Shemot

Names

This parsha is Shemot, which in Hebrew means names.  It's also the name of this second book of the Torah.  In English it is called Exodus, which means the mass departure of many people.   Life sucks in Egypt for the Hebrew slaves and so they leave.  Stuff happens.  Exodus.  

The plot of this one little parsha is hard to sum up quickly:  The torah names all the tribes of Israel who have moved to Egypt, they become enslaved, AND THEN  after 400 years they become so numerous and the Pharoah is afraid of them so he orders the midwives to kill all the male Hebrew babies.  AND THEN Two midwives manage to save a lot of the male babies, one in particular is hidden from the bad guys until he gets too big and loud to hide, AND THEN his mother puts him in a basket and floats him towards Pharoah's daughter, who adopts him and names him Moshe AND THEN he is given to his mother to nurse and then back to Pharoah's Daughter to be raised as an Eqgyptian prince.  AND THEN One day Moses sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave AND THEN he kills the Eqgyptian so he has to skedaddle AND THEN he faces the fact that he is a Hebrew  AND THEN He runs away to Midian, marries Zipporah, has children, becomes a shepherd and generally drops out, AND THEN one day, just when he thinks his life is settled, God appears in a burning bush that is not consumed, insists that Moses go back to Egypt and liberate his people with the help of his brother Aaron AND THEN God teaches the reluctant Moses some magic  tricks AND THEN  Moses goes back to Egypt, confronts the Pharoah of all Egypt and says, no, demands that he let his people go, AND THEN Pharoah says hell no and gets even meaner to the slaves than he was before, AND THEN God tells Moses that he is going to kick Pharoah's ass.

Great story.  Can't wait to see what happens next.

But for me, this is not about the journey, epic though it may be, but about something as simple as a name.  With a name you are given a place, in your family and your community, and sometimes within your soul. The Israelites and then Moses, and then God, are named and found in this parsha, and the nexus is the Burning Bush, when God invites Moses back into who he is, Mose the Hebrew, the friend of God and the savior of the slaves.

The slaves are the children of Israel, known as the, Ivrit.  The word Ivrit, meaning, Hebrew, comes from the shoresh Ayin, Bet, Raish.  As a verb, it means to cross over, and it's first used to describe that wanderer, Abraham.  But by the time the people are in Egypt they are definitively known to the Egyptions as the Hebrews, re the people who crossed over, from Canaan to Egypt.  And Shemot is the story of when those Hebrews go across the desert to go back home.  The name is descriptive of how these people, our people, act and how we are seen.  We know how to move on, when necessary.  History acts upon us, we change as we must.

The second name is that of Moses, which is taken from the meaning, to be drawn out, Pharoah's daughter names him that becuase he was drawn out of the water..  It is apparently also now meant that it is also Mose who draws the people out of Egypt.   Moses is given his name as a child, acted upon by others, until he kills the Egyptian and runs away, spending his time in Midian becoming a new person until his encounter with God, at which point he can reclaim himself and that name and become the agent of his own life.  He draws himself out and discovers his true self, who is is, his I am that I am and embraces his connection with the one-ness and his people and goes back into the story.  Moses, the protagonist, changes dramatically.  Pharoah, his mother, his sister, Pharoah's daughter, Jethro, Zipporah, and God, they all act upon him, but finally, when Moses sees the Burning Bush, when he chooses to see the Burning Bush, he draws himself out and becomes his people's leader.  He names God and becomes Ivrit at last.

And what about God's name?  Many observant jews never call God by any name other than HaShem, The Name.  I'm not totally sure why, but to me it seems that it's as if, by naming God you quantify God, you surround and separate and personalize, you make the Is-ness into a human or a supernatural that which cannot be surrounded or separated or personalized or be human or a being. 

