Shemot (parsha)

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Shemot, Shemoth, or Shemos (שמות — Hebrew for “names,” the second word, and first distinctive word, of the parshah) is the thirteenth weekly parshah or portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the first in the book of Exodus. It constitutes Exodus 1:1–6:1. Jews in the Diaspora read it the thirteenth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in late December or January.

Pharaoh's daughter finds Moses in the Nile (painting by Edwin Long)

[edit] Summary

[edit] Affliction in Egypt

Seventy descendants of Jacob came down to Egypt, and the Israelites were fruitful and filled the land. (Ex. 1:1–7.) Joseph and all of his generation died, and a new Pharaoh arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. (Ex. 1:6–8.) He told his people that the Israelites had become too numerous and required shrewd dealing, lest they multiply and in a war join Egypt’s enemies. (Ex. 1:9–10.) Therefore the Egyptians set taskmasters over the Israelites to afflict them with burdens — and the Israelites built store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses — but the more that the Egyptians afflicted them, the more that they multiplied. (Ex. 1:11–12.) The Egyptians embittered the Israelites’ lives with hard service in brick and mortar and in the field. (Ex. 1:14.)

Pharaoh told the Hebrew midwives, who were named Shiphrah and Puah, that when they delivered Hebrew women, they were to kill the sons, but let the daughters live. (Ex. 1:15–16.) But the midwives feared God, and disobeyed Pharaoh, saving the baby boys. (Ex. 1:17.) Pharaoh asked the midwives why they had saved the boys, and the midwives told Pharaoh that the Hebrew women were more vigorous than the Egyptian women and delivered before a midwife could get to them. (Ex. 1:18–19.) God rewarded the midwives because they feared God, and God made them houses. (Ex. 1:20–21.) The Israelites continued to multiply, and Pharaoh charged all his people to cast every newborn boy into the river, leaving the girls alive. (Ex. 1:21–22.)

Discovery of Moses (painting by Tintoretto)

[edit] Baby Moses

A Levite couple had a baby boy, and the woman hid him three months. (Ex. 2:1–2.) When she could not longer hide him, she made an ark of bulrushes, daubed it with slime and pitch, put the boy inside, and laid it in river. (Ex. 2:3.) As his sister watched, Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe in the river, saw the ark, and sent her handmaid to fetch it. (Ex. 2:4–5.) She opened it, saw the crying boy, and had compassion on him, recognizing that he was one of the Hebrew children. (Ex. 2:6.)

Moses before the Daughter of the Pharaoh (painting by William Hogarth)

His sister asked Pharaoh's daughter whether she should call a nurse from the Hebrew women, and Pharaoh's daughter agreed. (Ex. 2:7.) The girl called the child's mother, and Pharaoh's daughter hired her to nurse the child for her. (Ex. 2:8–9.) When the child grew, his mother brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him as her son, calling him Moses, because she drew him out of the water. (Ex. 2:10.)

When Moses grew up, he went to his brethren and saw their burdens. (Ex. 2:11.) He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, he looked this way and that, and when he saw no one, he struck the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. (Ex. 2:11–12.) When he went out the second day, he came upon two Hebrew men fighting, and he asked the wrongdoer why he struck his fellow. (Ex. 2:13.) The man asked Moses who had made him king, asking him whether he intended to kill him as he did the Egyptian, so Moses realized that his deed was known. (Ex. 2:14.) When Pharaoh heard, he sought to kill Moses, but Moses fled to Midian, where he sat down by a well. (Ex. 2:15.)

Moses Defends Jethro’s Daughters (painting by Giovanni Battista di Jacopo di Gaspare)

[edit] Moses in Midian

The priest of Midian’s seven daughters had come to water their father's flock, but shepherds drove them away. (Ex. 2:16–17.) Moses stood up and helped the daughters, and watered their flock. (Ex. 2:17.) When they came home to their father Reuel, he asked how they were able to come home so early, and they explained how an Egyptian had delivered them from the shepherds, and had also drawn water for the flock. (Ex. 2:18–19.) Reuel then asked his daughters why they had left the man there, and told them to call him back to join them for a meal. (Ex. 2:20.)

