Hitzonim | Outsiders

Welcome to the new subscribers from jPK on Substack. I completed the final subscriber export today before permanently deleting that newsletter. Rest in power jPK. 💀

For those readers who are familiar with the old Sunday Posts, you’re no stranger to my 3,000 word essays replete with secondary sources, Talmudic writings, and multiple commentaries. I’m trying to write more personally here; more anecdotal; more trimmed down, with an effort to make this material accessible, interesting, at times challenging, and just long enough to be instructive but not so long that you can’t digest it in a single sitting. Let me know how I’m doing!

There is plenty to talk about in today’s parsha, Exodus 13.17-17.16. (What’s a parsha, and why am I writing about it? See last week’s post.) In this week’s assigned reading, the Israelites are out of Egypt, headed into the wilderness. We could discuss the significance of the Pillar of Cloud/Fire that led the Israelites. We could talk about how the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15) is among the oldest material in the Torah–indeed, in the entire Bible, mirroring Ugaritic texts from the Bronze Age. We could discuss the references to the sea as a call back to creation stories when Gd bested the Leviathan and tamed the seas. We could then connect that to scenes in the Christian New Testament that portray Jesus calming seas for these same connections. I wrote about just that thing last year!

We could say more about the long Priestly material, full of Sabbath guidelines (see nearly all of Exodus chapter 16), within otherwise pre-Priestly source material–most of what we’re reading in this portion is from the pre-Priestly source accounts often called J and E, Yahwist and Elohist, respectively. Those Priestly writers and their love of rite, ritual, and commandments. Hell, they are Priests, after all, what can ya do?

We could talk about manna being the basis for the Christian New Testament feeding of the multitude stories. Wouldn’t you know it that I wrote about that one too! Instead of all that, I want to talk about Moshe and his leadership. This will set us up nicely for next Thursday when we–well, the Israelites–make it to Mt. Sinai, when things really get wild.

Poor Moshe. Better known by the Greek (then English) translation of his name, Moses. Did you know Moshe means savior? Moshe wasn’t too keen on the leading liberation business, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3.11) Gd tells Moshe that his brother Aaron will help a brother out, and together they will be Gd’s emissaries to Pharaoh.

Moshe agrees to the call, with the aid of Aaron, and together, with Gd’s sort of rage farming against Pharoah, hardening Pharaoh’s heart and all so that Gd may display Gd’s glory to all of Egypt, they liberate the Israelites, only to have to put up with them in the wilderness. This is my plug to really read this week’s parsha. The literature of the Bible is truly incredible. This week’s parsha is full of intrigue, drama, and laugh out loud exasperation from Moshe. What am I to do with these people?! he cries. The people repeatedly grumbling that for thirst and want of food, life would be better back in Egypt. What an ungrateful bunch! This is what I want to talk about.

In the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Jewish leaders are never that great, and the people are always worse! I love it! Ok, well, I can say that because I’m Jewish. But the truth isn’t far off. One of the things that you’ll find throughout the Torah, but especially these pre-Priestly accounts, are that our leaders are each flawed, and the Jewish people over whom they rule are often pushy, irritable, and quick to stray from the path. I think this differs in substantive ways from Christian theology.

In Christianity, Jesus is the tops, man. Born without sin, I hear. Now this is super interesting, because JC was a Jew and all, and so his historical character is best defined by the context of Second Temple period Judaism, yet his theological import is defined by the Christian communities that developed in the wake of that. If Jesus is the sacrifice for many in Christian theology, and Christian sacrificial theology gets its start from the Jewish sacrificial system, then we need a sacrifice without blemish! You don’t bring your banged up sacrifices to Gd’s house! Shit, for a lot of first century Judeans, the only times you may ever eat meat would be during one of the Temple festivals, so it was the best of the best unblemished sacrifice that you’d bring. What I’m saying is that Jesus gets the without sin gloss to be the unblemished sacrifice, but without Christian theology, we’d be pointing out that dude’s flaws, too! Notice that the disciples are always wrong about everything–pretty Jewish!

We Jews tend to be more straight up about our leaders and each other because we’ve thrown in our lot in with each other and following the Law, and it is Gd that is in charge. Anthropomorphic and emotional on the pre-Priestly accounts and transcendent on the Priestly view.

We can be tough on Moshe because, while Gd’s favored prophet, is still only a man. He doesn’t even get to enter the land after he led us through the desert. We see a theological shift with Christianity because if the Law won’t get you where you need to go, you need a Gd like deliverance. Torah says see your own way through with this guidance. Later on in Jewish (and Christian) history, we’re on the lookout for a messiah to deliver us because apparently none of us can keep the Law. Guilty as charged. So in late 1st century and 2nd century CE apocalyptic development, you get calls for Divine intervention by way of a divinized savior. But back here in the Exodus, we don’t even have the Law yet, and poor Moshe’s about to get stoned before we do!

You’ll love what’s coming next week. One of my fav midrashes. We all have a favorite midrash, right? 😉