And yet we insist on giving this non-corporeal non-being a Shem, a name.  In fact, Shemot.  Names:

El

Elohim

El Shaddai

Elyon

Shechinah

Yah

Adonai

Yahweh

Jehovah

Ruach HaOlam, The Breath of Life

The Eternal

The Righteous One

Ha Makom, The Place

Adon Olam, Lord of the World

Avinu Malkeinu, Our Father Our King

Elohei Avraham, Elohei Yitzchak ve Elohei Ya`aqov

Elohei Sara, Elohei Rivka, Elohei Leah ve Elohei Rakhel

E'in Sof—"endless, infinite",

HaKadosh, The Holy One

 Barukh Hu , Blessed One

HaRachaman-"The Merciful One"

Melech HaMelachim—"The King of kings" or

Ribeinu Shel Olam, Master of the World

Rofeh Cholim, Healer of the Sick

Tzur Yisrael, Rock of Israel

Oseh Shalom, Maker of Peace

And my personal favorite, Zokef efufim, Straightener of the Bent.  What ever does that mean, I wonder?

God is not nearly as pretentious as we are.  When Moses asks God what he should call God, God simply (!) says, Eheyeh Asher Eheyeh.  I Am That I Am.

Rabbi Art Green interprets this to be not the description of something that has ever been, is now, and ever will be, outside of time and space, Was/Is/ Will Be.  It is the essence of, well, IS, and this Is-ness knows it.  For the first time, The Was/Is/Will Be, the I AM THAT I AM, doesn't identify itself as God or Lord or Father or any of that.  This Is-ness sends Moses off on his quest to bring the Hebrews out of Egypt and into covenant with I am that I am.  So HaIvrit, The Hebrews, and  Moses and I AM THAT I AM have come together and the story that will climax at Sinai in Torah and Jews and you and me.

So  What are the names you were given at birth? 

What are the names you were given by your history? 

What are the names you have chosen for yourself at your burning bush? 

My parents gave me the name, Patricia Ilene Arlin.

AND THEN They gave me a name for my religion, my people, my history, Aleeza Bat Rut v'Shlomo.  Aleeze means Joyful.  That's me, Full of Joy.

I always hated that name, Aleeza.   I didn't have much joy growing up and I don't present as joyful lke some people do, even when that's how I'm feeling.  So the name Aleeza never sat well with me.  So when I started studying Jewish stuff, I thought I wanted a more appropriate Hebrew name.  My hero became Rabbi Akiva, who was illiterate until he was in his forties and who then started to learn from scratch and who became one of the greatest rabbis of his time.  I decided I wanted the female equivalent of the male name, Akiva, but when I looked it up one one of those sites for finding Hebrew names, it said there was no female equivalent.  AND THEN, I complained about this to a friend who had some knowledge of hebrew names, AND THEN she suggested what she thought was the closest female equivalent to Akiva:  Aleeza.

I've been thinking about it, and I think I am almost ready to drop the name I was given, and reclaim my name and draw myself out and choose to be joyful. 

Aleeza. 

Baruch atah HaShem, Blessed be the Name, blessed be that which cannot be named and blessed be our names, those we receive because of love, and those we receive because of our history and culture, and those names we choose for ourselves, because we are B'tzelem Elohim, made in the image of the I AM that chooses to be I AM.  

Amen.

A SHABBAT AMIDAH

I speak praise, hope and thanks.

I open my mouth, I open my heart.

I feel the Ancient Prayer:

1.  AVOT VE'IMOT - PRAISE OUR ANCESTORS

Bless our inventive ancestors, 
Who have given us the

God of the Torah and the God of the Talmud,
the God of our immigrant grandparents and the God of our children,
the God of this community, the God who is each person's, alone,

and the God who knew our parents, the God who knows our deaths.
To this God, we pray.

Bless our inventive ancestors
Who have given us the
Unknowable God of the mystics, 
And the rational God of the philosophers,
The Daddy God of our childhood faith, 
And the nonexistent God of our young skepticism,
And now the complicated God-ness of our adult searching.
To this God, we pray.

With all our histories and memories, and with gratitude to all who came before us, 
Blessed Was•Is•Will Be,  we pray.

2.  GEVUROT - PRAISE GOD’S POWER

Hey you, God!