Moses and Jethro (painting by Jan Victors)

Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah to marry. (Ex. 2:21.) Moses and Zipporah had a baby boy, whom Moses called Gershom, saying that he had been a stranger in a strange land. (Ex. 2:22.)

[edit] The calling of Moses

The Pharaoh died, and the Israelites groaned under their bondage and cried to God, and God heard them and remembered God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Ex. 2:23–25.)

When Moses was keeping his father-in-law Jethro’s flock at the mountain of God, Horeb (another name for the Biblical Mount Sinai), the angel of God appeared to him in a flame in the midst of a bush that burned but was not consumed. (Ex. 3:1–2.) God called to Moses from the bush, and Moses answered: “Here I am.” (Ex. 3:4.) God told Moses not to draw near, and to take off his shoes, for the place on which he stood was holy ground. (Ex. 3:5.) God identified as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, reported having seen the Israelites’ affliction and heard their cry, and promised to deliver them from Egypt to Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. (Ex. 3:6–8.) God told Moses that God was sending Moses to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, but Moses asked who he was that he should do so. (Ex. 3:10–11.) God told Moses that God would be with him, and after he brought them out of Egypt, he would serve God on that mountain. (Ex. 3:12.)

Moses asked God whom he should say sent him to the Israelites, and God said “I Will Be What I Will Be” (Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh), and told Moses to tell the Israelites that “I Will Be” (Ehyeh) sent him. (Ex. 3:13–14.) God told Moses to tell the Israelites that the Lord (YHVH), the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had sent him, and this would be God’s Name forever. (Ex. 3:15.) God directed Moses to tell Israel’s elders what God had promised, and predicted that they would heed Moses and go with him to tell Pharaoh that God had met with them and request that Pharaoh allow them to go three days' journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to God. (Ex. 3:16–18.) God knew that Pharaoh would not let them go unless forced by a mighty hand, so God would strike Egypt with wonders, and then Pharaoh would let them go. (Ex. 3:19–20.) God would make the Egyptians view the Israelites favorably, so that the Israelites would not leave empty handed, but every woman would ask her neighbor for jewels and clothing and the Israelites would strip the Egyptians. (Ex. 3:21–22.)

Moses predicted that they would not believe him, so God told him to cast his rod on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from it. (Ex. 4:1–3.) God told Moses to take it by the tail, he did so, and it became a rod again. (Ex. 4:4.) God explained that this was so that they might believe that God had appeared to Moses. (Ex. 4:5.) Then God told Moses to put his hand into his bosom, he did, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. (Ex. 4:6.) God told him to put his hand back into his bosom, he did, and when he took it out, it had returned to normal. (Ex. 4:7.) God predicted that if they would not heed the first sign, then they would believe the second sign, and if they would not believe those two signs, then Moses was to take water from the river and pour it on the land, and the water would become blood. (Ex. 4:8–9.) Moses protested that he was not a man of words but was slow of speech, but God asked him who had made man's mouth, so Moses should go, and God would teach him what to say. (Ex. 4:10–12.) Moses pleaded with God to send someone else, and God became angry with Moses. (Ex. 4:13–14.) God said that Moses’ well-spoken brother Aaron was coming to meet him, Moses would tell him the words that God would teach them, he would be Moses’ spokesman, and Moses would be like God to him. (Ex. 4:14–16.)

Moses returned to Jethro and asked him to let him return to Egypt, and Jethro bade him to go in peace. (Ex. 4:18.) God told Moses that he could return, for all the men who sought to kill him were dead. (Ex. 4:19.) Moses took his wife and sons and the rod of God and returned to Egypt. (Ex. 4:20.) God told Moses to be sure to perform for Pharaoh all the wonders that God had put in his hand, but God would harden his heart, and he would not let the people go. (Ex. 4:21.) And Moses was to tell Pharaoh that Israel was God’s firstborn son, and Pharaoh was to let God’s son go to serve God, and should he refuse, God would kill Pharaoh’s firstborn son. (Ex. 4:22–23.)

