Parashat Vaera

Just as Parashat Vaera marks the beginning of the Israelites’ journey toward cohesive nationhood, the Shabbaton sees the eighth graders begin to coalesce into a community, culminating in the Israel trip in March. Instead of sharing my own extended thoughts, I’d like to share a dvar Torah written by two of my eighth-grade students, which they will deliver to the eighth grade this weekend (lightly edited for clarity).
-Saul Zebovitz

In this week’s parashah, Vaera, Moshe encounters God (as a burning bush), and God commands Moshe to get Pharaoh to let Bnai Israel leave Egypt. Most of us know this parashah very well, but when we looked deeper, we found a significant message in the conversation between G-d and Moshe.

The line that caught our attention was “וְלָקַחְתִּ֨י אֶתְכֶ֥ם לִי֙ לְעָ֔ם”, “I will take you to ME as a people” (Shemot 6:7). This could relate to us because we are building a community during our Shabbaton, just like how God created a community with Bnai Israel. Coming together as a grade for the first time this year means something more than going to a trampoline park or spending Shabbat with one another. This Shabbaton is more about learning how to build our own community and getting to know our grade as a whole better.  Another connection we found to our own building of community is in the opening of the parashah. Vaera means “I appeared,” and God appears to Moshe in a new way than God did to the characters of Sefer Bereshit. As the parashah says, “I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make Myself known to them by My name Hashem.” In the same way, we are connecting to each other in new and different ways which we haven’t before. 

When we thought about what it means to have a community we thought: It’s a place made up of people that can never be replaced. It’s also a feeling that we create with each other such as trust, and happiness, and lastly, community is an action of working together to build a successful and positive experience for everyone. Community is also one of the core values in Judaism and is crucial for enjoying many Jewish traditions like celebrating the holidays. 

A main theme that came up in creating this Shabbaton was branching out and meeting new people and creating new connections. In doing this we find people that have similar interests with them (like God did with Bnai Israel).

Finally, we have the power to create a community with each other, and it is our decision if we want to make our community a positive space or a negative one. We can choose to make this space where we can have trust in others and find “our people” within the community just like Bnai Israel had with God. Our Shabbaton challenge that we have for you is to branch out and connect with new and old friends.

Shabbat shalom!