Huge, all-encompassing, incomprehensible, 

Incline your metaphorical ear!  Open your metaphorical eye!

Toward Us, please.

Rambam says, 

If you can’t imagine God then you don’t exist.
We're trying!

There is nothing that is not God.

God is no thing.

Wow.

Blessed be God, bringing us the Wow.

3.  KEDUSHAT HASHEM: SANCTIFY GOD’S NAME

HaMavdeel, the Divider of Time;

Adonai, the Uniter Of All Existence;

Ain Sof, That Which Cannot Be Known;

Ruach HaOlam, The Breath That Animates;

Shechina, the Presence of Eternity;

Elohim, God of our Past

Yah, God of our future;

HaMakom, The Place, God of our present.

Kadosh Baruch Hu, Blessed be the Holy It, with so many names.

Let us look from side to side, to see all these possibilities,

The names help us comprehend

That which cannot be comprehended.

All division is false, 
All superiority is delusion, 
All separation is temporary.
Blessed Adonai Echad, the Uniter Of All Existence

Holy, Holy, Holy!

The One-ness with so many names

An idea too big to be merely a construct?

An presence too vast to be merely a body?

A wholeness too complete to be merely absolute?

We are blessed with many minds with which to imagine God

And many mouths to describe what we see.

Blessed be Achat/Echad, the One-ness, presenting us with so many splendid opportunites for holiness.

4.  KEDUSHAT HAYOM - THE DAY IS HOLY

Oh Shabbat!

Big sigh of relief, we weren't sure we’d get here,

Though of course we did.

Awesome and sacred and necessary and regular,

The world is filled with the Divine, we are surrounded!

Shechinah:

Hear us, know us.

Love us, enjoy us.

Remember us, rouse us.

Forgive us, inspire us.

It is written:

The Seventh Day is holy

It is the day of the Great Rest.

Bless the Profundity of Shabbat, commanding us to take a nice afternoon nap.

5. AVODAH - HEAR OUR PRAYERS 

We’re listening. 

Are we heard?

God of our strengths and our weaknesses,
God of our current understanding and our lack thereof,

We are in this glorious and troubled place

And we take responsibility for how it turns out.

And we are watchful for our opportunities to serve and build.

And we will pray:

For the ears to hear the truth,
For the eyes to see the suffering,
For the healthy body to take action,
For a community that will sustain us,

For strategies that will work,

For kindness that comes when needed,

For words that explain,

For pleasures that make us happy,

For the outcomes that are good,

For strength when times are bad.

Bless Elohim, the Creator; the Created, Creating. 

6.  HODA'AH:  WE ARE SO THANKFUL. 

We bend our knees and bow,

Made humble by this opportunity to say

Thanks to what has brought us to this place

And to each other.

Thank you for whatever love and kindness we have received

And even more for the love and kindness we have given.

Thank you for those who have forgiven us

And to those who have asked us for our forgiveness.

Thank you for the deep rest of Shabbat

And the exciting hope for the coming week

There is so much to learn and feel and fear and change.
We give thanks for all our questions.
And we give thanks for our teachers and elders 
Who have given us answers

Which we then teach in our turn,
Which someone else will challenge.
Thanks for being so interesting.

Thank you for listening

Whether you are there or not

Because we need to say it out loud.

May we never take this for granted.

So we say,

Thank You so much!

Blessed  HaMakom,  this place is so beautiful.

7.  BIRKAT HASHALOM:  WE PRAY FOR PEACE AND WHOLENESS.

Let us make peace.
Specifically, if we may,
May there be mercy on Israel and Palestine’s people.

May they all be able to see themselves clearly
And may they find themselves able to act ethically. 
Please keep them safe from physical harm 

And please, if at all possible, keep them sane.
May those who live there aspire to live in harmony and justice with their neighbors.

Bless the God of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, Isaac, Rebecca, Esau, Jacob, Rachel, Leah, Zilpah, Bilhah, Moses, Zipporah, Jethro, Naomi, Boaz, Ruth, David, Jesus and Mohammed.

