Community Blog

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bo, in which the last three plagues are recounted. Before we get to the 8th plague in the beginning of the parasha, Pharaoh offers to let a delegation of the Israelites go out into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to HaShem. Moses and Aaron tell him no, all of the Israelites must go out to the wilderness, for they are to have a festival of their sacrifices to HaShem, and it is necessary that men of every social station, along with their wives and children go. At this point, it appears that they are not asking Pharaoh to free the slaves, merely to give them leave. It seems like some combination of trying to compromise with Pharaoh, and/or get a foot out the door so that they can then make their break for it more easily. In any case, Moses and Aaron refuse to leave without the women and children. When Pharaoh expresses suspicion about the request that everyone be allowed to go, and doubles down on his offer to only let men go, Aaron and Moses simply take their leave of the palace and call down the locusts. 

This is what we call collective liberation. Moses has proven time and again that he is not willing to take the easy way out of his Israelite-ness. He is raised in the palace, but rebels against Egyptian cruelty toward the slaves. He escapes to the desert, but returns when told to in order to liberate the rest of the Israelites. He has the opportunity to get some number of people out now, and refuses to go until everyone is allowed to leave. As the great Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus once wrote, “Until all of us are free, we are none of us free.” 

It is incumbent on us all to continue to live this Jewish value. It is important to protect ourselves and value our own lives, to be sure. But we must not hide away from realities of injustice and violence that affect others more directly than ourselves. When we are reasonably safe to do so, we must stand up for other marginalized communities, and that includes when we are not comfortable to do so. Safety and comfort are often mistaken for one another and they are not the same. Moses was in a privileged position to speak up to Pharaoh, and he still expresses plenty of concern and fear for himself, for the Israelites, and about whether he will be taken seriously. In the end, though, he does not back down and he rises to the challenge to free everyone. 

May we live beyond our fear, may we seek liberation for ourselves and others, and may we live to see a day when all people are truly free to live with safety and dignity. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.