22 | JANUARY 21 • 2021

SPIRIT

Lessons of the Past
T

his week’s parshah, Bo,
contains what I believe is
one of the Torah’s most
important mitzvot: It is a dedi-
cation to education, to knowing
our past and ensuring that our
history informs our future.
Having just won their free-
dom from Egyptian
bondage, the Israelites
are instructed by
Moses on the laws of
Passover, which they
are to observe for all
time. As they prepare
for their sojourn in
the desert, Moses says,
“
And when your chil-
dren ask you, ‘What
do you mean by this
rite?’ you shall say ‘It is
the Passover sacrifice
to the Lord because He passed
over the house of the Israelites
…
” (Exodus 12:26-27). Here, at
the most climatic moment in
the people’s history, standing
on the edge of freedom, Moses
demonstrates a most important
skill for any religious leader -
bringing the ritual to life and
making it relevant.
More than 2,000 years later,
the Passover seder is the most
observed ritual in Jewish life.
According to the Pew Research
Center, more than 70% of
American Jews attend a seder
annually. Here, in the retelling
of our story, every generation
has the opportunity to find itself
within the history of the com-
munity. We are inspired by the
past as we chart out the future.
Teaching history is not
simply a process of repetition.
History is a critical endeavor
that asks that each time we
return to the same story we do
so with new eyes, new questions
and an openness to learning
new things. That is why we

encourage our children to ask
questions and why in answering
them we point to the text from
which we seek our answers.
When we look at this week’s
portion, we read v’gam erev rav
alah itam (a mixed multitude
went up with them.) While
these five words don’t
change the essence of our
story of liberation, they do
expand it. In the erev rav
(mixed multitude) we find
not only ourselves and the
people who look like us, but
a people inherently com-
posed of multiplicity.
In the midst of a struggle
for liberation, it can be easy
to narrow our conception
of who is “with us.
” Each
year, when we return to
parshat Bo, we have the oppor-
tunity to expand it again and
remember that not only are we
more diverse than we may have
thought, but that our story is
also not ours alone.
In the midst of a year when
the forces of oppression are
more apparent than ever, we
can all be buoyed by another
five-word phrase. Not from the
text of the Torah but painted on
the windows of our houses and
signs in our front yards -“We
are in this together.
”
As we move into a new year
in the shadow of a rhetoric of
hatred and division, let us not
forget that sacred command-
ment to teach our children the
history of our liberation - that
we walked to freedom hand
in hand as an erev rav, a mixed
multitude. Ever knowing that
just as it was in the past, so, too,
will it be in the future.

Rabbi Ari Witkin is the director of

leadership development at the Jewish

Federation of Metro Detroit.

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi Ari

Witkin

Parshat

Bo: Exodus

10:1-13:16;

Jeremiah

46:13-28.

MEL DRYMAN
Raised in Detroit, Experienced in Arizona
Your Professional
& Dedicated
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