Shemos 21:35). In the event that the damager has no value, it is exempt from payment. A skinny, worthless cow will thus not provide compensation for the damage that it inflicts, and in the case of the Jews of Egypt, this is perfectly just. Although the Jews did bespoil Egypt when they left, when you factor in all the years of enslavement, the Jews got the worse end of the deal (cf. Sanhedrin 91a). The description of the thin cows as דלות, "poor" (Bereishis 41:19), can now be taken literally, and we have a new interpretation of the dream: the skinny cows (the Jews) ate the fat cows (the wealth of Egypt), but yet the Jews remained poor - the spoils of Egypt was insufficient compensation for the centuries of enslavement.

Alternatively, cows rising out of the river may refer not to the Jewish nation, but to Yosef. Yosef appeared Egyptian (cf. Bereishis 42:8 where his own brothers don't recognize him) and was called an "ox" (Bereishis 49:6; Devarim 33:17). As Egypt fell and the Jews departed, Moshe used the expression "Rise, Ox!" to bring up Yosef's body from the river bed (Rashi to Shemos 32:4). The idea of the cows representing Yosef is further bolstered by the fact that Yosef and the cows are both described in the exact same way, יפה תאר ויפא מראה, "of beautiful form and beautiful appearance" (Bereishis 39:6; 41:2,18). We might also add that in the birth order of the sons of Leah and Rochel, Yosef is number seven. 

III

Pharaoh could not grasp the full import of his dreams, nonetheless, he understood enough to make him sweat. On the one hand, his second dream may signify a second devastating famine. If true, he needs to enslave the Jews to work the fields and build granaries. On the other hand, his dreams might mean that the Jews will destroy and despoil Egypt. If that is the dream's meaning, he must act to defeat destiny, defend his country, and exterminate the Jews. Unsure which interpretation is correct, Pharaoh does both. First he enslaves the Jews to prepare the granaries. After that is complete, he moves on to the final solution: drowning the Jews in the river.  

In a delicious divine comedy, Pharaoh's attempt to destroy the Jews is what ultimately destroys Egypt and saves the Jews. Due to her father's evil decree, Pharaoh's daughter finds a Jewish baby in the river, and the rest is history. In retrospect, the mysterious skinny cows which Pharaoh saw destroying his country may in fact symbolize the leader of the Jews, Moshe. Pharaoh's daughter named him "Moshe" because, like the cows, she "drew him out of the water" (2:10; משה=משיתיהו). The rise of the Jewish Nation and the destruction of Egypt thus emerges from the Nile - as prophesied by Pharaoh's dreams. In fulfillment of the vision of cows eating cows, the Torah tells us that Moshe looked like an "Egyptian man" (2:19), and in the vision of the Egyptian astrologers, it is impossible to tell if the redeemer is Jew or Egyptian (Rashi 1:22). Tellingly, when the Jews desire to find a replacement for Moshe, they forge a Golden Calf. We might also add that Moshe is the seventh generation in line from Avraham and was born (and died) on the seventh day of Adar.

Pharaoh's first response to his dreams was to release Yosef from prison and elevate him to the highest position in the Kingdom. It was a desperate move. Pharaoh did it because he was delighted with Yosef's positive spin on his nightmare, but little did Pharaoh know that the monster in his nightmare was none other than Yosef himself. In the short term Yosef's interpretation provided relief and seemed to put the dreams to rest, but in the long term it led to his brothers moving to Egypt and ultimately to the destruction of Egypt - as prophesied by the dreams.

As he saw in his dream, Pharaoh stands by the Nile the entire time, watching helplessly as Egypt is destroyed by his own errors of leadership. To his eternal dismay, Pharaoh can only fault himself for first accepting Yosef's interpretation and then recklessly ignoring it and reinterpreting his dream. Dreams follow their interpretation, but Pharaoh's dreams have a life of their own: whatever he does, the dreams adjust and destroy. Pharaoh is not only a passive observer; he is God's puppet, compelled by God-given nightmares to destroy his country with his own hands.   


This too is foretold by the dream. The most basic and frightening feature of the dreams is cannibalization. The reason the skinny cows remain skinny after eating the fat cows is because they are the very same cows! Egypt consumes itself. Pharaoh is his own worst enemy - and it is his own dreams which drive him to self-destruct. In the end, the seven skinny cows coming out of the Nile refer to all the drivers that destroy Egypt: Yosef and Moshe, the Jews, the Egyptians, and Pharaoh himself.

As a postscript, we should point out the fascinating parallel to the dreams of Yosef. Frightened and jealous of Yosef's dreams, his brothers decided to eliminate him. "Let's kill him and throw him into one of the pits... and we will see what will become of his dreams!" (37:20). But Hashem saw to it that their attempt to wreak Yosef's dreams is what brought about their fruition. The brothers' sale of Yosef into slavery is what makes Yosef king and ultimately dooms the brothers to slavery (cf. Shabbos 10b) - the very things they were trying to prevent! Pharaoh suffered the same tragedy. The battle he waged against the nightmare that haunted him is what made it all come true.

Hashem works in mysterious ways, but sometimes he lets us watch the show.

