Exodus: Chapter 14

A reverberating scream
to walk
in life
through the drowning deeps

Walls of blood
and walls of water

Lifted on beating wings
through breaking waters















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Yet another chiastic closing to the story of Egypt. With the taking up of the body of Joseph, we return to his primal blessing of "the sky above, and deeps lurking below." Now the waters used to drown the Israelite babies turn around to drown who had thrown them in.
This is a chiastic return to the opening plague of blood. Once again, there is a demand to "stand" (va-yityazev); once again, Moses lifts his arm. The bloody lintel posts become the walls of water through which Israel must pass, in a continuation of the birth imagery of the previous 2 chapters.
We return as well to the initial fear of the price of freedom: "This is what we said to you in Egypt! Leave us alone, and we will work for Egypt, for it is better to work for Egypt than die in the wilderness," and Moses' contention "They will not have faith in me."
Now, after Israel passes through the breaking waters, they "have faith in God, and in Moses, his servant. The first stage of the Exodus is complete.]

Exodus 13: In Writing

engrave me as a sign on your arm

a seal on your heart

for love is stronger than memory

rolls through time's forgetful fits

between our eyes

world stirs

pregnant with mystery

of things unbreathed

that will tumble from our lips

at meeting

Fall back and feel 

the strong cradle of your arm

rock me through the deeps

my pillar of fire

burning through the night

when the dark expanse

 quivers in sleep 

Exodus: Chapter 13

Vows fulfilled
faithfulness

An arm for an arm
sight for sight

We will remember
and redeem

Stand in place
and dedicate

Those who open the threshold
the spaces between
and what is carried









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"For with a strong hand, God has taken you out of Egypt"--this refrain is repeated four times, echoing the many references to hands since the dedication of Moses. We must know that there was an expression of power, power dedicated to "taking you out of Egypt"; that this was battle that had to be fought, and that created an indelible connection. This strong hand will be carried "as a sign on your hand" throughout generations, and indicates God's faithful keeping of his promises to the patriarchs.
In the aftermath of the plague of the firstborn, Moses gives over God's message to the children of Israel. The Israelite firstborn, human to animal, are paralleled to the Egyptian. The slaying of the firstborn dedicated the Israelite firstborn to God at the same moment, in a single action. All are taken--the question is the form of the taking.
This introduces the idea of pidyon, redemption: the ability to stand in the place of something else, to transfer. An impure animal's firstborn can be redeemed, replaced with an animal fit for the altar. The freeing of Israel is not by fiat, but by redemption. Being freed from "the house of slavery (beit avadim)" demands "this is the service (avoda) you must do," an exchange, not a loosening.
Other parallels to the plagues on Egypt: the Israelite's must clear leavened bread "from their borders" (gevulha), a dedication that echoes the repeated attacks on Egypt's "borders"; they must make the Exodus a "sign" on their hand, an echo of the many "signs" God put before Pharaoh; they must learn what to "see" and not to "see" must dedicate their eyes--in parallel to the signs done "before the eyes of Pharaoh."
It is both a redemption, and taking an active role. They, like Moses and Aaron, become communicators, dedicating their "mouth".
Still a focus on "leaving" and "coming" and the liminal spaces within. Memories are placed "between the eyes"; those who are dedicated are those who "open the womb" (peter reham) a return to the focus on motherhood that opened the book. This is a birth, and the womb has opened. The firstborn represent the  first steps to nationhood, and opening to communicate "when your son asks."
The chapter closes with the Israelites proving that they too can be faithful to their oaths. Joseph is at last "taken up" from Egypt, indicating that redemption has truly come. There can be reparation,  a "pidyon" of evil]

Exodus 12: In writing

Between the eves

Between the watches

At the splitting of the night

Between the days

Between the jambs

At the dripping first light

Between your teeth

a cracking bread

a bitter burst

between you lips

the yeast unrisen

the sent not sent

pressed in bloody passage

till I am heaved

mewling,

from the womb

tumbling into the milky glow

See me now, between your lids

Guard me at your fingertip

Gather me in

Exodus: Chapter 12

stand in the doorway

the space and the time
between


Guard what you
care for
within
without


The birth of a nation












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A chapter of new beginnings--"This month for you shall be head of all months, first of the months of the year." With new beginning, a change of tone. We have entered the realm of history rather than intimate personal stories. God now speaks to the collective, the "entire congregation of Israel" (kol adat yisrael). In place of declaration and discussion, detailed instructions of what should be done and not done, in order to preserve memory and identity "for generations."
Yet also a culmination and accentuation of the gradually escalating plagues. Pharaoh's plea "only remove this death from me!" now becomes literal death. The emphasis of "coming" (bo) and "leaving" (vayetaze) becomes here a focus on the actual doorway, the space between inside and outside. We are at the liminal transition, literally in the doorway, between past and future; night and day; slavery and nationhood.
Now Israel takes responsibility for their own redemption. It is they--rather than God--who make the "sign", they who cause a separation, they who make their own version of the first plague, painting the doorway in the "blood" that has run through the narrative since the opening of Exodus.
Yet we also have the  introduction of a new keyword:  "guard"  (hi-shamer, mishmeret). At this moment of change, a need to guard and preserve what matters; time and memory need to be held close....]

