צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף
First, a quick summary of this
momentous parashah. It opens with the 8th
and 9th plagues, locusts and darkness. Pharaoh continues to
refuse to let the Israelites go and worship God in the wilderness. God then tells Moses, and Moses tells
Pharaoh, that there will be one more plague, the killing of the firstborn. There
is then a pause in the drama while God gives instructions for the Passover lamb
sacrifice that the Israelites are to offer that evening, along with unleavened
bread and bitter herbs, and the commandment for the seven-day holiday of
Passover. The Israelites are then instructed to mark their doorposts with blood
to indicate their homes should be spared from the last plague. In the middle of
the night, God kills all Egyptian firstborns, human and cattle. The Israelites
request and receive objects of silver and gold from the Egyptians, as God had
told them to. And they leave Egypt, baking unleavened cakes on their way out. Moses
repeats the rituals of the Passover holiday for the people to follow when God
leads them into the land God promised to their ancestors, along with the redemption
of firstborn children and animals.
Looking at this week’s parashah
through an anti-racism lens, it is not hard to find teachings that can
inform and inspire our present-day quest for racial justice.
First, the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt
has been a powerful inspiration for liberation movements over the generations,
and has been especially potent for the African American struggle for
liberation, first from slavery, and subsequently from continuing oppression. We
can find in today’s parashah a precedent for the layers of oppression that
Black Americans have faced in their quest for liberation. Moses starts by
asking for the Israelites to be able to go and worship God in the wilderness.
At first Pharaoh says no, then is persuaded by the plagues to say: OK, worship
your God, but here in Egpyt, not in the wilderness. Then he says OK, go to the
wilderness but only men, no children. Then he says OK all the people, but no
cattle, before he is finally convinced to allow all the people and their
animals to leave. Even after the Exodus, Pharaoh changes his mind and tries to
recapture the Israelites.
These reluctant insufficient steps toward liberation are echoed in the Black American liberation experience. The United States’ Pharaoh, the white power structure, eventually and reluctantly ended chattel slavery, but soon replaced it with the practices of Jim Crow: OK, you can be technically “free”, but you can’t vote, can’t receive an education, can’t own property, etc. Eventually the U.S. Pharaoh said OK, we’ll eliminate explicitly racist laws, but maintain racial segregation and discrimination through practices like redlining and restrictive covenants, and restricting economic opportunity. In the next phase, commonly termed the “New Jim Crow”, Blacks were and continue to be targeted with differential law enforcement, resulting in mass incarceration and ongoing disparities in access to education, economic opportunity, and power.
Secondly, also in
today’s parashah is the precedent for reparations for slavery. It is first commanded in Exodus 11:2-3:
Tell the people to borrow, each man from
his neighbor and each woman from hers, objects of silver and gold.
The LORD disposed the Egyptians favorably
toward the people. Moreover, Moses himself was much esteemed in the land of
Egypt, among Pharaoh’s courtiers and among the people.
And then it is carried out in Exodus 12:35-36:
The Israelites had done Moses’ bidding and
borrowed from the Egyptians objects of silver and gold, and clothing.
And the LORD had disposed the Egyptians
favorably toward the people, and they let them have their request; thus they
stripped the Egyptians.
The word “borrow” can
alternatively be translated as “ask for”.
The Book of Jubilees (an ancient
Hebrew text that did not make it into the Bible) says: “This asking was in
order to despoil the Egyptians in return for the bondage in which they had
forced them to serve.”
The medieval commentator Sforno
says: In Moses' honor the Egyptians gave generously to the Israelites.
It is fascinating how the Plaut
Torah commentary, published by the Reform movement in 1981, tersely comments on
these verses: “Note also the demands for restitution made by the black
revolutionary movement in the United States.”
Thirdly, there are different models of bringing about
justice. How does God bring Pharaoh
around to the right point of view? From
the opening verses of today’s parashah:
You may recount in the hearing of your
child and of your child’s child how I made a mockery of the Egyptians . . . How
long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?
This is a model of total
domination and humiliation, which was deemed necessary in the face of Pharaoh’s
arrogant and repeated hard-hearted refusal to let the Israelites go. Is there
another model for opening people to a just perspective?
There is a classical midrash in
which Pharaoh is spared at the Red Sea, and ends up leading his people in
repenting. In the Midrash, Pharoah became king of Nineveh, where, hundreds of
years later, Jonah came and brought word from God that in three days Nineveh
would be destroyed because of its wickedness. Pharaoh remembered when Moses
brought God's word that Egypt was doomed. So this time, he listened and led the
people of Nineveh in repentance. The wording in the book of Jonah, “The people
of Ninveveh believed in God”, mimics that in Exodus right before the Song of
the Sea: “They believed in God”. The people of Nineveh were brought to belief
in God by none other than Pharaoh, when he told them of the wonders that
occurred in Egypt and the Red Sea. The fact that someone like Pharaoh, who time
and again refused to recognize the power of God, could repent and teach a whole
city about the truth of God, is a remarkable lesson in the strength of
repentance.
I want to invite us to explore
how we approach our anti-racism efforts. Do we emulate God’s approach in Egypt
of blaming and humbling those who perpetuate racism? Or do we emulate God’s and
the king of Nineveh’s approach of inviting people into repentance? While there
may be times in the struggle for racial justice that require strong public
rebuke, for the work we are doing inside our own GJC community, I invite us to
proceed with compassion, love, and respect.
All of us grew up in a society
steeped in racism, whether or not we were aware of it. None of us asked for
this, but none of us could avoid messages of white supremacy and Black
inferiority from seeping into our conscious and unconscious minds. It was the
air that we breathed, and we are not to blame for having those attitudes and
thoughts lurking somewhere inside us. As I see it, our challenge is to uncover
any unconscious racial bias we harbor, strive not to let it influence our
thoughts and actions, and work to dismantle the oppressive systems that
centuries of racism have built up.
How can we approach our
anti-racism journey as a cooperative venture? As a way to help each other
liberate ourselves from the dehumanizing effects of racism? All of us have
blind spots, and we need each other to help see them. I believe that is best
done with compassion rather than blame, shame, or guilt. With a loving
approach, we can support each other to overcome our defensive reactions, and
maybe even celebrate anytime an artifact of our racist conditioning comes to
light.
The big sign on the GJC lawn near Emlen Street says “Black
Lives Matter” on one side. The other
side sometime reads “Tzedek tzedek tirdof – Justice, justice – pursue it.”. Why
does this verse from Deuteronomy repeat the word justice? To teach us to pursue justice in a just
way. I believe the just way to fulfill
our goal to be an antiracist community is to approach each other with
compassion.
No comments:
Post a Comment