It’s one of those times when things seem to all converge, like the collapsing of time is teaching us something. This week, we marked the 50th yahrtzeit of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Tomorrow, we begin reading the book of Exodus. Monday, we honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Exodus narrative loomed large in the theological frameworks of both Heschel and King and they drew on it extensively in their own justice work. In Heschel’s opening address at the 1963 National Conference on Race and Religion, he said, “At the first conference on religion and race, the main participants were Pharaoh and Moses. The outcome of that summit meeting has not come to an end. Pharaoh is not ready to capitulate. The Exodus began, but is far from having been completed."
Heschel and King met for the first time at that conference, and I think about that quote, in this moment, in this city. Pharaoh is not ready to capitulate. The Exodus has not yet been completed. How do we engage with that ongoing project of the Exodus?
The Exodus from Mitzrayim is the first of several events or concepts that our tradition mandates that we remember - zakhor. Yet Heschel warns us against becoming “the messengers that forgot the message.” The religious mandate to remember is not merely a mental exercise in memory; it is meant to be action oriented. My teacher Rabbi Jan Uhrbach taught that the need to remember “isn’t only about the danger of forgetting. It’s about a religious obligation to consciously shape our consciousness.” If we are Exodus-oriented people, which I think is the point of what it means to remember, and if our consciousness is shaped by the teachings in this book, then every fiber of who we are constantly works towards Redemption, towards Exodus.
The iconic image of these two great men that we honor comes to mind this weekend. They came together, they prayed with their feet as Heschel famously said, in the struggle for civil rights. I love this photograph in capturing a powerful moment in the past, and I hope that it inspires us in our own work too, to be messengers that haven’t forgotten the message. I pray that we are able to embody the same bravery, passion, and vision that King and Heschel possessed. I pray that the work of Heschel and King is not work of the past, but I pray that we, too, are inspired by the Exodus story, to continue, to complete, the work of Redemptions everywhere.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
P.S. I hope you’ll join us Shabbat afternoon, at 5PM, to join The Inheiritance Project, led by native Memphian Jonathon Ross, in sacred study. Learn more here .
