This week we are beginning the Passover story with Shemot. We read about the story of Moses. He was born during a time of persecution and hatred. He learns, first hand, the consequences of acting in violence caused by hatred. When Moses was born, the Egyptians were killing all male Jewish babies. This was out of fear. Pharaoh was afraid the Jews (known this time as the Hebrews) would outnumber his people and overthrow them. So, he made them slaves and had the male babies killed.
Moses’ mother saved his life by placing him in a basket and sending him off down the Nile. There he was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter who raised him as her own. Because of this, Moses’ life was spared. However, this also meant he was sheltered from the atrocities his people were facing. One day, Moses goes out and sees for himself how the Hebrews were being treated. He saw an Egyptian guard beating a Hebrew slave. Moses knew this was not right and retaliated. However, instead of thinking rationally, he acted out of anger.
Moses learned that acting violently in anger fueled by hatred is never a good idea. Because of Pharaoh’s hatred for the Hebrews, innocent babies were murdered. They were murdered because they were different from Pharaoh. Pharaoh couldn’t stand not being in power so he had anyone who could take that away enslaved or murdered. Moses saw how the Egyptians were treating the Hebrews and lashed out. He could not control himself or his anger and ended up murdering an Egyptian he saw striking a Hebrew. It is never a good idea to act violently out of anger fueled by hatred.
January 6, 2021 will always be remembered as one of the darkest in history. As Congress was certifying a fair and free election, supporters of President Trump protested, with guns, in front of the Capitol building. This protest soon turned into a riot and resulted in those rioters storming the Capitol building, smashing windows, and getting into physical altercations with police. While there are many things to be said about what happened, one of the saddest is that President Trump sympathized with their behavior and encouraged their presence at the Capitol in the first place. These rioters obstructed the democratic process because they were convinced that lies about the integrity of the 2020 election were facts and were encouraged by the current Commander in Chief. We pray that justice is served swiftly.
The light in this darkness is the Georgia runoff election. Millions of Georgians got out and voted. Not only will the Senate flip to blue, but for the first time ever Georgia will have a Black Senator and a Jewish Senator. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff ran together against racism and white supremacy and won. A better future is far from lost, as long as we work together.
In this time of sadness, we’d like to offer you some words for reflection. This prayer for our country can be found in Mishkan HaNefesh, a machzor for the Days of Awe:
God of holiness, we hear Your message: Justice, justice you shall pursue. God of freedom, we hear Your charge: Proclaim liberty throughout the land. Inspire us through Your teachings and commandments to love and uphold our precious democracy. Let every citizen take responsibility for the rights and freedoms we cherish. Let each of us be an advocate for justice, an activist for liberty, a defender of dignity. And let us champion the values that make our nation a haven for the persecuted, a beacon of hope among the nations.
May our actions reflect compassion for all people, within our borders and abroad. May our leaders and officials embody the vision of our founders:
to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
We pray for courage and conscience as we aim to support our country’s highest values and aspirations: the hard-won rights that define us as a people, the responsibilities that they entail.
We pray for all who serve our country with selfless devotion – in peace and in war, from fields of battle to clinics and classrooms, from government to the grassroots: all those whose noble deeds and sacrifice benefit our nation and our world.
We are grateful for the rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness that our founders ascribed to You, our Creator. We pray for their wisdom and moral strength, that we may be guardians of these rights for ourselves and for the sake of all people, now and forever.
“In real history the great evils are committed by people seeking to restore a romanticized golden age, willing to sacrifice their lives and the lives of others in what they regard as a great and even holy cause.” – Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Not in God’s Name – Confronting Religious Violence
Stay safe and stay well,
Amanda & Marissa
