Dear Temple Sinai Members and Friends,
The group Blood, Sweat &Tears sang these well-known words: “What goes up must come down/Spinnin’ wheel got to go ’round/Talkin’ ’bout your troubles, it’s a cryin’ sin/ Ride a painted pony, let the spinnin’ wheel spin.” While it is true that what goes up must come down, and does so because of gravity, I guess one could say that Judaism and Jewish history show that Jews are “defying gravity” (another song allusion) because we could sing, “what goes down, must go up”.
Our history has defied the gravity of human experience and the experiences of human beings, nations, and civilizations for somehow, we have been able to “pick yourself up/Dust yourself off/And start over again” (another song). We have risen time and again from the jaws of destruction and not only survived but thrived. Reason cannot explain the Jewish phenomenon of Jewish survival as it baffles physics itself. Certainly, even modern history as evidenced in this post-Holocaust era gives testimony to this, thank God.
One could think that the following poem by the English poet Shelly would have been written about the Jewish people:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
But it does not describe us, for we still exist. The People of Israel still live.
This view of Jewish history, however, does not and cannot ignore the reality of our history. Each time we survived it was from the pit of destruction. We suffered time and time again. We lost so many of our brothers and sisters, but like the story of Joseph, that we in Temple Sinai have been reading these last few weeks, we first experienced the pit before we, like Joseph, could enter the palace.
This Shabbat we come to the second book of the Torah, Shemot, Exodus. This part of our people’s history can be described, as it is in the Passover Haggadah, as a movement from Ivdut (slavery) to Cherut (freedom). Avidim Hayeenu, “We were slaves in Egypt,” we will read in about two months from now as we sit around our seder tables. The Haggadah teaches us that we needed to experience the rigors and horrors of slavery, not only so that we would appreciate the breath of freedom after crossing the Red Sea, but so that we would be better prepared for the responsibilities that freedom and Torah place upon us.
A Torah life is not an easy one. A Jewish life, especially these days, is as difficult if not more so. Sometimes in life we need to experience its hardships to be hardened to face what lies ahead. In some ways, I believe this describes the life of the Jew in the past and today as well.
Although we have already read of the stories of our patriarchs and matriarchs and the early formation of the Hebrew tribe, it is not until this week that we are actually begin the history of our people as the Book of Exodus moves us along from being nomadic Hebrew wanderers to the united tribes under Moses and then one people under the first king of Israel, Saul. Join us on this ride that begins this week.
Please remember to join Rabbi Marci Bloch on January 8th & 15th 3:00–4:00 p.m. for a thoughtful two-session program, The Power of Ethical Wills. She’ll guide the participants in exploring this enduring Jewish practice and help participants put their values, stories, and blessings into writing. Sessions will take place at Temple Sinai. Zoom will be available. Please call the office at 561-276-6161 Ext 100 or email Susi@TempleSinaipbc.org to RSVP with your email address.
Shabbat shalom,
Your Rabbi Steve