This Shabbat we begin the reading of Exodus, the second book of the Hebrew Bible.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., understood the Exodus as a story about good versus evil. The drowning of Pharaoh’s army at the Sea of Reeds represents the destruction of evil itself. But in this battle against the worst impulses of humanity, King cautioned us against allowing hatred to take root in our hearts against those whom we battle: “Let us remember that as we struggle against Egypt, we must have love, compassion, understanding and goodwill for those against whom we struggle, helping them to realize that as we seek to defeat the evils of Egypt we are not seeking to defeat them but to help them, as well as ourselves.” Of course Dr. King was speaking about the Civil Rights movement. We can apply this same thinking to those we might oppose in our day [...]

This Shabbat we begin the reading of Exodus, the second book of the Hebrew Bible.  “The Book of Exodus, much like the Book of Genesis, opens in pervasive darkness. Genesis describes the earth as ‘unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep.’ In Exodus, darkness attends the accession of a new Pharaoh who feared the Israelites and so enslaved them. God alone lights the way out of the darkness in Genesis. But in Exodus, God has many partners, first among them, five brave women.” — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (ז״ל) and Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt (Read More) The names of those heroes are Yocheved, Shifra, Puah, Miriam, and Batya. It is extraordinary that a three-thousand year old patriarchal culture would so prominently feature women in its master narrative. As we tell and retell the Exodus story, we reflect on the contributions of these women with gratitude and we [...]

This Shabbat we begin the reading of Exodus, the second book of the Hebrew Bible.  “The Exodus story isn’t a story of universal liberation. The Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt saves only the Israelites. But the idea is that this can be repeated, and it invites people to imitate it, to do it again.” — Professor Michael Walzer The story of our people’s liberation has inspired countless others over the centuries. Many African American slaves found hope in our tale of freedom. The well-known spiritual, “Let My People Go,” invited all those who sang it or heard it, those who were oppressed so hard that they could barely stand, to imagine themselves as the Hebrew children who, by God’s grace, were freed from the cruel shackles of bondage. It is a testament to the power of the narrative itself, the power of a story to make an idea possible [...]

This Shabbat we begin the reading of Exodus, the second book of the Hebrew Bible. Rabbi Carole Balin, a professor at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, asks a fundamental question about the Exodus story: “Is it true?” That is, did the events described in our Bible actually happen? Were we slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt all those years? Did God literally bring us out of bondage or is this story just an invention of our imaginative ancestors? Here’s how she answers: “As a non-literalist, non-fundamentalist, liberal, and committed Jew, I ascertain the message behind the medium. To me, the text asserts God’s ability to subvert nature as a means of demonstrating God’s vital interest in the welfare of the Israelites, which extends through time—indeed, I fervently hope, to our own time. To my students’ question, ‘But is it true?’ I respond, ‘Yes!’ and ‘No!’ The [...]