I need to give you fair warning: This blog post is going to be a bit bleaker than usual. Maybe it's because of the blizzard we're
anticipating, I don't know. I recently read a couple of articles and listened to an interview that made me look at our Torah portion a little bit differently. In fact, it may have given me a new outlook on the entire Exodus narrative, as well as a slightly different perspective on society today. Yet also one that I might not be ready to accept. You've been warned; now let's struggle together.
This past Monday, we celebrated Martin Luther King Day. I wrote about it last week here on the blog. In addition, I also gave the keynote address at the Crozer-Chester Medical Center's MLK Day observance, and I posted my sermon here as well, in case you're interested.
And in that speech, I juxtaposed two quotes; one from Dr. King himself, and one from the thought-provoking writer, Ta-nehisi Coates. Fifty years ago, Dr. King said, "the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice." And in his book Between the World and Me, Coates writes that the arc of history bends towards chaos. In my speech, I "sided" with Dr. King, emphasizing how we need to remain hopeful and optimistic in the face of injustice and oppression. Not because we're naive or willfully blind, but because it gives us energy and passion to keep struggling and keep fighting against the darkness and despair that sometimes seems to pervade our world. But then I read our Torah portion, Beshallach.
This weekend is called Shabbat Shirah, the "Shabbat of Song." The Israelites cross the Sea of Reeds and literally begin to sing God's praises. A minute earlier, it seemed the Egyptians would overtake and kill them all (or at the very least drag them back into slavery), but now they rejoice as free women and men.
Truly a moment of pure joy, hope, and excitement! ... And in the very next chapter, the Israelites rebel against God: "If only we had died by the hand of Adonai in the land of Egypt, when we sat around pots of meat and ate our fill of bread! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to starve this whole congregation to death!!" (Ex. 16:3) How do we make sense of this? How can they reject God, after everything they saw and experienced... TWO SECONDS AGO??? In Hebrew School, we sometimes teach the story of the Exodus as a happy one, with a united people fighting together for freedom and autonomy; loyal to God, pious, holy, and moral. But that is not our story. That is not the reality the Torah depicts, and we shouldn't sugar-coat our history because the truth makes us uncomfortable.
A good friend and colleague of mine, Rabbi Eytan Kenter, recently wrote on myjewishlearning.com, comparing Ta-nehisi Coates' latest book to the Biblical work of Ecclesiastes. Kenter stated: "These two important books are here not to teach us how to make the world better, but to remind us that it is also our imperative to understand and come to terms with the world as it is." This gave me pause. I WANT to
emphasize the hope and encouragement of Dr. Martin Luther King... but I also acknowledge that our story is filled with unresolved challenge, and flawed characters who don't necessarily get better. Sometimes we truly are meant to just sit with the tension of difficult situations. In a recent interview I heard with Ta-nehisi Coates, he exclaimed: "It's not my job to make people feel good about the world!" I wonder if the author of the Torah could have spoken those same words? It's not meant to be a "happily ever after" fairytale, is it? It's actually a book about real life. The Exodus is about REAL people trying to overcome national trauma and PTSD, and the picture isn't a rosy one. While I still stand by my speech on Monday, and still firmly believe in maintaining our hope and optimism, I also acknowledge the truth of the Exodus, Ecclesiastes, and Ta-nehisi Coates.
I think sitting with this tension helps us be more sensitive people, better able to relate and empathize with others. Sometimes our best learning experiences come through struggle, and I am grateful for this new perspective on our text... but I still prefer a positive outlook, what can I say?
Photos in this blog post:
1. Image of my daughter, Caroline (with Rebecca in the background), playing in the snow in January, 2015.
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