A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us. Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in fighting against us and rise from the ground.” So they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor; and they built garrison cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses. But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, so that the [Egyptians] came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians ruthlessly imposed upon the Israelites the various labors that they made them perform. Ruthlessly they made life bitter for them with harsh labor at mortar and bricks and with all sorts of tasks in the field.
We will read these verses this Shabbat. As a Texan who grew up in a post-civil rights but still segregated South, I read them, and I think not of the Israelites but, on this Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, I think of the African American slaves, their taskmasters and harsh and ruthless oppression imposed on them. Our slavery in Egypt is over, but the cultural, social, economic and psychological oppression of African Americans remains in our society. The statistics prove this fact. Because of racist bias, more African Americans are shot by police than whites, far more African Americans are imprisoned than whites, mortality rates are higher in the African American community, whites are hired more quickly than African Americans…the statistics go on and on. Our history as slaves and oppressed, calls us to be honest and self-reflective by asking ourselves some hard questions: How many of us carry implicit and unintentional bias about others because of race? How many of us, and I challenge myself with the same question, how many of us actively seek to hire minorities as our lawyers, accountants, architects, managers and executives? After the Holocaust, many of us boycotted companies that supported or benefitted from the Shoah and Jewish slave labor. How many of us boycott companies that were built off the backs of slaves in America?
Many of us do what we can to fight racism and we may not see ourselves as racist. At the same time, the racial bias in our society, and in ourselves, is hard to escape and equally hard to acknowledge. Our parasha introduces us to the story of the Exodus. In order for freedom to come to all who have been enslaved, the Torah calls on us to rid ourselves of racism. 'For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.' Nelson Mandela
This Shabbat, I invite us to celebrate the life of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the human desire for, and right to, freedom. May everyone feel free to achieve their God-given potential.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
