Today’s Torah portion begins the book of Exodus. This story is familiar to all Jews. Israel and his entire family had settled in Goshen. But, hundreds of years later the leadership of Joseph is forgotten. The success of the Hebrews threatens the leader and provides cheap labor. The Hebrew people are enslaved and “their lives are made bitter”. The Pharaoh fearing their number or¬ders the death of all Hebrew male babies. But one Levi mother sends her baby son floating down the Nile, where the Pharaoh daughter finds and saves the child. The baby grows up to be the great prophet Moses. After ex¬ile , Moses encounters a burning bush, and upon G_d’s command, returns to Egypt to free his people.
So I struggled to find something new to say.
You may not have realized that before Pharaoh com¬manded all of Egypt to kill the Hebrew male children, he spoke to the Hebrew midwives. The king of Egypt in¬structed the midwives to kill any boy baby on the birth-stool. “The midwives, fearing G_d, did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.”
These midwives feared G_d. They refused to follow such a heinous act. They must have feared Pharaoh, yet they risked their lives rather than commit such a sin. What courage to defy a ruler who has the power to im¬prison a servant for sour wine or salty bread.
We don’t have to look far to hear the false justifica¬tion for evil action – “I was just following orders”. The Torah portion is decisive. We are all responsible for our actions. We are all responsible to make the correct moral decisions, regardless of temptations or commands.
(I would point out that the Pharaoh’s daughter also defied her father when she saved Moses’ life. But Lee assured me that it is totally normal for children to disre¬gard their father’s commands.)
Fortunately, most of us will never be confronted with such severe moral decisions, but all of us face small moral choices almost every day. Will we be totally truthful on our taxes or fudge a little? Will we report all expenses accurately, or exaggerate a little on our busi¬ness reports? If caught, will we tell the teacher the truth? If the referee misses the call, will we admit the foul?
I wonder what message we all receive each day about honesty. On TV, I see commercials; a man tries to slip the technician money for “extra” channels. The woman runs from the store, her arms full of packages, yelling “Start the Car, Start the Car”.
Obviously these commercials are supposed to be funny and sarcastic. But do we react with outrage at the apparent cheating? Shouldn’t we expect the people for a correction to the bill? But would we expect such honest behavior from others, from ourselves?
Many years ago, when the board was setting up dues policy, we discussed how to determine when a family would qualify for reduced membership fees. We de¬cided on the honor system. One concerned member spoke of their experience at another synagogue. There, members had bragged about misrepresenting their in¬come to obtain smaller membership fees. I wondered who these cheaters thought they were fooling. Why belong to a synagogue and support Jewish beliefs, only to break the very basics of Jewish law? Did they think G_d didn’t notice?
While paying some purchases, a rattled and distracted sales clerk returned my original $20 bill with my change. Yes, I immediately handed the bill back to the clerk. Yet, I was disappointed and annoyed that the clerk did not thank me or acknowledge my act of honestly. But as I reflect on it now, I question my response. Why would I expect praise for being honest? Why did I want kudos? The fault was not with the sales clerk, but rather with me. I should expect honest behavior. It should not need external rewards.
If the Hebrew midwives could find the courage to refuse an order from the absolute ruler of an Empire, then we can find the backbone to make choices every day that are fair and honest to ourselves, our family and our community.
Shabbat Shalom,
Suzanne Darby