30 Mar
Remember: you were once slaves in Egypt . . .
As we prepare ourselves for the celebration of Passover and give thought to the meaning of freedom. The Passover Hagadah brings us to an important realization: We are not merely the products of the present. In the words of the Hagadah, “And had the Holy Blessed One not taken us out of Egypt, then we, our children and grandchildren would still be slaves to Pharaoh.”
What do these words mean? Think about it . . . The events of the past impact the events of the future. Imagine how history might have changed, were it not for this seminal event of our people? There are turning points of history that forever alter the course of civilization, which creates the stage for the world we now live in.
The question of “What if?” is one of the ancient rabbi’s tools for enhancing our understanding of human history. This simple question may seem counterfactual, but the process of questioning is the vehicle that takes a past event and makes it come alive.
The question of “What if?” reveals the startling stakes that our ancestors faced in a land that disenfranchised and dehumanized them as people. This question is not the only one that the Passover Seder raises. For example, if the Israelites fail to cross the Sea of Reeds, Pharaoh and his hosts would have brought them back to Egypt where they would live out the rest of their lives serving their masters.
One event changes history. Without the Exodus, there is no revelation at Mt. Sinai. By the same token, there would be no “Promised Land,” no prophets, no Kings of Israel, no Temple, no Second Temple, no Maccabees, no Christianity, and no Islam to speak of.
How would the world look today?
Given that the plenitude of dictatorships we see in the world today, it is probably safe to presume that democracy and freedom would be rare. Scholars and rabbis may question the exact historicity of the Exodus, but there can be no question that the entire Torah is predicated upon the memory of the Exodus. For our ancestors, the experience of ill-treatment was real.
If the Israelites choose the security of slavery over the insecurity of freedom, there would never have been an Exodus. Freedom began with a choice.
And so the world changed in the twinkle of an eye . . .
Physicists and meteorologists sometimes speak about a concept known as the “butterfly effect.” According to the meteorologist Ed Lorenz, the earth’s weather systems are perfectly tuned so that even a butterfly’s stirring the air with its wings in the African jungle today will later generate consequences for the storm systems affecting Boston within a few weeks. (By the way, this same kind movement can also be applied with respect to economics, as seen this past year’s gyrations of the stock market.) The effects of the Exodus continue to reverberate over the ages—from ancient times—to the present. The mythos of the Exodus has become embedded in the collective unconscious of all peoples.
The world is still changing as a result of the Exodus. This wonderful holiday beckons all of us to fight for the freedom of all oppressed peoples.
Indeed, God’s glory becomes manifest whenever people free themselves from tyrants. Our sacred stories teach us another important lesson. God does not act unilaterally to free the Israelites from their misery. For freedom to occur there must be a Moses, an Aaron, a Miriam, a Shifra and Puah—good and brave people must take a stand.
Memory in Judaic tradition is never passive. Memory is active, dynamic, and transforming. The Passover Hagadah makes it a point to get the participants imagine themselves as if they were personally present at the original Seder. The Torah makes it a point to reiterate:
- If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or woman, sells himself to you, he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year you shall dismiss him from your service, a free man. When you do so, you shall not send him away empty-handed,but shall weight him down with gifts from your flock and threshing floor and wine press, in proportion to the blessing the LORD, your God, has bestowed on you.For remember that you too were once slaves in the land of Egypt, and the LORD, your God, ransomed you. That is why I am giving you this command today (Deut. 15:12-15).
- You shall not violate the rights of the alien or of the orphan, nor take the clothing of a widow as a pledge. For, remember, you were once slaves in Egypt, and the LORD, your God, ransomed you from there; that is why I command you to observe this rule (Deut 24:17-18)
This morning on NPR, I heard the news about Egyptian women fighting for their civil rights. After marching in the streets for more freedom (the more you have, the more you want), the military authorities arrested a large number of women. The Egyptian police took these women to a room where they had to strip. These brave young women had to undergo a “virginity test,” in front of their tormentors.
Samira Ibrahim, 25, a victim of a forced virginity test after being detained in Tahrir Square a year ago, decided to take the Egyptian authorities to court. However, a military tribunal cleared the doctor of all charges.
The Muslim Brotherhood is no friend of the Jews; they despise Western values. After listening to other dissidents who complained about being beaten and incarcerated for weeks, I wondered: Why is our government giving 1.3 billion dollars to a government that despises freedom? Our President needs to be more assertive and make it clear to the Muslim Brotherhood: All financial aid is contingent upon democratizing Egypt.
I am certain our ancestors also experienced this type of treatment in Egypt.
For us, we must do our part and fight for the freedom that the Arab peoples deserve—whether they be in Syria, Egypt, or Iran.
The true character of a nation is never measured in terms of its religious or theological platitudes, but by its actions and behavior. Otherwise, the event of the Exodus is lost in bland ceremonialism and the present generation becomes historically dislocated from the past. The Tanakh demonstrates repeatedly that God is always on the side of the oppressed and downtrodden, which in turn explains why the prophets’ continuously demand social justice. The Kingdom of God must not be relegated to an eschatological dimension. Rather, it needs to become an earthly paradigm that is achieved through human means.
