Haftorah Summary for Parshas Va'eira - Yechezkel 28:25-26

Jew and the Egyptian recognizing G-d’s absolute mastery over all things

by: Rabbi Aron Tendler

So says Adonai Eloheynu: "When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, then shall they dwell in their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell safely; when I have executed judgments upon all those that have them in disdain round about them; and they shall know that I am the Adonai their G-d." Yechezkel (Ezekiel) 28:25-26

The theme of the Exodus is the Jew and the Egyptian recognizing G-d’s absolute mastery over all things. The nature of a slave / master relationship is for the slave to be dependent on the master and the master to feel a proprietorship over the slave. At the time of the Exodus, Pharaoh had to be humbled, the Jews had to be freed of their dependency upon Egypt, and the Jews would have to direct their fealty to G-d, and G-d alone.

Egypt retained her position as a major world power into the era of the first Bais Hamikdash (Temple). It would be Babylon that would humble Egypt and strip her of her position as a major international power.

Yechezkel, the Navi, prophesied the downfall of Egypt around the year 3332 – 429 b.c.e. He compared Egypt to a great sea monster that dominated the sea. The fisherman caught the sea monster along with all the other fish that clung to the defeated monster, and dragged them into the wilderness to rot and become food for the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky. So too, the same would happen to Egypt and the Bnai Yisroel who had formed an unholy alliance with Egypt against the might of Babylon. Nevuchadnetzar would eventually destroy Egypt along with Israel who had clung to Egypt for protection. In order for the Jew to be truly free of all-foreign domination and oppression he would have to accept his dependency upon G-d, and G-d alone.