Shemot -- 5776

The opening portion of the Book of Exodus is punctuated by conflict and response.  Moses encounters conflict five times.  As he matures, he responds in increasingly evolved ways.

At first, he hides.  Giving birth under Pharaoh’s genocidal decree, Moses’ mother “hid him for three months” (Exodus 2:2).  Second, he attacks.  “When Moses had grown up,” he witnessed an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and “struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand” (Ex. 1:12).  Third, he runs away.  When Pharaoh threatens to kill him, “Moses fled.”  (Ex. 1:15).  Fourth, he demurs.  When God demands he return to Egypt and speak with Pharaoh, he asserts his incapacity, insisting that he is “slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Ex. 4:10).  Eventually, he is able to confront his adversary peacefully, telling Pharaoh to “let My people go” (Ex. 5:1).

Hiding.  Fighting.  Fleeing.  Demurring.  Confronting peacefully.  These are five common ways to respond to conflict.

All of us have done each of these, I’m sure.  All of us have had them done to us.  Can you think of times when you hid, fought, fled, demurred, and confronted peacefully?  Do you understand why you did what you did?  What’s your default response to conflict?

Immature people react to what happens to them.  They are not in control of their responses.  Evolved people are more able to pause, determine the course of action that’s most true to their values and most likely to garner an ideal result.

Then, they move forward.  Success may not be immediate for them, but it is far more likely.