Parashas Shemot
The Messiah's Women's Club
Rabbi David Katz
Parashas
Shemot is the formal introduction to Moses after a successful build up throughout
the entire Book of Genesis. Yet the most compelling part of Moses' character
and subsequent development, might strike one as the most elusive secret has
ever told –it may even begin to decipher as to why he in fact did hit the
infamous rock, on his way to Israeli – expulsion, keeping resonance with the
Torah's narrative and theme in repairing Adam, who suffered a similar fate. So
what is it that Adam and Moses share in a most profound way? If we look to
Adam's fateful day, we can remember that he looked to call Eve [his better
half] "The Mother of all Life" (חוה)
and that is just it – for as much as Eve defines Adam and all of Life, it is the
women within the Life of Moses, that shape his destiny as the paradigm
redeemer. Moses' greatness in historic proportion, and his ability to attain to
the highest heights of Understanding [symbolized his ascension of the Mt. to
gaze upon the Land, along with the rabbinic tradition that Moses gained the
elusive 50th Gate of Understanding, expressing that he actually
existed in the Land of Israel already, that which is on High] was a direct
result of his surroundings – that of the Joy [Hedva] of Torah, or in other
words, the "Mother of the Messiah [as the Zohar states] - "The Ger Tzedek [non-Jewish convert]
Women." There may not be a greater secret within the Torah as this, for as
much as the women ushered in the first Redemption from slavery, the Women of
the entire World [Gerim and Jewish] shall conspire again against tyranny in the
End of Days, and secure eternal Liberation and Salvation.
In
a short span of "page time" in Shemot, we quickly find ourselves
familiar with Moses, and his four most essential [Ger -] women in Miriam
[sister], Yocheved [mother], Batyah [daughter of Pharaoh – surrogate mother],
and Tzipporah [wife, daughter of Jethro, and as the Midrash states, a spiritual
twin sister to Batyah]. To make the linear progression clear, Moses was born to
Yocheved, and was hid and nursed with the help of his sister Miriam until three
months of age in seclusion had passed. The women of the House of Levi [Moses
was a Levite, and his father, mother, and sister each established a house, in
Priest, Levite, and Kingship] placed Moses in the Nile to see what would become
of him, due to the oppression of Pharaoh, which led to his discovery by Batyah
[Pharaoh's daughter]. Batyah desired to raise Moses in royalty, and commenced
as such with full cooperation with Moses' family. At this point Moses would
grow up under these terms, live a life of a Man discovering God, which properly
found him contemplating God's ways upon a well in Midian. From there Moses
arose to the challenge vested within his future wife and family in Tzippora,
the daughter of the Midianite Priest / Pharaoh's advisor – Jethro.
Jethro
and Moses would quickly become the best of mates, developing "Ger
Theory" [and Torah revelation, for Jethro was a great inspiration to Moses,
and vice versa] while at the same time Moses' love for Tzippora would erupt and
culminate with the birth of their two young men Eliezer and Gershom. From the
House of Jethro, Moses would be called to meet God at Sinai, and receive
command to redeem Israel from Egyptian bondage. All would go moderately well
[aside form Moses' shock to happen upon God, where he refused to gaze at the
intensity of God – for better or worse] for Moses and his new task; soon he
would find himself put into motion, and he sought to bring his wife and
children along for the Divine Mission that he was now in charge of. Yet before we meet up with Moses and his wife
Tzippora on their journey into exile's land, it is most appropriate to reveal
the first part of the saga of Moses, one dominated by women. Women will become
a sort of definition for Moses, and a key to the future final redemption, one
that his soul is heavily involved in, to which Messiah is called "Nishmat
Moshe / Moshe Moshiach." [The soul of Moses / Moses – Messiah]
If
Moses found God in the burning bush, then this was certainly a message for
Moses' soul!
Just as the fire burned yet did not consume the material, Moses'
life was the proverbial matter amidst the flames [Moses' allusion in the Torah (Genesis
6:3) suggests this point – Rashi]; the reality of this was seen that Moses
could handle the wrath of God and the wrath of Israel and Gerim. Moses was able
to withstand the pressures of Life and Torah through his upbringing and
association with women; more specifically Ger Tzedek women…and dare I say Ger
Tzedek, God Fearing – Levite women. [Levites are historically known to contain
the passion for God; and God Servant according to the Rambam is called a
Levite] Moses was destined to stand in the fire and not be consumed, and this
could easily define his entire existence. For that which is termed
"Nishmat Moshe" [soul of Moses] and is synonymous with the Tree of
Life above, we now have an idea how to envision the Cherubim of which take hold
of the flame of the sword that turns! …and when Moses was born, they saw that
he was Good; Moses was born circumcised, and was thus thought to be the
prophesied redeemer due to his radiance and apparent exalted stature.
