The weekly reading for the week of 23 Tevet, 5764 - January 17, 2004 Parashah: Shemot Exodus 1:1 to 6:1; Haftarah: Isaiah 27:6 to 28:13; 29:22-23 (Ashkenazi) Jeremiah 1:1 to 2:3 (Sephardi); Mei Kituvim: Job 14:1-22; 15:1-14;19:23-27; Brit Chadashah: Matthew 2:1-23; 3:1-2


The Bagel: Cut it down or transplant it? It seems that Israel's history is filled with those who desire to cut it down like a tree. But G-d merely wants to transplant it when it is appropriate. In the parashat Shemot, Pharaoh made plans for Israel's extermination. But G-d was ordaining the relocation of Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. The tale of the bricks was Pharaoh's design to lay the ax on the root of tree. Pharaoh wanted to chop it down, cut it up, and burn it in the furnace. It is possible that the plague of ashes was in response to the Egyptian way of disposing of the drowned Jewish babies in the Nile, which was to burn them in the furnace. This was why it was important for Moses' family to send him away in an ark of bulrushes. Israel needed hope and every child's survival counted. Moses turned out to be G-d's instrument of transplanting.

The Haftarah readings (Ashkenazi and Separdic) both allude to a transplant mode. Isaiah's account speaks of Israel as a flourishing plant: "He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud" (Isaiah 27:6 KJV). But then the sinfulness of the nation draws another picture: "The people are like the dead branches of a tree, broken off and used for kindling beneath the cooking pots. Israel is a foolish and stupid nation, for its people have turned away from God. Therefore, the one who made them will show them no pity or mercy" (27:11 NLT). It is one thing to purge a tree of its dead wood, but quite another to chop the tree down. Instead, G-d transplanted Judah into Babylon later on and after many warnings. That transplant was designed to teach Judah and Israel to obey G-d and listen to His word.

In Jeremiah, the emphasis is on the transplanting work of G-d: "See, I appoint you this day over nations and kingdoms: To uproot and to pull down, To destroy and to overthrow, To build and to plant" (Jeremiah 1:10 Tanakh JPS). Jeremiah was G-d's prophetic spokesman and his declarations became the fate of the region. When Nebuchadnezzar came to affect the transplanting of Judah, the deadwood of the nation either fought him or fled from him into Egypt. But only those who surrendered were spared and were blessed of G-d (see Jeremiah 24).

Another example of cutting off Israel is found in the little book of Obadiah. It is a story of Edom, the distant cousin (brother) to Judah, that sought to cut off Judah as it was being transplanted: "You should not have stood at the crossings to cut off his fugitives; you should not have handed over his survivors on the day of distress" (Obadiah 14 NRSV). But G-d had better plans for Judah in spite of Edom's desire. The fact that Adonay told Jeremiah that He would also "....to build and to plant" indicates His plan to re-transplant Judah by restoration back in the Land.

In the Mei Kituvim reading, Job complains of the accusations of his less-than-helpful friends. Job describes their arguments against him as merciless accusations, which hold out no hope. Their counsel was by implication to cut the tree down. Job and his innocence didn't matter. He must be guilty that's why he suffers so. This frustration with their constant berating wore down Job, so in his anguish he cried out: "O that You would hide me in Sheol, Conceal me until Your anger passes, Set me a fixed time to attend to me" (Job 14:13 Tanakh JPS). It seems that those counselors left him with little hope:

"There is hope for a tree; If it is cut down it will renew itself; Its shoots will not cease. If its roots are old in the earth, And its stump dies in the ground, At the scent of water it will bud And produce branches like a sapling. But mortals languish and die; Man expires; where is he? The waters of the sea fail, And the river dries up and is parched. So man lies down never to rise; He will awake only when the heavens are no more" (Job 14:7-12 Tanakh JPS).