There are 54 Torah portions in the yearly cycle. Only three involve slavery. This week’s Torah portion, Bo, is the last of those three portions. From this point on, we will be free people wandering the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land. And, yet, slavery, despite its brevity in the text, is embedded deeply within our communal memory. It is part of our Shabbat Kiddush, where we remember yitziat mitzraim, the Exodus from Egypt. It is in the Mi Camochah prayer, a daily celebration of the gift of freedom. And, it is, of course, in the Passover story, as we gather in our seder meals where we are supposed to experience slavery by eating matzah, unleavened bread, and maror, bitter herbs. Thirty-six times in Torah we are commanded to “not oppress the stranger, because you too were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Indeed, while the experience of being enslaved was important, our ancestors focused more on the feeling of being a foreigner in a foreign land. Egypt was not our intended destination; our roots as a people were in the land of Israel. This feeling of alienation has continued throughout our history, as we wandered place to place in search of a safe haven to call home.
As a Jewish community it is all the more important for us to be at the forefront of protecting the rights of displaced people around the world. Therefore it is no surprise that it has been the Jewish community gathering at airports, holding rallies and releasing statements in favor of refugee resettlement in the US. I am proud to be one of 1500+ who signed HIAS’s (the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) letter in favor of refugees (http://www.hias.org/1500-rabbis-sign-national-letter-calling-welcoming-refugees). I also would like to point out statements recently released by RAC (Religious Action Center of the Reform Movement) – http://www.rac.org/reform-movement-denounces-president-trumps-executive-order-barring-entry-several-muslim-majority and the Jewish Reconstructionist Movement’s recent statement – https://www.jewishrecon.org/reconstructionist-movement-statement-president-trumps-executive-order-concerning-refugees. No matter how you fall politically, it is vital that American Jews continue to stand up for the values that brought us to this country in the first place.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex
Last Updated on 02/03/2017 by wpadm