The Power of Words

I am not sure what comes to your mind, when you hear the words, “And he spoke”, for me it is a mixture of thoughts that go through my mind.  Firstly, what did it sound like? Was there and echo? How loud was it?   Secondly, I think of the sound waves created, the propagation of these sound waves and finally, I think about the content intent emotion and feeling of the words, I then visualize the message as I perceive it to be.  Now there is a lot of information in these following verses, as I read them I see history being recorded, with a purpose, so that future generations become aware of the message, the intent and the setting under which the message was given, the emotions the rationale, all of which, I normally process, when I hear someone say, “He said to him….”

ה֥וּא אַהֲרֹ֖ן וּמֹשֶׁ֑ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר אָמַ֤ר יְהוָה֙ לָהֶ֔ם הוֹצִ֜יאוּ אֶת־בְּנֵ֧י יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם עַל־צִבְאֹתָֽם׃

It is the same Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, “Bring forth the Israelites from the land of Egypt, troop by troop.”

27

הֵ֗ם הַֽמְדַבְּרִים֙ אֶל־פַּרְעֹ֣ה מֶֽלֶךְ־מִצְרַ֔יִם לְהוֹצִ֥יא אֶת־בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מִמִּצְרָ֑יִם ה֥וּא מֹשֶׁ֖ה וְאַהֲרֹֽן׃

It was they who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt to free the Israelites from the Egyptians; these are the same Moses and Aaron.

28

וַיְהִ֗י בְּי֨וֹם דִּבֶּ֧ר יְהוָ֛ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֖ה בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃ (פ)

For when the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt

29

וַיְדַבֵּ֧ר יְהוָ֛ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹ֖ר אֲנִ֣י יְהוָ֑ה דַּבֵּ֗ר אֶל־פַּרְעֹה֙ מֶ֣לֶךְ מִצְרַ֔יִם אֵ֛ת כָּל־אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֲנִ֖י דֹּבֵ֥ר אֵלֶֽיךָ׃

and the LORD said to Moses, “I am the LORD; speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I will tell you,”

30

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֖ה לִפְנֵ֣י יְהוָ֑ה הֵ֤ן אֲנִי֙ עֲרַ֣ל שְׂפָתַ֔יִם וְאֵ֕יךְ יִשְׁמַ֥ע אֵלַ֖י פַּרְעֹֽה׃ (פ)

Moses appealed to the LORD, saying, “See, I am of impeded speech; how then should Pharaoh heed me!”

Today's article is rather short, I just want to concentrate on verse 30, Moshe’s reply to HaShem.  “See, I am of impeded speech; how then should Pharaoh heed me!”, we as reader may identify with this situation, I am a nobody why should anyone listen to what I have to say, why would my actions or my objection or opinion would matter.  Regardless of who we are, what our intellect, education, social status we tend to think less of ourselves in most situations.  I am over generalizing , yes I know, there are the opposite situations that because some people are famous, they have this idea that what ever they have to say, is right and should be treated as gospel. For now lets leave it at that, as that will be a whole other article and rather lengthy one.

More often than not we are our worst judges, we tend to over analyze and put ourselves down, even for minor issues.  The question is why do we do this to ourselves, why the self deprecation? One possible answer is that we as individuals, tend to spend a lot of time in our thoughts, going over and replaying situations and events on a regular basis. No one knows our thoughts better than ourselves, and HaShem of course, but as far as the reality we live on, we know our hearts like no other person, deep thoughts that are reoccurring, habits, feelings, etc. This puts us in a position that we think we are our best judges, and then proceed to be quite harsh with ourselves, additionally we become disappointed with ourselves and feel that we are not good enough.  What I am describing is a cycle that repeats on a regular basis.  

Now to this behavior, we add more fuel, that even makes less worthy, and more judgmental with ourselves and we now start to transfer that self anger to others in the immediate circle, and to the rest of the world.  We tend to look for bad traits even if they do not exist, we seek to feed that anger by the thoughts we entertain, what we look at and what we feed our heart and mind.  Think about this for a moment , try if you can put yourself in Moshe’s sandals, He was, from his perspective, rejected by his mother, unwanted, then rejected by the royal house, then his people, to the point that he had to flee for fear of the repercussion of him killing someone in order to defend one of his people.  Here is another you grow up in a palace then you find out you are in all reality a slave.  Forty years have lapsed, you have an encounter in the wilderness that makes you return to face your past, deep in your mind, you know where you came from, but the recent experience tells you and gives you a new direction, what would be your first reaction? Like Moshe make excuses, try and avoid the direction that will change not just your life but the life of so many others?

