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D'var Torah:
Weekly Torah Portion Commentary

Sh'mot - Genesis 1:1-6:1 - 1/16/25

With this week’s Torah portion, Sh’mot, we begin a new book of the Torah, Exodus, and our story turns from the stories of our Patriarchs and Matriarchs to focus on the experiences of the Israelites in Egyptian slavery, the Exodus, and the beginnings of these twelve twelves coming together as one united people.

 

This story of slavery and redemption is the foundational story of our people.  So central is this to who we are as God’s people that it is encapsulated in the first Commandment – “I am Adonai Your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” From here, 36 times in Torah we are reminded that we were once slaves and know what it is to be oppressed because we were strangers in a strange land. Therefore, we should treat the strangers among us as equal to the citizen.

 

Today the ‘strangers’ among us are similarly being targeted, as the Egyptian Pharaoh once targeted us, for no reason other than that they are ‘strangers’. I put that word in quotes because we are not really talking necessarily about strangers but about people who are part of our community. They work in our farms and factories, in our restaurants and hotels. They build our houses and businesses. They care for our elders and our children. They sit beside us in school. They are currently being threatened with detention for minor offenses and mass deportation.

 

Our partners at CUSH have an active immigration task force that is working to be good allies to the immigrant community. Please connect with their efforts and find ways you can be of help! 



-Rabbi Bonnie Margulis

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