Exodus 1:1 – 6:1; Isaiah 27:6 – 28:13; 29:22-23; Jeremiah 1:1 – 2:3
by Eric Martienssen
Commentary:
Since the late Middle Ages it was often at all in many places not allowed for Jews on Niddel Nacht (from lat. “Naftali domini”, Christmas Eve, December 24) to stay in the public or even to move there. Accordingly the rabbis have forbidden the study of Torah altogether to prevent the visit of the schoolhouse, and thus avoid the risk of being exposed to the violence of the street. Thus, the in Hasidic circles partly still maintained custom among the Jews of Europe was developed, to use the imprisonment of the unwanted Christmas Eve, the Nittel Nacht (also Nittelnacht) by driving with mundane things like playing cards. Then there are for instance additionally the Hanukkah games, as the Nittel Nacht often falls near the eight-days of →Hanukkah, the “Dedication of the Temple” in Jerusalem, which is – somehow miraculously – foreign to the Christians, although their Roman prescribed Messiah also kept this festival. In Eastern Europe the Nittel Nacht was also called “night blind” because the night was blind to the Torah, since one does not even look at the Torah (Hebrew instruction – Five Books of Moses). In reality this move away from the Torah, however, had been the greatest gift in honor of the Torah, almost a Torahlove, because the Jews resisted the worship of the spirit of the Christian-Roman Redeemer, in which name the Christians were doing immense suffering and oppression to the Jews – reasoned with the Torah, an ung-dly theological expropriation of Judaism as it lasts on till today.
How many parallels can be opened to us this Shabbat between our current Parashah (weekly reading) and the Nittel Nacht – and when it has been ever before that the beginning of Shabbat Shemot (names) just falls to the beginning of the Nittel Nacht? We begin our reading of the Book of Exodus, the “exodus ” from Egypt / Mizrayim. Right at the beginning the description of the generation is eye-catching where (Exodus 1:8) “Joseph is no longer knew.” The Hebrew word for “knew” can also be translated as “loved”. We love the Torah in the Nittel Nacht today when we do not dishonor it by the impurities of the Roman-Christian gods, yes, by not even taking the Torah at hand! As the closest parallel we have in chapter 1 the reason why we in the Nittel Nacht not even go on the road … because of the pursuit [fear of Goyim from the One G-d]. At that time there were all male births, which should be killed on the orders of the king of Egypt. The Levitical Baby Moses, the later is a true savior, will be in a sealed cage suspended on the Nile, so that it can survive.
In a video commentary on Shabbat Shemot (watch below) by Rabbi Chaim Richman, The Temple Insitute Jerusalem, comes out the closest parallel, as he first of all describes the circumstances that led to the need of salvation thru HaShem:
„The exile is upon us. It’s a dark time coming. [2:23] In the process of this many times it happened that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of their work, and they cried out; and their outcries because of the work went up to G-d. G-d heard their groaning, and G-d remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. G-d saw the children of Israel, and G-d knew”:
In chapter three we learn about the great promise, about Moses and the great promise of his job: »And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”
So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, G-d called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Moreover He said, “I am the G-d of your father – the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac, and the G-d of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon G-d. And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them.«
That was the beginning of the first deliverance through the Lord, G-d, the Only One – the reason why the first commandment is the First Commandment. Then as now, the environment of the children of Israel believed in many gods. HaShem (TheName), blessed be He, then sent his Savior (4:15): “Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as G-d. And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”
The signs of the real Messiah will then be, that (Joshua 21:44): “The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.” (Goyim: Realize the difference between the Messiah of the Almighty and the Messiah of the church / Rome!)
And the signs of His People are – today and forever – that they bring His Light, the Light of the Torah, to the goyim, the real Hanukkah.
Shabbat Shalom
Presujet © Diliff / Creative Commons / Retuched by God’s Sabbath International
