Va'era – Torah with Joseph

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom, my name is Joseph Shulam, and together with Brad TV we’re continuing every week the Torah portion that is being read in all the synagogues.

We started last week with the book of Exodus, the first portion of Exodus, that started in chapter 1, verse 1, and ended in chapter 6, verse 1.

Chapter 6, verse 1 of the book of Exodus says:

What does this text tell us? When Moses went to Egypt to tell Pharaoh, “Let My people go,” the first time, things didn’t get better for the children of Israel. In fact, they got worse.

The children of Israel cried and begged for some relief from the work, from the slavery that was imposed upon them. Instead of giving them relief, Pharaoh made it harder for them. He made them also get the straw to make the bricks that would build the cities of Egypt. He hardened his heart against the children of Israel.

Now we’re in chapter 6, verse 2. The new portion of the week is called Va’era, which means “I have appeared.” God says, “I have shown Myself to your forefathers, and now I am going to show Myself to Pharaoh, and he will know who I am.” That’s the essence of the beginning of chapter 6, verse 2.

God Reveals His Name to Moses

And here we have a great revelation. A revelation that is earth-shaking, literally earth-shaking, my dear brothers.

I’m reading from the New King James Version, Exodus chapter 6, verse 2:

El Shaddai in Hebrew.

In other words, God remembers His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The Documentary Hypothesis

This is a very important text. Why is it so important? Because here we find the formula to negate and dismiss one of the prevailing doctrines of modern biblical scholarship, and that is the documentary hypothesis.

My first lesson, my first day at the Hebrew University in 1964, I go to the freshman class, first year students. I go to one of the most popular classes of that day, a Bible class. Studying Tanakh at that time was very, very popular. This was before the Six-Day War.

There were about seven hundred students in the auditorium. A young Orthodox man stood on the stage, with curls on his head, a kippah, a white shirt, black pants. He had just received his doctorate from the Hebrew University.

He opened his mouth and said, “Moses did not write the Torah.”

Immediately the students reacted. “What do you mean Moses did not write the Torah? We are Jews. We know Moses wrote the Torah.”

He said, “No.” And he gave us a bibliography, starting with Wellhausen’s Prolegomena, and then nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scholars. That was my first encounter with the documentary hypothesis.

But this text here tells us something very different.

Yes, it is true that our forefathers did not know the Tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of God, YHWH. There are all kinds of pronunciations in the Christian world today. Yahweh, Jehovah, YHWH, JHWH, all kinds of things. Nobody really knows how to pronounce it. The Jews don’t know. The rabbis don’t know.

And in fact, the New Testament does not contain the Tetragrammaton. The word “Lord” appears instead.

The most ancient manuscripts of the Torah have the Tetragrammaton written, but not in modern Hebrew script, not in Aramaic script which was used in the days of Yeshua. It is written in ancient Canaanite script. You can see this in the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient manuscripts.

Progressive Revelation

So God says very clearly: “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai, but by My name YHWH I was not known to them.”

That means there is progressive revelation.

Now God reveals Himself to Moses in a deeper way and says, “I am the Lord.” And He tells Moses, “I know what is going on in Egypt. I know what Pharaoh is doing to My people. And I remember My covenant.”

Verse 6 of chapter 6:

God Does Not Break His Promises

This is a repetition of the promises God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And this teaches probably the most important truth in the whole Bible: God does not lie, and He does not break His promises.

If you take a small chapter of Jewish history and separate it from the larger context, it might look like God is not keeping His promises. Seventy years in Babylon. Two thousand years in exile in the Christian world.

But God promised exile, and He also promised restoration. He promised it through Isaiah. He promised it through Jeremiah. He promised it through Ezekiel.

In Ezekiel chapters 36 and 37, the dry bones receive flesh, sinews, and life, and they return to the land of Israel.

This is all here in this small section of Exodus chapter 6.

God says, “I told Abraham you would be in bondage.” That’s Genesis chapter 15, when God passed between the pieces as a flaming torch. And God says, “I am the same God. I keep My word.”

Moses and Aaron Are Sent to Pharaoh

Then verse 10:

Moses responds:

In other words, “I stutter.”

God answers Moses and Aaron:

Then comes the genealogy.

This genealogy is not here to give us a complete historical record. It is a political genealogy, designed to establish Moses’ and Aaron’s authority.

It starts with Reuben, but it stops when it reaches Levi, Aaron, and Moses. Its purpose is to tell us where Moses and Aaron came from.

God then tells Moses that Aaron will be his prophet, and Moses will stand as God’s representative.

God Is the Ultimate Controller

God hardens Pharaoh’s heart to demonstrate His power. Through the plagues, God shows: I control nature. I control water. I control agriculture. I control health. I control light and darkness. I control life.

The Nile was Egypt’s god. God turns it into blood.

This is Exodus. This is the message.

We think technology controls us. Google, Facebook, WhatsApp. No. God is the ultimate controller.

We have His roadmap from Genesis to Revelation.

May God bless all of you. Continue reading the Bible.