Posted by Sammish on 30.03.12 at 6:44 am
I agree with the monumental Exodus concept. I once truly believed as it was taught to me that it had influenced the political economy theory of Karl Marx with its dialectical process of revolutionary change of the relation of production and power structure. The Proletariat reaching a point where their exploitation in the hands of the ruling class become unbearable and the socialist utopia become an analogy of the promise land. The exodus concept goes even further in its use and association with the many philosophical concepts in the neo-Marxist Frankfurt’s critical school of thought. No wonder most assimilated Jewish thinkers of this school were Jewish, and of course we cannot forget mentioning the work of Sigmund Freud.
It seems to me that the Exodus bears an important imprint on the very concept of freedom and self-determination, the freedom from the shackles slavery and tyranny. Yet, this same idea of self-determination is denied to the Jews by the anti-Jewish Islamic ideology. Their fight (or one my called struggle within) for a caliphate utopian society is obscurantist, anti-Jewish (which new in a sense that they previously had their struggles and freedom from Western colonialist masters). It is also anachronistic due to the lack of supporting evidence that they themselves are now under the yoke of Zionist conspiracy, world wide Jewry a la the Protocols of the elders of Zion (which also control the western nations). And from this I do not differentiate between Muslim brotherhood and common (so called moderate).
This is where I disagree with your idea that Exodus story would lead us to help the people in Syria, Egypt and all the Arab masses living under the tyranny of their own people. Yes, BUT the Islamic narrative and discourse (Jihadist or non-jihadist) are much more complicated, and multi-layered in their intent, means and ultimate goal. Islam is a religion based on military victory and consequently the submission of its creed for whom ever encounter it. We have seen elected people as well their foot soldiers in the streets of Egypt, Libya and recently in Syria exalting the Sharia laws which is perhaps unavoidable due to the lack of alternative political ideology, but the worst of it and its most alarming and malevolent aspect is the external political push of conquest (which they merely define as cleansing re-conquest) of empire building and war waging in the name of some utopic ideal. This is where I smell fascism and its socio-biology parent paradigm. The Exodus story bears no resemblance to this desire to conquer the world. I, however, concede that the Ancient Hebrews under the command of Joshua had known that the land “given” to them had to be reconquered. Recent archeological findings show that not all of the ancient Hebrews ended up in Egypt as the descendants of Jacob and his sons migrated to the Land of Goshen. The majority remained in Canaan. However, one can presume that after so many years and many generations these same Hebrews ended up being completely different. Adding the seminal Exodus narrative, Sinai’s sojourn and the covenant with Hashem, we might as well called the whole Canaanites experience as Reconquista. But the issue is the aftermath and the goal of such desire to own and live in the land, (and I mean a specific area) and not to expand its political reaches to the confines of the earth or to become a world wide messianic movement as it was the case in Islam and Christianity . It reminds me of one political leader in one of the Third World revolutions when he said: “the most difficult part is how the build a society after the independence, and not the destructive war of liberation or get rid of the French” .
Thus, it is to me unwarranted to assume relevancy of the Exodus story to the present Arab “down” falls phenomena (as not Arab Springs). The difference is in the outcome. It is in the aftermath, and it is in the stage of building of social institutions and it is in the inward redefinition of freedom movement itself. And to this the Arab so called spring lack. The Exodus narrative is not about the concept of Trotsky “permanent revolution”. Not even Herzl and the staunch Zionists thought that the biblical Exodus is going to be played out again in modern times, at least not before WWII although many want to make the connection after the fact. I see a constant revolutionary upheavals (real or not) in the Arab and Muslim world. It is up to them to decide what to do and what sort of society they want to build, but I am afraid that the permanent “destructive “ revolutions is perhaps befitting their political agenda due perhaps to their ideological narrowness, authoritarian personality and their “zealots” like attitude towards anyone who do not fit their Islamic definition.
In conclusion, I will decline to help even in thought the masses of Arabs who through their own doing are suffering from their own leaders. Their leaders came from the same strata as them, the same culture, the same planet… their leaders are not Ramses …. By the way, I am a member of third generation of parent victims of anti-Jewish pogrom in North Africa during the 1910’s……
Posted by Yochanan Lavie on 30.03.12 at 6:44 am
In ancient times, even a great mind such as Aristotle saw slaves as mere “human tools,” whose very nature condemned them to be slaves. The Exodus revolution was that slavery is wrong, and slaves are human beings with dignity. (Indeed, even the torah-sanctioned forms of slavery are more like indentured servitude than chattel slavery). Of course, this inspired the Abolitionists, the Civil Rights leaders, and many others. Blacks and Jews should remember their shared roots and come together in friendship.
As for our Arab cousins, the Exodus is in the Quran, too. But I am afraid that the current Arab Spring is turning into an Islamist winter.