va’eira

and I appeared

Moshe is stoked. He's encountered God! And God has given him a mission.

A 2007 survey showed that only 7% of Americans can name the first four presidents. We’re talking about people who were born here and went to school here.

The Israelites had been living in the midst of Egyptian culture and its pantheon of gods for several generations. They were slaves. Their lives were brutal, with no time for leisure—it’s conceivable that many of them had no clue about the covenant between their ancestor Abraham and his God. Their day-to-day misery was their reality, not some long-forgotten promise of a god who claimed to be the only God.

Moshe knew this. He was pretty sure the Israelites wouldn't take him seriously, and so at first, he was reluctant to accept the charge. He knew that the first question they'd ask is, "which god is this?"

But God had pressed him and now he was totally onboard.

And so, Moshe left the land of Midian, where he’d been a shepherd for his father in law, and returned to his homeland and to his people.

I say, “his people,” but were they, really? They probably wouldn’t have considered him to be one of them. He'd grown up in the palace, in the court of Pharaoh. And, I imagine that, even though his biological family was there, he would have felt like an outsider. Yes, he had plenty of empathy for their plight, but he didn't know their lives from the inside. He'd never lived it, never experienced the despair and the hopelessness that was the foundation of their consciousness.

Perhaps that was one of the things that made him uniquely perfect for this job.

And so, here he is—a runaway prince—Aaron's little brother—come back with his foreign wife and a mouthful of pie-in-the-sky about some God Who had come to liberate them from slavery and lead them to a rich and fertile land that was meant to be their inheritance all along.

Yeah, right! Like that was going to happen.

Things went exactly as Moshe had expected them to go.

And God's reaction was to send him to Pharaoh to demand liberation for his people.

Because, of course Pharaoh would release the 600,000 men (and their wives and children) whose free labor had built his cities.

Pharaoh responded exactly as Moshe expected him to do.

So God sent a series of plagues.

Why? And why ten? Why not get right to the heart of the matter and go straight to the death of the firstborn?

Especially considering that surely an omniscient God would know how Pharaoh would respond to each plague.

I'm thinking that the plagues were not for Pharaoh, not for the Egyptian people. The fact that they were punished by the plagues was a secondary boon.

The plagues were for the Israelites. They had to learn who their God is. And that doesn't happen overnight.

On a mystical level, the number ten is highly significant. Think, ten sephirot on the Tree of Life, ten ways through which God relates to human beings. But I doubt there were many mystics among the Hebrews of Goshen.

Each of the plagues is related to a particular Egyptian god. The Hebrews got to witness each Egyptian god be taken down by the One God, one by one, as disasters fell upon their captors while Goshen remained untouched.

By the time God is ready to unleash the tenth plague in next week's reading, the Hebrews are convinced that this God who claims to be their God, is indeed the only God. They're ready to listen to what Moshe, God's spokesperson, tells them to do. By the time Pharaoh calls out for Moses and Aaron in the night, and says, “Get up and get out from among my people, you and the children of Israel, too, and go and serve God as you said! Take both your flocks and your cattle, just as you stipulated, and go! And bless me too!” the children of Israel are ready to go.

So what shall we eat?

This is the parasha in which God brings down the first seven of the ten plagues upon Egypt. After each one, Pharaoh's heart was hardened. So let's create a dinner of hearts. Although these hearts are tender, not hardened.

Syrian cooking is known for its fabulous stuffed vegetables, and some of my favorite Sephardic dishes are all about vegetables stuffed with spiced meat. These dishes are easily made with either meat or a plant-based substitute, such as Impossible™ meat. But, you can easily substitute the meat with a grain. Try using rice, barley, or quinoa is these dishes, instead of the meat.

What's generally sold as "artichoke hearts" are not the heart, but rather the innermost, soft petals of small artichokes. What I'm talking about is the base of a large globe artichoke, that meaty, tasty part that you get to after all the leaves have been enjoyed and the sharp, needle-like choke is scraped away.

You've got a couple of options when it comes to procuring them. The easiest is to find canned or frozen artichoke bottoms. If they're not available, you can start with whole globe artichokes. Steam them until tender, then peel off the leaves, set them aside, and remove the choke. Don't discard those leaves; that would be a travesty. They are soooo delicious!

This takes a bit of time and effort, but isn't difficult. Turn on your favorite tv show and set yourself up with a teaspoon, a bowl, and a pile of steamed artichoke leaves. Scrape the flesh off each leaf with the edge/tip of the spoon and collect the scrapings in a bowl. Once all the good, edible stuff is removed, you can toss the spent leaves in the compost bin. Or the trash can. Now, you can mix all that artichoke flesh in with the stuffing. Yum!