Bless all of us with transcendence from the Light That Illuminates.

Bless all of us with immersion in the Awesome Connection.

Adonai Echad, with compassion for all who are in pain or who cause pain, bless us with the peace of wholeness that we may have decent and happy lives and help others to have the same.

8. OPEN MY HEART

Existing.

Creating.

Uniting.

Giving.

Incomprehensible.

And really, so simple.

Whoever or Whatever is Listening

Even or maybe especially if it’s only myself,

I ask:

May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be joyful truth.

May the good things I pray for happen and, if not, 

May I never forget to hope. 

AMEN

Four Children, Five Rabbis

Okay, so

Four Children sitting around a table, talking

At a seder

And they have to ask,

Why is this night different from all other nights?

Why on this night do we ask so many questions?

And who gets to answer?

And who must  listen?

The first child, 
Book smart.

The wise child

Knows all the rules.

He's direct,

No messin' around,

This is what you do on Pesach:

Tell the story, dip the herbs

Recline, drink four cups

Ask the questions, Know the answers .

It's obvious. Duh.

The second child,

A smart ass, smart and an ass.

Doesn't care about the rules

Unless she knows what they're for,

She wants meaning

And is kind of obnoxious about it

Because sometimes it's hard to ask the next logical question

Without annoying someone.

What does this story mean to you? she asks.

And it comes off as a challenge, but it's not.

She really wants to know:

What does it mean?

So you tell her,

Freedom!

To be who you are,

To make choices,

to seek God whether you find God or not,

To become a person and then a people,

To ask questions.

The third child,

A beginner,

Doesn't know what to do

Doesn't know why we're doing it,

A baby!

So you say to him,

We tell a really good story

With a beginning middle and end

And a hero

And a villian

And miracles and dancing and bugs and dead cows and blood,

You'll love it!

And this is why we tell the story:

So we don't forget we were slaves,

So we don't forget what God did for us,

So we don't forget Torah,

And the seder is what we do to remember.

And because we remember

We don't enslave others.

We bask in God's presence.

We study Torah

And we tell stories.

And then there's the fourth kid

 The child who doesn't even know

 that she can ask a question.

Is it because she doesn't care?

Or is it, that she doesn't have a context?

Doen't know that she doesn't know?

So she doesn’t know how interesting it all is?

Or perhaps it’s because no one will let her talk

So she doesn't even try?

Sitting in the back of the bus,

Not allowed to study Torah,

Married at 17, popping out babies at 18.

So let's not wait for either of them to say something

Let's hold out our hands and say,

We were slaves

And now we're not.

And there is so much to know and do

And you can know and do it

And we will help you.

You are inspired,

You just don't know it yet.

Okay.

So

Five Rabbis sitting around a table, talking

At a seder.

They don’t have to ask,

Why is this night different from all other nights?

Each of them knows the direct meaning.

All of them plumb the depths of the hidden and symbolic.

Any one of them can tell a tale that bridges a gap.

Five out of five are inspired by God's revelations.

They know the rules and the meaning and the stories and oh my God, are they empowered to talk.

They stay up all night

And talk and talk and talk!

Each one smarter than the other

But in the morning when their students come in,

They still haven’t got an answer.

Hey you guys, say the students,

Listen.

A Rosh Hashana Amidah

I open my mouth, I open my heart.

I speak praise, hope and thanks.

I speak the Ancient Prayer:

PRAISE OUR ANCESTORS

God of my childhood faith, of my adult skepticism

God of the mystics, of the philosophers

God of our ancestors, of our children

God of this community, and of mine, only

God who knew my parents, God who knows my death

Blessed Ain Sof, what WAS before IS, and WHAT WILL BE when THIS is no more.

PRAISE GOD’S POWER

God of my strength and of my weakness,

God of my current understanding and my lack thereof,

Incline your metaphorical ear

And open your metaphorical eye.

Rambam says, 

If you can’t imagine God then you don’t exist.

