Parshah Shemot

Louis Armstrong-Let My People Go
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This weeks parshah’s is one of my favorites and so appropriate for King’s birthday. “Let my people go,” is one of my favorite civil rights spirituals. It has its origins in this weeks parshah.

Indeed the parallels between Dr. King and Moses is undeniable.

The parshah is about the saving of Moses in the river, his upbringing, to his banishment, the burning bush and then back to Egypt to free our people.

But what I want to focus on is towards the end of the Parshah Moses goes to Pharaoh for the first time and asks him to “Let my people go.” via Chabad.org

After that, Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh: "Thus says G-d, G-d of Israel: Let My people go, that they may observe a festival for Me in the wilderness."

And Pharaoh said: "Who is G-d, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I know not G-d, nor will I let Israel go."

Not only does Pharaoh refuse their demand--he increases the burden of labor on his Hebrew slaves, commanding their taskmasters:

"You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick, as before: let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the quantity of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, you shall lay upon them; you shall not diminish naught of it."

Because they demanded their freedom, their burden became worse. In the following parshah with each demand for freedom their hardship gets worse and worse. Indeed it is so bad that in this Pashah Shemot they verbally attack Moshe, asking what did he do; now their unbearable burden, their suffering has been made even worse.

It is like the “Letters to Birmingham,” throughout Dr. King’s life he was acousted from Black leaders who wanted him to slow down, to not push so hard for civil rights. It was hurting Black people; violence against the community intensified, it was hard for Black people to find jobs and to stay out of police custody.

Dr. King’s demands for freedom made it worse for Black Americans. We had to suffer even more for simply demanding our equality.

But just as Moses (really G-d, as G-d has to reaffirm Moses’ commitment) Dr. King had a larger vision that “the fierce urgency of now,” meant that justice could not be delayed any longer. The time was now.

The lesson for us is that there is no deep progress, no real change without real sacrifice. The next time you think - indeed I think - I want to do the right thing but it is so hard; remember this lesson.

We do not want to stand in the way of doing the right thing. When we hear ourselves calling for moderation in doing the right thing, we should step back and remember the lesson from Parshah Shemot and Dr. King. Because Dr. King understood intrensicly the lesson from the story of the Jewish people’s liberation from Egypt.

“Justice denied anywhere diminishes justice everywhere.”

Sorry for the movie video, but as I am Black and Jewish and the intersection this week between Moses and Dr. King the video with the cartoon Moses and Louis Armstrong singing the old civil rights spiritual seems appropriate.

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One of my other favorite stories to the parshah just sort of a mention not connected to this Devar torah is that Moses is only ever known as Moses or Moshe in the bible. Every other person in the torah is known by the name their parents give them or the name G-d give’s them, but never anything else. Even Joseph who had a Egyptian name is known as Joseph his Hebrew name.

And yet Moses who was given a name by his Hebrew parents is only known by the name given to him by Pharaoh’s daughter Moses.

Moses means the child in Egyptian. Why is he the only one whose name doesn’t change? Why does EVEN G-D ONLY USE MOSES?

Well Pharaoh’s daughter knew she was going against her father. She knew the law was to kill all new born Jewish boys. A little boy floating in the Nile she was not an idiot. And yet despite the risk she keeps this boy. Defying her station and her father.

Because of this selfless gift of life she is given the honor of naming the Jewish people’s greatest leader. And for her honor she is referred to in the Bible as Bathya - which literally means “my daughter.” For when pharaoh’s daughter risked her life to save another she truly became a daughter of G-d.

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