The One Who Brings or Brought Us Out

Exploring the hidden message of the word "Hamotzi"

At the end of the portion last week, Moses came before Pharaoh to ask for freedom for the Israelites. In response, Pharaoh increased the cruelty of his oppression and denied them the opportunity to serve God in the desert.

Moses returns to God and says, “Why did you put me in this position?”

Then Moses returned to YHVH and said, “O my lord, why did You bring harm upon this people? Why did You send me? (Exodus 5:22)

God explains in our portion, Vaera:

Then YHVH said to Moses, “You shall soon see what I will do to Pharaoh… I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make Myself known to them by My name YHVH…

I have now heard the moaning of the Israelites because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. Say, therefore, to the Israelite people: I am YHVH. I will free you from the labors of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. And I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God. And you shall know that I, YHVH, am your God who freed you from the labors of the Egyptians. (Exodus 6:1-7)

I want to focus on this phrase, translated here as “I will free you” and “who freed you.”

First, they come from the same root, יצא, meaning to go out. In these cases, it is in the hifil or causative form, meaning “to take out” or “freed.”

In the first case, the words are וְהוֹצֵאתִ֣י אֶתְכֶ֗ם, v’hotzeiti et’chem, I will free you.

Hebrew grammar can get wonky in the Torah when compared to the modern variety. For those familiar, this verb appears to be in the past tense. However, there is a special vav at the beginning, in the Torah, switches the tense from past to future (and future to past).

In the second case, the words are הַמּוֹצִ֣יא אֶתְכֶ֔ם, hamotzi et’chem, translated above as “who freed you.” You’ll notice that it is translated in the past as well. However, this form is much closer to the present tense and should probably be translated as “who frees you.” There is a grammatical structure that a verb conjugated in the third person singular present tense refers to the being who does the thing.

This word might seem familiar for those who recite the blessing over bread: hamotzi lechem min haaretz.

So here’s the question: do we translate this blessing as:

• who brought forth bread from the earth?

• who brings forth bread from the earth?

Does it matter?

This is exactly the subject the Talmud discusses on Berachot 38:

We learned in the mishna that over bread one recites: Who brings forth bread from the earth. The Sages taught in a baraita: What does one who eats bread recite before eating? Who brings forth [hamotzi] bread from the earth.

Rabbi Neḥemya says that the blessing is phrased: Who brought forth [motzi] bread from the earth. Rava said: Everyone agrees that the term motzi means brought, in the past tense, as it is written: “God who brought them forth [motziam] from Egypt is for them like the horns of the wild ox” (Numbers 23:22).

The rabbis, representing the majority opinion, declare that the blessing over bread utilizes the word hamotzi. It is unclear, at this moment, if this is meant to be past or present tense, though translated here in the present.

Rabbi Nehemya argues that instead, we should use the word motzi to be understood in the past tense (even though it appears in the present tense to me), by using a proof text that understands this word to be in the past; God who took out the Israelites from Egypt (in the past).

So then the Talmud wants to know, what is the basis of their disagreement? Why is any of this a problem? Why use motzi instead hamotzi?

The subtext seems to be that we want the verb to be in the past tense (or do we?).

When do they disagree?

With regard to the term hamotzi, as the Rabbis hold that hamotzi means that God brought forth, in the past tense, as it is written: “Who brought forth [hamotzi] for you water from a rock of flint” (Deuteronomy 8:15), which depicts a past event.

First, we get the majority position held by the rabbis. The word is in the past tense because in Deuteronomy, the word is used to describe events that already occurred.

Rabbi Neḥemya holds that the term hamotzi means that God brings forth in the present tense, as it is stated in Moses’ prophecy to the Jewish people in Egypt: “And you will know that I am the Lord your God who is bringing you forth [hamotzi] from under the burdens of Egypt” (Exodus 6:7).

Next, we get Rabbi Nehemya’s problem. He claims that hamotzi refers to present tense action, as evidenced by our portion! God hadn’t yet freed the people from oppression, so it definitely couldn’t mean past tense and there’s no vav hahipuch, the special vav from above, to switch the tenses.

