Parashat Shemot: When HaShem Knows

After briefly listing the sons of Jacob who moved to Egypt, Parashat Shemot quickly descends into tragedy. Joseph and his brothers die, and a new Pharaoh arises who feels that the Hebrews are becoming too numerous and hence a potential threat. So, he decides to make them slaves, apparently believing that hard labor would slow the numerical growth of the Hebrews. But he was wrong. They continued to grow, prompting Pharaoh to mandate the killing of male Hebrew babies.

It is into this context that Moses was born, a Hebrew baby who should not have lived to see his first birthday. Yet, he did live, first due to the compassion of Pharaoh’s daughter and later due to his flight from the danger of Egypt after he had killed an Egyptian for beating one of the Hebrew slaves.

The picture of the situation of the Hebrews at this point in the narrative is decidedly bleak. An all-powerful king was oppressing our ancestors with harsh labor and with the mandate to kill the male babies. Moreover, the glimmer of hope that flickered with the birth of Moses seemed to fade as he left the land and began his own family in the land of Midian. The darkness of this period for the Hebrew people was expressed in the following words from Exodus 2:23:

A long time after that, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites were groaning under the bondage and cried out; and their cry for help from the bondage rose up to God.[i]

The harsh conditions of living under slavery coupled with the ongoing threat to their children overwhelmed our ancestors. All they could do was cry out to HaShem. For a despot like Pharaoh, such desperate pleading must have seemed like dust in the wind. Pharaoh had the might of his military, while the Hebrews had no army or means to fight back. What good would prayers do in such a context? The answer is given in Exodus 2:24-25:

God heard their moaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.[ii]

There are several key verbs in this passage worth noting. The first one is “heard” (שמע). In order to hear, one has to be available and willing to receive the information being expressed. The attentiveness of HaShem to the plight of those who are hurting is indicated in numerous places throughout the Tanak, including in Genesis 21:17-19 when HaShem “heard” the crying of Ishmael and interceded by providing water for him and his mother.

The second verb is remembered (זכר). While this could imply that there was a time when HaShem forgot, a different view would be that this verb is one of emphasizing the long-term relationship between us and HaShem, a relationship involving a covenant in which HaShem made a commitment to increase our population, to protect us, and to give us the land of Canaan. By “remembering” the covenant in the context of Egyptian oppression of the Hebrews, perhaps HaShem was reminding Himself that two aspects of the covenant were in jeopardy, namely the protection of His people and the need for them to live in their own land.

The third verb “looked upon” (ראה) is like “heard” in the sense that it involves an awareness of what is occurring with the Hebrews. Yet, seeing involves gaining more information than simply hearing. If we hear a cry, we do not know exactly what is happening until we go and look at the situation. “Looking” implies investigation, and in the Torah, this occurs often within the context of judgement. For example, in Genesis 18, HaShem told Abraham that the “outcry” against Sodom and Gomorrah had come to His attention, but before rendering judgement, Hashem indicated that He would “go down” and “see” what was really happening.[iii] Similarly, in Shemot, HaShem investigated the situation involving the Hebrews and Egypt.

The fourth verb is “took notice” (ידע) which seems similar to “see”, adding little to our understanding of the passage. However, since the Hebrew word being translated as “took notice” is actually ידע , a literal translation would be “knew”. Yet, translating this verb literally as “knew” creates a bit of an interpretive issue, because there is no direct object for the verb, begging the question: God knew what? Hence, some translators attempt to clarify by translating the verb ידע as “took notice” and adding the phrase “of them” (not in the Hebrew). However, I would contend that a literal translation “and God knew” does make sense within the context of the other verbs. HaShem’s awareness of both His commitment to the Hebrews as well as His awareness of their mistreatment by the Egyptians culminates in His “knowing” what needs to be done. Enough time has passed for Egypt to stop oppressing the Hebrews. Evil has gone too far. Now HaShem “knows” it is time to take action.

History reveals that the rise of evil follows a pattern of three overlapping developments. One development is the rise of a charismatic leader who projects himself in superhuman terms, often with a cloak of spirituality wrapped around himself. The second development is that of sycophants who are eager to feed the narcissistic ego of the charismatic leader. The third development is the belief that nothing can stop the rising evil. Once the leader controls the military, demonizes the press, and is surrounded by crony politicians, then the leader appears to be untouchable. Then, the context for repression of the people within a nation has solidified. Evil builds momentum and eventually swamps the nation, inundating and polluting everything that it touches, creating a stench and stain of corruption and oppression.

But the story never ends well for leaders who attempt to surf the wave of evil. Sooner or later their falsely constructed world comes to an end, because oppressed people pray. And the Creator of the universe hears their prayer, sees their suffering, and knows how to destroy evil. Pharaoh and arrogant leaders like him are not all-powerful. That attribute only belongs to HaShem, and Parashat Shemot reminds us of this great truth.

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[i] JPS Translation.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Genesis 18:21.