[edit] Circumcision on the way

At the lodging-place along the way, God sought to kill him. (Ex. 4:24.) Then Zipporah took a flint and circumcised her son, and touched his legs with it, saying that he was a bridegroom of blood to her, so God let him alone. (Ex. 4:25–26.)

[edit] Meeting the elders

God told Aaron to go to the wilderness to meet Moses, and he went, met him at the mountain of God, and kissed him. (Ex. 4:27.) Moses told him all that God had said, and they gathered the Israelite elders and Aaron told them what God had said and performed the signs. (Ex. 4:28–30.) The people believed, and when they heard that God had remembered them and seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshipped. (Ex. 4:31.)

[edit] Moses before Pharaoh

Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh that God said to let God’s people go so that they might hold a feast to God in the wilderness, but Pharaoh asked who God was that he should let Israel go. (Ex. 5:1–2.) They said that God had met with them, and asked Pharaoh to let them go three days into the wilderness and sacrifice to God, lest God fall upon them with pestilence or the sword. (Ex. 5:3.) Pharaoh asked them why they caused the people to rest from their work, and commanded that the taskmasters lay heavier work on them and no longer give them straw to make brick but force them to go and gather straw for themselves to make the same quota of bricks. (Ex. 5:4–11.) The people scattered to gather straw, and the taskmasters beat the Israelite officers, asking why they had not fulfilled the quota of brick production as before. (Ex. 5:12–14.) The Israelites cried to Pharaoh, asking why he dealt so harshly with his servants, but he said that they were idle if they had time to ask to go and sacrifice to God. (Ex. 5:15–19.) So the officers met Moses and Aaron as they came from meeting Pharaoh and accused them of making the Israelites to smell to Pharaoh and his servants and to give them a weapon to kill the people. (Ex. 5:20–21.) Moses asked God why God had dealt so ill with the people and why God had sent him, for since he came to Pharaoh to speak in God’s name, he had dealt ill with the people, and God had not delivered the people. (Ex. 5:22–23.) And God told Moses that now he would see what God would do to Pharaoh, for by a strong hand would he let the people go, and by a strong hand would he drive them out of his land. (Ex. 6:1.)

[edit] In classical Rabbinic interpretation

[edit] Exodus chapter 1

The Tosefta deduced from Exodus 1:7 that so long as Joseph and his brothers were alive, the Israelites enjoyed greatness and honor, but after Joseph died (as reported in Exodus 1:6), a new Pharaoh arose who took counsel against the Israelites (as reported in Exodus 1:8–10). (Tosefta Sotah 10:10.)

The Tosefta deduced from Exodus 1:8 that Pharaoh began to sin first before the people, and thus God struck him first, but the rest did not escape. (Tosefta Sotah 4:12.)

The Tosefta deduced from Exodus 1:22 that the Egyptians took pride before God only on account of the water of the Nile, and thus God exacted punishment from them only by water when in Exodus 15:4 God cast Pharaoh’s chariots and army into the Reed Sea. (Tosefta Sotah 3:13.)

[edit] Exodus chapter 2

The Mishnah cited Exodus 2:4 for the proposition that Providence treats a person measure for measure as that person treats others. And so because, as Exodus 2:4 relates, Miriam waited for the baby Moses, so the Israelites waited seven days for her in the wilderness in Numbers 12:15. (Mishnah Sotah 1:7–9.)

Rabbi Judan said in the name of Rabbi Isaac that God saved Moses from Pharaoh’s sword. Reading Exodus 2:15, Rabbi Yannai asked whether it was possible for a person of flesh and blood to escape from a government. Rather, Rabbi Yannai said that Pharaoh caught Moses and sentenced him to be beheaded. Just as the executioner brought down his sword, Moses’ neck became like an ivory tower (as described in Song 7:5) and broke the sword. Rebbi said in the name of Rabbi Evyasar that the sword flew off of Moses’ neck and killed the executioner. The Gemara cited Exodus 18:4 to support this deduction, reading the words “and delivered me” as superfluous unless they were necessary to show that God saved Moses but not the executioner. Rabbi Berechyah cited the executioner’s fate as an application of the proposition of Proverbs 21:8 that a wicked ransoms a righteous one, and Rabbi Avun cited it for the same proposition applying Proverbs 11:18. In a second explanation of how Moses escaped, Bar Kappara taught a baraita that an angel came down from heaven in the likeness of Moses, they seized the angel, and Moses escaped. In a third explanation of how Moses escaped, Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said that when Moses fled from Pharaoh, God incapacitated Pharaoh’s people by making some of them mute, some of them deaf, and some of them blind. When Pharaoh asked where Moses was, the mutes could not reply, the deaf could not hear, and the blind could not see. And it was this event to which God referred in Exodus 4:11 when God asked Moses who made men mute or deaf or blind. (Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 87a.)

