In our Torah portion, Shemot, Moses puts himself in danger by killing an Egyptian taskmaster in order to save one of the Jewish slaves he knows are his brethren. Moses clearly cares for those who are vulnerable, for the slaves, and wants to take action to save them even at personal risk. But if this is so, why does he refuse God over and over when God asks him to go to Pharaoh to redeem the Jewish people?
I think the answer is that just because we care and want to help doesn’t mean we know how to advance from there to actualizing our unique religious mission. God in our parsha gives guidance to Moses, and by extension to all of us, on how to proactively fulfill our mission in the world.
The first step in embarking on the road of our life’s journey is wonder—opening our eyes and seeing the world with amazement. As the verse states: “Moses said, ‘I must turn aside to look at this marvelous sight; why doesn’t the bush burn up?’”
The second step, after opening our eyes, is to see holiness in the wonder. As God says to Moses in our parsha: “Remove your shoes, for the ground on which you are standing is holy.”
The third step is to locate our path within Jewish history and Torah so it becomes an element in our uniquely Jewish identity. As the next verse states: “I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…”
After we have opened our eyes, seen that there is something deeper in the world and related it to our unique identity as a Jew, then we must go from faith to action. Once we go through these steps, we will, almost miraculously, find that we already have the tools for action that we need. As the verse states: “What is that in your hand?” “A staff.”
But of course there is a danger that we will rely too greatly on tools, on gimmicks, and forget that it is our faith in God and our connection to the destiny of the Jewish people which make it all possible. So God tells Moses: “Cast it on the ground…put out your hand and grasp it by the tail.”
You need the staff, but hold it gingerly. The power is not yours; it is God’s. You are a messenger for the good of the people. Indeed, later on in the Torah, Moses becomes too reliant on the staff, hitting the rock with it to show his own power, resulting in God forbidding him from entering the land.
The story of Moses in this week’s parsha is thus a lesson for all of us: to start by just being amazed, then to find the holiness in the world and our place in the unique history and mission of the Jewish people, followed by actualizing our faith to do the holy work we are here for, realizing that it is not our power but God’s, and, finally, using our unique talents and tools to bring the world to a more redemptive place.