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Chaverim y'karim ~ dear friends,
And just like that, we are out of Genesis and into Exodus. While the former provides the foundational narratives of our patriarchs and matriarchs - let alone of Creation - the latter is the birth story of our nation.
I've often said, if you are confronted with a Jewish question to which you do *not* know the answer, just say: "The Exodus." And 75% of the time, you will be correct.
Why do we celebrate Shabbat?
The Exodus.
Why do we eat Matzah?
The Exodus.
Why build a Sukkah?
The Exodus.
Why do we fast on Yom Kippur?
Atonement.
Like I said: 75% of the time. Just say "The Exodus" and you have a good chance to be correct.
But when does the Exodus begin? When Pharaoh finally agrees to let the people go? At the first plague? Some say the narrative actually begins as early as the brothers throwing Joseph into the pit (Genesis 37!). That feels a little pre-mature but that moment does set into action all that will follow - namely, the entirety of our people heading into Egypt where, as we will read this week, "there arose a king who knew not of Joseph" and enslaved our people.
And if we try to ascertain when the Exodus began, of course, we might then ask: when does it end? The splitting of the Sea of Reeds? The receiving of Torah at Sinai? The return of the Exiles from Babylonia to rebuild the Temple in the 5th Century BCE? 1948?
Consider the words of political theorist and public intellectual, Michael Walzer -
...So Pharaonic oppression, deliverance, Sinai, and Canaan are still with us, powerful memories shaping our perception of the political world. The “door of hope” is still open; things are not what they might be - even when what they might be isn’t totally different from what they are ...
We still believe, or many of us do, what the Exodus first taught, or what it has commonly been taken to teach, about the meaning and possibility of politics and about its proper form:
- first, that wherever you live, it is probably Egypt;
- second, that there is a better place, a world more attractive, a promised land;
- and third, that “the way to the land is through the wilderness.” There is no way to get from here to there except by joining together and marching.
Alas, the Exodus' beginning and end seem to be malleable and ever present even when somewhat fixed in time. So, this week, join us as we embark into the opening words of Exodus and follow our story again, perhaps for the first time.
L'shalom,
Rabbi Mark Cohn
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