Here is what this article is aiming at, like Moshe he was struggling with self image, he was convinced that he was not worthy of coming before Pharaoh to deliver HaShem’s message.  We have one of the few human beings that have the privilege to converse with HaShem and witness supernatural events like no other person in history after the flood.  What we think and spend time delving on, causes to either feel good about ourselves or brings us down, depression, self loathing, etc.  It is important to know that our words have power, they create, just like HAShem created the universe we exist, we create the world we live in.  You may be thinking, hang-on Rabbi, what are you saying that we are like G-d we can create, that’s borderline blasphemy.  Is it really? It is not blasphemy, and yes we create by the power of our speech and what we think on. 

If you think about it, what is speech, but a thought vocalized into a sound wave that is propelled into the universe for those that are close by to hear what is being declared, it really is a combination of chemistry, physics and the spirit, the Eternal Blessed be He hears and allows it to come about.  So the lesson from this verse 30 is, be careful on what you allow to enter your heart, which you then meditate and chew over and digest, that is feeding your spirit, which becomes a thought, which becomes a word, that is then created and manifested in your life. Sound is a pressure wave, (Air molecules are acted upon), which consists of alternating periods of compression and rarefaction. Here is another interesting fact sound waves can be cancelled or annulled, in the case of noise-cancellation a speaker emits a sound wave with the same amplitude but with inverted phase to the original sound. The waves combine or are added to each other to form a new wave, in a process called interference, and effectively cancel each other out.  This effect is called destructive interference. 

In the same manner thoughts have the same effect, which are then activated in the form of sound , i.e. speech, it has the same effect.  You have good thoughts and bad thoughts, good positive speech and poor negative speech.  In the case of noice cancelling the two waves are of equal and opposite amplitude, however if one is greater than the other the prevailing sound will be the that of greater amplitude, it is therefore imperative that your thoughts and words are the ones that build rather than destroy your soul.  This last bit of information is to let you think and ponder which reality you would rather experience. The word Abracadabra may derive from an Aramaic phrase meaning "I create as I speak." אברא כדברא Remember is not magic is reality.

Walking History

As is customary, my wife and I enjoy engaging in conversation whilst we drive down the mountain. We live in area that inspires deep thinking and creativity, so this next few lines are the result of such environment.  Additionally my past experiences have been a catalyst for this train of thought.  Lets talk about history and the amount of time we occasionally give to our past.  Sometimes it is more than occasionally and it is our driving force in our minds, delving and re-living in the past.  I know, I can speak from experience, our past experience can sometimes be re-lived by the power of our minds, it is very real to each of us and can be very detrimental to our health devastating to our relationships.  Therefore the following article is an explanation of what my wife and I discussed, and how I view history from a non Western view point.

Before we delve into history and past experiences I will bring up a couple of facts about the dimension we live in, the environment in which we are part of, our planet earth and the location we live, for me Qld Australia.  I have to say deep in my heart I am a Melbourne-ian, (if there is such word), hard core Victorian, just so that you know. Our planet contrary to popular belief, does not have circular orbit around the sun. The position of the earth in relation to the sun, the centre of our galaxy and the universe, at this very moment I am writing, and that you are reading will never be occupied again. Just like the moment you lived reading this article, it will never return nor be experienced ever again.  That is a fact and our path (the earth’s that is) around the sun is elliptical and spiral in form, the sun itself has motion and is in relation to the centre of our galaxy the milky way, and is not a straight line either like all of creation is spiral and elliptical.  Yes, I am a scientist and I do believe in creation, a grand designer made all this as the pattern is obvious and palpable. So everything has motion and direction, all things move and are directed by vectors, forces and acceleration, nothing is really still.

By now you are thinking, yes but I am looking out the window and the rock in the garden is not moving, it was there this morning , yesterday and the day before, actually it has been in the same position since it was put there.  I will disagree, let me ask this question, relative to what is the rock in the same position? To your location or to the universe? Additionally the molecules and atoms that make that rock are in a furious state of flux, vibrating as the rock heats up and cools at different times of the day and seasons.  Therefore my statement has validity, that nothing stands still.  So here is the next question, what does this has to do with history and past experiences, and our minds?  The answer is a lot, and now allow me to begin to explain how our discussion developed into this article you are now reading.

