Community Blog

     Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Ekev, in which Moses reminds the people of Israel that they have taken the long route from Egypt to Israel both as a punishment for their obstinacy and as a learning opportunity, a promise of Divine care when they follow the commandments. 

     Toward the end of the parasha, Moses (presumably speaking for God) tells the people that the Promised Land is not like Egypt, where farmland was cultivated by human labors. Rather, in the Holy Land, the ground is watered by Heavenly rains. The 19th century commentator known as the Malbim offers a slightly different view of this same concept: in Egypt, the Nile naturally waters the crops. Farmlands are abundant and easy to take for granted. In Israel, there is little ground water and even rain is scarce. Flourishing crops must be prayed for and appreciated as divine gifts. Contemporary commentator Rabbi Shai Held concludes from this that Parashat Ekev teaches that "real piety requires us to surrender the illusion of self-sufficiency. As human beings, we are fragile and vulnerable-and therefore irreducible dependent, both on God and on other people."

     I believe the modern United States has been corrupted by a rhetoric that simultaneously promotes rugged individualism and yet tries to force sameness on society, marginalizing anyone who falls outside the perceived "norm". According to this week’s Torah portion, our survival as a people must be understood as interconnected, and our survival as individuals must be understood as Divine Sparks, brought into being as sustained by God. As I see it, this means we should governing and behaving as a society in exactly the opposite way from how we have been trending for the last 40 years. That our policies should be focused on community care and public health, while leaving room for bodily autonomy where it does not impose health risks on other people. That we should understand that each person is created in the image of God and deserves to live as their most authentic selves, and that as a collective we are dependent on each other and on the Divine protection that we can only bring about by behaving in line with the values of justice, compassion, and love. 

     I hope some of you were able to attend last Sunday's event, or watch at least the one panel that was recorded with working sound, and learn something about how the current political trends are hurting our people, and what we can be doing to protect each other. We must continue to learn the lessons from Torah: it is not on bread alone that humans survive, but also through care and spiritual sustenance. This includes being able to live authentically, with safety and dignity. This includes a social safety net to catch us if the proverbial rains do not fall. This includes having a community that will fight for you and for the rights of everyone pushed to the margins, until all are able to live equitably. May this be God's will, and may this be our effort, and may this soon be our reality. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.