Ziv: Parashat Vaera 2

After Joseph’s death, the children of Israel settled in Egypt, and a new Pharaoh came to power, who “did not know Joseph”. This little statement that appeared in last week’s parasha announced a catastrophe: Pharaoh has forgotten his history, and the history of his people, he has broken the chain of memory that linked him with the previous generations, and he is creating a new world, without any memory or roots. Pharaoh is forgetting the huge debt that the Egyptians have toward the people of the Hebrews, he no longer understands the meaning of their presence in Egypt, and thus he creates a lot of grief for his people. The slavery of the Hebrews will become the archetype of all forms of slavery of man, be it actual servitude or inner alienation. It is this story that is recalled every year during the meal of the Seder, for Passover. During a meal, the story of the deliverance from Egypt is played out, and each participant should consider himself as if he had been personally delivered from Egypt. The Haggadah to be read during the Seder prescribes: “In every generation a person is obligated to regard himself as if he had come out of Egypt, as it is said: ‘You shall tell your child on that day, it is because of this that the Lord did for me when I left Egypt. The Holy One, blessed be He, redeemed not only our fathers from Egypt, but He redeemed also us with them, as it is said: ‘It was us that He brought out from there, so that He might bring us to give us the land that He swore to our fathers.’” During this liturgical meal, four cups of wine are drunk, each representing one stage of deliverance: « Say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will take you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians, and make you safe from their power, and will make you free by the strength of my arm after great punishments. And I will take you to be my people and I will be your God. And you will be certain that I am your God who takes you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians . And I will be your guide into the land which I made an oath to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.” (Ex 6:6-8). In fact, five cups are placed on the table of the Seder. The fifth one is that of the prophet Elijah, who is to come when everything is to be accomplished, according to the prophecy of Malachi (3,23).

This is the text that is read on the “great Shabbat”, the one that precedes the Passover. André Chouraqui, who has recently translated the Bible into French, chose to write these five verbs, which are so foundational to the history of Israel in the present tense… This detail is crucial to the understanding of the meaning of this narrative. In the Hebrew text, each of these verbs is in the past tense, but they begin with a “vav“, which can change a past tense into future, and vice-versa, a phenomenon that is specific to biblical Hebrew. Translating these verbs into present, and not into future (which is grammatically correct) wishes to say that the outing of Egypt takes place every day: I will take you at a precise moment in history, and I will continue to do so… This is the meaning given by the present tense. It is the recalling into memory, the souvenir of a past event celebrated in the liturgy, and thus made present and efficient. The people of Israel are endlessly called to remember that they have been freed from slavery and that they should live freely. This is the teaching of the whole Torah, as it is summed up in Deuteronomy, for instance : “And keep in mind the way by which the Lord your God has taken you through the waste land these forty years”… (Dt 8,2)

This memory, so often commanded to the people of Israel, is a way to actualize the covenant and the graces that are attached to it. Oblivion is a source of pain and grief, as is shown by Pharaoh, who forgot Joseph and the innumerable gifts he has made to the Egyptians as well as to the children of Israel. Shabbat shalom.