Exodus 6:2 to 9:35
This week’s Torah portion covers Exodus 6:2 to 9:35. The Parashah is called Va’era which means “and I appeared,” the first words spoken to Moses in the text. In Va’era the story of the Exodus begins. Plagues hit the Egyptians in full force. Pharaoh knew the names of many false gods, but the one true God, the God of the Israelites was a mystery to him. Through a series of pestilence, blood, darkness, death, and disease, Yahweh shows himself greater than any other imaginable power. The plagues shook and devastated Egypt and Egypt only. This was meant as a blow to the gut of Egypt’s pantheon of gods and goddesses who were thought to be territorial, strongest in the land that they were worshiped.