On the Cultivation of Humility

New shiur on the early life of Moshe, recorded this week at the offices of Gerber & Co. 

To listen now or download for later, just click here.

Ignoring Moshe

Last week’s parsha left us hanging with a troubling, unanswered question. Let’s review.

At the Burning Bush, G-d told Moshe to go to Pharaoh and demand that he free the Jews. Moshe is reluctant at first, but ultimately accepts the job. He returns to Egypt and tells his brethren of his divine mission to bring them all back to Israel. The Jews embrace Moshe as their savior and rejoice at their imminent redemption.

The people believed. They accepted the message that G-d had remembered the Israelites and that He had seen their misery. They bowed and prostrated themselves. (Shemot 4:31)

The people wait outside as Moshe enters the palace to speak to the king.

Pharaoh is not cooperative. Instead of freeing the Jews, he dismisses their nationalistic aspirations and accuses them of laziness. To put a quick end to their subversive ideas, Pharaoh dramatically increases the workload of the Jewish slaves.

The Jews work as hard as they can, but are routinely beaten by their taskmasters for failing to meet production quotas. Life becomes unbearable. Instead of redemption, the Jews face tyranny. And instead of being a hero, Moshe has become a pariah.

“You have placed a sword in their hands to kill us!” (Shemot 5:21). Moshe must live with this horrible indictment by his own people. Counterarguments about his good intentions wouldn’t help much, so Moshe confronts G-d.

Master [of the World], why do you mistreat Your people? Why did You send me? As soon as I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he made things worse for these people. You have not saved Your nation! (Shemot 5:22-23)

It’s a good question. Divine plans should not backfire. Here is G-d’s response:

Now you will begin to see what I will do to Pharaoh. With a strong hand he will send them and with a strong hand he will drive them out from his land. (Shemot 6:1)

With these words last week’s parsha came to an end, but we are left wondering. While it is nice to know that Pharaoh will eventually release the Jews, why did G-d send Moshe into Pharaoh’s office if all it accomplished was to make things worse? This was Moshe’s question and it remains unanswered.

This week’s parsha continues where we left off. G-d is still speaking with Moshe and He now presents him with a prophecy of profound significance. G-d lays out a point-by-point description of the redemption process and He instructs Moshe to deliver this speech to the Jewish people:

I will take you away from your forced labor in Egypt.

I will save you from their enslavement.

I will liberate you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.

I will take you to Myself as a nation and I will be to you as a G-d. You will know that it is I, G-d your Lord, who is taking you out from under the subjugation of Egypt.

I will bring you to the land about which I raised My hand, [swearing] that I would give it to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. I will give it to you as an inheritance. I am G-d. (Shemot 6:6-8)

Moshe did as he was told and relates this prophecy to the people, but it was no use. “Because of shortness of breath and hard labor, they didn’t listen to him” (Shemot 6:9). G-d’s great vision for the future fell on deaf ears.

Amazing! For the second time in a row we have the apparent failure of a divine plan. Moshe’s original mission to speak to Pharaoh had disastrous consequences and now the new directive to speak to the people falls flat. By this point, Moshe’s reputation is shot.

In an apparent attempt to salvage some momentum, G-d tells Moshe to show Pharaoh the miraculous sign of transforming a staff into a snake (Shemot 7:8). But Pharaoh’s magicians replicate the trick and Moshe is reduced to a laughingstock. With their leader’s last vestige of credibility gone, the Jewish liberation movement is officially over.

How are we to understand this story? Is G-d playing some kind of cruel trick? What is going on here?

For the answer to our question, we must go back to the Burning Bush. After G-d instructs Moshe to go to Egypt and redeem the Jews, Moshe raises a reasonable objection. “But they won’t believe me, and they won’t listen to me!” (Shemot 4:1) Moshe is concerned that the Jews simply won’t believe that He is G-d’s agent. In response, G-d gives Moshe several miraculous “signs” which he uses to great effect (Shemot 4:30).

Our problem is this: If, as time would tell, Moshe needed these signs to prove that he wasn’t a charlatan, why didn’t G-d give them to him right away? The signs are absent from the initial prophecy and it is only after Moshe expresses his concerns that G-d agrees to give them to him. Why?

The answer is that G-d would prefer not to give Moshe signs. At this point in the game, G-d does not want the Jews to have faith in Moshe. He wants them to have faith in G-d.

When Moshe arrives in Egypt, proves his credentials and marches into Pharaoh’s office, the Jews are confident that he can pull it off. But instead of freedom, the Jews get a renewed bout of oppression. The next time Moshe speaks to them, his worst fears are realized – the Jews aren’t listening. He tries to impress Pharaoh and that fails too. Moshe’s signs and reputation have been neutralized – and then G-d steps in with the Ten Plagues.

G-d will arrive on the scene only after all hope is shattered. As long as people think that salvation can occur naturally, as long as they put their faith in charismatic leadership, liberation movements, diplomatic pressures, peace dialogues and magic tricks, enslaved they will remain. But when the Jews lose faith in the natural course and realize that it is G-d and G-d alone who can take them out of Egypt, then the miracles can begin.