A few weeks ago, I sat with a Principal of a local public school. They had wanted to meet with me to ensure that they were teaching in a way that was culturally sensitive to their Jewish students. I was so grateful for the conversation, their desire to learn and do better after some minor mishaps, and mostly, for the desire to change. In the context of the conversation, the Principal told me that prior to her current role she was a US history teacher. Given current state mandates, she wasn’t allowed to teach about the institution of slavery.
I picked my chin up off the floor and asked for clarification. She told me that state law prohibits US history teachers in our public schools from teaching that Black people were subjugated and that others benefitted from that subjugation. I tried to imagine being told that we, as Jews, couldn’t recount the trials of our history as slaves. That - the story that we read this week in the Torah - that is our master story. How could we be honest and authentic about who we are as a people without telling that crucial part of our story? It is meant to inform so much of how we move in this world and the decisions we make and how we relate to others.
There is the history of the past, and there is the way that we either allow ourselves to continue to learn from history, or that we try to push it to the side, ignore it, and not see how it has so deeply informed our present.
I don’t believe that all of the Egyptians were evil. In fact, I am sure that the average Egyptian was not a bad person. But they were part of a system, part of a culture that allowed for the oppression of Israelites. For the Egyptians, they benefited from it and it simply became their norm. Our ancient Israelites lived in a system that perpetuated inequalities and they were victims of a society’s dynamic that privileged others over them.
We also live in a system that perpetuates inequalities and that has hierarchies of privilege and power. We live in a society where police are given lots of power - most of whom use it for good but sometimes it is used to oppress, to harm, to kill. And we live in a system where Black people tend to be charged with crimes that others get away with. And we are working towards a justice system where we uphold accountability. All of these systems are operative at the same time, none has to negate another.
And so this week, I’m thinking about all of the complicated elements of the system we live in. I think about the horrible tragedy that is a young, Black man, killed when he shouldn’t have been. I mourn this tragic death and I grieve for all of the families that have to tell their children (again) that it is far more dangerous to live in this world as a person of color - whether they are driving through a traffic stop or whether they are a police officer. And I am grateful for a system that wants to hold people accountable when they use their power in devastating ways.
We live in this world that is still broken by violence and racism and inequality. This week, in Parshat Bo, we finally, after hundreds of years of slavery, are released from bondage. Our mastery story is one that instills the belief that redemption is possible. The Torah is crying out to us this week. Tyre Nichols is calling out to us. We can never stop working for a world in which all injustices are healed. We must work towards redemption -- everywhere, always.
