Vaerá 5776 - English

By Rabbi Guido Cohen

Asociación Israelita Montefiore Bogotá, Colombia.

At the beginning of this week’s Parashah, Moses goes through something that most prophets experience at one point or another: people refuse to listen to him.  Part of the frustration in the work of the Prophet lies precisely in the fact that his message is highly unpopular, people do not want to hear what that prophet has to say.  The prophetic message is not “nice”, it is not attractive, it is not comforting.  On the contrary, it is uncomfortable and tries to take the people out of their comfort zone.

This common trait of a prophet’s journey is precisely why Jonah decides to run from the divine calling and hide.  Why preach if the people won’t hear me?  We see, for instance, in the books of Melachim, the difficulties the prophets faced when trying to be heard in the kings’ courts.  Eliyahu, Elisha and their entire entourage of God’s prophets were persecuted, forced to go into hiding and murdered.  King Ahab insulted Miyaiahu ben Imlah (Melachim I Chap. 22) only for speaking about what would actually happen in the war against Aram, contrary to what the false prophets were telling him.

Just like these and many other examples, Moses finds no echo in the people of Israel, who choose to ignore his redemption message.  The verse specifically says, “They would not listen to Moses, their spirits crushed by ‘kotzer ruach’ cruel bondage.”

Rashi explains the expression ‘Kotzer Ruach’ as something physical: a difficulty to breathe.  In fact, Ruach means air in motion, so this explanation is plausible.  When someone is oppressed by cruel work, his breathing accelerates and each inhalation is shorter.  They could not take deep breaths.  But is this what impedes the Israelites from hearing the message?

Hirsch, on his part, understands the expression as a figure of speech meaning impatience.  Ramban identifies the ‘kotzer ruach’ with the people’s fear of Pharaoh, the fear that he will have them killed if they follow Moses.   

What all these interpretations have in common is that the people of Israel had a hard time hearing the true and liberating message from Moses.  This obstacle doesn’t allow them to see that which -if they could see it- they would wish to see.  Jeremiah paints this in a very symbolic way: “their ears are uncircumcised,” meaning they have an obstacle that does not allow them to hear.   

It is interesting that the Torah does not see this as something ‘bad’ on behalf of the people, but as a challenge that must be overcome by Moses.  They are not punished or reprimanded for this situation, because it is understood that they are victims.  Because they are oppressed, their ability to hear is limited and we don’t judge them for it.  But just like the Torah doesn’t judge them, it also doesn’t give up on their liberation.  They do not hear and we understand they are not guilty of not hearing.  Moses must keep on insisting until they do hear.  The responsibility of a leader is not telling people what they want to hear, but what they must hear.  That is how Israel’s prophets understood it, not giving up in fear of not being heard or of people being angry at them for their message.  

The leader’s virtue lies not in molding his speech according to what is expected, but on the values and principles he represents, in this case, the divine mandate of freeing the people and taking them to the land of their ancestors.  Many times it is hard to say ‘no’ or to answer certain things as they are, because we know that the other won’t hear us, or even worse, he will be angry at our message.  Other times, we stand at the other end of the conversation and we choose to ‘kill the messenger’ because his message bothers us.  These are the symptoms of ‘kotzer ruach’, of a limited spirit; of the fear and impatience we get from being oppressed by destructive situations that provide us with the comfort of the familiar at the same time.  

The Parashah’s message encourages us to continue talking when we are convinced of what we are saying, even if no one wants to listen.  And also, before criticizing the messenger, it teaches us to open our spirit and let the message penetrate, however much it hurts it might free us.  

Shabbat Shalom

Rab Guido Cohen