The years 2015 and 2016 have been volatile in my life and my wife’s, we looked back and we realized that our past experiences are as far or as close as we choose them to be in our thoughts, but the reality is the events are further and further way from us each day goes by.  There are two ways of looking at history in particular our past.  In western society we normally say that our past is behind and our future is in front of us.  By now your mind is thinking, yes captain obvious, that is the only way to look at the past, is there another?  Yes, there is, if we have the future in front of us how come we cannot see the coming events? The answer may be because the future is behind you and is overtaking you and as it happens, it is revealed around you, on your left and right above and below like a wave hitting a lighthouse.

You see we cannot see our future and we are forbidden to look into it, we are not to see seers a negative commandment in the Torah, one of the few negative commandments that carries the death penalty.  Before you jump onto the high horse about the death penalty , relax there is no temple and no Sanhedrin, so we are off the hook regarding the death penalty, and that is a whole other issue, and article.  Regardless in our standing of the Torah, we are not physically able to see our future, and therefore the best conclusion is that the future is behind you and it comes at you at a higher rate than your existence, this is concrete thinking as opposed to abstract thinking.

Now history is not behind you, but rather, in front of you, and you can see it is an event that has occurred, that you are able to recreate certain aspects of it, explain in detail, is as if it is a picture that you can describe it in detail. It is laid in front of you and not only that it is also moving, it has overtaken you and moving at a faster rate than your existence. Here is where it got me thinking we are always in a state of motion even when we are siting we are moving.  Life moves on, regardless of how we feel, where we are and what we are doing.  So lets put time in a physical perspective, the planet earth has inertia and spins on its axis as well as it revolves around the sun.

From a physics perspective, we can say that the earth is spinning at a rate that yields an equatorial speed of 465.1 m/s, 1,674.4 km/h, thanks to physics and empirical observation, we safely agree with this figure, its all mathematical.  Now the average person walks at a velocity of 5 km/h.  So if at sunrise we start walking, the demarcation of night and day overtakes us and goes past at 465 m/s.  Now lets put this into perspective that we can understand, in a year there 365 days all at 24hours each, that equates to 8760 hours in a year.  The distance that we can travel in a year assuming non stop walking, as time does not stop, therefore we assume perpetual motion, is 8760 X 5 km/h = 43800 kms.  in contrast the earth is spinning at at 1674 km/h, and that equates to a distance of 14,667,744.0 kms.  Remember we are always moving we never visit the same location twice in any life time.  So any event that occurs in our lives, in a 24 hour period we can say that it is either 120kms away or 40,185.6 kms away,  after 24 hours have lapsed, the choice is yours, how far apart we put ourselves with past events.

Therefore, living in the past the longer the event occurred, the further away it happened and more distance is in between us.  The reason I used walking pace is because in the second temple era everything was measure on a shabbat’s walking distance, or on a regular day’s walking distance.  We find it on the Jewish writings of the Brit Chadashah, in many instances it refers to a shabbats walking distance or a days journey.  All of these were at a steady pace of the average human being, and not a shopping spree of Christmas Day of parents that forgot to buy presents.

So now lets recap for example, an event in the distant past, and this is just a rough estimate, I was born in 1959 that makes me roughly 57 years old, yes an old goat, so that in hours is 499,320 hours alive plus or minus a few hours, ok two thousand hours to be precise.  So about 50,000 hours at 5 km/h gives us 250,000 kms since my birth.  Lets use the speed at which the earth spins and it gets scary how far away I was born, 50,000 x 1674.4 = 83,720,000 kms.  So now put this into a practical example, the most hurtful event that has happened in your life, how far is it from you and can it return to bother you?  Is it logical for us to dwell on the past or should we look forward to what is coming, to what is being revealed in our lives every second, every moment?  How do we now make decisions based on this information, what choices do we make and how do we deal with the outcomes of our choices?  Remember when HaShem forgives, he sets our trespasses as far apart as the East is from the West, now does that that terminology makes sense now?  One more and important question, who is walking in our side?  Who takes the journey alongside with us, this is an important question as this will determine how much are we going to enjoy our time here on earth.  If we are lucky we may endure 700,800 hours to live, which measure are you using to determine your distance travelled and how much are you going to allow the past to affect your now?

