Parshas Shemos/Vaera - The Birth of a New Religion and the Age of Miracles

(You can listen a version of this thought on my new Human Parsha podcast.)

At the beginning of Parshas Vaera, G-d informs Moshe that the revelation of the name 'Hashem' is a unique one that had not been truly revealed to any previous generation including that of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 

When Moshe had asked what name of G-d should he tell the Jews sent him, the 'Name' was given for the first time. Without getting too esoteric, what does the revelation of the 'Name' Hashem mean?

The name Hashem until now had been used exclusively by members of Avraham's immediate family. Outsiders however use the name 'Elokim', 'Adon' or other names meaning G-d. Must as in contemporary times a broad range of peoples use a term denoting a single Creator of the universe, but do not necessarily share values or beliefs, so too the people of that time had the concept of a Creator. Indeed, Abraham at one point encounters a 'priest' who serves a High Holy G-d and dedicates a tenth of his possessions to Him.

This general term for the Creator is used almost exclusively by Joseph, rather than by the forefathers, once he descends to Egypt and it gives him some common ground with the Egyptians. Pharaoh decides to appoint Yosef to a top position after asking his advisers whether they can imagine another man in whom the spirt of 'Elokim' is present as it is in the Hebrew slave.

In Shemos, up until the Divine revelation at the thorn bush, the Jews also appear to use Elokim exclusively. This common understanding perhaps induces the midwives to spare the Jewish babies, but prevents none of the other litany of cruelties that Pharaoh and Egypt inflict on them up to and including genocide. A minority of Egyptians may fear G-d, but they remain a minority even once the Ten Plagues arrive.

The widespread adoption of 'Hashem' by the Jews is also a religious division. Rather than following a universal creed, G-d reveals Himself to the Jews as a personal G-d with a specific mission for them. And that mission touches off a newfound hostility that is no longer just ethnic, but also religious.

When Moshe initially approaches Pharaoh, he informs the monarch that Hashem, the G-d of the Jews, sent him. Pharaoh sneers that he knows of no such Hashem and will not release the Jews. Then Moshe describes Him as Elokei HaIvrim, the G-d of the Hebrews, but wins no concessions.

Previously when Sodom and Gomorrah had been facing destruction, Lot had tried to persuade his sons-in-law to leave because Hashem was about to destroy the city, and they viewed him as a jester. 

Unlike Elokim, the name Hashem, unknown to most, spurred newfound hostility and disdain.

But the revelation of Hashem marked a number of epochal changes. The march to the Exodus ushers in the age of prophecy and miracles. In the past, most had perceived G-d as a Supreme Being who created the universe and then allowed natural law to predominate. And indeed until now there had been massive catastrophic punishments, but no clear miracles that clearly violated natural law except in a handful of small scale and semi-hidden cases such as Sarah's pregnancy. 

Previous angels had appeared in human form, but the thorn bush that Moshe sees has a fiery angel. G-d then gives Moshe a few prearranged miracles to perform that clearly and publicly violate how the world should work, such as turning a staff into a snake, before a series of plagues that shatter the view of the world as a set of predictable events, and then part the sea and later even stop the sun in its tracks.

This was part of the revelation of Hashem. Rather than a supremacy over natural forces, Hashem was revealing Himself as a personal G-d, concerned with man and capable of casually overturning the order that He had created so long ago in order to reveal Himself to the world and to advance His mission.  

What began with a burning thorn bush was the birth of a new religion, a separate Jewish religion with its own laws, a separate peoplehood with its own mission and also a new era in which prophecy and miracles would create a direct connection between G-d and man.