When Sister Sledge sang about family in the 1970s, they were singing about themselves. Debbie, Joni, Kim and Kathy not only were actual sisters, but they created award winning music still popular almost five decades later. The song itself was likely an answer to a question they must have been asked quite a bit back then: “can siblings really be so close?”
This is also the question hanging over this week’s Torah portion, Shemot, or Exodus. We learn right from the beginning that the goodwill Joseph had built in the days of the patriarchs, had long since dissipated. As I mentioned in services last Friday night, we have transitioned from being the children of Jacob, from a specific tribal family, to an enlarged clan of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of individuals. What does it mean to be family in such a context?
In “We Are Family,” familial relations are about protecting one another, staying together, and having fun together. It hit a chord with the public because that is the type of family most of us want, and few of us have. The answer in the Torah is all those things and more. Pharaoh underestimated just how strong our bonds could be, trying to destroy connections through prolonged enslavement. Moses and the Israelites proved they were more than up to the challenge. May we continue be so today.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex