Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah
January 16, 2025
16 Tevet 5785
Shemot
I am fortunate enough to have story time with two different groups of preschoolers every week. In anticipation of MLK Day, I decided to read a book about Dr. King to the older group. The story started off with a young Martin encountering signs all over Atlanta that said, “Whites Only.”
As I was reading, one girl politely raised her hand and asked me, “What are whites?”
What a question! It immediately made me think of the “Prayer for Peace” from Siddur Sim Shalom, which we recited for many years. It includes the following declaration: “We have not come into being to hate or to destroy. We have come into being to praise, to labor and to love.” We are not born with hate and prejudice. We have to learn it.
Sadly, just a few days later, I read about a global ADL survey which found that 46% of the world harbors antisemitic views. Amazingly, according to this study, younger people held more antisemitic views than the older people surveyed. What are we teaching our children?!
This week, in the opening chapters of the Book of Exodus, we read Moses’ origin story. Through the actions of several strong women – his mother, his sister, the midwives and Pharaoh’s daughter – Moses was raised in the Pharaoh’s palace. He must have grown up thinking that slavery was acceptable. He clearly was taught that all people are NOT equal. Yet, he somehow came to the conclusion that slavery was wrong.
In Exodus 2, he killed an Egyptian overseer for beating a Hebrew slave and he tried to get the Hebrew slaves to stop fighting among themselves. These are NOT things that he learned in the Pharaoh’s home. He eventually had to flee from Egypt and then answered God’s call to lead the slaves out of Egypt.
This transformation is reminiscent of Dr. King’s dream in his most famous speech. Most of us can paraphrase it if not recite it word for word: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.” I, of course, would add that in Dr. King’s imagined nation, my children would not be judged by their religious identity.
Moses and the preschooler to whom I was reading last week remind us that Dr. King’s dream is possible. That ADL survey reminds us that we still have a long way to go to make that dream a reality. Despite that, we continue to honor the legacy of Dr. King, the progress he made in his lifetime and the progress he has inspired since his death.
Click here for the MLK Day activities in Summit. Congregation Ohr Shalom is co-sponsoring a film viewing on Monday afternoon at 3:00pm. Click here for more details. The annual MLK Day Community Worship Service sponsored by Fountain Baptist Church, The Connection and Tri-City NAACP will take place on Monday, January 20, 7:00pm at Fountain Baptist Church - 116 Glenside Avenue in Summit.
Shalom,
RAF.
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