I write this on a day of contradictions, the day we honor the life and legacy of civil rights champion Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the second inauguration of a president who vows to do away with DEI programs, to do away with birthright citizenship that is was enshrined in the 14th Amendment to protect African Americans who had been born into slavery in this country, to dismantle programs designed to lift people out of poverty by assisting with food security, health care, support in old age, and workers rights, all of which disproportionately affect communities of color, but which will have a devastating impact on all low—and middle—income people, and to enact policies that will only serve the richest among us.
Our Torah portion, as always, speaks presciently to this moment we are in. When Moses tells the Israelites he has come as God’s agent to free them from slavery, they do not believe him, because “their spirits have been crushed by cruel labors” (Ex. 6:9). But Moses and Aaron persist, with God’s help. Pharaoh’s heart is hardened against the Israelites, despite increasingly devastating plagues, because it is in his economic interests to keep the Israelites in slavery. Moses and Aaron do not give up, and eventually their faith and hard work are rewarded, and they achieve their goal of freedom.
Like Moses and Aaron, we must persist in our resistance to the Pharaohs among us. We must not allow our spirits to be crushed or fear to overcome us. We also cannot rely on miracles to come to our aid. But we can and should rely on each other. Moses and Aaron worked together as brothers and allies. So, too, must we all come together as a community of mutual support and love, to resist and to refuse to give in to the forces of autocracy that confront us. Remember the NAACP’s 2019 theme and take it to heart – ‘when we fight, we win’.
-Rabbi Bonnie Margulis
Comments