By Joining Together and Marching

January 27-28, 2017 / 1 Shevat 5777

Shabbat Va’eira – Rosh Hodesh Shevat

Torah: Exodus 6:2 - 9:35

Maftir: Numbers 28:9 - 28:15 | Shabbat Rosh Chodesh

Haftarah: Isaiah 66:1 - 66:24 | Shabbat Rosh Chodesh

“By Joining Together and Marching”

Dear Friends,

Even though our Passover celebration is still a few months off, we are reading the story of the enslavement and exodus of our people in the Torah over the next few weeks.  It is the central story of Jewish identity – a story that unites the Jewish people worldwide and throughout time.  We were slaves and now we are free.  This story forms the core of our mission to the world.  Now that we are free, we must see to it that all are free.

One key element of the story must also be emphasized.  The journey to freedom is never easy and never quick.  It is a difficult process that involves courage, identity change, growth, challenge, maturity, risk-taking, pride, and tenacity. Thus we Jews learn that on the road to freedom, we must ‘keep on keeping on.” Our sages once asked why God insisted that the Israelites go through the Egypt and Sinai experience.  One rabbinic comment reminded us that the only way to get pure gold is to put the ore in a blast furnace. Thus, the only through difficulty is to go through it – not around.  This is the way of doing anything exciting, audacious, and new in life. Best of all is if we go together.

So, I share this reading by Michael Walzer, which can be found in our Shabbat prayer book.  Enjoy.

“So pharaonic oppression, deliverance, Sinai, and Canaan are still with us, powerful memories shaping our perceptions of the political world.  The “door of hope” is still open; things are not what they might be – even when what they might be isn’t totally different from what they are…. We still believe, or many of us do, what the Exodus first taught about the meaning and possibility of politics and about its proper form: First; that wherever you live, it is probably Egypt; second; that there is a better place, a world more attractive, a promised land; and third, that the way to the land is through the wilderness. There is no way to get from here to there except by joining together and marching.”

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow