Parashat Vaera As Masorti Jews we bring a wonderful message to the British Jewish Community: there is a different way to what you are used to think about. If tradition is important to you, but you recognize that it exists in constant tension with modernity, if you believe in Torah, but in democracy and equality as well, then you are a Masorti Jew even if you don’t know it. As we know, sadly most Jews that are members of United Synagogue are secular one-time-a-year shul goers. Most of them don’t care enough to search for us, they do what most others do. Even worst, there are secular Jews here, as well as in Israel, that believe that Orthodox Judaism is real Judaism, only they are too lazy to live that way. The shul I don’t go is the “real one”. How do you free those that don’t want to be freed? That don’t know they are not free? “I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov — I will give it to you as your inheritance. I am Hashem’” Moshe said this to the people of Isra’el. But they wouldn’t listen to him, because they were so discouraged, and their slavery was so cruel”. Kotzer Ruach and Avoda Kasha, discouraged and so tired… so so tired. Moshe presents himself as a redeemer, a liberator, but their situation got worse since he went to Pharaoh. His words fail to give hope to the people of Israel, they can’t even imagine a different situation that to be slaves. “Kotzer Ruach”, discouragement, to Rashi meant that because of their hard work there were not capable of listening. Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch claimed that it was a response to Moshe, they were impatient and unbelieving to his promises because there was such a big gap between those promises, that vision, and their reality. Moshe was a liberator without a people wanting to be liberated. To the Etz Chaim, the problem was the gap between Moshe and Israel. They were slaves, he grew up in a palace, as a prince, today he is married to the daughter of Sheik Jethro. What does this spoiled boy know about suffering? What can this rich boy do for us? Rabbi Naphtali Zvi Yehuda Berlin wrote that the discouragement was of the people of Israel, a lack of spirit, and the hard work was not the one they were doing in Egypt, but what they understood await them if they leave Egypt. The hard work required to go from an enslaved people to a free people was daunting. The unknown scarier than the known. To inspire slaves to have the ambition for freedom requires more than a speech from Moses, that for him that freedom was a given. A concrete vision of what that reality could be was required. In the Parashah last week, Moshe and Aaron spoke with the elders of Israel and Aaron transmitted to them the vision of freedom that he received from Moshe. The response was different: “Aharon said everything Hashem had told Moshe, who then performed the signs for the people to see. The people believed; when they heard that Hashem had remembered the people of Isra’el and seen how they were oppressed, they bowed their heads and worshipped”. Not speeches, but reality. Aaron knows, as a fellow slave, what speaks to them and is successful in inspiring them. Now Moshe comes with speeches and he fails, they don’t know this G’d that he speaks about. They need the reality of Aaron, not the prophecies of Moshe. Our G’d, their G’d, asks for a World different from that of meaningless service, a World free of slavery and oppression. Our G’d love all human beings because we are all his children, therefore he doesn’t want any of us to oppress our fellow men. Our G’d could never require from us the violence that we saw last week in France, our G’d hates violence and won’t condone murder. That’s the prophecy, now is our turn to live by those principles and show how that’s a life of meaning and worth. This week we remembered the birth of one of the greatest liberators of our time: Dr. Martin Luther King. He gave great speeches, yes, was one incredible speaker. But were not his speeches what advanced his cause, but his actions, his example, his love. He knew how to speak truth to power, to be firm without being violent. His people saw his example and then they believed in his dream. His example is one to follow. To be a Masorti Jew is to do, to act by principles that we believe right. Is not a compromise between United and Reform, it is a statement about our love for tradition and for democracy and western values. We won’t show this beauty to our fellow Jews, to our friends and family, by saying we are Masorti Jews, we won’t show by giving them books or articles to read. We will show them the beauty of Masorti Judaism only by living our lives as committed Masorti Jews, by doing, by giving an example. If we eat Kosher, we do Shabbat, we are Ethical in our business, we are generous in our Tzedaka, we are enthusiastic in our study of Torah, we are fierce defenders of human rights and democracy. If we do all this, then they will see that this is a life of meaning, it is a life of worth. Then they will join us in our journey to the Promised Land. Shabbat Shalom
Posted on: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 23:46:04 +0000
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