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Tucked away into the Midrash from nearly 2,000 years ago is the story of Miriam. The rabbis teach that on the night the Israelite slaves were gathering their belongings to flee Egypt, Miriam the Prophetess slipped into her satchel a timbrel and a tof—a small hand drum. 1/
Why on earth would she do such a thing? They had no food, no time to let the bread rise, and Pharaoh had a rather erratic habit of changing his mind, first letting them go, then deciding they would remain in slavery. What if he changed his mind again? 2/
We know that 400 years of bondage was brutal; Egyptian task masters beat our ancestors, denied them food, forbade practicing Judaism, demanded they throw their newborn sons into the Nile. Egypt was a place of constriction, narrow-mindedness, human degradation & dehumanization.3/
The Midrash teaches that when the Israelites finally crossed the sea and reached the shores of liberation, it was Miriam and the women around her who took her timbrel and her tof and began dancing and singing in celebration; they rejoiced in their freedom. 4/
They did not know what was ahead of them. They had no guarantees that the God who liberated them would stick with them in the desert. They had absolutely no guarantees their new found freedom would last. 5/
But Miriam understood something holy, something essential of the human psyche: We cannot move forward without celebration. We humans need song and dance and celebration after we’ve left the places that have assaulted our dignity and brutalized our humanity. 6/
My beloved community: We have not yet reached the promised land. We may never in our lifetimes. We have so much work ahead of us.
But it is imperative that we pause for a moment to follow in the footsteps of Miriam to sing, to dance, to rejoice. 7/
But it is imperative that we pause for a moment to follow in the footsteps of Miriam to sing, to dance, to rejoice. 7/
We defeated a tyrant, an authoritarian, not with bullets or with bayonettes but with our ballots.
We showed the world that not all battles must be fought with a sword.
For one brief moment, tonight, we touch the sky with tears of joy.
8/END
#ShabbatShalom
We showed the world that not all battles must be fought with a sword.
For one brief moment, tonight, we touch the sky with tears of joy.
8/END
#ShabbatShalom
