Many books, both fiction and non-fiction begin with the an initial page at the beginning outlining the dramatis personae or characters in the story. This is done in order for the reader to keep track of who is who in the story and to understand the characters’ backgrounds and motivations. The Torah also sometimes provides such introductions, as in the details on Abram and Sarai’s families or the narrative surrounding the birth of Jacob’s children or, later in the Bible, Samson and Samuel.

One of the more manifest examples of this phenomenon occurs this week, when the Torah takes time out of the narrative of redemption in order to give us the genealogy of Moses and his immediate family, all of whom will be significant in the story to follow. What is interesting is that this introduction occurs in the middle of the narrative. Moses has already been introduced to us and accepted and begun his mission and initially failed, before we learn who his parents actually are. His brother and sister are also introduced to us without any detail concerning their background or family situation. These details are only revealed to us now in a break separating Moses’ initial unsuccessful efforts and G-d’s direct interference by means of the plagues.

What is the reason for this strange positioning? If it was important for us to know the background of the dramatis personae, then this should have been revealed to us before or shortly after Moses’ birth. If it is not particularly relevant to know this information, it should have been omitted. Is there significance in the fact that it is revealed precisely at the point that Moses’ initial endeavours have failed and Divine power will start to come into to play?

It is possible to understand this positioning as teaching us an important lesson about the interplay between divine action and human endeavour. Precisely at the beginning of the narrative where Moses and others seem to act on their own initiative and G-d is not mentioned, their antecedents are not mentioned in order to highlight the hidden Divine hand behind events. In contradistinction, it is precisely before G-d’s hand is openly revealed, that the human actors in the drama are accorded their proper detailed debut. It is as if the Torah is emphasising to us that while normal human efforts can often conceal Divine agency, even open Divine intervention in history needs human actors to take it forward. Human history is presented as neither simply the result of human action nor Divine agency but rather the interaction between the two. That is as true today as it was then and thus the positioning of Moses’ genealogy contains a message also for our time and situation.