[edit] Exodus chapter 3

The Tosefta equated God’s visitation with God’s remembrance in verses such as Exodus 3:16. (Tosefta Rosh Hashanah 2:13.)

[edit] Exodus chapter 4

The Mishnah counted the miraculous rod of Exodus 4:2–5,17 among ten things that God created at twilight at the end of the sixth day of creation. (Mishnah Avot 5:6.)

[edit] Exodus chapter 5

While the House of Shammai argued that the requirement for the appearance offering was greater than that for the festival offering, the House of Hillel cited Exodus 5:1 to show that the festival offering applied both before and after the revelation at Mount Sinai, and thus its requirement was greater than that for the appearance offering. (Tosefta Chagigah 1:4.)

The Pharisees noted that while in Exodus 5:2 Pharaoh asked who God was, once God had smitten him, in Exodus 9:27 Pharaoh acknowledged that God was righteous. Citing this juxtaposition, the Pharisees complained against heretics who placed the name of earthly rulers above the name of God. (Mishnah Yadayim 4:8.)

[edit] Commandments

According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are no commandments in the parshah. (See, e.g., Maimonides. The Commandments: Sefer Ha-Mitzvoth of Maimonides. Translated by Charles B. Chavel, 2 vols. London: Soncino Press, 1967. ISBN 0-900689-71-4. Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, vol. 1, 93. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1991. ISBN 0-87306-179-9.)

[edit] Haftarah

Isaiah (painting by Michelangelo)

Jeremiah (painting by Michelangelo)

The haftarah for the parshah is:

for Ashkenazi Jews: Isaiah 27:6–28:13 & 29:22–23
for Sephardi Jews: Jeremiah 1:1–2:3

[edit] Ashkenazi — Isaiah 27

The parshah and haftarah in Isaiah 27 both address how Israel could prepare for God’s deliverance. Rashi in his commentary on Isaiah 27:6–8 drew connections between the fruitfulness of Isaiah 27:6 and Exodus 1:4, between the killings of Isaiah 27:7 and God’s slaying of Pharaoh’s people in, e.g., Exodus 12:29, and between the winds of Isaiah 27:8 and those that drove the Reed Sea in Exodus 14:21.

[edit] Sephardi — Jeremiah 1

The parshah and haftarah in Jeremiah 1 both report the commissioning of a prophet, Moses in the parshah and Jeremiah in the haftarah. In both the parshah and the haftarah, God calls to the prophet (Ex. 3:4; Jer. 1:4–5), the prophet resists, citing his lack of capacity (Ex. 3:11; Jer. 1:6), but God encourages the prophet and promises to be with him. (Ex. 3:12; Jer. 1:7–8.)

[edit] The Weekly Maqam

In the Weekly Maqam, Sephardic Jews each week base the songs of the services on the content of that week's parshah. For Parshah Shemot, Sephardic Jews apply Maqam Rast, the maqam that shows a beginning or an initiation of something. In this case it is appropriate because we are initiating the Book of Exodus.

