Shemot (parsha)

Shemot, Shemoth, or Shemos ( — Hebrew for "names," the second word, and first distinctive word, of the parashah) is the thirteenth weekly Torah portion (, ''parashah'') in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the first in the Book of Exodus. It constitutes . The parashah tells of the Israelites' affliction in Egypt, the hiding and rescuing of the infant Moses, Moses in Midian, the calling of Moses, circumcision on the way, meeting the elders, and Moses before Pharaoh.

It is made up of 6,762 Hebrew letters, 1,763 Hebrew words, 124 verses, and 215 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews read it the thirteenth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in late December or January.

Readings

In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , '' aliyot''. In the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh'')). Parashat Shemot has two further subdivisions, called "closed portion" (, ''setumah'') divisions (abbreviated with the Hebrew letter (''samekh'')) within the open portion divisions. The first open portion divides the first reading. The second open portion covers the balance of the first and part of the second readings. The third open portion covers the balance of the second and part of the third readings. The fourth open portion covers the balance of the third and all of the fourth and fifth readings. The fifth open portion divides the sixth reading. And the sixth open portion covers the balance of the sixth and all of the seventh readings. Closed portion divisions separate the third and fourth readings and conclude the seventh reading.

First reading — Exodus 1:1–17

In the first reading, 70 descendants of Jacob came down to Egypt, and the Israelites were fruitful and filled the land. The first open portion ends here.

Joseph and all of his generation died, and a new Pharaoh arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. He told his people that the Israelites had become too numerous and required shrewd dealing, lest they multiply and in a war join Egypt's enemies. So the Egyptians set taskmasters over the Israelites to afflict them with burdens — and the Israelites built store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses — but the more that the Egyptians afflicted them, the more they multiplied. The Egyptians embittered the Israelites' lives with hard service in brick and mortar and in the field. Pharaoh told the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah that when they delivered Hebrew women, they were to kill the sons, but let the daughters live. But the midwives feared God, and disobeyed Pharaoh, saving the baby boys. The first reading ends here.

Second reading — Exodus 1:18–2:10

In the second reading, Pharaoh asked the midwives why they had saved the boys, and the midwives told Pharaoh that the Hebrew women were more vigorous than the Egyptian women and delivered before a midwife could get to them. God rewarded the midwives because they feared God, and God made them houses. The Israelites continued to multiply, and Pharaoh charged all his people to cast every newborn boy into the river, leaving the girls alive. The second open portion ends here with the end of chapter .

As the reading continues with chapter , a Levite couple had a baby boy, and the woman hid him three months. When she could not longer hide him, she made an ark of bulrushes, daubed it with slime and pitch, put the boy inside, and laid it in river. As his sister watched, Pharaoh's daughter came to bathe in the river, saw the ark, and sent her handmaid to fetch it. She opened it, saw the crying boy, and had compassion on him, recognizing that he was one of the Hebrew children. His sister asked Pharaoh's daughter whether she should call a nurse from the Hebrew women, and Pharaoh's daughter agreed. The girl called the child's mother, and Pharaoh's daughter hired her to nurse the child for her. When the child grew, his mother brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, who adopted him as her son, calling him Moses, because she drew him out of the water. The second reading ends here.

Third reading — Exodus 2:11–25

In the third reading, when Moses grew up, he went to his brethren and saw their burdens. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, he looked this way and that, and when he saw no one, he struck the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, he came upon two Hebrew men fighting, and he asked the wrongdoer why he struck his fellow. The man asked Moses who had made him king, asking him whether he intended to kill him as he did the Egyptian, so Moses realized that his deed was known. When Pharaoh heard, he sought to kill Moses, but Moses fled to Midian, where he sat down by a well. The priest of Midian's seven daughters had come to water their father's flock, but shepherds drove them away. Moses stood up and helped the daughters, and watered their flock. When they came home to their father Reuel, he asked how they were able to come home so early, and they explained how an Egyptian had delivered them from the shepherds, and had also drawn water for the flock. Reuel then asked his daughters why they had left the man there, and told them to call him back to join them for a meal. Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah to marry. Moses and Zipporah had a baby boy, whom Moses called Gershom, saying that he had been a stranger in a strange land. The third open portion ends here.

In the continuation of the reading, the Pharaoh died, and the Israelites groaned under their bondage and cried to God, and God heard them and remembered God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The third reading and a closed portion end here with the end of chapter .

