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January 16, 2004/Tevet 22 5764, Vol. 56, No.17
Shemot lays down freedom foundation
Torah study
RABBI IRWIN WIENER
Shemot/Exodus 1:1-6:1
The portion of the Torah we read this week lays the foundation for the greatest religious experience known to man. It transforms Israel and God from a local expression to a universal understanding of humankind's partnership with the divine.
"A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph." (Exodus 1:8) This is the beginning of the drama that would take us from enslavement to freedom. This chapter in our history has left us with a legacy of not just freedom from the whip but freedom of thought and understanding.
Not knowing Joseph is a call to promote prejudice and hatred. Fear of numbers - as the children of Israel multiplied - is an age-old excuse for subjugation. Worrying about loyalty - as Pharaoh professed to be concerned about - is how terror tactics emerge.
All these ingredients were joined together to contribute to this story of stories. And as the plot thickens we see firsthand the trappings of predilections on a grand scale that have occurred in our lifetime.
Bias in any form is evil. And evil cannot exist where there is truth and faithfulness. Evil takes many forms and thrives on death and destruction. And evil lives in darkness, the darkness of a closed mind, and it hides behind a cloak of respectability.
But as we have witnessed time and again, evil can only succeed with complacency. Only the willingness of a society with closed eyes, which makes all things dark, can ensure cruelty's survival. However, justice is the one weave in the fabric of humanity that will bring light from darkness.
This is what the Pharaohs of every generation preyed upon: the weakness of the spirit and the unending burden of despair.
And then Moses was born and with him the hope for a better tomorrow. The essential ingredient to be found as the story unfolds is not in the person of a man named Moses but rather in a desire to be free - a desire that rings in each and every one of us and is echoed around the world time and again.
It is the freedom of slaves as they sang "Go Down Moses" while they toiled from morning till night. It is the freedom of generations of people who, with bent bodies, rose to declare, "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty I am free at last."
It is the freedom of thought and the freedom from want. It is the clarion call of every human being who wants only to sit under his fig tree and feel safe and secure. It is the freedom to be able to worship God as his conscience dictates. And it is the freedom to believe that one day, "people will not lift up sword against each other and not make war anymore."
The Torah portion Shemot begins, as its name implies, with the names of the generation who followed their destiny. Names are important because they identify us. Names are important so that we do not forget the past. More importantly, however, names are important because they help us understand who we are and what God expects of us: "To do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God." Incorporated in this formula is the basis for a free people, a free people who will do no less for others than for themselves and will cry out, as did our ancestors, when freedom is threatened. And God will answer.
Rabbi Irwin Wiener is the spiritual leader of Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation.
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