Closing Message - Rabbanit Bracha
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As the year 2020 drew to a close, we were bombarded with articles, tweets and social media blasts about how awful this past year was. The following two newspaper nuggets, one from the last day of 2020, and one from the first day of 2021, bring us back to the powerful lessons we learned this year, how important it is to have deep caring and respect for one another. These are not just two feel-good stories, but rather noteworthy examples of people reaching across divides.
The HaModia newspaper reported that one of New York’s finest, Inspector Manny Gonzalez of the NYPD Auxiliary Unit was riding his bike in Bay Ridge when he noticed torn pages in Hebrew letters on the ground.
“I thought it was the Torah,” he said. He then proceeded to gather up all the pages, to the extent of annoying drivers who honked at him as he slowed down traffic. Manny then turned the pages over to Councilman Chaim Deutsch to “properly dispose of them” as he put it.
Inspector Gonzalez recognized the importance of treating Jewish texts with respect and went out of his way to honor holy artifacts from a different religion, thereby promoting tolerance and co-existence.
On January 1st, the Washington Post brought this story to light. Three years ago, inmates in the Soledad State Prison in California started a surprising initiative. They had met a young man named Sy Newson Green through a Book Club project partnering with the nearby Palma high school, an elite college prep school for boys. Sy was thriving at this school but his family had fallen upon hard times and were not able to keep up the payments, even with a partial scholarship. The inmates at the prison created a fund where they contributed part of their hard-earned paychecks to keep Sy in school for three more years and offer Sy a “head-start that they didn't have”. They raised $24,000 from their own pockets, an astounding amount considering prisoners in California earn a base wage of 8 cents an hour for many of their daily jobs.
As we begin reading the Book of Exodus this Shabbat, we are confronted with the exact opposite behavior. There is a wariness and fear stemming from Pharoah, that creates an impenetrable wall between the Egyptians and the Israelites and starts the Israelites on the path towards subjugation and suffering. The only reason stated for the Egyptians’ anxiety was the proliferation of the family of Jacob. [Ex 1:7]
וּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, פָּרוּ וַיִּשְׁרְצוּ וַיִּרְבּוּ וַיַּעַצְמוּ--בִּמְאֹד מְאֹד; וַתִּמָּלֵא הָאָרֶץ, אֹתָם
The children of Israel were fruitful, increased abundantly, multiplied, and became exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.
The Egyptians, who originally gave Jacob and his family a royal welcome, now saw the Israelites as infiltrators and future enemies.
Looking back on the year 2020, with its many dramatic and world-changing events, let us use our hard-earned experience to tear down the walls between us and reach across divides. Let us not build barriers as Pharaoh did, but build bridges, as the inmates at Soledad did by caring for Sy Green’s tuition and schooling, and as Inspector Gonzalez did with his respect for the Jewish people and the Torah.
Reminder to all to take good care of ourselves and each other. Try to do something specific today that strengthens you, and something else that strengthens someone else.