Exodus 11: In writing

There will come a time

when I’ll see your face

when our eyes will meet

and the hard space between

will rain in bitter-sharp shards

where we stand

hands open

Would I be I without you?

Exodus: Chapter 11

The end from the beginning

Intimacy of conflict
locked together

friend and face

differentiate
and close


Divorce


We cried
now you will cry








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An interlude. A strange, abrupt chapter, in which nothing actually happens. Rather it serves as a bookend, closing Moses' protracted interaction with Pharaoh, in preparation for the final blow (to be be delivered by God Himself). There is a chiastic closing to the story of Moses' mission. If God appointed Moses in response to Israel's "scream," now, at this final plague, Egypt will "scream." In this final warning, we return to Moses initial declaration to Pharaoh:  "My firstborn son, Israel. I say to you, send forth My son that he may serve Me, and if you refuse to let him go, I will kill your firstborn son."
What stands out here, in this final confrontation before the "complete" (11:1) severance,  is a strange intimacy between Israel and Egypt, the oppressors and the oppressed. Moses and Pharaoh fight each other in an exchange that--in contrast to their earlier, formal, conversations--is personal, with Moses storming out. God says: "he will send you out complete (kalla)" which can also mean "bride"--a connotation that is reenforced by the language garesh ye-garesh: "he will divorce you."   Moses, we now learn, "is great in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of Pharaoh's servants and in the eyes of the people." Israel finds "favor" in the eyes of Egypt, in an echo of the earlier intimacy between Joseph and Pharaoh. Suddenly, the children of Israel can ask of their Egyptian "friends" for silver and gold. Friendship and favor enter a relationship that seemed to consist only of blood, murder and slavery.
At this final parting of ways, the full divorce that will "separate the children of Israel", there is a bittersweet awareness of how intertwined the two nations are]

Exodus 10: In Writing

cover your eyes

block your ears

annihilate answer

but upswells 

the  rasp that haunts 

the dark that seeps

till your eyes swarm

your ears burst

an open deathhead scream

Exodus: Chapter 10

Who is seen
and who sees?

cover your eyes


darkness becomes tangible
the effect the cause
















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the implicit attack on Pharaoh's will and identity becomes explicit. "For I have strengthened his heart" says God, undermining Pharaoh's act of willful denial. We have entered the realm of narrative--"So that you will tell your sons and sons sons how I plotted (hitolalti--lit. made happen) with Egypt"--and God is the plot master, Pharaoh his character. The leitwords are "Come" and "go"--a veritable screenplay, with entrances and exits.
The plagues continue, yet gain force. We return to the swarms that opened the series (the frogs and lice), once again battering the very "boundaries" (gevulha) of Egypt. Once again, the Egyptian fears of the "rising" (va-yaal) hoards of Israelites is given concrete form in the rising swarms of locus. But now the locus "cover" the very "eye of the earth". From being a "see-er", with the plagues done before his eyes, Pharaoh becomes something to be seen: "to show (le-harot) My greatness." The locus are a living death: "Only remove this death from me."
We also move closer to the inner circle. God spoke to Moses, who spoke to Aaron, who spoke to Pharaoh. Now Moses raises his hand instead of Aaron, causing the plague.
We move from tangible plagues to the intangible, and the insidious attack is the more frightening. Pharaoh will indeed "know" that there is a God that he did not know, attacking the senses directly. The hail was characterized by beating, unbearable noise. Only when the "voices" stopped, did Pharaoh rediscover his will. The locus brought darkness as they covered the land. Now the darkness itself becomes "tangible (va-yimash)". The pressure on the senses, the attack on the self, without intermediary]

Exodus 9: In Writing

hold tight as you fall

losing the name you held

fingers fisting your heart

an icy fire

stand on a cliff, crumbling

sound exploding your ears

root your feet

to the floundering earth

and say

I will not

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

Fleeing to yesterday

Dangling from a crook

Where will you put your heart?