Parashat Shmot, Exodus 1:1-6:1

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And the Bush was Not Consumed.

Study with Baruch Sienna


We now begin the book of Shmot, (Exodus) and this week's parasha describes the story of the Israelite's descent into Egypt and slavery. We commemorate the core idea of God's liberation annually at Passover, and remember the Exodus weekly during Shabbat, zecher liyitzi'at miztrayim, (in the Friday evening Kiddush, for example). The fact that we were slaves and were redeemed is one of the most central ideas in the Torah, and is referred to dozens of times in the Torah: "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt..."

Our parasha introduces the central figure of Moses, and the important women (mother, sister, midwives, and Pharaoh's daughter) who are all involved in his early life. Moses grows up as an Egyptian, and has a strong sense of justice, and a bit of a temper (which will later get him into trouble). So, after killing an Egyptian taskmaster, he escapes to the wilderness, where he saves some shepherdesses in distress, and then settles down with Tziporah, daughter of Yitro (also known as Reuel here). While tending his flock, he encounters a bush, and an angel of Adonai appears to him in the blazing fire. But what is remarkable here, is that the bush, although burning, is not being consumed by the fire.

Modern scholars and classical commentators are puzzled and intrigued by this miraculous sight. What kind of bush was this? The Hebrew word used here for the bush is 'sneh' (a word play on the name: Sinai). The mountain is identified here as Horev, and not Sinai, where Moses will get the Ten Commandments; later tradition seems to conflate Horev and Sinai (so for example, in Deuteronomy, God's covenant [of Sinai] is said to have been made at 'Horev' (Deut. 5:2). Note too the presence of fire at Sinai: “the vision of the glory of God was like a consuming fire at the top of the mountain” (Exodus 24:17). It is possible that Horev refers to the region, while Sinai was the name of a specific peak; alternatively, there could have been two traditions that were preserved.

Sneh in modern Hebrew simply means bush, and the word appears only in this story (and once more in Deuteronomy 33:16). The rabbis describe it as a thornbush, and (conclusively!) identify it as a blackberry (Rubus sanctus). The genus Rubus (from the same linguistic root as “ruby”) includes both the blackberry and the raspberry and belongs to the rose family (Rosaceae). These bushes grow near streams throughout Israel and in moist wadis in the Sinai desert. The monks at Santa Catarina in the Sinai point to the blackberry bushes that grow on the grounds of their monastery as the biblical sneh. This accords with the descriptions in rabbinic literature that have been current since the first centuries of the Common Era.

Other identifications have been made: Cassia obovata is called senna, (not to be confused with henna, even though the dried, crushed leaves are used to colour and treat hair). In Arabic, 'sana' is linguistically similar to the Hebrew sneh. Other attempts identify our mystery bush with plants with 'flaming' red flowers, such as the Loranthus acaciae, (a member of the mistletoe family), a semi-parasitic vine that attaches itself to acacia trees that grow in the desert and covers the tree with thousands of red flowers and fruits. The Cynomoirum cocineum has red candle-like blossoms. Another plant, variously known as fraxinella, dittany, or gas-plant, (Dictamnus albus), in hot weather releases an oil that vaporizes. The volatile oil can spontaneously ignite, and burn (supposedly) without the flames touching the bush itself. There are also plants with bright red foliage; our family has a 'burning bush' plant, Euonymus alatus, in our garden whose leaves turn fiery red in fall!


But Moses was an experienced shepherd, and he clearly would not have been startled or fooled by a plant with red flowers, or even flammable vapours. Greek author Michael Kalopoulos suggests that the flames could have been from natural flammable gas from vents in the subsoil of Sinai. He believes that Yitro may have made a clay tree with such vents, and has actually constructed a working model with great success. Nogah Hareuveni advances one other possibility that is perhaps more believable than Kalopoulos's theory. What if, a fire miles away, was refracted by the desert heat to appear mirage-like behind the tree. It would appear that the bush was aflame, yet it would of course not be consumed.

But besides the possible botanical identifications or scientific explanations, clearly the real significance of the burning bush is as metaphor: God speaks to Moses from a bush that burns, but is not consumed. This defies natural law and all human experience. A bush, even a bush on fire, is not that remarkable a phenomenon. At the burning bush, there is the added element of inextinguishability -- the flame is self-sustaining, requiring no substance for its existence or perpetuation. So why does God appear to Moses in this fire and in a bush? Formless and luminous, fire appears frequently in the Bible as an external manifestation of the Divine Presence (such as the pillar of fire). Fire symbolizes passion, purity, mystery. The angel appears to Moses belabat esh. Labat is probably correctly related to 'lahav' the flame of the fire, (the Etz Hayim and JPS have 'blazing'), but the word is commonly associated with the root lev, for heart. Moses sees the angel “in the heart of the fire.” Clearly the fire represents God's presence. One midrash suggests that God spoke from a lowly bush and not an impressive tree to teach that no place is devoid of God's presence.

Others see the bush not as a symbol of God's eternity/presence, but as a symbol of Israel's slavery in Egypt. Although Israel was persecuted in Egypt, the image of the fire represents God reassurance to Moses that the Israelites would survive and not be consumed. Even the Torah is likened to fire. Rabba bar bar Hannah said, "Why is Torah likened to fire? As it is written, " 'For are my words not like fire,' says Adonai" (Jer. 23:29) in order to teach you that just as a fire cannot burn alone, so too the words of Torah cannot prevail in isolation."Why are the words of Torah like fire? A fire is built by many logs and the words of Torah survive only through many minds"(Taanit 7a). The Jewish Theological Seminary has the motto of the burning bush: "And the bush was not consumed" in Hebrew for their logo. (Similarly, the motto of the Church of Scotland is the Latin: nec tamen consumebatur.) I remember seeing a powerful image of the devastating fire at the library of JTS in April 1966: the photograph showed firefighters battling the flames under the institution's logo "And it was not consumed".

That God can be found in the lowly blackberry bush is a powerful environmental message, and the ability to see the divine in the world is a common theme in poetry (William Blake's "To see a World in a Grain of Sand..., from Auguries of Innocence  c.1800). Even the tiniest creature, or the smallest flower reflect the grandeur of Creation. The image of this bush has inspired poets. Here is a passage from Robert Frost's poem, "Sitting By a Bush in Broad Daylight" about faith and revelation:

...

God once declared he was true
And then took the veil and withdrew,
And remember how final a hush
Then descended of old on the bush.

God once spoke to people by name.
The sun once imparted its flame.
One impulse persists as our breath.
The other persists as our faith.

Blackberry, mistletoe, burning vapour, mirage — speculation continues, and the flaming bush that is not consumed remains a mystery that burns on and on in our imaginations. But we go through life unseeing. As Elizabeth Barrett Browning writes:
Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush aflame with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes --
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Shabbat Shalom.

BDS