This week’s Parashah, Bo, comes at an auspicious time in our country’s history. I am struck with our story of Exodus from slavery coincides with the story of the new President of the United States, Joseph R. Biden Jr, calling for unity and an end to senseless hatred, racism, destruction and being uncivil. These 4 ingredients are foundational to/for enslaving another(s) human beings.
One of the points I speak about every year in this Parashah is the opening in Hebrew: Bo el Parro, come to Pharaoh. A seemingly odd choice of verbs yet very telling, God is in every person. We are all created in the Image of God and we all have infinite dignity and worth. At the risk of being redundant, I want to stress here the importance of this opening verse. God is saying, in my opinion: “Come to the Me that is in Pharaoh and speak to the Me that is in Pharaoh so Pharaoh can hear the Me that is in himself.” What a different way to see another human being, not as an enemy that has to vanquished rather as a Divine Image that needs to hear the call of my Divine Image. I am overwhelmed with sorrow and joy as I write this. Sorrow at the times when I saw another as an enemy and went to “get even” and enslave them or kill their spirit in order to win. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I offer my T’Shuvah to the people who have experienced me in this way. Most of the time, I thought I was doing what was necessary to defeat the Pharaoh in you and while this may have been in my heart and soul it wasn’t in my actions all the time. Again, I am truly sorry and my plan is to remember this moment and speak in ways you can hear whenever I can.
Joy for the times when I saw/see another as a human being in distress and I am able to reach out, speak to you in ways you can hear and we learn together how to be one grain of sand better. I know I experience Joy most of the time and, in reading this verse this year, I have become aware that this is one of the reasons I do! I am also thinking of the words of President Biden yesterday in his Inaugural Address and in the words of his campaign to reach out to another, to reach across the aisle. We have let partisanship, the need to be right and the belief that Trump was sent by Jesus (and before Trump another right-wing conservative) stunt our journey to ‘a more perfect union’. We need to immerse ourselves in God’s words here in the opening of the Parashah and meet the Divine Image in the people we disagree with, speak to and from the Higher Consciousness in each of us, and, to paraphrase what Joe Biden said yesterday to the new employees he swore in, let your gut’s knowledge open your heart so your brain is delivering your gut’s knowledge clearly, kindly and decently.
What a way to begin a Presidency! And it is found in our Parashah this week. Moses says to Pharaoh, “How long until you humble/submit/surrender yourself to Me. Send My People and they will serve Me.”(Exodus 10:3). Joe Biden swore his oath on a Bible that has been in his family for almost 130 years. He is familiar with this passage from Exodus, I am sure and his Inaugural address was his admission of submitting to God’s Authority and asking all of us to do the same. What a contrast from the Pharaoh that was his predecessor! 3 of the 5 Former Presidents joined to wish Joe well and the country well. Moses’ exhortation to Pharaoh was not just for the Israelites, it was for Pharaoh to save his own country and people. It was a pleading with Pharaoh, “until when” will we surrender to God’s Will, ‘until when’ will we humble ourselves before another(s) Divine Image, another human being? These are important questions to ask ourselves as Congress and people start to dig in and get stuck in their ideology, lies, beliefs, etc and need to win at all costs, even ruin of our nation which is what Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, 6 other senators and over 100 House Republicans did on January 6. Even after they were attacked, they still could not admit truth, they could not humble themselves to the will of the people, they still wanted to serve Pharaoh. How sad and yet, how often do we do the same thing?
Pharoah’s courtiers ask him the same question a few verses later. In verse 7 they ask Pharaoh, “how long will this one be a snare for us, don’t you know Egypt is lost?” Who’s the person that can call our Congresspeople together and deliver this message? Maybe President Biden, I don’t know, I know that someone has to. How often are you/me/us so sure of ourselves that we cannot admit error? How often do we go deaf when someone is speaking to our Divine Image? I am dealing with this very situation right now. I had to rise above my desire to get even and see the Divine Image in people who don’t even realize that they are acting from their Pharaoh. It is hard, I want to act from my Pharaoh place and, for a while, I did. It just is not me anymore nor do I want to return to that me. What are the areas that we can agree on? What are the principles we share? What is the best way for us to serve God in our own way and together? These are the questions that come up for me this week, this year. Seeing ourselves in Torah allows us to learn and be in truth and take the next right action. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Mark