Shemot (Part 2) - Exodus 1:1-6:1

(For an overview of this week's parashah, you can read part-1 here.)

Bar Fight!

Here's the setup:

At the middle of the parashah, Moses talks with God at the burning bush. They have a bit of an argument, but they compromise and work things out. Moses, is marred and has a son. At no point does YHVH tell him, "I hate foreskins, remember that!"

Granted, circumcision was also an Egyptian thing, but Moses was out of there, living a rural life in Midian, herding sheep. So cutting off the tip of the foreskin (the method of circumcision today is more extreme than it was described in the Tanach) was of no concern to him.

So Moses get his orders, and he takes and wife and kid to Egypt with him.

On the way, they stop a a place to rest and get some food and drink, a מלון in Hebrew. Some translate this word as an "inn". I prefer to use the colloquial term, "pub", since it's a more informal place than, say, a hotel, which also shares that same meaning. Remember, this is 3,500 years ago!

And interesting verb used is פגש (pagash) which means a meeting, having a face-to-face with another person. And in verse 4:24, we read that YHVH met Moses in the pub! While this wasn't a problem with the early readers, those who hold a more sophisticated and modern view of what a God is might have a problem with that verb.

Or maybe not.

Now YHVH notices that the Moses' son isn't circumcised and wants to kill Moses. The text doesn't say how Tzipporah (the wife) knew that her husband was in danger, but she takes quick action. She takes a sharp piece of flint that she either had with her or found it nearby, and snipped off the tip of her son's foreskin, causing some bleeding and, probably, a bit of screaming.

Now, the text doesn't say how she knew to do that either. Perhaps there is a missing bit of dialogue, such as:

YHVH: "What?! That kid isn't circumcised?! That's it Moses, you're a dead man. I am going to..."

But as soon as that's over. Moses is probably shaking, the kid is crying, the wife is holding a bloody stone, and the other people in the pub are just minding their own business, YHVH then tells him to go meet Aaron (I assume that Moses had a photo with him or something, since he had no memory of his older brother) And Moses met Aaron.

And, again, the verb form for this face-to-face meeting was פגש, "pagash".

It's certainly worth noting!

The Aramaic Targum Onkelos, an interpretation of the text, changes it from "YHVH met him" to "an angel of YHVH met him", because meeting God in a pub is weird, while meeting His angel, is not!