Ex. 6:2 - 9:35
Précis: God reiterates His intention to free the Israelites from bondage and to create a covenant with them. Moses goes back to Pharaoh to seek release of the Israelites. Pharaoh refuses and we see the first of the fabled plagues: blood, frogs, fleas, beetles, cattle disease, boils, and hail. Pharaoh relents after each plague begins, deciding to let the people go, but then God “hardens Pharaoh’s heart” and he refuses to allow them to leave.
Ex. 6:6 “I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from their burdens; I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary chastisements.”
God promises to relieve the Jewish People from their “burdens.” As noted in Etz Hayim, the Hebrew word for “burdens” (“sivlot”) can also be translated as “tolerance,” so that the verse might be read, “I will deliver you from being tolerant of the Egyptians.”
There is no doubt in the text that the Israelites were “tolerant” of bondage. After all, they ask Moses several times to return to Egypt after the Exodus, when faced with perils. This suggests to me that we need to be free of the slavery of technology and social media. We cannot be tolerant of those facets of life which we should abhor, which interfere with the practice of our faith, which threaten the welfare of others, or which deny the humanity of all people. We must never tolerate hate.
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