Rabbi Howard Morrison

Welcome to 2024. While a new civic year has dawned, not much has changed yet for Israel and the Jewish people since early October. It is noteworthy that the first national plan to attack and exterminate the Jewish people originates with Pharaoh in Parshat Shmot. After over 200 years of oppression, the Children of Israel will finally vanquish Pharaoh and his followers and make an annual holiday to celebrate from slavery to freedom. One can only hope it will not take that much time to vanquish Hamas and its followers, and that soon we can celebrate a new found freedom.

In the Torah text, the official change towards the people of Israel begins when "A new king arose over Egypt." In the Talmud, and quoted by Rashi, Rav and Shmuel differ in their interpretation. One said that he was really new, while the other said that his decrees were made new. He who said that he was really new did so because it is written, 'new,' and he who said that his decrees were made new did so because it is not stated that the former king died. . . He was like one who did not know Joseph at all."

The same Talmudic page comes to explain how the majority of Egyptians followed along with the new edicts. God had already sworn that He will not bring a flood upon the world. Thus, they thought to exploit this opportunity, thinking they were safe from God's wrath.

Did the Egyptians once respect the Israelites and change only after Joseph had died? Or was their anti-Semitism always there, but suppressed a little bit because of Joseph's leadership?

Fast forward to now, have many in the Middle East and around the world have always shown hatred against the Jewish people? Has the hatred been suppressed at times perhaps because of Jewish scientific, economic, technological, and medical contributions to the world? Is the current hatred of a more recent vintage? The same questions we may have of the ancient Egyptians could be our questions today.

Historian Barbara Tuchman identifies three principles regarding anti-Jewish sentiment:

1. It is vain to expect logic, that is to say, a reasoned appreciation of enlightened self interest when it comes to anti-Semitism.
2. Appeasement is futile. The rule of human behavior here is that yielding to an enemy's demands does not satisfy them, but by exhibiting a position of weakness, augments them. It does not terminate hostility but excites it.
3. Anti-Semitism is independent of its object. What Jews do or fail to do is not the determinant. The impetus comes out of the needs of the persecutors and a particular political climate.

With these three points in mind, Pharaoh and his followers were destined to treat our people as they did. Hamas and its followers are destined to treat our people as they are. Of course, the fundamental difference is that in the Bible, divine miracles ultimately occurred. Since Biblical times, we cannot and do not wait for miracles from above. We have to be our own agents for the miracles needed now. As 2024 is now upon us with little change since October 2023, I express the following:

We dare not be seduced by the anti-Israel/Jewish propaganda.

Without Hamas' acts of evil, Gaza would have continued going its own way.

It is for Hamas, Gaza, and its Arab neighbors to pave a better way for Gazans. Israel is doing more than any attacked nation has ever done in a time of war.

Where is the outcry these days from the world about the evil atrocities committed on October 7? 

About the whereabouts and condition of our hostages? 

About the deaths of young IDF soldiers sent to defend against future atrocities? 

About the lack of even one humanitarian visit by the Red Cross to the hostages? 

About the lack of coverage on the daily missiles hurled from Gaza into Israel indiscriminately?

We stand proud with Israel.

We stand proud with the IDF and Israeli security forces.

We stand proud with our brothers and sisters living in Israel.

We mourn the loss of hostages and IDF/security personnel who have fallen. 

Today, we have begun to read Shmot, the sad saga of a new despot called Pharaoh. Shmot also means names. I hope that we will come to recognize the names of those fallen and those still held hostage.

Some of us are soon going on solidarity trips arranged by Naase, JNF, and others. I invite the rest of you to join us, God willing, this Spring so that we can bring our physical support to names and faces living in Israel.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Howard Morrison