From the Rabbi's Desk

The Torah is intended to be relevant and current in every generation. Each time we sit down and learn תורה we’re supposed to be able to see new things. It’s incredible that we can find meaning in the תורה for today in the words given thousands of years ago.

The focus of the Jewish world since October 7th has been laser focused on the plight of the Jewish State and the hostages. We’ve spent so much time and energy advocating for Israel and trying to do everything possible to get the hostages back home. October 7th was שמחת תורה/Simchat Torah and as such we’ve already read an entire cycle of the תורה with the memory of October 7th and the continual fight the Israeli people are engaged in against their enemies. As of last fall, we began our second cycle of reading the תורה against the backdrop of all that’s happening in Israel and with the hostages. It’s impossible not to read what’s happening now into the text.

The book of שמות/Shmot/Exodus, is the beginning of the story of liberation. The revolutionary words of משה/Moshe/Moses are שלח את עמי/Let my people go. The idea that people are born free and nobody should hold another person against their will is something that altered the trajectory of humanity. This concept is one we all must recognize as being of greatest importance. I’m writing this as the hostages have been held for 481 days 8 hours and 16 minutes. When you read this, it’ll be 482 days and many hours and minutes. We’ve been crying out since their capture to שלח את עמי/Let my people go. And yet they remain. We’ve been glad to see some return since January 19 and we continue to breathe a sigh of relief as some more come out, but we still contend with the basic fact we have innocent people being held against their will by terrorists.

What’s even more telling from this week’s פרשה/portion: בא/Bo, is the very ethical dilemma we contend with today. פרעה/Pharaoh questioned: Who are the ones to go? (שמות י:ח) The idea that we can choose who lives and who dies, and who is free and who remains imprisoned, is absolutely grotesque. This is overtly expressed by our tradition in the תלמוד/Talmud in a number of places. Two come to mind:

Two people were travelling along the way, and one of them has in his possession a flask of water. If both drink from it, they will both die. However, if only one of them drinks, he will be able to make it out of the desert. Ben Petura expounded, “It is better that both should drink and die than that one should witness the death of his fellow”.  Then Rabbi Akiva came and taught, “‘Your brother shall live with you’ (Vayikra 25:36) — your life comes first, before the life of your friend”. (Bava Metzia 62a)

The Gemara asks: From where do we derive this halakha with regard to a murderer himself, that one must allow himself to be killed rather than commit murder? The Gemara answers: It is based on logical reasoning that one life is not preferable to another, and therefore there is no need for a verse to teach this halakha. The Gemara relates an incident to demonstrate this: As when a certain person came before Rabba and said to him: The lord of my place, a local official, said to me: Go kill so-and-so, and if not I will kill you, what shall I do? Rabba said to him: It is preferable that he should kill you and you should not kill. Who is to say that your blood is redder than his, that your life is worth more than the one he wants you to kill? Perhaps that man’s blood is redder. This logical reasoning is the basis for the halakha that one may not save his own life by killing another. (Sanhedrin 74a)

The words that should stick with you are “whose blood is redder?” We, as humans, cannot be put into such a situation where we play the role of God. We cannot be forced to choose who gets to live and who gets to die. It’s against all we hold dear to do otherwise. At the same time, we live in a world that doesn’t abide by our values and ethics. We live in a world where Jewish law and practice are not the norm. We cannot assert that everything must accord with our way of seeing the world. In the end, we need to accept that the process is the process and we’re forced to be part of it. We must recognize the pain of all of this is something we need to feel and acknowledge as we step into a world that looks so different from the one we wished and hoped for. We need to see that our ethics and values are aspirational and make us the moral beings we are in spite of the real world that is not.