A question of inheritance: this week’s parashah, Va’era

In the summer of 1799, during Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaign in Egypt, a French army engineering unit was rebuilding a fort near the Nile Delta town of Rashid (Rosetta) when one of its officers, Pierre‑François Bouchard, noticed an unusual slab of dark stone built into a wall. Scholars quickly realised its significance.

The same decree was written in three scripts, including Egyptian hieroglyphs, which had been undecipherable for centuries. By comparing the Greek text to the hieroglyphs, linguists were finally able to unlock the language of ancient Egypt. Through this, the Rosetta Stone became much more than a historical artifact to admir e– it became a symbol of the responsibility entrusted to each generation to pass on their knowledge to those who would eventually succeed them.

God promises the emerging Jewish people: “I will bring you to the land… and I will give it to you as a morashah (inheritance).” This choice of noun, as opposed to the more common form, yerushah,, is unusual.

Rabbi Bachya ibn Pakuda explains the technical reason – the generation that left Egypt were not destined to enter the Land. Since they would not inherit it themselves, but would pass it on to their children, it was a morashah, indicating something assigned to pass on to the next generation, rather than possessed in perpetuity.