S2E2 Va'era 2023

In this week's episode, we learn about God's desire to take Bnei Yisrael out of Egypt in a way that would demonstrate He was the true Ruler of the world. God demonstrates this in several ways: It would have been simpler to simply strike the Egyptians with blindness and then have Bnei Yisrael walk out of Egypt. God does NOT want to do this. He wants Pharaoh and the Egyptians to see God's power over the natural world and to willingly SEND Bnei Yisrael out of Egypt. It would also have been simpler for Moshe to tell Pharaoh he would not pray for specific plagues to end until Pharoah had sent the Hebrews out. But once again, forcing Pharaoh wasn't the goal. God wanted Pharaoh to come to the realization that he should send out Bnei Yisrael on his own. Each of God's plagues show God's dominance over an element or attribute of the natural world. We also see a focus on gratitude in this week's parsha. Moshe is not permitted to perform the first three plagues because he owes a debt of gratitude to the sand and the water (each of which helped save him). Pharaoh owes Moshe gratitude as well- but doesn't act on it, preferring to go back on his word time and time again. We learn that we should be like Moshe and should not be like Pharaoh when it comes to being grateful and keeping our word. Based on the questions and discussions in this week's episode, we come up with some very important lessons and takeaways for our own lives!