The weekly Torah portion reading this week is the first in the story of the Exodus, aka “Shemot” in the Hebrew, which also begins the story of the life of Moses (Moshe) — Exodus/Shemot 1:1 through 6:2. And these few chapters seem to cover a period of over two centuries, a descent into “cruel bondage” from a life of plenty in the land of Goshen, and fully two-thirds of the life of the man “drawn from the water.”

Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship, in the Sabbath Day midrash, notes up front that this story picks up after what is generally recognized as at least two centuries of silence from Scripture. And the story hinges on the advent of a new king, who “knew NOT Joseph.” And even after some genealogy, the stunning (to some, certainly!) story of midwives who didn’t read Romans 13, and a few verses about the birth of Moses, and his salvation by being “drawn out of the water,” it’s also true that the first eighty years of his life are given only a little ink in the Book, compared to the detail about what follows, in just the final third of his life.

So it’s fascinating to examine just WHAT Scripture has us focus on during those years. There are things said, things that have a startlingly similar pattern, and things UNSAID, but which still resonate, because we can arguably see the concerning parallels right now.

And there’s a question that emerges, too.

The combined two-part reading and Sabbath midrash: