Drash on Parshat Shemot
Parshat Shemot: Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh
In Hebrew, there is no present tense form of the verb to be, lihiyot. You can “was” or “have been” in the past, or you can “will be” in the future, but in the here and now, you just are…but without the word “are.” So, where in English one might say “I am shocked to learn this confusing information,” in Hebrew one would just say, colloquially, “Ani b’shock.” Literally, “I in shock.” One can imagine that, was he using today’s Hebrew, Moses might have said these words exactly in this week’s parsha when he encounters God for the first time.
After setting the scene in Egypt and casting a new Pharoah who did not know Joseph, Parshat Shemot introduces Moses and his special relationship with God and the enslaved Israelite people. Moses, raised in the house of royalty, has committed a grievous sin in killing an Egyptian task master. He flees to desert, finds a wife and a new vocation, and meets the God of his ancestors.
While out tending his flock, Moses encounters a burning bush which, to his amazement, is not consumed by the fire. God calls out to Moses from the bush and sets him on his mission to free the Israelites from bondage. Moses is willing but, reasonably, wants to know the name of the master who has charged him with this monumental task of liberation.
In Exodus 3:13 Moses asks God: “When I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘the god of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘by which name,’ what shall I say to them.
God replies in the next verse, saying “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (I will be that which I will be), thus shall you say to the Israelites, Ehyeh sent you.”
This answer seems reasonable… except that “Ehyeh” is not a name. In Hebrew, “Ehyeh” is one of those existent forms of the verb “to be!” “Ehyeh” is the first-person future tense of the verb, meaning, I will be. So, rather than telling Moses a name, God informs Moses of the most basic fact of the universe- I will be that which I will be.
Our tradition has wrestled with these words for millenia, though our commentator Rashi seems to have found an explanation in the Talmud. There is a story in Talmud Berakhot 9b that replays this scene and seems to provide an explanation as to its grammatical peculiarities!
It says in the Talmud:
״אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה״, אָמַר לוֹ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְמֹשֶׁה, לֵךְ אֱמוֹר לָהֶם לְיִשְׂרָאֵל: אֲנִי הָיִיתִי עִמָּכֶם בְּשִׁעְבּוּד זֶה, וַאֲנִי אֶהְיֶה עִמָּכֶם בְּשִׁעְבּוּד מַלְכֻיוֹת
I will be that which I will be. God said to Moses, go tell Israel, I was with you in this enslavement, and I’ll be with you later in the enslavement of the kingdoms (referring ahead to the later history of the sacking of the kingdoms of Judea and Israel).
אָמַר לְפָנָיו: רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם, דַּיָּה לַצָּרָה בִּשְׁעָתָהּ. אָמַר לוֹ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא: לֵךְ אֱמוֹר לָהֶם ״אֶהְיֶה שְׁלָחַנִי אֲלֵיכֶם
Moses said to him, master of the universe, let that suffering be endured in its time. (In other words, ‘we don’t need to think about the bad times ahead’).
God seems to take the note and adjusts- “The holy one blessed be God said- go tell them, ‘Ehye (I will be) sent me to you.’” Rashi explains then that the reason God says “Ehyhe,” I will be, is to indicate that God will be with the Israelites in their sorrow. However, we know by the Talmud’s inclusion of the process of the story, that it also means God will be with them in the sorrow to come, even if it’s not the focus in each present moment.
It probably goes without saying that, despite our great fortune, we as Jews find ourselves again in a moment of sorrow. It is a moment that Moses did not want to the think about, that he could never imagine, but that God knew would come. I am comforted, though, (as any nerdy rabbinical student might be) by Hebrew grammar. Hebrew grammar tells me that even in the hardest present, there is always a future. I know that, though I couldn’t tell you God’s name, that our God is with us even now. Especially now.
Shabbat Shalom
