By Ziv Bar-El

In this week's Parsha, Vayera, a lot of exciting plot development occurs in Moses' leadership role. God speaks to Moses and chooses him to lead the Israelites to freedom. Moses initially refuses to accept to this great task due to his speech impediment, but eventually complies. Moses goes to the Israelites as their redeemer, but the Israelites do not believe him. God tells Moses that he has the power of God behind him, and Aaron as his interpreter. God tells Moses that Pharaoh will not listen to him anyway. God assures he will send plagues on Pharaoh and his people through Moses, but then God will harden Pharaoh's heart in order to show God's full "signs and wonders". This is the basic gist, if you want the full details check this out.

I want to focus on the part of the parsha where Moses demands: "Let us go [for] a three day journey in the desert and sacrifice to the Lord, our God, as He will say to us." (8:23). Moses says when Pharaoh allows Moses and the Israelites to do this God would get rid of the wild beasts rampaging throughout Egypt. Why do the Israelites need to leave Egypt in order to pray, and why does Moses demand only a 3 day excursion? A reason I conclude is that the Israelites needed to leave Egypt to really believe Moses that there was another way of life. Creating a meaningful experience for the community in a seemingly barren climate could show how much potential the Israelites have to create their own culture free from Egypt oppression. They could not think new thoughts and ideas when they were stuck in old ways that kept them in a one track mind state.

I've noticed that the movement has stepped into the desert away from traditional modes of operation. Winter Seminar was all about taking action, and I thought that was really empowering. We've started to professionalize whether it's the ken, eizor, machaneh, or in the central office (especially in a financial aspect) and put our name out there, but still keep the personal connection and youthfulness that makes Habonim Dror so great. They all are necessary, beneficial changes. It is interesting to see how this idea of taking a break, creating community, and being able to reexamine ourselves is a tradition that goes back into biblical times. It seems to me that Moses' idea was to have their own seminar, in which the activities would have been different than ours, but the goals may have been surprisingly similar. This is one way having seminars and bringing us together connects to our roots, and now we can actualize in society.