Jew it better, a multi-layered approach to being Jewish
We are in strife, I’d love to hear from you if you think we are not…
In this week’s Parsha, a story of the ages. Jewish man finds himself in trouble and uses cunning and unique skills to rise to the top and prove himself invaluable to the guy in charge.
This is the story of Joseph, imprisoned, finding his way out of captivity as a reader of dreams and ultimately to lead Egypt alongside Pharoah. His place running Egypt then becomes instrumental in the very survival of his brother’s and father’s families who he left behind in Israel. The story of the children of Israel and their survival is contingent on Joseph’s singular capacity.
This is a story of the ages; our story time and time again is of Jews being downtrodden, of being persecuted, of hearing bad things uttered against us and worse. We have survived because we are smart and somewhere in our DNA is a survival instinct which tells us, in order to live, you gotta get wise.
In 2023, the story is no different, Jewish people need a lot of cunning and wisdom to negotiate complicated terrain. And this very terrain has so many layers.
The trope against the Jewish people is that we are too successful, that we control the world. We know that across the ages, Jews have climbed the ranks of social hierarchy, like Joseph, instinctively to be able, in part, to protect our people and care for our families. Today is no different but once again we are hated for it.
It hurts bad. In my lifetime I have been someone in favour of Palestinian liberation, statehood, human rights and all the trimmings. I have advocated and educated for these aims, I still do.
But the world has gone upside down and across the western world, we seem to have people advocating for fundamentalist religion, which champions the taking of innocent lives, imprisonment and hostage taking of civilians, alongside rape and torture.
I know well that Israel is not perfect, but my people have schlepped across the whole world and until this day, do not feel welcome anywhere. So 70 years ago we founded a really small place to call our own, and in 2023 people are again yelling our name in the street calling us murderers and colonialists.
It hurts bad, and I don’t have any good solution to this strife we face…
…but the Hanukah light. This is a festival all about vulnerability and weakness. In part, we are more powerful than we have ever been and we have a state, but these weeks have also revealed once again both how vulnerable Israel is and how marginalised our people can become so quickly.
This festival of Hanukah is about holding out hope, holding up the light. Putting our faith in the divine power that courses through all of nature, the whole world round. And if we believe it, it will be no dream.
Hang tight, we will endure this too…
Shabbat shalom.
