Scrollers preview for 1/14/12 - Parashat Shemot

Scrollers Preview
Parashat Shemot
1/14/2012
Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg

In his introduction to the book of Exodus, in the Etz Hayyim commentary, Nahum Sarna echoes the question we have been asking in Scrollers these last couple of weeks about why the Torah doesn’t describe what happened during the 400 year period in Egypt. Sarna writes: “Details relating to the period of oppression are sparse; there is not mention of the inner life and communal existence of the people. This limitation suggests a high degree of selectivity, and the intent of the selective focus is didactic. In Exodus, God is the sole actor, the initiator of events. The various episodes project Israelite concepts of God and His relations to the world.”
I wonder if the use of this number, “400” is an exaggeration of the number “40” that we see throughout the Torah. It means we were there for a very very very very long time.
But this isn’t the point, according to Sarna. For him, the book of Exodus has a “selective focus” on the role of God in history and the life of our people. For him, God is the “sole actor, the initiator of events.”
Do we agree with Sarna? As we watch God related to humans in this book, can we see any continuity with Genesis’ depiction of the divine-human relationship? In Genesis we have lots of human action and initiative – Sarah kicks Ishmael out of the camp to insure Isaac’s inheritance of the covenant. Rebekah sends Jacob in to fool his father into giving him the blessing of the first born. Human beings play a part in moving God’s plan forward.
How about in the book of Exodus? Do we agree with Sarna that God is the “sole actor, the initiator of events?” When Moses slays the taskmaster who is beating a Hebrew slave, the commentary points out that Moses takes action before God does. And throughout our parasha, women – from the Hebrew midwives to Moses’ mother, to his sister Miriam, to Pharaoh’s daughter – take plenty of initiative. They take enormous risks. Where is God in their actions? Do human being move God to act?