The stuffed artichoke hearts are going to be kept company on the plate by a twist on Loubieh bi Zeit, a Syrian dish of green beans stewed until tender in olive oil, with onions, garlic, and a bit of tomato. The twist is that I'm going to use sundried tomatoes for an extra punch.

Plain steamed basmati rice is a must, to soak up all the fabulous sauces on the plate. I happen to have a large celeriac in the fridge, so I’ll be making Creamy Celery Root Soup. This is a simple and delicious soup.

A bright, charred Hearts of Palm Salad makes a nice palate cleanser between the soup and the main course.

By the way, I’ve got another soup using this unique ingredient, one that’s a bit more complex.

Check out my Creamy Celery Root and Apple Soup. Either one will be great with this menu.

And for dessert? I’m going to procure some baklava from my local Mediterranean market. Yes, I know how to make it. But I don’t have a day to devote to that wonderful project this week. And the stuff from that store is very good. I’ll also get some ice cream. Because…ice cream.

 Menu for Parasha Va’era

golden shabbat challah

Creamy Celery Root Soup

charred hearts of palm salad

with avocado, fresh greens, and a lemony vinaigrette 

Syrian Stuffed Artichoke Bottoms in Cherry Sauce

meat or vegetarian style

Loubieh bi Zeit with a twist

Syrian braised Green Beans with Sun-dried Tomatoes

steamed Basmati Rice

Baklava and ice cream

But wait, There’s More!

Another perspective, a slightly different angle

When we last left Moshe at the end of Shemot, he’d gone to address the Israelite community, at the behest of Hashem. Aharon was with him. The people don’t really know Moshe because up until now, he hasn’t lived among them. He hasn’t toiled and suffered beside them. Are they to trust him? They know Aharon and his family, and they hold them in high regard, but they’re skeptical about this Moshe. They wonder, how could he possibly relate to what their lives are like? He’s promising something that seems impossible. Or at least improbable. And Aharon and Moshe perform signs to let them know that they have indeed been sent by HaShem. And they believe.

They get excited. Could we really be free of Pharaoh? Is there really a wonderful, fertile land, a land that actually belongs to them, just waiting for them to come and claim it?

They Israelites discuss among themselves.

Perhaps it’s Moshe’s unique position, of having grown up as a prince who then became a fugitive, that affords him the ability to approach the situation from a different mindset.

Moshe’s got an in with Pharaoh. Pharaoh knows him. Pharaoh is practically his grandfather. Perhaps he can convince Pharaoh to let us just walk out the door, so to speak! And off Moshe and Aharon go, to speak to Pharaoh, as the Israelites wait with baited breath.

But HaShem has already given the messengers a heads up. Pharaoh will not listen. Their plea will be rejected. Still, they must go through the motions. This encounter is an important part of the overall process.

And the people waited for the good news. But instead of liberation, Moshe has brought even greater suffering upon them. w

At the open of this parasha, when Moshe returns to the Israelites, they reject him outright.

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, known as the Ramchal, explained that what happened here is that Pharaoh saw that the slaves had begun to feel a sense of freedom, and that was dangerous for him. By increasing the workload, he made them so busy that they didn’t have time to think of anything but getting the work done.

And now, here come the plagues! It’s an exciting story to read, full of suspense (at least the first time) and intrigue.

But does this have anything to do with our lives today?

Ramchal says yes.

We so often live our lives, charging ahead with the cavalry and not taking the time to stop and think. The system is designed to keep us enslaved. It’s the evil inclination at work.

We need to allow ourselves time to step back and consider the long term.

And that’s literally.

When we daven the daily Amida, we first take three steps backwards. That’s to step out of the rat race, the cavalry charge. Then we take three steps forward to approach HaShem. And now that we’re here, we reach the critical part. Do we hold our siddur, our prayer book and just read yada yada yada? Or are we talking from the heart, being totally honest, praying for true direction, making a connection, before we take those three steps backward again and rush back into the grind?

This taking time out is critical, lest we reach the end of our lives wondering, where did it go? Have I squandered the years given to me, or have I fulfilled my purpose?

We’d do well to give the power to HaShem, to really listen rather than to give the power to Pharaoh, who is all too ready to receive it.

And this leads us right back to the menu, our menu that’s focused on hearts. Perhaps it will help us to keep our priorities, to devote ourselves to the freedom that comes with trusting in the love of HaShem to lead us to where our souls long to go.

shabbat shalom!