We were slaves to Pharaoh

Good news everybody! High Holiday Cantor, Cantor Scott Eckers and I are working together so that we can share the Kabbalat service with you via the miracle of the Internet this Friday night at 5:30 PM. if I don’t have your email address and you send it to me, in a few days Good news everybody! High Holiday Cantor, Cantor Scott Eckers and I are working together so that we can share the Kabbalat service with you via the miracle of the Internet tonight night at 5:30 PM. Here is the link for tonight’s service:  https://zoom.us.j/2389285517.

Now my daily devar Haggadah.

Rabbi Soloveitchik was not only a great Talmudist, but also one of the great Jewish thinkers of the 20^th century. He struggled intensely with the issue of suffering. He taught that when we, as Jews, confront suffering we simply have no answer to the question, “why?” When we confront suffering we should not ask “why,” but are only question should be “what?” We do not asked the question “why?” because the response to why man suffers is always beyond our human comprehension.

However we do, and we should ask, “What can we learn from the experience of suffering?” When we consider the suffering that the Jewish people endured in Egypt, the Torah commands us that we learn an important lesson. It repeats time and again that we should be kind and merciful to those who are less fortunate, stating explicitly that this is because we experienced what it’s like to be “strangers in a strange land.” In other words, we have experienced what it’s like to be powerless and to be taken advantage of by those who are more powerful.

The fact that as slaves we Jews were exposed to such cruelty and pain has foster within us a sensitivity and emotional tenderness that will always remain unique quality of our people. Jews are infused with compassion and mercy. When the Torah teaches us to have sympathy for widows and orphans, we Jews are naturally inclined to show mercy because it is an experience that has been imprinted on our collective psyche.

This is the message that has not lost its relevance for us, and continues to reverberate in us every year as we celebrate the Seder. The Egyptian Exodus and the suffering we endured was an experience which promoted the moral quality of the Jewish people for all time.

What mitzvah is mentioned more than any other in the Torah?

In the Torah, one can find 36 verses which state that the stranger, orphan, and widow must be treated kindly. “You were once strangers in Egypt… you know what it’s like to be a stranger.” In other words, having experienced estrangement, oppression, and discrimination ourselves, we are expected to empathize with and respond to those who are less fortunate. (The Night That Unites Haggadah, page 86)

Thursday I participated in an ADL webinar entitled “Danger to minority groups to coronavirus-fueled xenophobia and violence.” We Jews are no stranger to anti-Semitism, hate, and scapegoating. Even before the coronavirus spread in our country, we recognized the anti-Semitism was on the rise. White supremacy groups along with anti-Semitic regimes in the Muslim world have spread conspiracy theories that Jews, Zionists, and/or Israelis created the virus and let it loose on the world.

Recently Americans of Chinese descent face the same prejudice, hatred, scapegoating, and violence. Chinese-Americans have been spat upon, stabbed, and beaten. In the last five weeks more than 1000 hate crimes against this community have been reported. I read in the New York Times that they are literally scared to be seen in public.

In the Latino community immigrants are highly vulnerable to the coronavirus which adds fuel to the fire to the already anti-Hispanic hatred in segments of our population. More than 37,000 undocumented immigrants are incarcerated and this is a health recipe for disaster. There is a complete lack of concern for them. Some immigrant courts don’t even have hand sanitizers.

We need to save the reputation of our fellow Americans by helping the minorities by doing these three action points:

1, When we hear this kind of hatred we need to speak out against it wherever it raises its ugly head, including in a zoom meeting or on Facebook, and from our elected officials. Write letters now while we are sheltered at home.

2, Share the facts. Don’t get emotional or partisan about hate. Everybody should be against it.

3, Show your strength by being an ally. Let’s not be interested only in fighting anti-Semitism. We need to be an upstanding and not a bystander whenever and wherever prejudice ugly head.

For facts and other strategies just go to the ADL website. It’s time for us to say Dayenu!