In just a few months, we will read from our Passover
Haggadah four promises to go with each of the four cups of wine throughout the
seder: “God spoke to Moses and said to him …‘Say to the people of Israel, I am
the Lord, and (1) I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians,
(2) I will rid you from the from their slavery, and (3) I will redeem you with
an outstretched arm, and (4) I will take you to me for a people and I will be
to you a God’” (Exodus 6:5-7).
This passage comes from this week’s Torah portion, Parashat
Va’Eira, in which there is one more promise: “And I will bring you into the
land, concerning which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Exodus 6:8). The Haggadah
doesn’t include this line, and the Seder doesn’t talk much about the
destination of this Exodus. The passage in the parasha is being related
to Moses to tell to the people of Israel enslaved in Egypt, but God will not
bring Moses nor the generation of bondage into the land. The Torah ends with a
new generation on the precipice and Moses dying overlooking a land he may never
enter. Why does the Torah and the Haggadah leave us hanging like this?
Perhaps that is because, spiritually speaking, we are still
in the wilderness. There is still bondage in this world. God still hears the
groaning of the oppressed, and waits for a generation that is truly ready to be
free. But, as the poem in our prayer book says, there is no way to get from
slavery to liberation except by joining hands and marching together.
On this today’s episode of Judaism Unbound, Yitz Greenberg, a Modern
Orthodox rabbi and a leader in pluralistic Judaism points out that there are
three inherent truths in understanding that “all people are created b’tzelem
Elohim, in the image of God,” which is a bedrock of Jewish worldview. Another
important foundation is that God is infinite. If God is infinite and humans are
each made in the image of God, than every image of God is unique, and every
unique human is an equal representation of the Divine, not in spite of their
individuality but precisely because of it. The full diversity of humanity is
what makes us all a reflection of the Divine. Each of us alone reflects only
one aspect, but it takes all of us together on equal footing to paint the full
picture of God’s image. And lastly, that because it takes each of us in our
individuality to make up the full array of God’s representations here on
Earth, each human has infinite worth. From Moses the fearless leader to every
lowly Hebrew slave, every life is sacred to God and worth saving from the
bondage of slavery. Every life made hard by years of oppression is worth taking
on innumerable further risks to liberate in the hopes that one day, all people
might be free, might truly be treated equally, might truly be honored as an
image of Divinity.
This weekend, as we mark the birthdate of Martin Luther
King, Jr., let us remember his legacy and honor it by continuing to fight for
the equality and inherent worth of every human life. The Reverend Doctor was a
man who knew how to stand up against Pharaohs, face down plagues, and march
toward freedom. He knew how to speak to a people with an anguished spirit due
to their cruel treatment.
And just as Moses had Aaron and Miriam and Nachshon, Martin had Malcolm X and Rosa Parks and countless other leaders who helped drive the movement forward in different ways. With many efforts and voices, civil rights movement brought long overdue change and brought this country much closer to equality than it had ever been before, just as the Israelites transformed from an enslaved collection of tribes to a free people. But, just as the people who will leave Egypt in next week’s parasha will be unable to complete their journey into the Promised Land, the civil rights movement of the 1960’s could not fix all of the racial and economic injustices in this country. These are changes too great, too difficult for one generation to endeavor entirely alone. It will take a new generation to carry on the work and continue to strive for liberation and equality for every person created b’tzelem Elohim.
And just as Moses had Aaron and Miriam and Nachshon, Martin had Malcolm X and Rosa Parks and countless other leaders who helped drive the movement forward in different ways. With many efforts and voices, civil rights movement brought long overdue change and brought this country much closer to equality than it had ever been before, just as the Israelites transformed from an enslaved collection of tribes to a free people. But, just as the people who will leave Egypt in next week’s parasha will be unable to complete their journey into the Promised Land, the civil rights movement of the 1960’s could not fix all of the racial and economic injustices in this country. These are changes too great, too difficult for one generation to endeavor entirely alone. It will take a new generation to carry on the work and continue to strive for liberation and equality for every person created b’tzelem Elohim.
That is why our prayer book says we are eternally in Egypt,
that there is always more work to be done to bring us into a Holy Land. That is
why our Torah ends with Deuteronomy and not with Joshua. That is why our
Haggadah leaves out the fifth promise of this week’s parasha. We must not get
complacent or too reliant on God alone to fix the affairs of humans. We must
not turn away from injustices or threats just because they seem to not impact
us. We must be ready to work together, to defend each other, to hold hands and
march forward toward justice and liberation for everyone. And may we find
freedom and dignity for all.
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