Va'era

Liberation . . . from the Perspective of the Ancient One

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson

One of the characteristics of youth is impatience: While older adults are tempered by the realities of human passivity and inertia, young people agitate for immediate change and progress. Unwilling to concede that society moves very slowly, unable to accept human suffering and callousness, young people, in their eagerness to translate their dreams of a redeemed humanity into living reality, often grow angry with the plodding cautiousness of adults.

That same impatience must have struck young Moshe as well. Watching his people suffer under the strains of Egyptian slavery must have been a tortuous agony. We know that Moshe, in his youth, was passionate about his people and about justice, and that he did not hesitate to intervene to redress grievances and to assist the week and needy.

In the midst of this youthful zeal. Moshe encounters God, the ancient Holy One. In the process of liberating the Jewish people, God also teaches a lesson in persistence. Permanent change in human nature requires time, patience, and determination. Liberation comes in stages, not all at once. Cosmetic alterations may come easily, but permanent and significant growth emerges over a long period and only with great effort.

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