Pulpit Message, January 11, 1985

 

A message from the Pulpit by
Miriam Grossman
Beth Israel, January 11, 1985

This Sabbath we are beginning to read the first portion of Exodus--Shemoth--The oppression of the Israelities in Egypt."

But let me briefly go back to Genesis--where we read about Joseph's miraculous survival from the dungeon--where his own brothers threw him in, because of their envy.

He was rescued by the Midianites who passed by. Then they sold him to the Ishmaelities who took him to Egypt, where they turned him over to the chief executioner, who then jailed him.

With him in the jail were two Egyptian servants, who did not please the king. They approached Joseph to interpret their dreams and indeed, he did it accurately.

At this time Pharoah was also troubled by unusual dreams of fat and lean cows and stalks of corn. Joseph was brought before the King to interpret those dreams. He said, "A great famine is coming to Egypt and the surrouding land."

The King was impressed with his interpretation and assigned Joseph the mission of overseeing the welfare of the crops and the distribution of them to the people during the famine, and Egypt was saved

For that,This way Joseph was elevated to the highest office next to the King.

At that time Joseph's father, Jacob, sent his other sons to Egypt, for help in obtaining food. [deleted]

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Joseph recognized his brothers and because of the love he had for his father, he helped them to obtain food, and also to settle in Egypt, where they prospered and multiplied.

In time, many assimilated but others, especially the tribe of Levi, were loyal to the covenant of Abraham and their traditions.

After Joseph's death, their came a new King who, because of ignorance or cruelty, was afriad that the multitude of Hebrews may rise against him or would join Egypt's enemies to conquer him.

He instructed his people to afflict the Jews so that they would leave, and by rigor and torture they would diminish.

At this time, Pharoah made the Jews build two cities, Pithom and Romses, and he made them suffer terribly. Still there were some Egyptians who had consciences and did not follow the king's orders and saved many Jews.

One of them was baby Moses who later brought the Jews out of Egypt.

Looking back at history, we see what great tragedies where brought on the Jews through all the centuries by injustice, hate and envy.

WHY?

Could we overlook the contributions Jews have made to the civilized world?

Through the Jews ---came the perception of one humanity under one God.

Through the Jews, civilization received a blueprint of moral living, The Ten Commandments.

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Through the Jews the rituals of human sacrifices were changed to animal sacrifices--then to charity.

From Through the Jews, came Christianity and Islam. [deleted]

Many other significant contributions came out of this people, but when they prosper, they are criticized or envied, and when they perform their religious customs, they are ridiculed, many times.

Whenever a misfortune hits a country, they are the scapegoats, blamed for all ills.

Each day, we pray for justice, love and peace--instead we find corruption in the system, where the guilty are not paying for their crimes and innocent victims suffer.

Instead to appreciate the good in people --we are multiplying their faults.

Instead of understanding and respecting one another, we try to out do them to our advantage.

If we only realized that each human being is endowed with the same characteristics--that each of us can love and hate, to hurt others and to help, to build and destroy--we would watch our actions carefully and develop the quality of our character, before condemning others.

How much alike we are is shown in a poem;

"I am proud of me--but I also see that you are as proud to be you, It's just human nature-- so why should I hate you for being as human as I."?   page 4

We can chart a better life for humanity, if we work on our character--to be sincere, honest and respectful and resist the influence of our hostile emotions.

The challenge is tremendous.

The choice is ours.