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Dry Bones

Freedom's Responsibilities

F

or more than 2,000 years, the
Jewish people experienced the
pain and humiliation of being
exiled from our land, living in
the Diaspora and being treated as
strangers — as the "other." Rou-
tinely subjected to poverty, pow-
erlessness, discrimination, fear
and pogroms, our grandparents often lived
little better than the Hebrews did when
they were slaves in Egypt.
How times have changed over the past
50 years. While Diaspora Jews still face
some serious challenges, no community is
in immediate danger of widespread phys-
ical harm. In America, Jews are experi-
encing unprecedented levels of accep-
tance, security, wealth, participation and
power.
But this Golden Age brings with it a
new set of responsibilities, ones that we
should explore as we gather around our
seder tables to retell the story of our peo-
ple's exodus from Egypt and celebrate the
gifts of freedom.
As we ceremonially invite the poor to
join our tables, we may want to ask our-
selves the following questions:
How must we amend our political and
philanthropic behavior now that we're not a
tenuous minority but part of the business
and cultural elite? How do we go from
always looking over our shoulders to focus-
ing our attention on those populations real-
ly at risk? What in our Jewish heritage
guides us so that we may sufficiently aid
the powerless?
"You shall not oppress a stranger for you
know the feelings of a stranger, having
yourselves been strangers in the land of
Egypt" (Exodus 23:9) Stated 36 times in
various forms in the Torah, this mitzvah is
the most repeated directive in the Five
Books of Moses. At times, it is coupled
with the mitzvah of being kind to the
widow and orphan — or, in other words,
society's powerless populations.
The message is clear: Because the Jewish
people long endured being powerless and
persecuted, we are obligated to insure that
others don't similarly suffer.

The American Jewish community is
wonderfully charitable and full of individu-
als and organizations who fight for these
people. But we're not sure our community,
which, for good reasons, places
atop our agenda the need to bol-
ster our own spiritual and numeri-
cal continuity, has fully grasped
the nature of our transformation
from outsider to insider, from the powerless
to the powerful.
While we speak to our lawmakers
about homelessness and hate crimes, we
don't make lobbying for them a priority.
While some bemoan the fact that 30 mil-
lion people in this richest country in the
world are without health insurance, our
organized community is nowhere to be
found in the fight to correct this injus-
tice.
Individually, many of us participate in
our synagogue tikkun olam projects, but
have we made it a family priority to go to a
soup kitchen, women's shelter, old age
home, hospital or group home regularly?
Though one of the first things we do at
the seder is open our doors and say, "let
those who are hungry enter and eat," how
many of us actually invited a needy or
lonely person to join their seder this year?
Alternatively, how many of us heeded the
calls of Mazon: The Jewish Response to
Hunger, to donate the amount it would
have cost if we had invited a hungry mouth
to homes?

EDITO RIAL

Gaining Power

For all its prosperity, the United States does
not lack for "strangers" living among us.
They are the migrant worker, the homeless,
the handicapped, the aged, the poor. They
are the people with no voice, who are seen
but not heard, alive but dying inside. They
are both individuals and large groups, sur-
viving on the margins of society — all
human beings in need of powerful champi-
ons.

Adopting Change

This kind of activism and philanthropy
does not take away from the Jewish com-
munity's drive to build continuity, it
enhances it. Those who worry about
diverting resources away from community
projects don't realize that helping the pow-
erless "stranger" is a community project, a
biblical and religious priority, that
strengthens us as just, moral, vibrant 21st-
century Jews.
Enacting this type of change in our col-
lective mindset is not easy or natural. Our
people have not operated from such posi-
tions of strength in 2,000 years, and our
instincts haven't been honed to lead the
way they've been conditioned to adapt, cir-
cle the wagons, survive.
This Passover, as we place ourselves in
our ancestors' sandals in Egypt, we may
also try to place ourselves in the shoes of
today's populations of powerless strangers.
And as we recline to drink our wine and
celebrate our blessed freedom, we may
want to explore the true meaning of mod-
ern freedom — and its attendant responsi-
bilities. ❑

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BROUGHT U S

ANPeri-ING

Plague Of Violence

iED

resident George W. Bush was absolutely on target last week
in his strong declaration that there will be no peace in the
Mideast until Yasser Arafat calls for a halt to the violence "in
a language that the Palestinians can understand."
As long as the Palesintian Authority leader continues to incite the
intifada against Israel, there can be no sensible peaceful overture by
Israel, the United States or the rest of the world. And Bush deserves
praise for backing his words with action, vetoing a United Nations res-
olution calling for a UN observer force in the occupied territories.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was equally correct in ordering the
missile and tank attacks on the headquarters of Palestinian terrorist orga-
nizations. Given the immediate provocations — the fatal shooting of a
10-month-old Israeli girl, the suicide bombing that killed two school
boys — Sharon was admirably restrained in waiting until after the Arab
summit meeting in Jordan had collapsed in discord.
The prime minister also is on the right track in trying to reopen
borders — in ways consistent with security needs — to allow Pales-
tinians to resume their disrupted lives. A carefully staged reopening
will demonstrate that the closures were always intended as a way to
protect Israeli citizens and not as a policy of collective economic
punishment of the Palestinians.
Still, American Jews must understand that the forthright acts by
Bush and Sharon bring no guarantees that the escalation toward a
broader war will be halted. Sharon has promised to bring Israel
greater security, but his actual options are fairly narrow. Even the
carefully targeted strikes have done little in the past to push the
Palestinian leadership toward a stand-down from the weekly Days of
Rage and the incitement to martyrdom.
As we celebrate Passover, the Jewish liberation from Egyptian slav-
ery, we need to add a prayer: that the Palestinian leaders will come to
their senses and end the senseless, futile plague of violence to which
they now condemn their people.

❑

4/6

2001

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