A biseleh midrash

  Photo: Anastasiya Romanova Leah, Beloved Daughter: I do not know where in the wilderness this letter will reach you—if at all. Emet, son of Jehdeiah, returned for his wife who was too ill to travel when you all rushed off. She waited for him hiding in our chicken coop in the back. I hope they make it safely across the Sea and can rejoin your group. He did say that conditions were not good, that food and water and blowing sand were making progress difficult, and that people often doubted that they were indeed going to the promised land. I know you believe this man Moses and trust that the arduous journey will bring you to a place where you, Yoezer and the children will live and prosper. May it be so. I am well, and so far I have no regrets about not having joined the trek. I am old and might have slowed the group down too much; and everything I know is here in this house and this village. Of course I realize that Pharaoh came down hard on Yoezer and the other draftsmen, but still,

Photo: Gary Ellis (on unsplash) - There’s a call ... - For me? - Not specifically.    It’s more of a cry, really, a crying out. - A cry? A crying out? Well ... - You’ve been expecting it ... - I have? - Yes, for four hundred-odd years. -Oh ... that’s quite a while! Wonder what kept them? I better go down. ------------------------------- Na'aseh v'nishma. At the beginning of Shemot these words are a long way off. Here it is words and names that come first, what is said more important than what is done. Who are you? What's your name? What if they don't believe me? Why me? Send someone more eloquent, I stutter! Moses is a skeptic, impressed by the pyrotechnics, but not by God's words. In exasperation God gives him magic tricks to perform to make believers out of his own people. They've been cut off too long. It is not only Pharaoh who doesn't remember Joseph. Year in, year out they bear the drudgery and abuse, because in spite of all the hard work they keep hav