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10.02.2012
IH Conference 2011 - Wrap up & Goodbye
10.02.2012
IH Conference 2011 - Final Plenary
Weekly Davar - Bo: The Allure of Slavery
Bo
(Exodus 10:1-13:16)26th January 2012
2nd of Shvat 5772
GOOD MORNING!! A number of people have asked me why I don’t use the word ‘G-d’. People use ‘G-d’ because Jewish law does not allow throwing away something with God’s name on it. And someone might print something like this and then throw it away. That sounds a bit overly cautious to me, but there is another reason why I see no problem using the word ‘God’. The prohibition against throwing away God’s name applies to Hebrew names of God since they have spiritual meaning. In English, however, the word ‘God’ is simply convention. The letters themselves have no meaning. But by that token, the word ‘G-d’ is also convention. So if one is concerned about throwing away something with ‘God’ written on it, one should be equally concerned about throwing away something with ‘G-d’ written on it! All of this reminds me of the joke about the agnostic, dyslexic, insomniac..................who stayed up all night wondering whether or not there was a Dog!
GOOD MORNING!! A number of people have asked me why I don’t use the word ‘G-d’. People use ‘G-d’ because Jewish law does not allow throwing away something with God’s name on it. And someone might print something like this and then throw it away. That sounds a bit overly cautious to me, but there is another reason why I see no problem using the word ‘God’. The prohibition against throwing away God’s name applies to Hebrew names of God since they have spiritual meaning. In English, however, the word ‘God’ is simply convention. The letters themselves have no meaning. But by that token, the word ‘G-d’ is also convention. So if one is concerned about throwing away something with ‘God’ written on it, one should be equally concerned about throwing away something with ‘G-d’ written on it! All of this reminds me of the joke about the agnostic, dyslexic, insomniac..................who stayed up all night wondering whether or not there was a Dog!
Torah Portion
This week, we read of the final 3 plagues, culminating in the killing of the firstborn. The Jews leave Egypt at midday. A family of seventy Jews arrived in Egypt and a nation of over 2 million left 200 years later.
Davar Torah
The Allure of Slavery
The Rabbis tell us that four fifths of the Jewish People did not leave Egypt. For hundreds of years they had begged for freedom, but when the gates were finally flung wide open, many of them were in no hurry to leave.
As painful as slavery might be, it is alluring and appealing at the same time. That’s because slavery has one very attractive feature – someone else will make your decisions for you.
What human beings will do to avoid the challenge of making decisions. We will throw the buck to others as though it’s a hot potato. We will allow superstitious nonsense to be our arbiter. Or we will procrastinate until there is no decision left to make. Making decisions, for many people, is one of life's great frustrations. People can feel pressured and stressed to the point of wishing to avoid the process altogether. For such a person, slavery will have a certain allure. In the case of the Jewish People in Egypt, there were many who did not wish to leave these comforts of slavery.
Something else that people sometimes embrace in order to avoid making decisions is religion. Religion can be the perfect way of life for someone who does not wish to decide for themselves. And Judaism especially can be highly attractive. Judaism tells a person what to do and say the moment he wakes up and the moment he goes to sleep – and everything in between. It’s a comfortable and secure structure in which to live, a home in which a person can switch off his mind and simply follow a set of rules that will supposedly make him into the good person that he wants to be.
This is not a problem with religion, it is a problem with people. But it can give religion a bad name. From my perspective, if religion is about the security of structure and others making my decisions then you can certainly count me out.
The good news for me, at least, is that Judaism is exactly the opposite. It’s about responsibly; considering and deciding. It is about a finding the path to becoming a good and decent human being and walking it to the very best of one's ability. To me, religion means letting go of the ego that restricts and enslaves and embracing the humility that frees us to be the people we want to be. That is the freedom that the Jewish People left Egypt in the hope of finding. But such freedom requires courage – the courage to make a decision that you believe to be right and to follow through with it. For someone afraid of doing this, slavery might just be a better option.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Shaul Rosenblatt
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