When We Were
Slaves : A Sermon on Ferguson and Eikev
August 15,
2014
Rabbi David
Kaufman
This week’s
Torah portion contains these words from Deuteronomy Chapter 8:
6 Observe the commands
of Adonai your
God, walking in obedience to him and
revering him. 7 For Adonai your
God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep
springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and
barley, vines and
fig trees, pomegranates,
olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will
not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a
land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.
10 When you have eaten
and are satisfied, praise
Adonai your
God for the good land he has given you. 11 Be careful that you
do not forget Adonai your
God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving
you this day.12 Otherwise,
when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds
and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is
multiplied, 14 then your heart will
become proud and you will forget Adonai your
God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
What does it
mean for us to remember that we were slaves in Egypt?
The obvious
answer to that question is that we should be thankful to God for all that we
have received. It was, of course, God who brought us forth from slavery in
Egypt. The Torah portion makes that answer clear by explaining that if we do
not follow God’s commandments, then bad things will happen to us.
Yet, is that
all it means for us to remember that we were slaves?
Remembering
that we were slaves also should urge us to confront oppression and slavery
wherever we see it. Jews throughout the world see exactly that meaning in the
words and advocate for freedom and liberty. When Jews see the weeping of the
suffering, we weep. We also try to end their suffering.
When we
forget that we were slaves- and it is important to understand that this is not
a matter of if, but when, then we don’t necessarily do the right thing. Pride
is not something that we are lacking. We take pride in our accomplishments and
those of our friends and families. We also cherish our wealth and our power. We
earned it, after all. Those without either, well…we convince ourselves all too
easily, they earned that too.
We all
sometimes forget that we were once slaves: poor, powerless, oppressed.
But when the
images of oppression are obvious, we pay attention. We pay attention when see
discrimination, when we see rights violated, and when we see violence used by
the powerful against the weak. We pay attention and challenge decisions even
when we’re talking about decisions made by Jews in their defense, such as
something Israel might do to ensure its security. We pay attention when we see
immigrants being treated poorly, for we remember that we were immigrants. We
remember that we once stood before Pharaoh’s mighty army with none of our own.
I have found
myself in the position this week of on the one hand addressing the conflict
between Israel and Hamas and on the other responding to the events in the
northern part of St. Louis, in Ferguson, Missouri, where an unarmed young man
was shot and where police descended upon rioters like a military confronting an
enemy.
Bear with me
for a moment--I hate the phrase “As a Jew.” I think it is generally used by
people who want to excuse a sentiment opposed by most Jews, and who in many
such cases would like to express why their own personal interpretation of
Judaism is the only reasonable one. I would suggest to you, that whenever you
see that phrase being used, you are about to see or hear something that the
speaker believes is opposed by Jews who are representatives of the Jewish
community. Usually the representative speakers would use additional qualifiers
such as, “As a Reform Jew,” or “as a Rabbi,” or “as a supporter of Israel.”
Never “as a Jew,” and someone who actually represents the Jewish tradition
could say, “As Jews, we…”
So where I
might say something like “As a Jew, I feel for the oppressed,” with the idea
that all Jews should. Instead, I would rather say, “The Jewish tradition
reminds us to care about the oppressed and to remember that we slaves,” "As Jews, we feel for the oppressed." We have
been at times in our history like the people the people standing before those
dressed in armor and at times we have been like those dressed in armor. In
fact, one could note that we were both this week, some marching in Ferguson and
others defending Israeli from those who would kill them.
I believe
that in both cases, Jews were thinking about what Judaism teaches even if in
both cases other things may have governed decisions rather than Torah and
Talmud.
In fact, in
many cases wherein we find Jews being told to remember that we were strangers
in Egypt or that we were once slaves, we modern Jews also remember the Shoah
and the directive, “Never Again!” So when we see protesters standing before
tanks in Ferguson, we remember being slaves. And when we hear those standing
before tanks in Gaza and firing rockets into Israel shouting, “Prepare for the
annihilation of Israel!” and “Death to the Jews!” our reaction is both to
remember times when our people was oppressed and insecure and other times when
those threatening to commit genocide against our people carried out the threat.
We remember pogroms and exiles. We remember the Holocaust. And when we look at
the persecution of minorities in other parts of the region, the consequences of
failure to stand up in defense of the Jewish state become readily apparent.
We are both
mindsets in the same Jews. We ache because of the suffering of the oppressed
and impoverished. Yet, we also understand that were it not for the strength of
the Israel Defense Forces and their ability to defend the people of Israel, we,
the Jewish people, could once again become oppressed, impoverished, or worse.
The Torah’s
warning is not only that in our success, we may become proud and forget that we
were slaves. Or fail to acknowledge that it was God, not our own strength, who
freed us. It is quite possible that we may also, in our success, forget all the
suffering and even miracles that it took for us to acquire our prosperity and
security. We are doubly reminded at such times about the tenuous nature of our
people’s prosperity in a world of threats against us.
So on this
Shabbat we stand with Israel strongly as it defends itself against attacks, but
feel compassion for those who are suffering because of its response. And we
look upon the strife in Ferguson, Missouri not only with a concern that justice
be done in the death of young man, but with concern that the lives of the
people in the community will improve.
We will
remember that we were slaves in Egypt. Shabbat Shalom.