The good fruit

Last shabbat I taught on the parables of the fig tree and the barren trees, looking at the parables from a Jewish point of view.  I mentioned that a plant in order to give good fruit, it needs to be planted in good soil  with water access and that the fruit produced is a source of nourishment. This morning on my routine commute to the city centre I started to ponder on the issue of fruit and a comment I made in the teaching.  I said that in our congregation we try our best to refrain from becoming fruit cakes.  That is an expression I normally use to describe people that go all weird and hyper spiritual, out of context and on non Torah base practices, that abound in Christianity and “messianism” and Hebrew Roots and Judaism, no one is free from this craziness.

So as I was driving I could not help to make the parallels on a fruit that is picked from the tree when its ripe, there is nothing like a fruit that has ripen in the tree its sweeter more filling and carries more nourishment and essential natural components for our well being. Just try to google search on this and you will find plenty of evidence in the intergoogle.  I know the difference in tomatoes ripped in the plant and camera ripped tomatoes, same with mandarines and oranges, pomegranates, and my favourite fruits, figs and pineapples.  I can tell a ripped pineapple in the plant from outside the fruit shop, it permeates its aroma all over.  The extra facet of the teaching that came to me in the car is: Just as fruit ripens in the tree and it nourishes you, so are the fruit of the spirit.  At the right time at the right place when you share the fruit of the Spirit it brings life to those partaking from it.  

However, if you take the fruit and add other ingredients such as sugar, flour, eggs, yeast, spices etc you end up with a fruitcake.  As the fruit is cooked and processed it looses its value, its vitamins are oxidised and become non effective the same for its natural sugars they loose their flavour.  Components that can be tasted in the natural fruit are lost as you heat them up in processing it and these essential volatiles are lost.  This is the same in the Spirit, take the word of the Torah and  working of the Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh, mix it with Greco-Roman practices and human thought process. Add to it a pinch flowery speech and you get new dogma and teachings that no longer bring nourishment, they may taste good but are not life giving. Repeat this process several times and it becomes a truth and the norm, however it is still a fruit cake no matter how you present it.

As I mentioned earlier, that a plant in order to give good fruit, it needs to be planted in good soil, we are the plant, the good soil is the Torah, the living water is Yeshua and the light that allows the good soil and water to produce good fruit is the Ruach.  The chemistry that puts it all together, walking in the spirit of HaShem, He is the source of the good fruit.  The good fruit does not need processing it should be enjoyed as it is given at its season.

Shalom

Parasha Vayikra 2015

Leviticus 1:1- 5:26, Eze 45:16-46:18 and Markus 7:1-30

Here we are March 17th , yesterday I blinked and six months have gone by, since Simcha Torah. And we are at parasha vayikra, well, traditionally I would engage in the Torah portion  full on, but this time I will deviate from the norm and the tradition, and will look at what the Apostolic writing has to say.  This weeks portion is found in Markos 7:1-30.  As a Messianic Jew that believes that Yehoshua (Yeshua) is the true Jewish Messiah, then I find it fitting to break with tradition and look at the Apostolic writings that deal with tradition.

The whole chapter starts with a description of those present in the narrative, we  have the Prushim, that is Pharisees, and scholars of the Torah. No doubt they came to argue Torah, a very Jewish pastime, we argue we scream at each other and then we eat and celebrate a successful torah study group.  From the outside and for those not of Jewish DNA it will seem that a war just being declared and a fist fight is about to break, but not so.  All was going well but as soon as they saw that Yeshua’s talmidim were not acting according to the traditions passed down from generation to generation, things went down hill from there.  The tradition equated the washing of the hands to spiritual purity, and on seeing eating without washing hands they spoke up, it was only natural, they are the keepers of the traditions and the Torah.  However Yeshua had a few things himself to say about the whole scenario.

Where we as human beings, mere mortals, that only see the external, will always worry about that which is external and perceptible to our senses.  Yeshua a man endowed with a special soul and anointed by HaShem to fulfil the role of Messiah, saw things a little bit deeper, in fact so much deeper, that he saw the heart as if it was in pure mid day sunlight.  He then begun to excoriate them because their hearts were not pure and clean, that tradition had superseded Torah, and as result their hearts were far from HaShem, and love and the real mitzvots.  Our Master saw fit to bring the dross out for their hearts and begun to teach everyone present the true nature of whom we are.  The heart is devious and deceitful to one self, we are talking about the nature of the human being, the evil inclination that we are born with pass down from generation to generation.