Yocheved
gave birth to Moses after her husband Amram returned to his wife, no longer in
fear of Pharaoh's threat to slaughter new born males; this was a result of the
piercing wisdom of Miriam, sister of Moses, who was herself a keen prophetess.
The Hebrew women were different than the Egyptian women, for they performed
miraculous pregnancy and delivery, took the risk of ritual bath [which became a
custom in Egypt, to the dismay of the dignitaries of the land], and as we shall
see with Moses, the women were versed in the art of circumcision. [A practice
that was even among the Egyptians due to Joseph incorporating the act in his
day as a tool to ease the pending exile] Moses would ultimately spend three
sacred and holy months with his mother and sister in seclusion [for he was born
three months ahead of schedule], and although knowledge of exact details are
scant of the nature of his upbringing [even as a baby Moses had a profound
awareness that was likened to a youth], the Midrash [along with Torah
definition of the art of nursing, to which this was a mark of distinction by
Moses, for his mouth would speak with The Creator – that which was pure from
its inception] details that Moses' time with Yocheved was so profound on a soul
level, Moses never lost his identity. Yocheved, the Levite, successfully lit the
fire known as Moses, a fire that never found darkness; on the contrary, Moses'
face would eventually glow with the fire of his youth.
Yocheved
and Miriam kept their promise to Batyah, and after three months and Batyah's
finding of Moses which led to the hire of Yocheved to raise Moses further,
Batyah the Ger Tzedek [as evidenced by her Mikvah] received Moses, and brought
him into the fires of Egypt. The Zohar proclaims that Batyah [on of the
righteous who walked into the Garden of Eden while alive] represents harsh judgments
of soul. This is the DNA of a righteous woman, and Batyah not only named Moses
thus defining his existence and the Torah through her prophetic action, but she
shaped Moses into the man that he was destined to become, both to God, and to
his future wife; all the while sanctifying the opening efforts of the righteous
Yocheved, wife of Amram the Levite. Moses would soon be ready to meet his match
in his chance meeting with daughters of Jethro.
Moses
quickly fell in love with Tzippora, Jethro's daughter, and her remaining role
within the Torah comes across as largely irrelevant, and even to a point of
gross disrespect, for Moses eventually and suddenly divorces her, upon which we
will eventually meet Miriam in full detail over this matter, as she contests
Moses in a most compelling fashion. Once the Torah moves towards its end game
and Moses' exile / hitting the rock, the episodes known with Tzippora, his
righteous Ger Tzedek – Levite – like bride, will provide the inside track as to
who she was, and more importantly what he role was to Moses, the man who
withstood the fire.
Quickly
after Moses takes command of the journey ahead of him to Egypt to redeem
Israel, Moses saddles up his youth and wife, and thinks to commence on his way.
The Midrash informs us that he and Jethro had a Torah debate as to the nature
of the circumcision needed [or not needed] for his two young men; the point of
contention is what is perhaps the Torah's biggest conundrum that exists –
"the status of a child born of a Jewish man and a Ger Tzedek woman" –
for Moses was destined to stand at Sinai, while Tzippora sought to be strangely
absent. All throughout the Torah's Messianic characters, this theme plays out
accordingly with such luminaries as Moses, Joshua, Pinchas, David, etc. The
relationship between Gerim and Jews has always baffled the mind, enticed souls,
and even has served as the impetus of frustrated outburst of anti-Semitism [on
both sides]; The Ger Tzedek is simply the greatest riddle ever told, and any
offshoot of it has baffled every mind that has come upon it. This is the arena
of Jethro and Moses concerning circumcision, and now there is an audience –
Hashem Himself, and Moses was destined to meet up with his odd fate.
The
Torah states that God sought to kill Moses over his delaying to circumcise his
son; Moses was in doubt and confusion over the matter, and not surprisingly,
his blunder put his life in danger with an attack of the evil inclination who
overstepped his boundary as the angel of death by God's command. Moses and
Tzippora would commence to argue in an out of character expression of anger,
leading Moses halfway to his demise, before Tzippora would perform one of the
greatest actions in history. She blazed over Moses, reducing him to ashes of a
proverbial Red Heifer, for she understood the Mazal of her name: Tzippora
contains the two words within it "rock" and Mouth"; she know
knew her role of destiny, and acted as a savior to the soul of Moses.
