Parashat Vaera — And I appeared
וָאֵרָא
Vaera (וָאֵרָא) means "and I appeared" — taken, as every parashah name is, from the portion's opening words in the Hebrew.
The Readings
Torah Exodus 6:2-9:35 Read →
Haftarah Ezekiel 28:25-29:21 Read →
B'rit Chadashah Romans 9:14-24 Read →
What Happens in Vaera
YHVH answers Moshe's despair by planting His own name beneath the promise: I am YHVH. I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov as El Shaddai, but by My name YHVH I was not fully known to them. What the fathers held in promise, this generation will see in action. Then comes the fourfold pledge Israel still remembers in the four cups of Passover: I will bring you out from under the burdens of Egypt, I will deliver you from their bondage, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments, and I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God — crowned with a fifth, I will bring you into the land. Israel, crushed by anguish of spirit and cruel bondage, cannot even listen; Moshe and Aharon are sent to Pharaoh anyway, eighty and eighty-three years old, and the genealogy of their tribe is set down so the deliverers are anchored among the delivered.
The contest opens at court. Aharon's staff becomes a serpent; Pharaoh's magicians match the sign with their secret arts — but Aharon's staff swallows their staffs, the whole conflict in miniature. Then the plagues begin to fall, each announced with purpose: by this you shall know that I am YHVH. The Nile — Egypt's god and lifeline, the river that swallowed Hebrew sons — is struck to blood, and the fish die and the river stinks. Frogs swarm from that same river into houses, bedrooms, ovens, and kneading bowls; Pharaoh bargains for relief and hardens the moment it comes. With the gnats the magicians reach their limit and confess: this is the finger of God.
From the fourth plague onward, YHVH draws a line the theology of the whole book rests on: I will set apart the land of Goshen, where My people dwell... I will put a division between My people and your people. Swarms fill Egypt but not Goshen; pestilence kills Egypt's livestock while of Israel's not one dies; boils break out on man and beast — on the magicians too, who can no longer even stand before Moshe. Before the seventh plague God tells Pharaoh why he is still standing at all: for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you My power, and that My name may be declared in all the earth. Then hail mingled with fire, unprecedented since Egypt became a nation, shatters tree and crop and kills whatever remains in the field — while those of Pharaoh's servants who feared the word of YHVH bring their servants and livestock indoors. Pharaoh confesses, I have sinned this time, and hardens again when the thunder stops. Seven blows have fallen; the portion ends with his heart set like stone and three plagues yet in the storehouse.
Main Themes
The four expressions of redemption That you may know that I am YHVH God distinguishing His people in judgment The hardening of Pharaoh's heart False power exposed before the true
Key Events
· The fourfold promise of redemption
· The staff swallows the serpents
· Blood, frogs, and gnats
· Swarms, pestilence, and boils
· The hail mingled with fire
· Pharaoh's repeated hardening
Key People
Moshe Aharon Pharaoh The magicians of Egypt
Key Verses
Exodus 6:6 Read →
“Therefore tell the children of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.”
Exodus 6:7 Read →
“I will take you to myself for a people. I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”
Exodus 8:19 Read →
“Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is God’s finger;” but Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he didn’t listen to them, as the LORD had spoken.”
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