So what do the rabbis do now, in our past-present-blessing showdown?

And the Rabbis, how do they respond to that proof?

The Sages interpret that verse to mean that the Holy one, Blessed be God, said to Israel as follows: When I bring you forth, I will perform something for you that you will know that I am the one who brought you forth from Egypt, as it is written: “And you will know that I am the Lord your God who brought you forth [hamotzi]”.

So what do the rabbis claim? The verse refers to God telling the people that in the future, they will remember the past action. Therefore, the phrase is in the past tense.

To be honest, I find this argument a bit silly. It is clear that they want this blessing to be about the past tense. But the Talmud continues:

The Sages would praise son of Rav Zevid, brother of Rabbi Shmuel bar Rav Zevid to Rabbi Zeira, that he is a great man and he is expert in blessings. Rabbi Zeira said to the Sages: When he comes to you, bring him to me so that I can meet him.

It appears as though there was this person, the son of Rav Zevid who was a master of blessings. Surely, he will be able to help us resolve this dilemma! Let’s put him to the test!

One day he happened to come before him. They brought out bread to the guest, he began and recited: Who brought forth [motzi] bread from the earth.

The son of Rav Zevid appears, they bring bread to him, and what does he do? He recites the blessing Rav Nehunya wants us to recite. What a twist!

Rabbi Zeira grew annoyed and said: This is he of whom they say that he is a great man and expert in blessings?

Granted, had he recited: Hamotzi, I would have understood that he thereby taught us the meaning of the verse: “Who brought you forth from Egypt,” and he thereby taught us that the halakha is in accordance with the opinion of the Rabbis. However, what did he teach us by reciting motzi? Everyone agrees that one fulfills their obligation when reciting motzi.

I love that Rabbi Zeira has strong feelings, relayed here to us by the Steinsaltz commentary (the not-bold).

Rabbi Zeira expected him to recite the blessing according to the majority opinion, and then provide an explanation and a resolution to our dilemma. But what does the son of Rav Zevid do? He recites the blessing according to Rabbi Nehunya.

Rabbi Steinsaltz says something interesting here that is otherwise not obvious: “everyone agrees that one fulfills their obligation when reciting motzi.”

I don’t think this was clear from the text itself, which makes this disagreement that much more puzzling.

The Gemara explains: The son of Rav Zevid did this in order to preclude himself from taking sides in the dispute. The Gemara concludes: And the halakha is that one recites: Who brings forth [hamotzi] bread from the earth, as we hold in accordance with the opinion of the Rabbis who say that it also means: Who brought forth.

The son of Rav Zevid does the wise thing and excuses himself from getting in the middle of this debate. More of us should probably learn the lesson.

If both hamotzi and motzi are sufficient to resolve our blessing obligation, what is the point of this?

Why do the rabbis, surprisingly, offer a clear ruling?
What theological claim are we making when we recite hamotzi?
What does this teach us about the Exodus from Egypt?

In a sort of quantum state, the word hamotzi simultaneously is in the past and in the present. When we manifest this blessing when we eat, we recognize that a tremendous amount of work happened before to make it possible.

It required a lot of steps to get to us: The power of the sun and the state of the soil, the previous plants that created seeds, the hardworking farmers who planted the seeds, maintained the land, and harvested the grains. The laborers who ground the grain into flour, the bakers who transformed it into loaves, and the shippers who transported the loaves to the store, all in service for us to bring it home and eat it.

All of that happened in the past, and yet, we recognize that labor, and express gratitude in the present. We live in this beautiful paradox of experiencing creation while being a part of co-creating its future.

This duality is also present in our understanding of the verse in the Torah. God did not just take us out of Egypt. We are constantly and repeatedly leaving Egypt.

We are invited, through study and blessing, awareness and gratitude, to grow as human beings. We experience the journey through the narrow places and know, that we will be free.