It does not always line up perfectly, but I love the symmetry of beginning a new book of Torah at the beginning of the secular New Year. All the stuff about a blank page, a new chapter, a fresh start — it all works, you know?
And, maybe there is something particularly fitting about the shift from the Book of Genesis to the Book of Exodus, which we will begin this Shabbat. My colleague, Jodie Gordon, notes that while the Book of Exodus picks up where Genesis left off, at least geographically, “the story continues, in a new and different time, in a place that is the same and has changed.” The Book of Exodus starts with “a new king arose who did not know Joseph.” It is a sense of the ground shifting beneath us, where the things we thought we understood about our society and our community were no longer true. I cannot speak for all of us, but the last few months of 2023 certainly felt that way — and not in the positive sense.
The attacks of October 7 shifted so much for me as a Jew, as a woman, as a Zionist; I know this was true for so many of you as well, as we have discussed tearfully over these months. The ground has shifted beneath our feet, and that is always an uncomfortable space to inhabit.
Certainly, the shifting of a calendar from one year to the next does not actually change anything. Nor does the beginning of a new book. And yet, it is human nature to endow these moments of transition with hope. And certainly, it is Jewish nature to endow our lives with hope. Because the Book of Exodus does, eventually, become our redemption story — we just have to get there.
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat wrote a poem, “Becoming”, for this portion. She writes:
I am becoming who I am becoming
it is time for you to do the same
everyone else walked right by
but you saw the miracle burning
Pick up your staff now
and make yourself ready
If 2024 is to be a year of becoming, I hope we take these early days to make ourselves ready. May 2024 bring us, if not full redemption, then many moments of hope and even joy.
— Rabbi Sari Laufer