Va’eira
Reflection by Ariel Dominique Hendelman, the Or HaLeV Team
“The name of this week’s parsha, Va’eira, means `And I appeared.` The title refers to the Infinite One appearing to Moshe and revealing the four expressions of redemption: First – to take out the children of Israel from Mitzrayim, second - to deliver them from slavery, third - to redeem them, and fourth - acquire them as a chosen people at Mount Sinai. Only then will the people be brought to the land that has been promised to them and their ancestors. Moshe and Aharon repeatedly come before Pharoah to request that the people be able to come to the wilderness to serve Hashem, but Pharoah refuses, thus bringing about the first seven plagues.
What can we learn from this?
If expressions of redemption are signs that there is balance and harmony, then these four modes must be offering us insight into how to achieve that state. First, we need to be taken out of our narrow places, then we must be delivered from the enslaving habits or thoughts that would potentially bring us back there. Only then are we ready to be redeemed into a new state of consciousness, and ultimately to receive revelation as a unified whole. It is precisely these stages of redemption that can counter the various expressions of plague, or dis-ease that show us where there is a lack of balance, and help us restore it.
May our practice bring us to balance with the entirety to creation and to the wholeness where true redemption is found.”