Yesterday I was shocked and heartbroken at the news out of some of our most prestigious universities. Students at Columbia and Yale and others have decided to make their own Jewish classmates bear responsibility for what the Israeli government is doing. How do they make them responsible? How does that even make sense? They refuse to allow them to even walk on campus. Large crowds surround them, chanting litanies like “Get the Zionists out!” “Don’t let the Zionist move!” They link arms and move in ever-tightening circles around the unfortunate student identified as Jewish by their dress or reputation.
Columbia University’s response was to cancel in-person classes and, in particular, to advise their Jewish students that “for their own safety” they should remain off campus and attend class only online. Anyone else feel like the clock has turned back to a very dark time some 80 years ago?
In Great Britain a man and some friends decided after shul this past Saturday to just “take a walkabout” downtown on their way home. He was wearing his kippah and carrying his tallit bag as normal. There was nothing unusual about their activity. Seven months ago it wasn’t an issue and a common practice. However, this time they were stopped by the police when they came to a street filled with pro-Hamas protestors and told they wouldn’t be allowed to cross the street lest they “disrupt” the marchers. Their mere presence was antagonizing and they needed to find a different way home. When the Jewish man pressed the police saying they weren’t there to engage or counter protest, they just wanted to walk quickly across the street, he was threatened with arrest for being non-compliant and seeking to inflame the already heightened tensions.
Does anyone else see this as crazy? Are you too disheartened that we have gotten to such a place in “free” America? It’s like we have jumped into a time capsule and been transported back to the days prior to WWII when Jews were told “for their own safety” they should not venture outside their homes, when their shops were shuttered, and they were moved to ghettos where they could be watched. How far are we from loading Jewish students or citizens into cattle cars to transport them to “re-education camps” or other “suitable housing” where their presence won’t be a bother to others?
Torah provides us with all the information we need to celebrate God’s festivals. There is a complete rundown in Leviticus 23 and again in Deuteronomy 16. Each of these chapters is quite specific about the days for these “set times.” Shavuot is exactly seven weeks after the 2nd day of Passover. Rosh Hashanah is the first day of the seventh month. The tenth day is the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. The fifteenth is the start of Sukkot or the Festival of Booths. We know on which day everything is to start.
Passover is more specific than just giving us the day. “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight…” (Leviticus 23:5). In the original story found in Exodus, we are also told not just the day, but the time. The night before was when the Angel of God went from house-to-house slaying the first-born and passing over the houses of those who marked their homes with lamb’s blood on the lintel and doorposts. It says, “In the middle of the night the LORD struck down all the first-born in the land of Egypt…” It goes on to say, “And Pharaoh arose in the night…and summoned Aaron and Moses in the night…” to tell them they should get out of Dodge. Pack up and leave. Take your animals and herds and begone! The next day, in the very middle of the day, the Israelite slaves walked out of Egypt in broad daylight.
Night and day are obvious opposites. We even use the phrase “as different as night and day” to refer to any two things that are not at all the same. We use the terms to symbolize concepts of darkness and light. If you’ve ever been hospitalized, you know that the nights in a hospital are twice as long as the days, lying there in strange surroundings, awakened every couple of hours by a nurse “taking your vitals.” It’s bleak. On the other hand, we are all cheering the lengthening of the days right now. The sun makes its appearance sooner and sticks around longer. Our preference is to spend as much time as possible outside in the brightest light of day.
We might also consider the sun and the moon, the luminaries given to us by God, as representing opposites as well. The sun symbolizes constancy and sameness. It’s there all day every day. Visible even through cloud cover, because of the strength of its light. The moon, on the other hand, is all about change and renewal. It waxes and wanes and disappears completely every single month. Even at its brightest when it is full in the middle of the month, it’s not sufficient light to turn night into day. But don’t we need both?
What does all this rambling about light and darkness, day and night, sun and moon, have to do with us? Consider this: our greatest opportunities for change and renewal come in the darkest moments. Revelations don’t come in the broad light of day. They come to us at night, in dreams, when we are at our lowest, sure that the sun will never rise again. It’s no accident that Pharaoh declared freedom for the Israelites at midnight. That’s when we too come to the realization that all things can be different. When the sun is high in the sky, it’s time for action, but revelation always needs to precede action.
I received a message last night from a good friend who has experienced a lot of unhappy change recently. She’s on the heels of a divorce, estranged from some of her children and alone. She wished me a happy Passover and then said she feels no connection to anyone. Her faith feels dead. Right now she is walking through the dark and despairing of her situation. It makes me sad to think of her situation.
On a broader scale, consider how dark our world seems right now. How did we get to this point where we are openly discriminating against and demonizing Jews in the freest country on the globe? How could the entire world seem to be backing Israel’s enemies? They’ve taken their masks off and don’t even pretend to be in support of just the “Palestinian people,” but of Hamas themselves. It feels very dark. It’s easy to despair when chants of “Death to America!” are seen as free speech, but a Jew on a college campus can’t walk to class safely, a man with a kippah is targeted for arrest for merely taking a walk.
Today’s Daily Dose was nothing short of inspirational. It says:
The Exodus began at midnight.
We departed at midday.
To tell you that even at your darkest hour you can shatter your chains.
And even at your brightest moment you must say,
“From this, too. I must break free.”
This is what we need to remember. It is when things seem the darkest that true change and renewal begins. Revelations about how to break out of our funk come in the middle of the night. Action can’t follow until daybreak. It’s in the midst of darkness, with or without light that we can resolve to make things different. We can connect to Hashem, the one who made us, who is still in charge of this world, and perhaps realize that however long the night might seem, joy comes in the morning. The Torah is our guiding light and true source to help us break the chains of whatever is holding us back from a new beginning. May it be so for you today.
I Am My Father's Daughter 