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34 Friday, January 10, 1986
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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Persistence, Patience
Are Heroic Clualities
BY RABBI MORTON F. YOLRUT
Special to The Jewish News
the temperature is warm,
and the Sail* are HOT!
OUR JANUARY SIDEWALk SALE AT THE
"Moses and the Tablets of the Law," an engraving by David Roberts.
Our hearts go out to Moses in
the opening verses of this week's
sidrah. He stands there so alone,
so forlorn, so deserted and with
such an overwhelming sense of
despair in his heart.
He had not w4nted to go back to
Egypt. • He had "tried to. convince
God that he was -the wrong man
for the job. He feared before he
began that it wouldn't work, that-
his people would not listen to him,
that Pharoah would be stubborn,
that he - was not articulate, that it
was impossible. He tried in every
way and used every `argument to
get out of the assignment, but God
would not let him.
. So he went, and sure enough all
his fearawere•realizea. The "el-
ders" of the Jewish community
were inducted to accompany him
to Pharoah, but along the way,
one by one, they dropped out and
left him to go alone. Pharoah did
not listen to him, on the contrary,
he increased the work of the Is-
raelite slaves. And then they
turned on him for having meddled
in their affairs and making -their
situation even worse.
And so he turns to God and he
says: "Behold the Israelites would
not listen to me, how then should
Pharoah heed me .. ." (Exodus
6:12) Moses at this point is at.the
very brink of despair. Who cannot
feel for him, this good man who
has been asked to tape on a task
that seems impossible to achieve.
He had every right to feel' bitterl
to feel resentful, to despa4 i
God's reaction is swift and deci-
sive. He does not engage in de-
bate; He does not chastise Moses.
He does not even attempt to reap-
. sure him. He simply orders him to
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get on with the task of redemp-
tion, willy-nilly. "And God spoke
to Moses and Aaron, vay tzavaim,
and He commanded them . . . to
deliver the Israelites from the
hand of Egypt." (6:13)
And so Moses returns to the
neptiations with Pharoah. And
this time he makes a a small dent
in Pharoah's callousness and the
next time he makes a bit more of a
dent, until he breaks through.
And then after that major
achievement, he begins the sec-
Va'era: gxodus
6;2-9:35. Isaiah
66.1-24
and task of his life — an even gre-
ater challenge -- the task of mak-
ing his long-enslaved people "a
kingdom of priests and a holy na-
tion." This task will take the rest
of his lifetime., It is atask that will
test his patience and-try his soul
again and again. It is a task that is
often more than one human being
can achieve, and there are many
times when Moeee is prepared to
give up.
And yet he never does:Pe"(
presses his despair, he venb: his
frustrations and then starts all
over again. And so I suggest that
we can' learn two very significant
lessons from the life and and
"modus olierandi"of our teacher
Moses: ih Ete a person has the right
'to desp ir, and that a person has
th&abi ity to overcome despair.
A person need not sublimate his
feelinga He bag •thee, right to
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