At 3:58pm on Wednesday afternoon a Holocaust Survivor phoned me to tell me how unnerved she is by what she was seeing unfolding live on TV. In the minutes that followed, I started to receive multiple texts and calls from concerned people as they watched the terrible events happening in DC with an unknown path of where this would end. Like them I followed the actions with trepidation and concern, as my stomach churned and I prayed for a peaceful and calm outcome.
For the second time in the space of a few months, the country was being rocked by dramatic and concerning events, and it seemed like the very foundations of our democracy and society were shaking wildly in the wind.
I am not a political commentator and seek to stay as far away from politics as I can. Yet as I reflect on these events, I have been thinking about the current Torah reading and the messages that are there which can give us all direction and a way forward in a way that WE can make a tangible difference.
In the portion we are told of the first encounters of Moses after leaving Pharaoh’s Palace in which he was raised.
On the first day out of the palace, Moses goes to see what is with his brethren, and he comes across a terrible scene, as he sees an Egyptian taskmaster wildly beating to death an innocent Jewish slave. Moses doesn’t hesitate and he acts, and he smites the Egyptian and buries him in the sand and saves the life of the Jewish slave.
This first scene tells us something so powerful about Moses which is seen repeatedly throughout his life, which is, when he saw something terrible happening to his people and to an innocent person, he acts and does it instantly. The Egyptian taskmaster who was trying to murder the Jewish slave, represented the external and dangerous threats that can destroy us, and Moses acts quickly to stop the threat and save a life.
On the second day out of the palace, he sees another scene unfold which greatly disturbs him, as he watches two Jewish people having an argument, which culminates in one of them lifting his hand to strike his fellow. It is at this point that Moses interjects, and calls out to prevent this terrible act of striking a fellow, as he says “Rasha (Evildoer), why are you about to hit your friend”?
Ironically, Moses calls the person who was about to strike, who hadn’t even hit yet, a Rasha, an evildoer. In other words, just the act of lifting one’s hand against your fellow with the intent to strike and use violence is a terrible thing, even if you haven’t hit yet. He also points out to the one about to hit, that you are striking “Rei-echa” your friend or your fellow, and not some terrible enemy.
Yet in the second story, the two individuals fighting, didn’t appreciate the interference by Moses, and they begin to yell at him and state “are you going to kill us like you killed the Egyptian taskmaster”? They also implied in their words that they were so annoyed at him for mixing in that they will report what he did the day before to the King and get him in trouble.
It is at that moment that the Torah tell us “that Moses became afraid”.
The commentator Rashi explains that while the literal meaning of being afraid here, is that he was afraid of what would happen to him once the news got back to Pharaoh, there is also a deeper Midrashic explanation to this story. Rashi proceeds to explain, that when Moses sees the breakdown of society within the Jewish people, the infighting and the willingness to get each other in trouble for saving people’s lives, he becomes afraid for the future of the people as a nation. Moses is now deeply concerned about the Jewish people’s ability to overcome the persecution and become worthy of being a people that can go free, if they are plagued by such infighting and callous attitudes towards one another.
In other words, this teaching is conveying to us, that for a nation to have a redemptive and brighter future, there cannot be infighting, hatred, violence or even the desire to want to get the other. Instead, we need to realize that the others even if we disagree with them (which is okay at times), are indeed our fellows and people we need to learn to work together with. Instead of hatred and bigotry we need to seek to create understanding, unity and a shared vision for a better future. Ultimately, it is precisely this kind of attitude which can give a nation hope and a vision for the future in overcoming challenges and fulfilling its role in the Divine mission and purpose it has been entrusted with.
While this message is an important message for leaders of a society, it is no less important for each and every member of society to embrace and act on as individuals. Indeed, love and tolerance are not simply values that are for people who think like us, vote like us, and live like us, for in truth it is actually most powerful when it extends to people who don’t think like us, don’t vote like us and don’t live like us.
To make our society and world better and to overcome the many challenges we are all dealing with right now, we as individuals and collectively as a society can all make a real and powerful difference in our own unique way. This can be done by extending a hand to those in need, reaching across the divides that we have allowed or enabled to crop up in our society, and yes showing love, care and compassion to those who we naturally see as others, all while seeking to respect the humanity and the spark of G-d that is within each and every individual.
In our own little way, we can make a big difference to making a better and more positive society and better world, by working on our mindset, attitude and actions to others.
I would like to end with two quotes from the book Hayom Yom authored by the Lubavitcher Rebbe with a collection of quotes, meditations and ideas for each day of the year.
“A sigh is only a key to open the heart and eyes, so as not to sit there with folded arms, but to plan orderly work and activity, each person wherever he can be effective” Hayom Yom 23rd of Tevet
“One action is better than a thousand sighs” Hayom Yom 8th Adar Beit
Shabbat Shalom and peace and blessings to all!
Yisroel