There is no thing that is not God.

God is no thing.

Wow.

Blessed be God, bringing us the Wow.

PLACE YOURSELF in front of the fear. 

You will be judged, you will die.

Place yourself in the center of the universe

You earned that spot simply by existing.

Place yourself under obligation to God

However you understand or don’t understand God.

Place yourself in the path of holiness and joy and truth.

Bless Ruach HaOlam, the breath of mindfulness.

REMEMBER  

Remember what you did wrong

Remember what you did right.

Remember those who came before you.

Remember that you are responsible for those who come after you.

Remember your history.

Remember Torah.

Blessed be El, remembering us.

DECLARE YOURSELF

Because the truly evil are already condemned

The truly good are already blessed

And then, there’s the rest of us.

It is said that on Rosh Hashanah God decides your fate: life or death.

And the ten days until Yom Kippur are your opportunity to change God’s mind.

So don’t blow it.

This is a powerful day, a fantastic opportunity!

Declare yourself for holiness and joy and truth.

Bless Shechina, seeing how hard we are trying.

NOW WE DECLARE

And as a congregation, we proclaim:

Let the holiness rise up!

On Rosh Hashanah it is written

On Yom Kippur it is sealed.

And let us declare together:

We understand nothing.

All that is physical, ends.

We die.

But not today.

Except sometimes, today.

We fret about the past and worry about the future

And forget to live with where we are now.

And then we die.

We understand nothing.

But  

Teshuvah, Tefilah & Tzedukah 

Restore us to our place.

Teshuvah, when we return to our true selves;

Tefillah, when we stop time in holy conversation;

Tzedukah, when we transcend self;

And that’s when God decrees.

Bless the Presence, remembering when we have forgotten.

THE DAY IS HOLY

Listen to the Shofar as it announces:

Awesome and sacred is this sweet day!

The world is filled with the Divine, we are surrounded!

Hear us, know us.

Love us, enjoy us.

Remember us, rouse us.

Forgive us, inspire us, 

Bless Elohim, the Creator, the Created, Creating. 

SANCTIFY GOD’S NAME, so many holy names:

HaMavdeel, the Divider of Time;

Adonai, the Uniter Of All Existence;

Ain Sof, That Which Cannot Be Known;

Ruach HaOlam, The Breath That Animates;

Shechina, the Presence of Eternity;

Elohim, God of our Past

Yah, God of our future;

HaMakom, The Place, God of our present.

My the holiness be eternal

Let me look from side to side, to see all these possibilities,

The names help me comprehend

That which cannot be comprehended.

Holy, Holy, Holy!

Blessed be Achat/Echad, the One-ness, with so many names.

HEAR OUR PRAYERS,

That which Was, That which Is, That which Will Be.

We imagine you. We’re listening. Do you hear us?

We are in this glorious and troubled place and we take responsibility for how it turns out.

Blessed Yah, May the World To Come be the world we live in.

WE ARE SO THANKFUL. 

Ah, the sweetness of life, savor the taste.

Life can be so good, can’t it?

And right now it is fine.

Feed it with challah and honey,

Irrigate and watch it grow.

Who cares which book we’re inscribed in?

This moment is so great.

I am so thankful for the beautiful weather, 

the glorious music, the fine words, 

the sweet meals, the warm home,

the good friends, the silly toys

the sexual pleasures, the profound thoughts,

the crazy family, the big laughs,

and the loving.

Blessed  HaMakom, giving us today, which is so beautiful.

WE PRAY FOR WHOLENESS.

Bless us with love and mercy over us and all Israel and all the world.

Bless us with transcendence from the Light That Illuminates

Bless us with pleasure in the Awesome Connection

Adonai Echad, Bless us and keep everyone safe.  Grant us peace and wholeness that we may have decent and happy lives.

RUACH HA OLAM, Eternal Breath,

Incomprehensible. And really, so simple.

May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be joyful truth.

May the good things I pray for happen and, if not, 

May I never forget to hope.  AMEN