[edit] Further reading

The parshah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:

Satire of Trades. Papyrus Sallier II, column VI, lines 1-3 Middle Kingdom Egypt. (life of bricklayers).
The Legend of Sargon. Assyria, 7th century B.C.E. Reprinted in e.g. James B. Pritchard. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 119. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969. ISBN 0691035032. (child upon the water).
Genesis 15:13–16 (sojourn in Egypt); 17:7–14 (circumcision); 24:10–28 (courtship at the well); 29:1–12 (courtship at the well).
Exodus 7:3; 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8 (hardening Pharaoh’s heart).
Deuteronomy 2:30 (hardening of heart); 15:7 (hardening of heart); 33:16 (bush).
Joshua 11:20 (hardening of heart).
Job 38–39 (God asking who created the world).
Hebrews 11:23-27. Late 1st Century.
Matthew 2:16–18. Late 1st Century. (slaughter of the innocents).
Romans 9:14–18. 1st Century. (hardening Pharaoh’s heart).
2 Timothy 3:8–9. Rome, 67 C.E. (magicians opposing Moses).
Revelation 17:17. Late 1st Century. (changing hearts to God’s purpose).
Josephus. Antiquities of the Jews 2:9:1–2:13:4. Circa 93–94. Reprinted in, e.g., The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Edition. Translated by William Whiston, 66–73. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Pub., 1987. ISBN 0-913573-86-8.
Mishnah: Sotah 1:9; Avot 5:6; Yadayim 4:8. 3rd Century. Reprinted in, e.g., The Mishnah: A New Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 449, 686, 1131. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-05022-4.
Tosefta: Rosh Hashanah 2:13; Chagigah 1:4; Sotah 3:13, 4:12, 10:10. 3rd–4th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., The Tosefta: Translated from the Hebrew, with a New Introduction. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 615, 665, 841, 848, 877. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Pub., 2002. ISBN 1-56563-642-2.
Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 87a. 4th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Yerushalmi: Tractate Berachos. Edited by Chaim Malinowitz, Yisroel Simcha Schorr, and Mordechai Marcus, vol. 2. Brooklyn: Mesorah Pubs., 2006. ISBN 1-4226-0235-4.
Babylonian Talmud: Berakhot 7a, 55a; Eruvin 53a; Pesachim 39a, 116b; Sotah 11a–13a, 35a, 36b; Kiddushin 13a; Bava Batra 120a; Sanhedrin 101b, 106a; Chullin 92a, 127a. Babylonia, 6th Century.
Qur'an 20:9–48; 26:10–29; 27:7–12; 28:3–35; 79:15–19. Arabia, 7th Century.
Exodus Rabbah 1:1–5:23.
Rashi on Exodus 1–6. Troyes, France, late 11th Century.
Zohar 2:2a–22a. Spain, late 13th Century.
Niccolò Machiavelli. The Prince, ch. 6. Florence, Italy, 1532.
Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan, part 3, ch. 36. England, 1651. Reprint edited by C. B. Macpherson, 456, 460. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Classics, 1982. ISBN 0140431950.
Sigmund Freud. Moses and Monotheism. 1939. Reprint, New York: Vintage, 1967. ISBN 0-394-70014-7.
Thomas Mann. Joseph and His Brothers. Translated by John E. Woods, 101, 492–93. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-4001-9. Originally published as Joseph und seine Brüder. Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer Verlag, 1943.
Thomas Mann. "Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me." In The Ten Commandments, 3-70. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1943.
Sholem Asch. Moses. New York: Putam, 1951. ISBN 999740629X.
Martin Buber. Moses: The Revelation and the Covenant. New York: Harper, 1958. Reprint, Humanity Books, 1988. ISBN 1573924490.
A. M. Klein. “The Bitter Dish.” In The Collected Poems of A. M. Klein, 144. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1974. ISBN 0-07-077625-3.
David Daiches. Moses: The Man and his Vision. New York: Praeger, 1975. ISBN 0-275-33740-5.
Elie Wiesel. “Moses: Portrait of a Leader.” In Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits & Legends, 174–210. New York: Random House, 1976. ISBN 0-394-49740-6.
Jan Assmann. Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism. Harvard University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-674-58738-3.
Orson Scott Card. Stone Tables. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1998. ISBN 1-57345-115-0.
Jonathan Kirsch. Moses: A Life. New York: Ballantine, 1998. ISBN 0-345-41269-9.
Brenda Ray. The Midwife's Song: A Story of Moses' Birth. Port St. Joe, Fla.: Karmichael Press, 2000. ISBN 0965396681.
Marek Halter. Zipporah, Wife of Moses. New York: Crown, 2005. ISBN 1400052793.