Jesse Kaplan-Maeir [April 23, 2022]Parashat Bo
Shabbat Shalom!
My torah portion is Parashat Bo, which means “Go!” Go in this context means to go forth from Egypt, as it tells the story of the Pharaoh finally freeing the Israelites from Egypt after God swept the ten plagues across its land. This is one of the most famous stories in the Torah. But after reading this torah portion multiple times while practicing my chanting I noticed something strange, and to me, even disturbing. Many stories have a hero and a villain, but it seems to me that both God (supposed hero) and the Pharaoh (supposed villain) are more complex than this. If you are unfamiliar with this story, it goes something like this: A king’s workers revolt against him, and after torturing the kingdom many times over, including draining all the kingdom’s food supply and killing all the firstborn of the king’s citizens, the king finally relents and lets them go, leaving the kingdom in chaos and ruin with no one to help them. Now, that’s probably not the story most of you have heard, but let me ask you, who seems worse in this story? For me, I have questions about the role of God in this story, and the plagues and their destruction concern me. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that god is also a bad guy in this story. Now, I’m not saying that God is the evildoer in the Passover story, and that Pharaoh was the hero all along, far from it, but I’m not saying the opposite, either. See, the fact is, in stories like these with large scale conflicts, there are no “good guys”. And while Pharaoh's actions as a slaveholder are clearly abhorrent, I’m not ready to praise God wholeheartedly either. I’m disturbed by God’s destructive methods even though the Israelites deserve to be freed. Evidence of God’s poorer choices are all over my torah portion, just take these quotes:
Va’tehi tza’akah g’dolah b’mitzrayim (and there was a loud cry in Egypt)
Ki ein bayit asheir ein sham meit (for there was no house where there was not someone dead
You can practically feel the horror in these lines. This describes the shock of Egypt after God unleashed the final plague, death of the firstborn son. The Egyptians were slaveholders who oppressed the Isrealites. However, we can still have empathy for the Egyptians. I think everyone knows what it's like to lose someone, and the sadness a parent has when losing a child is like no other. You don’t have to agree with the ideals of the Egyptians to empathize with them, you just need to look into your heart. This next quote really shows how scary this moment in time was for them.
U’phasach adonai el petach v’lo hitein ha’mashchit lavoh el bateichem lingof (The Eternal will pass over the door and not let the Destroyer enter and smite your home)
In the commentary, or extra notes for this sentence, the Rabbis specify that the “Destroyer” is the “Angel of Death”. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like heroic justice.
If both God and Pharaoh clearly do bad things, how can you call either of them a hero? I hope you see now that God and Pharaoh are much more complicated characters than they first seem. Questioning God’s actions, particularly God’s destructive power is a central part of Judaism, and the Torah ensures that we learn a lesson from this destruction. Later on, in Deuteronomy 23:8, the Torah states: “Do not hate an Edomite for he is your brother. Do not hate the Egyptians, for you were a stranger in their land”. The Torah teaches us that we must always see even our enemies as fully human.
This isn’t the only time we have seen someone who can be viewed as both good and bad. Harry Potter spoilers incoming, but Snape is a good guy that has done some questionable things. Even though he did lots of heroic deeds, he was still quite mean to Harry for most of the series, and his early actions cannot be forgiven in the blink of an eye. We find this topic once again in chapter 12 of the 10th installment in the A Series of Unfortunate Events series. (With all due respect, why is your book series so long) The Baudelaires are plotting to capture one of the villains of the series, Esme Squalor, but later decide against it, their reasoning being that they don’t want to become villains themselves.
In Genesis 1:26-28 we learn about the Jewish value of B’tzelem Elohim. God created human beings in the divine image. What does this mean? If human beings are like God, and God contains everything, including characteristics from compassion to anger, and capabilities of great beauty and also great destruction, then human beings must also contain within them the possibility of good and evil.
Certain people in history cast people who are now heroes to us as villians. Think: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, and even George Washington to Britain! Now, If every person on earth carried this ideology of good and evil and nothing in between, and immediately believed whatever they were told about someone, then we would never truly appreciate the complexity of human beings, and overlook the accomplishments of people as simply disruptors of the status quo. Even people who might never be redeemable still have some sense of human inside them. This previously mentioned binary system of thinking would discourage recognizing modern day villains, such as Putin, as still people, with their own struggles and emotions, too. With this simplistic method of thinking, ignorance and injustice would thrive, especially in a time like this, with fake news spreading faster than Coronavirus, and humanity being as gullible as ever. In the book The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which follows a Nazi family in the middle of the Holocaust, little brother Bruno asks older sister Gretel about the Jewish people, about whom he knows nothing. Gretel tells him that there are the Jews and the “Opposite”, and they don’t get along, but when Bruno starts to suggest otherwise, he is interrupted by Gretel screaming at the top of her lungs, not wanting to think about the idea that Jews could be good, or human even. Even though she does not know why she thinks the Jews are bad, she has been told they are, and outright refuses to take a different angle or question what she has been told. Sadly, this ignorance still exists in our world today and we must fight against it.
My message to you is don’t be a Gretel! You must question things instead of taking things at face value. Remember to hold on to compassion and sympathy, even, and especially, when it feels uncomfortable. Honor complexity. Breaking out of the binary (pause), and holding empathy for all beings (pause), is the first step to making the world a better place.
Shabbat Shalom, everyone.