Rabbis “Praying With Their Feet”
Right now, Jews around the world are reading each week from the book of Exodus in the Torah. The story of our Exodus from enslavement in ancient Egypt is not a distant one that happened in a mythical past. It’s a story that is always happening, in countless iterations, throughout the ages. The Biblical Exodus is a story that has inspired people around the world in their own quest for liberation through the centuries, right down to the Civil Rights movement of our own time.
Like the book of Exodus, stories of oppression usually begin with the demonization of foreigners or minorities. The biblical Pharaoh was not the last leader to wield propaganda against “outsiders” as a wedge issue to galvanize his people and distract them from his own harshness and exploitation. Propaganda led to oppression which eventually led to violence and killing. It’s a technique used by tyrants and authoritarians throughout history.
And be assured, the persecution of one group eventually leads to suffering for everyone. To paraphrase Pastor Martin Niemöller after WWII, if we don’t speak up when they come for others, there will be no one left to speak up when they come for us.
As a response to this xenophobia, the Torah’s most repeated divine commandment is some version of “love the stranger,” “know the heart of a stranger,” “remember that you, too, were strangers in the land of Egypt.” The Hebrew word for stranger, Ger, means a foreigner, non-local, an immigrant or refugee.
As I spoke on Shabbat about the Torah portion, I couldn’t help but draw parallels to our world today. Today, immigrants are being targeted, refugees are being stripped of their protections, and like in the Exodus story, the suffering is spreading. When families are torn apart, when innocent people are being assaulted or killed on American streets, it’s no longer a matter of politics; it is basic human rights and Torah values. Yes, it’s fine and healthy to disagree on the particulars of policies and priorities. The Torah wasn’t dictating a certain immigration policy, but it was commanding that everyone, no matter where they were born, be treated with the dignity befitting a human being created in the image of God.
The great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a close friend and fellow civil rights activist with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said, “In a free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty, [but] all are responsible.” Our society is still free and terrible wrongs are happening. It is time for us to speak up and to respond. It is up to us to work together to heal our community, our society, and our nation.
Featured Image: Members of T’ruah the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, marching for immigrants with the slogan, “Resisting Tyrants Since Pharaoh.” Photo by Monay Robinson.
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