Friday Shabbat Shalom

A nine year old boy named Joey was asked by his mother what he had learned in Hebrew School that day. "Well, Mom, our teacher told us how G!D sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When Moses got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge and all the people walked across safely. Then he used his walkie-talkie to radio headquarters for reinforcements. They sent bombers to blow up the bridge, and in the end, all the Israelites were saved."

So personally, the only reference I have to this kind of thick darkness was one of the hurricanes we experienced about a decade ago (I think Wilma) in which most of Miami lost power. I remember how utterly dark it was that night. No stars, no ambient light from street lights, nothing. So dark that when I went down my front steps to see if I could spot a house that might have electricity, I took about 4 steps down my walk and just stopped dead.

One of the characteristics of youth is impatience. While older adults are tempered by the realities of human passivity and inertia, young people agitate for immediate change and progress. Unwilling to concede that society moves very slowly, unable to accept human suffering and callousness, our colleges remain centers of agitation and protest as young people attempt to translate their dreams of a redeemed humanity into a living reality.

This week’s Dvar Torah is entitled Thoughts on Anti-Semitism and the Future of Humanity: Thoughts for Parashat Shemot. It was written by Rabbi Marc D. Angel, rabbi emeritus of Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York City. Currently, he is the Founder and Director of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals, which seeks to foster an intellectually vibrant, compassionate and inclusive Orthodox Judaism.

In this week’s parasha, Vayechi, Our patriarchs Yosef/Joseph and Yaakov/Jacob can be models for us in our quest for equanimity during these stressful and frightening times. Yosef --who suffered so gravely because of his brothers' betrayal-- ultimately came to a place of forgiveness. Yaakov-- who could have disowned his sons for their actions-- was able to come to some sort of resolution.

These past few weeks, good people everywhere have been horrified by the attacks on Jews that have recently taken place in New Jersey and New York. And those of us carefully following these incidents know that seemingly random acts of anti-Semitic violence have been happening for a while in the Orthodox neighborhoods of Brooklyn, particularly Crown Heights.

This Dvar Torah is based upon the inspirational message given by Rabbi Eliot Pearlson of Temple Menorah at the Hebrew Academy's Annual Dinner a few years ago.This week's Parasha Miketz and last week's Parasha Vayeishev have the running theme of dreams.

Chanukkah comes from the same Hebrew root as the word for education, Chinuch. So it's fitting that we feature the many aspects of CAJE, our community's central address for Jewish education. Education is all about dreaming and visioning for the future.