Friday, January 13th, 2012 - Parashat Shemot

Rabbi's Weekly Teaching 

Parashat Shemot

Friday, January 13th, 2012

Many of us in the Jewish community have been following the stories out of the Israeli community of Beit Shemesh in these past few weeks. Much of the country has been turning their attention to a continuing battle over the rights of Israel's citizens to live in a democratic Jewish society that is not based on a singular view enforced by religious extremists. In light of these recent events, last week, Israel's President, Shimon Peres, spoke at a Masorti (Conservative Judaism in Israel) gala. President Peres took the opportunity to publically disavow religious extremism within Israeli-Jewish society, and he declared his solidarity with the pluralistic values encompassed by our own Conservative Judaism.

Addressing those present, President Peres began his talk by emphasizing the need for the state of Israel to pursue "humanism, peace, human rights and the rights of citizens." He went on to recall the "unforgettable sight of the professor, the rabbi, and poet, Abraham Joshua Heschel, walking arm- in-arm with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." in the 1965 march for equal rights for blacks in America in Selma, Alabama, just a few short years before Dr. King was murdered. President Peres recalled the words of Rabbi Heschel, when he was asked why he marched in support of civil rights in America. He responded: "I was praying with my feet."

President Peres' recollection of the inspiration of both Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel was a reminder as to why we Jews especially should celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in America, and around the world.  Like our African-American brethren, our people also know the narrative of enslavement, and we still remember our cries throughout the centuries to the Pharaohs who scarred our bodies and souls with tears that we can still taste upon our tongues.

Each year, at Passover, we see ourselves in the eternal narrative of slavery and liberation; we have good reason for making this memory real. We must keep learning this lesson, year after year and generation after generation, until we understand that a society in which all people are not equal is not the sacred society that God demands that we create. When any group of people is oppressed - whether the oppression is based on gender, race, religion or any other basis - we cannot become a holy nation, nor will we ever be a kingdom of priests.

Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel asked us all to "pray with our feet." In Israel, in America, and around the world, there are too many people denied their basic rights and freedoms; too many people who are marginalized by societies; too many people who can't enjoy the blessings we American Jews have come to know in our own country.

And, in Israel, we have witnessed too often - and we are witnessing once again - the ugliness of Jewish religious fundamentalism and intolerance. As much as we love Israel, we cannot stand idly by while ultra-Orthodoxy tries to hijack our democratic Jewish State. The recent impetus for equal treatment of gender in all areas of Israel is of paramount importance. Were we not to insist on this equality, we would be turning our back on the fundamental freedoms that we enjoy in our own country, and we expect from every other country in the world.

Dr. King loved America, but he insisted that she be consistent with her values for all citizens. As American Jews, we joined wholeheartedly in that righteous cause. Today, in Israel, the time has come to pronounce our unconditional love for our Jewish homeland, but to insist she also fully embraces her democratic pluralistic values for all its citizens.

We need to "dream" that one day Ultra-Orthodox Haredim will be able to re-adjust their mindsets and embrace modern life as appropriate for successfully living together with non-Orthodox citizenry. If this mindset cannot be freely chosen, then it must legally be demanded by Israeli society in the same way that we did in America forty short years ago. 

How will we effectively confront the problems of religious pluralism in Israel? Dr. King's wise words may also guide us: "Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love." 

In honor of Dr. King, let us learn how to pray with our feet. We can do so by loving our fellow Jews and our Jewish homeland, by educating one another about the actions we can take, as American Jews, to encourage democracy, equality and fairness in Israel for all of her citizens, and by demanding the evolution of our collective peoplehood so that we are in fact embracing the sacred teaching: B'Tzelem Elohim - We are all created in the image of God.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Mitch

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