I have
suggested, more than once, that the Hebrew avadim, slaves, as in we
were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, needs to be understood in its nuance. It’s clearly different from the slavery that
comes to mind when we think of, for example, the institution in America through
the mid-nineteenth century. The slavery
of plantations and of human beings being sold and traded as property. If the slavery of the people Israel in Egypt
had been of this nature, how could the people possibly have petitioned Moses
repeatedly to let them return to Egypt?
No, the slavery of Egypt must be understood differently.
Something in this week’s Torah
reading, something that I never before noticed, helps make my case. In chapter 11, verse three we read: God gave the people status among the
Egyptians. Moses was also highly
respected in Egypt, both by Pharaoh’s officials and by the people.
Imagine that! In America, we understand that slavery’s
greatest insult, and its most lasting ‘gift,’ is the contempt it fostered for
black Americans by their countrymen. Each
African-American felt they had to overcome it if they were going to function
normally in society post-slavery.
Generations after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, blacks
were still feeling the effects of this contempt.
In contrast, God gave the people
status among the Egyptians. Moses was
also highly respected in Egypt. How do you hold in high esteem, a group of
slaves? To understand this, I think it
is important to understand the huge difference between how black Africans came
to be slaves in America, and how the Israelites came to be slaves in Egypt.
In the former case, the
European settlers in America needed cheap and hardy labour for southern agricultural
cash crops. Crops such as indigo, rice,
tobacco, and especially cotton. They were
not only labour-intensive but required hard, back-breaking labour in the
relentless sun. Africans were imported
in order to build thriving agribusinesses that would otherwise never get off
the ground.
The enslavement of the
Israelites in Egypt was a different sort of animal. As we read in the first chapter of Exodus,
the Israelites were systematically oppressed because the Pharaoh, the infamous king-who-knew-not-Joseph,
was afraid of them. It was really out of
a deep respect for the Israelites and their abilities, that the Pharaoh made
the case for subjecting them to spirit-crunching labour.
Africans were imported into the Americas because they were thought of as
little more than animals. The Israelites
were enslaved in Egypt in order to make them little
more than animals, lest they take over. While
it’s true that both cases result in a people used and abused, the difference
matters.
It’s interesting how
these perceptions persist through history.
Most periods of atrocity towards Jews in later history can be seen as
attempts to take a people of undeniable status and drag them down. I would argue that it was precisely because
they imagined the Jews as a superior ‘race’ that the
Nazis created a fiction of Jews as an inferior race. Today, scratch a Jew-hater and you’ll often find
that despite their antipathy, they tend to hold at least a grudging respect for
what they see as the Jews’ abilities. So
throughout our history, others have seen us as ‘superior’ and have, as a
result, worked hard to marginalize us. Strange
paradox, but arguably true.
When, then is the
take-away from this?
In the wake of the
Holocaust many Jews have internalized the contempt publicly expressed towards
Jews, while not recognizing the esteem that – I am arguing – is really at its
root. We know that this internalizing of
the ‘stain’ of Jewishness drives many Jews away from active Jewish life. In today’s society, where nonconformity to any religion is seen as the
norm, it is very easy to simply walk away from Jewish life without worrying
about replacing it with something else. But
if you’ve known Jews who did make this withdrawal from Jewish life as an
attempt to escape the ‘stain’ of Jewishness, you’ve probably noticed that they still internalized some of the ‘contempt’
toward Jews and Jewishness. Chances are,
they were unable to escape it just by withdrawing from Jewish life.
It is easy to mis-understand the atrocities that
have been systematically imposed upon our people throughout the ages. Does a ‘correct’ understanding change
anything? I think it does. We still get beaten up by others. But if we understand the root of this
obsession with beating up the Jews, then we can avoid letting it beat us down. And in any case history – our own and others’ –
also teaches us of the resiliency of the human spirit.
If we can recognize Jew-hatred for what it
often is, then we can find it easier to empathise with other beaten-down groups. Even if the contempt of white people for
those of colour was at the root of the importation of thousands and thousands
of slaves from Africa to the Americas and elsewhere, we can respond by
transcending that contempt. By seeing the
positive aspects of each people’s culture and considering them worthy of
emulation.
The truth is that we Jews have been
singularly inclined to do exactly what I’m talking about. Wherever we have dwelt, we have served as
forces for good, far out of proportion to our numbers. But when we allow a flawed perception of our
history to drive people away from Jewish life, we weaken the possibility of
making a difference. This is why it is
so important for us Jews to know our history. This is why I invite you to join me on
Saturday evening 01 February, and Sunday afternoon 16 February, to view and
discuss the BBC series Simon Schama: The Story of the Jews. Watch your Gates of Peace newsletter, and
pay attention to announcements from this bimah for details.
I know I have gone on long enough for a
Friday evening drash. But I have one
more point to make. What is at the root
of the unique abilities of the Jews, in Egyptian exile, and everyplace else we
have sojourned? It’s explicit in the
verse that I originally quoted. God gave the people status among the Egyptians. It was the attachment of the people Israel,
the Israelites, the Hebrews, to the One God of the Universe that made them
special. It was Torah, not yet existing
as a book but nevertheless manifesting in principle in the mindset of the
people, the set them apart. After Jacob
struggled with God, he took on the name Israel, carrying in his new given name
the name of the God with whom he had striven. Now his progeny, by extension, carried that
name. Throughout our history, it is that
identification with God that has made the enterprise of being Jewish
meaningful. Jews, when they cease to
identify with God, cease to be distinctive. Perhaps not for a generation or two, but it
happens. That’s why it is important to
teach young Jews about our history. That’s
why it is important to make the case for Jewishness as a positive part of one’s
makeup. That’s why you need to twist
arms and get your offspring who wouldn’t imagine themselves attending shule, to
come and see The Story of the Jews. The Story is actually a conversation. It needs new principals to join in. Let’s do what we can to make sure that
happens. Shabbat shalom.
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