Parashat Va’era  (Exodus 6:2 – 9:35)

Reflections on the Torah Portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel

The story of the Exodus is at its core, a story of hope.  All around us, we see a broken world, and yet, the possibility for its repair is ever-present.  Four verbs in this week’s Torah portion symbolize this possibility for repair: in Exodus 6:6-8, while encouraging Moses to take a leadership role in bringing the Jews out of Egypt, God makes these promises of hope: “I will free you… I will deliver you… I will redeem you… I will take you to be My people.”  These four verbs are the scriptural reason that we drink four cups of wine at the Passover Seder – the quintessential Jewish ritual of telling the story of hope.

Today, we, too, are inspired by God’s message of hope found in these four simple verbs, as we look at our own lives.  It is no coincidence that the four words are verbs (“action words” as our religious school students remind me!), to remind us that action is the source of redemption.  To bring hope to the broken world we live in we are required to act.  When it comes to a devastating war in Iraq, to an environment in need of our protection, to the on-going genocide in Darfur, to an increasingly tense situation between Hezbollah and Israel, and to many other critical world problems, we must imitate the Divine through employing our own “verbs,” and thereby bring humanity closer to its true redemption.

            - Rabbi Andy Vogel

Sinai Update – Week of January 7-13, 2007

Parashat Shemot  (Exodus 1:1 – 6:1)

Reflections on the Torah Portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel

As our attention at Temple Sinai turns to the crisis in Darfur on this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend, we also read the story of the Jews’ oppression in Egypt.  (Please join us on Friday at Shabbat services at 7:30 p.m. for our MLK Day commemoration with our guest speaker on the genocide crisis in Darfur.  See below.)  The timing of the Torah reading and its message highlight the challenge to us to strive for justice in our own day.

In the first description of the attempts by the new Pharoah to eradicate the Jewish people in Egypt, two midwives (most likely non-Jewish) emerge as the early heroines.  Two midwives, named Shifra and Puah, refuse to obey Pharoah’s decree that all Jewish baby boys be killed at birth.  The Torah says (Exod. 1:17),” The midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt has commanded them; they saved the male children and let them live.”  This is the first recorded act of civil disobedience in human history, non-violent resistance to and defiance of “speaking truth to power.”  Rashi, the great 11th century commentator, interprets the verse even more strongly, saying that the midwives went beyond “letting” the children live, but rather that “they made the children live – by providing them with food.”

As we commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr., and his commitment to peaceful resistance against injustice, and as we turn our attention toward our own government’s inaction in Darfur to prevent the on-going genocide, the example of the midwives rises up to urge us into action.  We cannot remain silent; furthermore, like the midwives, we must go beyond the minimum to actively save lives and renew our commitment to justice through our actions.  We remember the words, frequently spoken by Dr. King, and echoed by Jewish teachers after him: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

            - Rabbi Andy Vogel

Sinai Update – Week of January 1-6, 2007

Parashat Vayechi

Reflections on the Torah Portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel

Leaving a legacy to those who come after us helps make our lives meaningful.  This is what our ancestor Jacob did as he faced his waning days in old age, as described in this week’s Torah portion.  In the first deathbed scene in the Bible (Genesis chapter 49), Jacob is surrounded as he nears death by all his children, and by some grandchildren as well.   In a remarkable scene, Jacob delivers a long poem about each of his children, and gives them what has been called an “ethical will,” directives for living their lives in spiritually meaningful ways after he is gone.

We, too, can give this gift to our families and those whom we love, regardless of how close we feel to the end of our lives.  May we all live on into ripe and healthy old age – but also be reminded, as Jewish tradition tells us, that none of us knows how long we may live.  In a beautiful modern book, So That Your Values Live On, Rabbi Jack Riemer and Dr. Nathaniel Stampfer, share these “ethical wills” that Jewish parents have left for their children in every age and generation.  Some instruct children to keep Jewish tradition alive; others talk about the primacy of family or of the importance of honesty in their work, or even of which characteristics the parent would like emphasized in a eulogy!  (The book is worth owning.)  Most of all, we can remember that, like our ancestor Jacob, the way we live our lives is the best legacy our families and loved ones can learn from, and that every act we make endures as a living example of our values.

            - Rabbi Andy Vogel