Pharaoh and Moses are locked in a conflict between two opposing world views. Pharaoh represents a civilization built upon an obsession with death; Moses advocates a religion whose followers "choose life." Pharaoh stands at the pinnacle of a society which is organized in a strict hierarchy -- a world in which everybody is assigned a place below someone else, all in the service of the state and its enormous aristocracy.
In contrast, Moses and the Torah mark the beginning of a society dedicated to limited government and the rule of law under God. The difference could not be more clear. The choices could not be more stark.
In this Torah reading, one more difference emerges -- a difference which sets the two worlds of values in radically opposing contexts. Pharaoh makes an attempt to buy Moses' acquiescence to slavery. Moses has insisted that Pharaoh let his entire people go. Pharaoh realizes that such an action would end the slavery of Israel in Egypt, so he makes a counter offer; the men may go out to the wilderness to worship God, but the women and the children must remain behind in Egypt .
Pharaoh was speaking the normal language of politics, in which opposing camps compromise in order to reach agreement. Neither side walks away completely satisfied, but each is able to claim some concession from the other. Pharaoh, ever the consummate politician, offers a sweeping compromise that allows him to retain what he wants -- Hebrew slaves -- while simultaneously permitting Moses to claim a significant victory. After all, he would be able to assert that Pharaoh had acceded to his demand to worship God in the wilderness.
The distinction between a good politician and a great one is the ability to know when a compromise is not appropriate. Among his many talents, Moses was a great politician. Moses knew that the one area one can never compromise is in the insistence to include all people. Pharaoh wanted to restrict worship to the men, and Moses' rejection was immediate and total. "With our young and with our old, we will go; we will go with our sons and daughters . . . for we must observe the Lord's festival."
Judaism would not be simply the preserve of one caste, one sect, or one gender. Old and young, male and female -- all of us together comprise God's people, and all of us together form the community of Israel. None are excluded, all are to be welcomed. That spirit of inclusion started at the very beginning, in the heated arguments between Moses and Pharaoh. And from the very beginning, Moses taught us that a Judaism that cannot make room for all Jews is no Judaism at all.
As we continue the journey initiated by our ancestors so long ago, it is well worth focusing on the adamant insistence of our first teacher, Moses. "With our young and with our old, we will go."
Amen.
Shabbat shalom.