What an insight, he went onto say-'That which is coming out from the man, that doth defile the man; for from within, out of the heart of men, the evil reasonings do come forth, adulteries, whoredoms, murders, thefts, covetous desires, wickedness, deceit, arrogance, an evil eye, evil speaking, pride, foolishness; all these evils do come forth from within, and they defile the man’ was this a new concept? Sukkah 52a:34 - The Holy One, blessed be He, called it Evil, as it is said, “For the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). and Sukkah 52a:36

3) David called it unclean, as it is said, “Create me a clean heart, O Lord,” (Psalms 51:12), which implies that there is an unclean one. One last one - Mishneh Torah, Repentance 2:4 Anyone who confesses verbally and does not commit in his heart to abandon [sin], this is like a... person who immerses [in a purity pool] while holding an unclean creature in his hand, so that the bath... is not effective until he sends away the unclean creature, and so it says, One who admits….

The whole idea was known all along, but as you well know , knowledge is not the issue, obedience is.  One cannot say today I did not know this or that, the information is freely available , a few strokes of the keyboard and we have access to over two millennia of knowledge and writings of the sages and great Tzadikim (righteous ones), for us to learn and apply to our walk.

Here is the key, for this week consider your life , your walk, your thoughts and your actions.  The evil inclination in you how strong is it? does it need feeding does it thirst? Yeshua said if your enemy hungers feed him, if he thirst give him drink.  Who is our enemy, our evil inclination our own selves, we need to feed the evil inclination bread and give it water.  I know what you thinking, “The rabbi lost his marbles!!” Not really, well truth be told yes a long time ago, but the reality is that yes our worst enemy is ourselves and our evil inclination.  In Judaism bread  equates to Torah and so does water, but water also equates to Messiah.  So bread and water to our enemy subdues him Torah and Messiah in our lives, subdues our evil inclination and strengthens us.  Your chose like in Mt Sinai choose life or choose death, your choice, I urge you says HaShem choose life!

Parasha Yitro

The more I study and prepare Parashas the more I realise that the depth of hidden gems within each of the them is beyond comprehension.  Your has so much from the reason why it is named Yitro to the last sentence in the parasha.  Exodus 20:23 - You should most certainly not make alongside of me gods of silver, or gods of gold for yourselves.  This verse alone could d have us writing and discussion for quite some time, the subject gods alone is substantial.

Let us address something entirely different though, and if you come to this shabbat service I will even go deeper talking about pottery, vessels and kilns.  However what I want to address here is something very important, and they point I want to focus on is on the subject of covenant.  It is in this Torah portion that HaShem enters into covenant with B’nei Israel, traditionally translated as children of Israel.  First of all it cannot be children as we know as children are under the control and authority of their parents and are too small to make decision for themselves.  However B’nei should be better translated as “sons of," HaShem specifically instructed to count B’nei from 20 years and above, men that can judge for themselves and can be men of war, part of the tribes.  

That’s just for starters, and contrary to popular belief the covenant that HaShem made with the sons of Israel, is not the law, actually that is also a badly translated word, Torah is not Law.  No, the Torah and the mitzvots are not the covenant, not even the ten commandments.  Ask anyone to name the covenant and they will probably say the ten commandments.  What the actual covenant that B’eni Yisrael entered into was the following , Exodus 19:8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the YHVH hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the YHVH. That is it that is the covenant, to do all that HaShem commands and instruct, the Torah describes the conditions and terms, it is the contract, sort of speak, but the covenant is obedience, pure simple and unadulterated. Obedience is the covenant, no frills, no bells and no whistles.  

Then as Yeshua said the core of the Torah is Sh’ma Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad and love your neighbour as yourself. So keeping the covenant we were given a table of contents, the ten commandments, these in turn encapsulates 613 mitzvoth, 245 +ve (positive) and 365 -Ve (negative).  The most interesting part of all this is that even the ten words, can be further condensed to love your neighbour as yourself! That is the whole Torah the rest is commentary go and learn it, these were wise words from our sages.

One point to ponder on this parasha, when we surrendered to, and came into covenant with Yeshua, did the covenantal requirements changed from that of Mt Sinai?

