Friday January 17, 2025/17 Tevet 5785
Parashat Shemot
Friends/Hevre,
Could it really be happening? Could the hostages finally be coming home? It feels almost rash to say until they actually return given the many disruptions to the process. Incredulously, at one point even Shabbat was going to delay their return. (Don’t get me started.) Still, even as we hold our breath, we’re 48 hours away from what might be/will hopefully be remembered as one of the most dramatic moments in modern Jewish history. Oddly, while we’re waiting we’ll read the opening parshah of the Book of Exodus which tells the exact opposite story that’s unfolding in real time. In the Torah portion, the Jews become enslaved. In our world, Jewish captives, we pray, are being liberated.
Another incongruity also gripped me this week. Many of us have been glued to images of the raging wildfires in and around Los Angeles. At the same time I’ve been on a precious holiday with my son, Isaac, here in the Laurentians immersed in nature’s stunning winter beauty, skiing and hiking serene snow-clad mountains. This week has been a powerful reminder of our planet’s fragility and its grandeur, and the challenge of embracing both.
Perhaps the most iconic, and no less ironic, paradox of the week is the Torah’s image of a burning bush that wasn’t consumed which became the setting for God appointing Moshe to lead the Israelites to freedom. The symbolism has been explained as a show of Divine power; as a metaphor for our people’s strength to survive the flames of hate; as a message about the sacredness of all life, even a lowly bush. One focus has been less on the bush and more on Moshe's response to it: his capacity to be surprised by something unusual; to be distracted from his daily routine by something strange; to inquire after something that begged explanation. It was this innate instinct of his that qualified Moshe for leadership.
We do what we can to respond to the ongoing troubles and injustices that plague our world - Jewish and beyond. But it can become physically exhausting and even morally numbing to face what feels like an endless onslaught of crises: rising inequality and discrimination, the fraying of our societal and political bonds, the instability of our planet, and, of course, explosive antisemitism, the plight of the hostages, the ongoing conflicts in Israel and the Middle East, as well as other wars around the globe in countries like Sudan, Ukraine, and Myanmar. What’s worrisome isn’t only that the solutions to our problems seem so elusive. What’s worrisome isn’t only that, depleted and frustrated, we sometimes abdicate our responsibility to help heal humanity’s pain. What’s worrisome is the risk that we will stop noticing. That we will stop paying attention. That we won’t turn aside to look and engage more deeply. After all, what if the bush hadn’t caught Moshe’s eye or his interest? Would the story have ended differently?
There are bushes burning all around us. Some we see, some we don’t, some we won’t. Understandably, we’re often distracted more by those that threaten our own interests or people than those of others. There’s also the reality of limited attention and resources. But it takes more than time and money to help. It takes, first and foremost, awareness and compassion. For that we have more capacity than we often realize. Remember well the words of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in The Little Prince, written also when the world was in great distress: “On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur/It is only with the heart that one can see rightly”.
Right now we’re keeping our eyes - and hearts - trained on the hostages. May no further obstacles delay their return. May they come home swiftly and begin the next arduous journey of returning to their lives.
With continued prayers for the hostages and their families, the soldiers, the injured, and the bereaved, for a lasting peace in Israel and around the world, for the safety and wellbeing of the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires, and with blessings for a Shabbat Shalom,
Dini

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