Shemot

By Larry Herman, January 18, 2025

Hineini, Hineinu

Hineini.

Here I am.

What does it mean to be hineini, to be here? Is it a statement of physical presence? Is it a response to a question? Or is it a statement of identity or of intention?

If you do a simple google search for Hineini or Hineinu, you’ll be led to believe that they are responses to calls for action. Perhaps Rabbi Jonathan Sacks put it best:

“When God calls, He does not do so by way of universal imperatives. Instead, He whispers our name – and the greatest reply, the reply of Abraham, is simply hineni: ‘Here I am’, ready to heed Your call, to mend a fragment of Your all-too-broken world.”

There are numerous articles, posts, and uploaded sermons with the word Hineini in the title, the majority of them with some variant of Rabbi Sacks’ message. Others that advocate for specific causes, such as LGTBQ rights, officiating at weddings that include a non-Jewish partner, Interfaith celebrations, and more.

And there are many diverse creations and organizations that have adopted the names Hineini and Hineinu.

• There’s a book entitled Hineini in Our Lives: Learning How to Respond to Others – to which, curiously, both Harold Schulweis and Alan Dershowitz are contributors.
• A documentary film called, Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School.
• What we call the Ḥesed Committee is in some shuls called Hineinu.
• There is a disability support organization that calls itself Hineinu.
• The Center for Jewish non-violence has a project called Hineinu.
• And a Hineinu Institute that, … well, I’m not quite sure exactly what they do, but they are here.

All good stuff. At least well meaning. But do these really capture the meaning of Hineini or Hineinu that we find in the 19 different times that they appear in the Torah and Tanakh?

What did Moses mean when he responded to God at the burning bush with Hineini? Or Abraham when he responded Hineini three times during the Akeda narrative? What did Esau and Isaac each mean, as son and as father, when they responded Hineini during the heartbreaking narrative of Jacob stealing their father’s blessing?

We have clues from how the words are translated when they appear in the various passages. The JPS translation manages to translate Hineini and Hineinu nine different ways, including:

• Here I am or here we are;
• here;
• I am ready;
• we are prepared;
• yes;
• at your service;
• I’m coming, and
• I am now at hand.

In contrast, Robert Alter is very consistent, using the most literal translation, here I am or here we are, almost exclusively, with only one exception. I don’t believe that Alter thinks that all of these instances really mean exactly the same thing. But I do think that he doesn’t want to lock us into a specific understanding in each case. Hineini means, …. well, Hineini, and we need to understand the meaning from the context.

The first time we encounter Hineini is in the Akeda story.

And it happened after these things that God tested Abraham.
And God said to him, “Abraham!”
And he said, “Hineini.”

The previous chapter told the story of Ishmael and how God instructed Abraham to cast out his son and Hagar. Abraham was dejected by this; perhaps even embittered. And then God calls him again. Actually, it’s the first time that God calls Abraham by name. Why? Was Abraham so unhappy about having sent his oldest son away that he was ignoring God, perhaps afraid of what this deity would next demand of him. So when Abraham responds, Hineini, could he possibly mean, What do you want of me now? That would be quite a contrast from the typical understanding of, here I am God, ready to do your bidding, even up to the sacrifice of my only remaining son.

Six verses later, on the third day of their trek to the site of the Akeda, Isaac calls out to Abraham, calling him by name, אָבִ֔י, “Father,” just as God had previously called to Abraham by name. But this time, Abraham responds, הִנֶּ֣נִּֽי בְנִ֑י, Hineini my son.

Isaac’s one-word call, Father, is a pleading. Father, are you here for me?

And To my ear, Abraham’s response is soft and gentle: Hineini my son, I am here to protect you. You have nothing to fear.

Finally, at the climactic moment, with Isaac bound upon the altar and Abraham’s hand holding the knife, God’s messenger called,

Abraham, Abraham.

And Abraham uses the same single word to respond: Hineini. Clearly, Abraham was not just saying, yeah, that’s me. Hey, I’m in the middle of something if you don’t mind.

That Hineini says, I’m in control here. I’ve been waiting for you. What took you so long?

The three times that Abraham responds, Hineini, all have different meanings.

Our next encounter with Hineini occurs in the troubling story, filled with pathos, where Rebecca and Jacob conspire to deceive Isaac and steal Esau’s blessing. The first verse of the chapter begins,

And it happened when Isaac was old, that his eyes grew too bleary to see, and he called to Esau his elder son and said to him, בְּנִ֔י, my son, and he [Esau] said, Hineini.

Notice the similarity with the second Hineini in the Akedah. Father and son, the love, dedication, and tenderness between them. Esau would do anything and everything for his father. And that devotion is captured in that Hineini.

But when Jacob later approaches Isaac to deceive him, he first calls to him, Father. This time it’s Isaac who responds, Hineini. It’s the exact inversion of Esau’s interaction with Isaac. But this time, Isaac adds, who are you, my son? Isaac isn’t simply acknowledging to Jacob that he’s present. He is saying, I am who you know me to be, but you are not who you pretend to be. This Hineini is filled with the mistrust that is revealed in the question that follows immediately: who are you, my son?

So let’s at last turn to Mose’s Hineini moment. Moses sees the burning bush and is intrigued.

And God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses.” And he [Moses] said, Hineini.

And that’s it. That’s the last time any individual says Hineini in the Torah.

What can we make of Moses’ Hineini moment?

First, it’s one of only five times in the entire Tanach that a person responds to God with Hineini. Abraham, twice as we’ve already seen, and twice more for Jacob, in scenes that I cut from my original drash in order for us to get to lunch on time. And it follows a double calling of Moses’ name, which also happened once for Abraham and once for Jacob. Both Abraham and Jacob knew God previously. They were already on speaking terms with him. They recognized his voice. But Moses had never before encountered God, perhaps had never even known that God exists. So what was Moses’ Hineini? It certainly couldn’t be anything remotely close to the I’m ready to serve you.

And it’s clear that Moses wasn’t ready to unconditionally serve God. He had to be convinced. Remember, Moses had already rebelled against Egyptian tyranny by killing the cruel task master. But God’s plan was for Moses to be the leader of a people that Moses barely knew. Moses’ reaction is to question:

Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring out the Israelites from Egypt?

This was the first of four rather tactical efforts by Moses to evade God’s command that he go to Pharaoh:

• Who am I?
• What shall I say?
• They won’t believe me.
• I’m not a good speaker.

God has an answer to each of these, so finally Moses attempts to reject God’s instruction entirely:

Please, my Lord, send, pray, by the hand of him you would send.

In other words, go find someone else.

Does that Hineini sound like Rabbi Sack’s ‘Here I am’, ready to heed Your call?

I don’t think so. Sometimes, Hineini might just mean, convince me.

So while there’s no single meaning for Hineini, I do think that most of us know a Hineini moment when we encounter it. It’s when we know that we need to be there, in the moment. We may not know exactly what to do, but we know that this is a pivotal moment. Sometimes for our family. Sometimes for our community. Sometimes for our society. And sometimes, just for ourselves.

Last week, on the occasion of the shloshim for his father, Rabbi Kligfeld said of his father, he expected very little, but he did a lot, … because in those moments, it was the right thing to do.

That’s my understanding of a Hineini moment.

In those moments, it’s the right thing to do.

In some ways, the past year and half, since October 7, has been one big Hineini/Hineinu moment for the Jewish people. And so have the past two weeks for those of us who live in Los Angeles. When faced with such moments, we are obliged to figure out, individually and collectively, what are the right things to do. We say Hineini, and then we do the right thing.

Shabbat Shalom.