(4) When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him out of the bush: “Moses! Moses!” He answered, “Here I am.”
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This analysis
was developed by Rabbi Alex Israel of the Pardes Institute. I have attempted to adapt it to meet my
understanding of the text materials and relate it to my views about “seeing.”
As the wife
of an optometrist, I hear a lot about vision.
I hear stories about anonymous individuals who can and can’t see 20/20,
who have or don’t have perfect sight. So
thinking about seeing is not unusual within the context of my home. Nor is it, as I have learned this week,
unusual within the context of this week’s parasha, Shemot.
Today we’re
going to look at a quality that marked Moshe for success as Israel’s most
prominent leader of all times….his ability to see.
But before
we begin looking at Moshe, we’re going to take a look at his two mothers, his
birth-mother, Yocheved, and his adoptive mother, Pharoah’s daughter. Each one of them saw Moshe and responded to
him when he was an infant.
(Exodus
2:2) What was the good that Yocheved saw
in her infant son? Don’t all mother’s
look at their newborn infants and feel love for them? Rabbi Alex Israel analyzed the goodness that
Yocheved saw in the following manner: “We might suggest that in bleak times,
when children were being slaughtered, she believed that this child had a
future, that this boy would indeed survive. She exhibited a particular faith
and a steadfast determination to ensure that this child would have a future.
Could this “vision” not have had a deep influence upon Moshe?” Yocheved not only saw the goodness in her
son, she acted to preserve that goodness.
(Exodus
2:5-6) The second woman who saw Moshe
and acted was the Pharoah’s daughter.
This “seer” knows that if she does not respond to the cries of the
little one in the basket, she will be partaking in the genocide her own father
has dictated for the infant Hebrew boys.
“Her seeing is indicative of her humanity, her moral activism, and her
willingness to pay a high personal price for her compassion. Again, how could
this woman’s “vision” not affect and influence Moshe!” (Alex Israel)
We know that
Moshe grew up in the house of Pharoah’s daughter and that once again seeing
will play a vital part of his future.
(Exodus 2:11-12) Moshe sees the task master beating the Hebrew
slave. What were his options at that
point? He could have seen and walked
away or he could have seen and responded.
We know that he responded. How
many of us would have responded in a similar situation? How many of us would have been willing to
intervene in such a situation and not remain a dispassionate spectator? What do you think is the “natural” human
response when seeing another individual suffering at the hands of another human
being? Does seeing always guarantee a response on our part? For Moses, seeing elicited empathy and
outrage and that emotional response elicited a call to action for him.
As we move
into chapter 3 of Exodus, the idea of “seeing” turns up again in relationship
to Moses’ encounter with the Burning Bush.
(Exodus 3:3-4)
Obviously
Moses is in tune with his environment.
He takes the time to look at the marvelous sight of the burning
bush. I imagine it would be possible to
be in nature and miss a marvelous sight or not take time to turn aside and look
at it closer. (I did that once in the
Panama rainforest where I completely missed the leaf cutter ants carrying
leaves on their backs until my 3 year-old granddaughter pointed them out to
me). Perhaps an individual is so focused on where they’ve been or where they
are going that they are unable to focus on what is actually taking place in the
here and now. Often, we don’t even
consider slowing down to “turn aside and look” harder at something in our
environment no matter how compelling it is for us to see it.
Perhaps it
is Moses’ ability to focus on the bush that makes G-d notice him as well. Moses was drawn to this supernatural
occurrence and G-d was drawn to the fact that Moses had actually turned aside
to look at the bush.
Seeing is so
much more than having visual acuity.
Seeing is a matter of being in touch with one’s surroundings, taking the
time to notice that there are occurrences which require one’s action. Seeing is not a positive if it does not
elicit a response from the beholder.
Feeling another’s pain based on what one sees is a starting point but it
is not the response needed for creating a more just world. It is
also not the response required of a true leader.
Our eyes help
give us a perspective on life. They
register what is in our environment, but unless their message registers in our
soul we will not react. Moshe was blessed to have two mothers who not only saw
him but reacted in a righteous way to save his life. He himself used his gift of sight to see
beyond himself. He saw injustice and
reacted, he saw a connection with the Divine and did not hide, he answered as
did his forefather, Avraham, HINEINI, Here I am. That is why Moshe came to be known as one of
Israel’s greatest leaders. He used sight
to see beyond himself.
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