Vaeira (And I Appeared)
(Sefer Shemot) Exodus 6:2-9:35

6:2- “And Elohim spoke unto Moshe, and said unto him, I am YHVH:
3- And I appeared unto Avraham, unto Yitzchak, and unto Yaakov, by the name of El Shaddai, but by
My name YHVH was I not known to them.
7:1- And YHVH said unto Moshe, See, I have made thee an Elohim to Pharaoh: and Aharon thy brother shall be thy prophet.
3- And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.
5- And the Egyptians shall know that I am YHVH, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Yisrael from among them.
15- Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning; lo, he goes out unto the water; and thou shall stand by the river's brink as he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shall thou take in thine hand.
16 - And thou shall say unto him, YHVH Elohim of the Hebrews has sent me unto thee, saying, Let My
people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness: and, behold, so far thou would not hear.
17 - Thus says YHVH, In this thou shall know that I am YHVH: behold, I will smite with the rod that
is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.
20 - And Moshe and Aharon did so, as YHVH commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters
that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters
that were in the river were turned to blood.
8:5- And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.
18- And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.
22- And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou may know that I am YHVH in the midst of the earth.
23- And I will put a division between My people and thy people: to morrow shall this sign be.
9:4- And YHVH shall sever between the cattle of Yisrael and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing
die of all that is the children's of Yisrael.
10- And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moshe sprinkled it up toward
heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.
18- Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.
20 - He that feared the word of YHVH among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his
cattle flee into the houses:
21- And he that regarded not the word of YHVH left his servants and his cattle in the field.”

“And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the
night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.”
(Genesis 1:14)

“They showed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness and made it
dark; and they rebelled not against his word. He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish.”
(Psalms 105:27-29)

“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I YHVH do all these things.”
i. .”
“How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.”
(Daniel 4:3)

“He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending
evil angels among them. He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but
gave their life over to the pestilence.”
(Psalms 78:49-50)

“Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city,
and YHVH has not done it? Surely Adonai YHVH will do nothing,

but he reveals his secret unto his servants the prophets.”

(Amos 3:6-7)

Vaeira Summary:
1. An Appearance Plagued with a Bloody Vengeance:
In earlier times HaShem appeared to our fathers as El Shaddai, One Sufficient to provide. Yet, the manifestation to the generation born in Egypt would see a different side of the Faithful Covenant Keeper. Parasha Vaeira reveals an appearance of HaShem with an awesome display of dread cast upon a land, which persecuted His people to no end. So great was the Wrath poured out upon Egypt, it elicits the inquiry as to what pushed HaShem “over the edge” that He unleash such Terror. Accordingly, such a magnitude of indignation is a response to the wickedness of shedding innocent blood. Answering to the
Exodus 1:22 slaughter of Hebrew children, as it is written,
“And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river,
and every daughter ye shall save alive,”
the Defender of Yisrael begins His ‘rain’ of terror upon the Nile, lifting the staff of Elohim against the waters and striking them, exposing their bloodguilt. Deuteronomy 19:10 cites the spiritual law, namely:
“That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which YHVH thy Elohim gives thee for an
inheritance, and so blood be upon thee.”
Likewise, in Joel 3:19, with the enforcement of Judgment, the cry of Divine Retribution, is resonated:
“Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against
the children of Yehudah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.”
With no uncertainty, the message is clear: HaShem’s objective was to bring out the children of Yisrael. To the discerning, it is apparent from the onset that He will prevail and use the necessary means to demonstrate his delivering power. Yet, in Exodus 7:3, there is privileged prophetic insight to help understand the purposes and majesty of HaShem, as he informs Moshe:
“And I will harden Pharaoh's heart and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.”
So intent was He to execute the payback for the abuse put upon His people, that Adonai Elohim answers Pharaoh’s “free will” with a hardened heart. With every plague, came the unwelcome and soon to be disregarded order, “Let My people Go!” Descending upon Egypt with a fury, each trouble pointed men back to the words of Moshe. The wails of the Hebrew boys were being addressed.
 

2. Distinctive Signs with Distinctive Responses:
The signs and wonders of Destruction wrought by the hand of HaShem evoked different reactions. Though Pharaoh and his magicians would come to ascribe those works as being “the finger of Elohim,” their unholy hearts could not hear the call to humility and submission. Instead they sought to resist any dominance and invite greater doom. Things have not changed today. With the recent calamity of the Tsunami of reported “Biblical proportion,” the citizens of the earth, roll back their sleeves, and try to disregard the ominous surfacing of the future waves of Judgment with its destructive wake. How lamentable if we fail to see the advancing days of Yisrael’s travail as Jeremiah 30:6-7 relates:
“...Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces
are turned into paleness? Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the
time of Yaakov's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”
As society sheds innocent blood, even tearing a child from its mother’s womb, may those awaiting His Deliverance, see the omen of the water breaking, signaling Earth’s birthpangs. Exodus 10:2 reminds:
“And that thou may tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in
Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am YHVH.”