Tzippora
understood that this was a matter of circumcision as an action of representing
the entire Torah, and that Hashem was judging Moses according to this principle.
By Tzippora circumcising her son while Moses was overcome by a state of
confused anger, she saved not only her son and Moses, but avoided a desecration
of God, thereby saving the whole Torah in a way that Eve did before Adam,
through the performance of tremendous "Binah" – the power of
understanding within the soul of every woman. As soon as she knew and saw, she
quickly grabbed a rock to perform not only the cut itself, for the salvation
came within the awareness that she had to perform an entire and complete mini
ritual to the Torah standard of the mitzvah as well.
One would think that this
also was enough to satisfy God, yet the most daring leg of the micro journey
was yet ahead, and due to the dangers of the action, the child [as with every
child] would need sterilization to survive. It is precisely here that the
mention of "mouth" within her name would manifest, and Tzippora
completed one of the most profound actions in history, by orally sanitizing the
young child, according to Torah law, and in accordance to the way the mitzvah
has been done from the days of Abraham until this very day. In victory and
salvation of Moses, Tzippora "reached the blood to his feet, and said, my
husband's blood was because of circumcision." Tzippora withstood God, Moses, and the baby's
blood, and sanctified herself in accordance with Yocheved and Batyah before
her, entering her into a proper sisterhood of Righteous Ger Women in the
Torah's illustrious motherhood.
Tzippora
may have saved Moses, and merited to bring him to that final level of fire
capacity to withstand the fire of Sinai, but it did not come without a paying a
price. Moses received the Torah and Tzippora was not there to see it; he would
achieve greatness and understanding, yet he would not merit containing the fire
that became of Tzippora and the imposed definition within him of the state of
the Ger tzedek. Later in the Torah, Moses divorced Tzippora, and he remained
exiled from Israel and building the Temple due to his shortcomings. A
opportunity arrived later to wed the daughters of Tzlafchad who had inherited
land in Israel, but Moses chose to reveal the Torah of the women, this time
from the side of the Get – the divorce contract. This is where Moses met the
Messiah within him in Miriam.
Miriam
and Aaron spoke poorly of Moses over the matter of the divorce, and although
Miriam would receive "the spit in the face by God" [showing the
severity of the matter, and reinforcing that Miriam was a prophet in her own
right] by rebuking Moses, she did ignite the final flame in Moses. Miriam was
right in that she knew that Moses wrong to divorce Tzippora over matters such as
the status of the Ger Tzeddek in Am Yisrael. Yet Moses could only go so far at
this time, he was reduced to ashes [even literally over the exile from the land]
and the fiery sting of Miriam was all that Moses could take. He achieved his
understanding, but he would have to wait for his prophetic return to enter the
land, as the Torah states in regards to the soul of Moses, "then Moses
will sing" [the Torah's hidden wisdom, i.e. Binah / understanding – Zohar]
Moses
is said to be a part of the Messiah team, one that is invested as Messiah sons
of Joseph and David, to which his soul is enjoyed within this task. It is on
this point, that the Zohar says that Messiah rests in the Birds Nest Above
[etymology is as Tzippora – Kan Tzippor] to which the Zohar says the souls of
the Righteous Ger Tzedek Women Above nurture the Messiah in the location of the
Soul of Moses, and this nurturing is called, "the mother of the
Messiah."
Suffice
it to say, the Temple and the Messianic redemption is slated to descend built from
Above amidst the great fire that will wipe away evil. It shall be the presence
of the "map" in place of the territory that held back the redemption;
but the cooperation of the World's righteous women culminating in the End of Days
that will provide the fire to destroy the way people thought in exile that led
to our proverbial exiles and even demise of Moses over matters of the heart.
When we begin to realize how the Torah thinks instead of
baselessly asking why and what does the Torah think of things, then and only
then will the territory of Hedvah – supreme joy "fun" of the Torah
reveal itself, invested within the hearts and smiles of the world's redeemed women.
The final showdown in history led by Moses Messiah and his song of wisdom,
shall finally express the Mother of all Living, Eve as she was, expressed among
the sacred Jewish women, …and with Gerim who hold with one hand, and like
Miriam, contain the drum in the other, who simply did what Adam and Moses
simply could not do: be themselves.
Like
the fire of Tamar and the passion of Ruth, were they out of line, or just
buring the fire of the Ger, "singing the song while understanding the
lyrics."
Class Thurs. Dec. 26th 11 P.M. Tzfat Time