Fourth reading — Exodus 3:1–15

In the fourth reading, in chapter , when Moses was keeping his father-in-law Jethro's flock at the mountain of God, Horeb (another name for the Biblical Mount Sinai), the angel of God appeared to him in a flame in the midst of a bush that burned but was not consumed. God called to Moses from the bush, and Moses answered: "Here I am." God told Moses not to draw near, and to take off his shoes, for the place on which he stood was holy ground. God identified as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, reported having seen the Israelites' affliction and heard their cry, and promised to deliver them from Egypt to Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. God told Moses that God was sending Moses to Pharaoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt, but Moses asked who he was that he should do so. God told Moses that God would be with him, and after he brought them out of Egypt, he would serve God on that mountain. Moses asked God whom he should say sent him to the Israelites, and God said "I Will Be What I Will Be" (, ''Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh''), and told Moses to tell the Israelites that "I Will Be" (, ''Ehyeh'') sent him. God told Moses to tell the Israelites that the Lord (, '' YHVH''), the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had sent him, and this would be God's Name forever. The fourth reading ends here.

Fifth reading — Exodus 3:16–4:17

In the fifth reading, God directed Moses to tell Israel's elders what God had promised, and predicted that they would heed Moses and go with him to tell Pharaoh that God had met with them and request that Pharaoh allow them to go three days' journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to God. God knew that Pharaoh would not let them go unless forced by a mighty hand, so God would strike Egypt with wonders, and then Pharaoh would let them go. God would make the Egyptians view the Israelites favorably, so that the Israelites would not leave empty handed, but every woman would ask her neighbor for jewels and clothing and the Israelites would strip the Egyptians. Moses predicted that they would not believe him, so God told him to cast his rod on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from it. God told Moses to take it by the tail, he did so, and it became a rod again. God explained that this was so that they might believe that God had appeared to Moses. Then God told Moses to put his hand into his bosom, he did, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. God told him to put his hand back into his bosom, he did, and when he took it out, it had returned to normal. God predicted that if they would not heed the first sign, then they would believe the second sign, and if they would not believe those two signs, then Moses was to take water from the river and pour it on the land, and the water would become blood. Moses protested that he was not a man of words but was slow of speech, but God asked him who had made man's mouth, so Moses should go, and God would teach him what to say. Moses pleaded with God to send someone else, and God became angry with Moses. God said that Moses' well-spoken brother Aaron was coming to meet him, Moses would tell him the words that God would teach them, he would be Moses' spokesman, and Moses would be like God to him. And God told Moses to take his staff with him to perform signs. The fifth reading and the fourth open portion end here.

Sixth reading — Exodus 4:18–31

In the sixth reading, Moses returned to Jethro and asked him to let him return to Egypt, and Jethro bade him to go in peace. God told Moses that he could return, for all the men who sought to kill him were dead. Moses took his wife and sons and the rod of God and returned to Egypt. God told Moses to be sure to perform for Pharaoh all the wonders that God had put in his hand, but God would harden his heart, and he would not let the people go. And Moses was to tell Pharaoh that Israel was God's firstborn son, and Pharaoh was to let God's son go to serve God, and should he refuse, God would kill Pharaoh's firstborn son. At the lodging-place along the way, God sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a flint and circumcised her son, and touched his legs with it, saying that he was a bridegroom of blood to her, so God let him alone. The fifth open portion ends here.

As the reading continues, God told Aaron to go to the wilderness to meet Moses, and he went, met him at the mountain of God, and kissed him. Moses told him all that God had said, and they gathered the Israelite elders and Aaron told them what God had said and performed the signs. The people believed, and when they heard that God had remembered them and seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshipped. The sixth reading ends here with the end of chapter .

Seventh reading — Exodus 5:1–6:1

In the seventh reading, in chapter , Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh that God said to let God's people go so that they might hold a feast to God in the wilderness, but Pharaoh asked who God was that he should let Israel go. They said that God had met with them, and asked Pharaoh to let them go three days into the wilderness and sacrifice to God, lest God fall upon them with pestilence or the sword. Pharaoh asked them why they caused the people to rest from their work, and commanded that the taskmasters lay heavier work on them and no longer give them straw to make brick but force them to go and gather straw for themselves to make the same quota of bricks.

