Obama, MLK and Heschel Meet Moshe Rabbeinu
Haverim,
These are historic days made all the more significant by the confluence of significant events. Today is M.L. King Jr. Day on which we reflect on our inalienable rights to live in freedom. Tomorrow we anticipate Barak Obama’s inauguration and understand that without King, this day could not come to pass. Finally, we take note of last Shabbat’s Torah reading in which we were introduced to Moshe whose story inspired King whose movement led to Obama. Whether you voted for Obama or not, I think we all sense the significance of these days and so the words of the shehehayenu come to mind thanking God for giving us the strength, fortitude and will to reach this precious day.
The Torah reading on Shabbat presented us Moshe’s early, less glamorous history. Before there was a Moshe who lead his people out of Egypt and through a wilderness for forty years, there was a leader who declined to lead, a leader who was simply overwhelmed by his charge. Moshe did not campaign for his job saying “Yes we can.” When God approached him at the burning bush to appoint him leader of the Jewish he responded emphatically, “No, I can’t.” And who can blame him? The challenges he faced were enormous!
Moshe responds to God’s job offer, “Who am I to lead the Israelites out of Egypt?” In addition to questioning his own ability to handle the job, Moshe raises doubts about the worthiness of the Israelites to be freed. But God will have none of it: To Moshe’s question, “What has Israel done to deserve this,” God answers, “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain” (Rashi, Ex. 3:11).
The Israelites are not deserving of the exodus as a reward for previous good behavior but in expectation for their future destiny, their receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai. The great, modern Torah scholar, Nechama Leibowitz explains it this way: “This release from slavery was inspired by a purpose and a goal rather than a motivating cause. God did not release Israel from slavery to set them free from all burden of responsibility. God wished them to become free to accept another responsibility- the Torah and mitzvot.”
What an important message for our time! What a timely reminder on this M.L. King JR. Day and this day before a presidential inauguration! Freedom is not simply a privilege. It is a responsibility.
In 1958 A.J. Heschel wrote an essay entitled, “Religion in a Free Society.” Having marked Heschel’s yahrzeit last Wednesday, it is to his words that we turn for they capture the spirit of the Torah and the significance of this day:
“We all share a supreme devotion to the hard-won freedoms of the American people. Yet to be worthy of retaining our freedoms we must not lose our understanding of the essential nature of freedom. Freedom means more than mere emancipation. It is primarily freedom of conscience, bound up with inner allegiance. The danger begins when freedom is thought to consist in the fact that “I can act as I desire.” Freedom is the liberation from the tyranny of the self-centered ego. It comes about in moments of transcending the self as an act of spiritual ecstasy. Freedom presupposes the capacity for sacrifice.”
Moshe learned that freedom is empty if not linked to responsibility. This is the essential lesson of the story of the Exodus and a central tenant of Judaism: not simply “freedom from” but “freedom for.” Only when we embrace that message can we truly call out, “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God All Mighty I am free at last.”
