Mad Men

A D’var Torah for Parashat Beshalah

By Cantor Robin Anne Joseph (AJR ’96)

I was once told by a person who had had a career in advertising that when you buy a car, you’re not really buying a car. You are buying Love. Or Adventure. Or Pleasure. Or Exhilaration. Or Dreams. Think about some popular automobile campaigns out there through the years: “The Art of Seduction.” “The True Definition of Luxury.” “Grab Life By the Horns.” You can’t as easily sell a car if you just talk about what great gas mileage it gets or what its safety ratings are. Rather, you must market your product to let your customers know that the car is going to “hug the road” or that they’ll be sitting in “rich Corinthian leather.” The name of the advertising game is Intimacy and Love.

Parashat Beshalah feels like the culmination of one big PR campaign. There is so much spin going on to get the Children of Israel out of Egypt. Spin and PR and marketing. And it’s not just freedom that יהוה is trying to “sell;” I would argue that יהוה is trying to “sell” יהוה’s self; יהוה wants to be known. Almost in the Biblical sense. And not just to the Israelites. There is almost a wistful sense of longing, each time יהוה mentions the wonders that יהוה intends to perform, for people to not just take יהוה for a test drive, but to get to know (ידע) יהוה for the long haul.

But which people?

When I was younger (last year), I always thought, and taught, that יהוה was working wonders in order to convince the Israelites of יהוה’s might. It was the Israelites, and not the Egyptians, that needed convincing, despite all the “Let’s Make a Deal” charades that Moses and Aaron were going through with Pharaoh. The Israelites, who had been unnoticed by יהוה for so long, who were mistrustful of Moses, who were stuck in the muck of their brick-making servitude—they were the ones who needed the sound and light show that יהוה could provide to prove to them that they had a god that would deliver (and deliver them).

That was my more “mature” understanding of the situation. As opposed to when I was even younger (elementary school-aged) when I thought that יהוה had done wonders to scare the Egyptians into submission. (“Let My People Go!” “No” “OK, you’ll be sorry!” {Insert plague here.}) That was a simpler way to chew on this story. And it made for a good song.

But I’m now back to my grade school days way-of-thinking. I’ve decided that this PR campaign really is mainly for the Egyptians. Not only does Pharaoh and his courtiers and his people need convincing, but יהוה seems to want some brand recognition. יהוה basically spends three parashiyot trying to get Pharaoh (and his courtiers and the rest of the Egyptians) to know יהוה. Pharaoh fires the first provocative shot: “Who is יהוה that I should heed him and let Israel go? I do not know (יָדַ֙עְתִּי֙) יהוה, nor will I let Israel go.” [Exodus 5:2] And then יהוה fires the next (approximately) 10 rounds, culminating here, in parashat Beshalah: “Let the Egyptians know (וְיָדְע֥וּ) that I am יהוה, when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his riders.” [Exodus 14:18]

It’s not that the Israelites never need convincing or “knowing.” God certainly tells them, “And I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God. And you shall know (וִֽידַעְתֶּ֗ם) that I, יהוה, am your God who freed you from the labors of the Egyptians.” [Exodus 6:7] But it sure seems like the Egyptians are the target audience; God’s desire for who should “know” God is directed at the Egyptians over and over again, by about 10:1.

So, the point of this whole escapade is so that the “Egyptians know” יהוה and the Israelites are, what—secondary beneficiaries?

Through this whole episode of these “Mad Men” of the Exodus (יהוה, Moses, Pharaoh) vying for each other’s attention (and ratings?), I cannot stop thinking about the Talmudic snippet describing The Holy One, Blessed is God who, as the angels celebrated in the aftermath of the destruction of the Egyptians in the Sea of Reeds, rebukes the ministering angels saying, “The works of My hands are drowning at sea and you are saying a song?” [Megillah 10b] Those are the words of a parent who is despondent that their wicked children could not see clearly enough to mend their evil ways. There is no “rejoicing over their downfall.” [Megillah 10b] There is only a dejected deity who could not successfully get the Egyptians to know יהוה. And thereby be redeemed themselves.

יהוה tries mightily, with Moses as a junior partner, to sway both the Egyptians and the Israelites to opt for redemption—pressing the Pharaoh, who won’t allow it and the Israelites, who are mistrustful of it. But what I think יהוה wants most of all is a people who will “know” יהוה, who will love יהוה, who will share an intimate relationship with יהוה even—or especially—when it’s a hard sell.

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Cantor Robin Anne Joseph (’96) teaches cantillation as part of the faculty at AJR. A musician and composer, Robin’s liturgical and folk-rock compositions can be found through Transcontinental Music Publications and OySongs and sung at a synagogues world-wide. Past-president of ARC (the Association of Rabbis and Cantors), past-president of the Women Cantors’ Network, and the president emerita of Kol Hazzanim—the Westchester Community of Cantors, Robin has served the congregation of Temple Beth Shalom in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY for the last 44 years.