The people scattered to gather straw, and the taskmasters beat the Israelite officers, asking why they had not fulfilled the quota of brick production as before. The Israelites cried to Pharaoh, asking why he dealt so harshly with his servants, but he said that they were idle if they had time to ask to go and sacrifice to God. So the officers met Moses and Aaron as they came from meeting Pharaoh and accused them of making the Israelites to be abhorrent to Pharaoh and his servants and to give them a weapon to kill the people.

In the ''maftir'' () reading that concludes the parashah, Moses asked God why God had dealt so ill with the people and why God had sent him, for since he came to Pharaoh to speak in God's name, he had dealt ill with the people, and God had not delivered the people. And God told Moses that now he would see what God would do to Pharaoh, for by a strong hand would he let the people go, and by a strong hand would he drive them out of his land. The seventh reading, a closed portion, and the parashah end here.

Readings according to the triennial cycle

Jews who read the Torah according to the triennial cycle of Torah reading read the parashah according to the following schedule:

In ancient parallels

The parashah has parallels in these ancient sources:

Exodus chapter 3

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describe the Land of Israel as a land flowing “with milk and honey.” Similarly, the Middle Egyptian (early second millennium BCE) tale of Sinuhe Palestine described the Land of Israel or, as the Egyptian tale called it, the land of Yaa: "It was a good land called Yaa. Figs were in it and grapes. It had more wine than water. Abundant was its honey, plentiful its oil. All kind of fruit were on its trees. Barley was there and emmer, and no end of cattle of all kinds."

In inner-Biblical interpretation

The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources:

Exodus chapter 1

The report of that the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied echoes .

Exodus chapter 2

The meeting of Moses and Zipporah at the well in is the Torah's third of several meetings at watering holes that lead to marriage. Also of the same type scene are Abraham's servant's meeting (on behalf of Isaac) of Rebekah at the well in and Jacob's meeting of Rachel at the well in . Each involves (1) a trip to a distant land, (2) a stop at a well, (3) a young woman coming to the well to draw water, (4) a heroic drawing of water, (5) the young woman going home to report to her family, (6) the visiting man brought to the family, and (7) a subsequent marriage.

Robert Wilson noted that the language and use to report God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt is echoed in the language 1 Samuel uses to report Saul’s elevation.

In and , God remembered God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. Similarly, God remembered Noah to deliver him from the flood in ; God promised to remember God's covenant not to destroy the Earth again by flood in ; God remembered Abraham to deliver Lot from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in ; God remembered Rachel to deliver her from childlessness in ; Moses called on God to remember God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to deliver the Israelites from God's wrath after the incident of the Golden Calf in and ; God promises to "remember" God's covenant with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham to deliver the Israelites and the Land of Israel in ; the Israelites were to blow upon their trumpets to be remembered and delivered from their enemies in ; Samson called on God to deliver him from the Philistines in ; Hannah prayed for God to remember her and deliver her from childlessness in and God remembered Hannah's prayer to deliver her from childlessness in ; Hezekiah called on God to remember Hezekiah's faithfulness to deliver him from sickness in 2 Kings and ; Jeremiah called on God to remember God's covenant with the Israelites to not condemn them in ; Jeremiah called on God to remember him and think of him, and avenge him of his persecutors in ; God promises to remember God's covenant with the Israelites and establish an everlasting covenant in ; God remembers the cry of the humble in Zion to avenge them in Psalm ; David called upon God to remember God's compassion and mercy in ; Asaph called on God to remember God's congregation to deliver them from their enemies in ; God remembered that the Israelites were only human in ; Ethan the Ezrahite called on God to remember how short Ethan's life was in ; God remembers that humans are but dust in ; God remembers God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in ; God remembers God's word to Abraham to deliver the Israelites to the Land of Israel in ; the Psalmist calls on God to remember him to favor God's people, to think of him at God's salvation, that he might behold the prosperity of God's people in ; God remembered God's covenant and repented according to God's mercy to deliver the Israelites in the wake of their rebellion and iniquity in ; the Psalmist calls on God to remember God's word to God's servant to give him hope in ; God remembered us in our low estate to deliver us from our adversaries in ; Job called on God to remember him to deliver him from God's wrath in ; Nehemiah prayed to God to remember God's promise to Moses to deliver the Israelites from exile in ; and Nehemiah prayed to God to remember him to deliver him for good in .

Exodus chapter 4

The Hebrew Bible