In Parashat Va’eira, God reveals something new, not about who God is, but about how God is known:
וָאֵרָא אֶל־אַבְרָהָם… וּשְׁמִי ה לֹא נוֹדַעְתִּי לָהֶם
“I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but by My name YHVH I was not fully known to them.” (Ex. 6:3)
The Torah suggests that the ancestors knew God through promise. This generation will come to know God through history, through struggle, endurance, and fulfillment.
This week, we also mark the passing of Professor Gabriel “Gabi” Barkay z”l, one of Israel’s most important archaeologists, whose life’s work helped uncover Jerusalem’s layered past and anchor Jewish memory in the soil of the city itself. I had the privilege of touring Jerusalem with him several times. With Barkay, stones were never just stones; they were witnesses.
Barkay taught that meaning often lies beneath the surface, revealed only through patience and care. Va’eira teaches something similar about emunah, not belief in the abstract, but trust: a steady, covenantal trust that God is present even before circumstances change. The Israelites are still enslaved, yet redemption has already begun in the language God uses with them.
As the week ends and Shabbat approaches, Va’eira invites us to pause, not because everything is resolved, but because trust can precede resolution.
A question to take into Shabbat:
Where in your life are you being asked to trust (emunah) before you can yet see the outcome?
