Shemot 10:1-13:16
In our parsha this week, Parsha Bo tells our story of the Passover, the time when Moshe leads the people out of the land of Mitzrayim (Egypt) towards the land promised by HaShem. The people who left Egypt were a diverse group. Tova Lebovic-Douglas in her article on Bo points out in Shemot 12:38 they were a mixed multitude. That is according to her the people Israel including converts of different nationalities and some Egyptians perhaps who wanted to leave the oppression of their native land. We are a diverse people, yet each of us carry a spark of the divine within. We see the humanity in each of us and from that comes compassion for each other. More on this later.
Back to the Parsha, Moshe teaches in 12:26-7, “And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this rite?’ you shall say ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, because he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses.’” Two other times the instruction is repeated for the people Israel. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory points out how counterintuitive it is to look not to the day with all that was going on, but some point in the distant future. We teach the story around the Passover table, a chavruta of sorts in which the children are encouraged to ask questions as we tell this ancient story, making it our own, and as they grow, it becomes theirs as well. It is we who were in Egypt, escaping our own Mitzrayim, our narrow place.
It was a revolutionary act. Others built great buildings, pyramids, public arenas, tombs, but we built schools. We tell our stories, remember our history, and have survived even as one civilization after another has fallen. Our Passover festival has been the glue that held us together over centuries.
We tell the story and make it our own. We tell our stories and remember the history of our people. I confess as a writer, historian, and storyteller; I love this aspect of being Jewish. As we tell our stories, I can’t help but reflect on the last few years. A worldwide pandemic that has affected so many of us and yet in many cases, brought out the very best of us, through cards and meals. Of gathering to sit shiva, to mourn those who have passed and to comfort those who lost a loved one. I imagine what it must have been like for Moshe, to lead the people, twelve tribes, from the young to the very old. What of the very old, unable to walk much like me? And the children who could not keep up or not yet able to walk? Did they carry them over their shoulders or on makeshift carts? With only a leader, or a few pitching in, this journey was impossible. It was in community that our people survived. Each doing their part, lifting each other in this difficult journey. Those children in carts or on shoulders, did they go out with their parents to gather manna? I suspect that was how it was. Everyone had a role in looking out for everyone else.
As Jews, we teach that the world rests on three things: Torah, Avodah (prayer) and Gemilut Chesed or deeds of loving kindness. Reading from A Book of Life by Michael Strassfeld, to act in the way of the Lord according to Abraham, one acted with tzedakah u mishpat, that is justice and righteousness. So, we should not act just out of caring, but out of righteousness and justice. But…the word used was not tzedakah, but Gemilut chesed. Why, one might ask? Because, according to Strassfeld “gemilut chesed is an even holier way to act out of loving kindness, that is to go beyond what is required by justice. To act out of loving kindness is to identify with other people, to feel for them, to want to help them and ease their burden even if simple justice would not require it. To act out of loving kindness is to understand we are all lost in a broken world, yet together we can improve the journey of life. Gemilut chesed means to care even when it is not deserved. It also means to understand that we all need deeds of loving kindness to be done for us, not just the poor.”
There is no more powerful memory than Parsha Bo in Exodus. We are a communal people, a caring people. It is fundamental to who we are. In Pirke Avot 2:21, Rabbi Tarfon says, “It is not your responsibility to finish the work of perfecting the world, but you are not free to desist from it either.” Working together, with us all doing our part, we can make a difference in people’s lives, including our own.
Am Israel chai. Shabbat Shalom!
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