Parasha Beshalach

As I was reading this weeks parasha we are remembering the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a generation that no longer is with us.  This event is very pertinent because it is tied to many events described in the Torah, Pharaoh tried to destroy Israel, Amelek tried to destroy Israel, so many other villains have tried. This puts me at a place where I saw myself in front of the sea of reeds, literally I have been there it is a nice place, it was warm full of tourists, just like most resorts.   However in life we come face to face wit a situation where we are faced with an insurmountable situation a sea in front of us we cannot cross nor overcome.  Additionally we have a pursuing enemy in our backs and every time we turn back to look we see our impending doom.  So far the picture is bleak and not very encouraging, your mind must be saying, where are you going with this rabbi?

Follow me for a second and I will try and explain my thoughts, you see I am aware that many of us are almost willing to give up.  I’ll just sounder and let it be, but sometimes our enemy is way too cruel, and its not death that it wants from us but extreme suffering.  What comes to mind is that today I was reading about a prominent Christian rock leader that did just that look around and gave up, now he decries the existence of HaShem, all because he looked around and looked at what others were doing.  He gave up on G-d and it sounds absurd and even obtuse, its like saying  I give up on air and renouncing its existence therefore there is no wind.   You see this individual stood at the edge of his sea and looked back and gave up, better a slave in Egypt that a free man in the wilderness.

You see perception is everything, in the case of this individual that gave up on G-d and looked to science to reject G-d, I look at science and I see G-d everywhere.  Its about perception, we perceive according to our circumstances, if we are alone and our vision of the world is dim then our perception is small and dim. n However if we stand on the foundation of HaShem and Torah, then our perception is limitless.  The Sons of Israel were looking from a dim perception, even though they had seen miracles, however, they were miracles at a distance and not yet at a personal level.  

As you stand like Israel did in front of a sea, do not look at the sea from your perspective but try your hardest to look at it from HaShem’s perspective, then your perception is limitless.  Then you will see, the sea part open and you will walk in dry land and your enemies will drown in the sea that was trapping you.  Not only that as we cross over the sea we enter the wilderness, where the bitter waters become sweet, mana is given and even quail, but above all Torah is given, Instruction for eternal life, the living torah is given and comes to live in you.

What is my sea in front of me?

Who is my enemy perusing me?

What is my perception based on?

Am I ready to enter the wilderness?

What’s in a name?

As I study this parasha I cannot but stop and wonder , what’s on a name.  We are so accustomed to today’s regimes to labelling everything we do and see.  in our tendency of labelling everything we come up with names such as, old trusty, thumper, swifty just to name a few. even our congregation we like to identify ourselves as Aleph Tav, meaning we are followers of Messiah Yeshua, he was the Aleph and the Tav, encompassing the whole of creation.  The reason behind I suppose is that it gives us a certain degree of comfort, as we can then identify ourselves which that surrounding us.

In this parasha HaShem takes particular care to reveal to us, that the new Pharaoh did not know Joseph, I guess history was not his forte.  So I stated whats in a name, well, in ancient times the name represented the character of the individual, it described the person as well as his character, it was common also that a person would go through name changes as he lived life and influential events took place in their lives.  To this day some of these customs still applies, in Judaism and Catholicism is the case.  For example a new pope always undergoes a name change, and at this stage you are probably thinking whats the pope got to do with parasha, everything and nothing, its just an illustration on how ancient customs still remains.

So the new ruler of Egypt did not know or did not wanted to know, what is evident is that he feared the Bnei Yisrael, the children of Israel. The saviour of Egypt no longer relevant, and now his family are being persecuted due to fear.  additionally this teaches us that perception of one self can make a big difference on our outcome, and as in this case the overseers over the children of Israel were in most cases Israelites themselves, as it was thecae during the holocaust. Fear drives men to do unspeakable things. Not knowing whom we are causes us to fear, to move our focus from our dependance, HaShem, and into self, our own strength and ego, thus fear creeps in and leads us into the path of destruction of self as the individual, and self as a whole.

In Messiah’s time a similar theme occurred, the leaders of Israel, the Sadducees, and some Pharisees rejected and falsely accused messiah Yeshua, they went as far as instigating and handing over Yeshua to Gentiles for his execution.  You they did not know HaShem and had forgotten his name, His character.  To the point that the high priest was no longer of the Aaronic blood line, and the status of high priest was bought and sold as a commodity, to the highest bidder.

Two thousand years have elapsed since Yeshua came, gave his life, as atonement for the whole of humanity, ascended to the right hand of the father and we await his return, the question now remains, are we like pharaoh have we forgotten his name, his character.  Are we willing to place a burden on His children, to execute his young, enslave his people out fear of our own self inflicted ignorance?  These are some of the questions we need to ask ourselves.