December 20-21, 2013 / 18 Tevet 5774
Shabbat Shemot
Torah - Exodus 1:1-6:1 / Haftarah
- Isaiah 27:6-28:13; 29:22-23
“Each of Us Has a Name”
Dear
Friends,
What
did it take for the People of Israel to become a people? Well, the answer is simple. It took people – individual members of the
tribes of Israel who would come together to forge an identity and work together
to become a united people! As the book
of Exodus opens, many think that the Torah immediately focuses on the lives of
Moses, Miriam, and Aaron – three great leaders and luminaries of our
people. But that’s not what we read
first. Instead, we read a list of names of
Jacob’s children and a reference to all the unknown members of their families,
seventy in all (the Hebrew title for the book of Exodus or Shemot really means – ‘Names’). “These are the names of the
sons of Israel, who came to Egypt with Jacob, each coming with his household…”
There
is an important reason why Exodus opens with a list of names and a mention of
the unnamed rather than the story of Moses.
The Torah wants us to know that there is a lot more to our people than
the celebrities and their well known stories.
In fact, ordinary individuals, of whom little is known, are just as
important as the famous leaders.
Sometimes all we have are their names and sometimes not even that. Each
individual Israelite, each individual Jew, each individual person has a heroic
story of struggle, survival, challenge, success, bitterness, and
sweetness. Within each person is a
universe of meaning, understanding, and experience. Each individual matters. Their names and their stories matter.
This
lesson became clear to me when I travelled to India this past summer with the American
Jewish World Service (AJWS). I did my
advance reading and learned about the famous leaders of India past and present,
amongst them Mahatma Gandhi, Neru, Ambedkar, and Indira Gandhi. Yet, when I arrived, that’s not who I met on
our bus, in the beautiful seminar center, or in the village where we helped fix
up a school. We didn’t meet the
celebrities. Rather, we met the ordinary
Indians, working hard and courageously to build their nation, correct
injustice, and enable the disempowered to rise.
We met ordinary people doing incredible things. They all have amazing and moving
stories. They all have names. They all
matter.
As we
go about our work and go about our lives, let us resist the temptation to be
swept up by celebrity, power, and wealth.
Rather, let us remember that each person is special. Each person is a story of honor and
integrity. Each person is a universe of
experience and possibility. Each person
deserves our attention, kindness, honor, and love. Our Torah tradition teaches
us that each and every person forms the foundation and bedrock of a people.
The
poet Zelda wrote this poem that we read often at our synagogue.
Each Of
Us Has a Name
by
Zelda (Mishkovsky)
Each of us has a name
Given by God
And given by our parents.
Each of us has a name
Given by our stature and our smile,
And given by what we wear.
Each of us has a name
Given by the mountains
And given by our walls.
Each of us has a name
Given by the stars
And given by our neighbors.
Each of us has a name
Given by our sins
And given by our longing.
Each of us has a name
Given by our enemies
And given by our love.
Each of us has a name
Given by our celebrations
And given by our work.
Each of us has a name
Given by the seasons
And given by our blindness.
Each of us has a name
Given by the sea
And given by our death.
Shabbat shalom and have a wonderful winter break.
