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| Thu, 09 May 2024 20:47:11 -0500 — |
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D'var: Parashat Bo 5783
Commentary by Michael Goldstein Friday, January 27, 2023 |
| Exodus 10:1 — 13:16 |
| As with all the Torah’s Parashats, Bo has several lessons. I’m going to briefly discuss two of them. |
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Chapter 10, Verses 1 and 2:
The Lord said to Moses: "Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, in order that I may place these signs of Mine in his midst, and in order that you tell into the ears of your son and your son's son how I made a mockery of the Egyptians, and that you tell of My signs that I placed in them, and you will know that I am the Lord." |
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Chapter 11, Verses 9 and 10:
The Lord said to Moses, "Pharaoh will not heed you, in order to increase My miracles in the land of Egypt." Moses and Aaron had performed all these miracles before Pharaoh, but the Lord strengthened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel out of his land. |
| [As an aside, I’ve always thought that this was just God showin’ off.] |
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The first seven plagues were described in the previous week’s Parashat, Va’era.
They were: water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence,
boils, and hail.
Parashat Bo takes up the last three… locusts, darkness, and killing the first born. After each plague, Pharaoh tells Moses the people may leave, but then he goes back on his word because, the Torah tells us, God “hardened his heart.” Let’s remember that this Pharaoh had ordered that male Israelites be put to death at birth. Okay, so we know that he was not a relatively nice person – as distinct from the Pharaoh during Joseph’s time. What we don’t know is whether he really would have let the Jews leave or worship and make sacrifices to Adonai if God had not hardened his heart. God knew that he was causing Pharaoh to renege on his promise and that the Jews would not be permitted to leave. He told Moses that several times. Our first lesson, therefore, is to consider the motives behind a reprehensible act. Yes, it feels good to detest someone who does something detestable, but we should remember that there might be a factor which could make the act just a tiny bit less abhorrent. The second lesson – and, for me, the more important one — is that to be silent in the face of injustice is to be a party to the injustice itself. I often think of the unsettling poem written by the German Lutheran Pastor, Martin Niemöller, shortly after he was freed from Dachau in 1945. |
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First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me. |
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Those lines fit the story of the plagues. Even if the Egyptian people
couldn’t stop the enslavement of and cruelty toward the Israelites,
their silence was damning. And they were punished to the same extent as
their rulers; as if they were just as guilty of enslavement and cruelty as
their masters.
That is the lesson we can take away. To be silent in the face of injustice is to be complicit in the act itself. Even those of us who are not great leaders or persuaders still have influence on both local and world events. We can work to ensure that no one in our neighborhoods goes hungry and that every parent has adequate childcare. We can call our elected officials and demand forceful responses to actions here and abroad that harm others. We can use our individual and collective economic clout against companies that follow unfair labor practices. We can vote for government officials who care about working families and try to defeat those who don’t. Along with power comes great responsibility and we are all, collectively and individually, responsible for doing what we can to stop or ameliorate suffering anywhere and everywhere. Michael Goldstein |
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