The Talmud teaches that 30 days before Passover, we should start learning about the holiday and its meaning. In that spirit, I humbly offer "30 Days of Liberation." For each of the next 30 days, I will offer a brief message drawn from the wisdom of Passover. I hope you find these messages meaningful and inspiring. Feel free to share/forward.
30 Days of Liberation: Day 3
Harder than taking the Children of Israel out of Egypt was taking Egypt out of the Children of Israel. The episode of the Golden Calf is a great, if tragic, example. The people had come to ascribe divinity to a man, Moses, whom they credited, rather than God, for taking them out of Egypt. Coming from a society where a man, Pharaoh, was God, this must have made sense. But when Moses disappeared on Mt. Sinai for 40 days, the people panicked. The idea of not having a tangible supreme authority was too much to bear, so they made a calf out of gold. The idolatry of worshipping a statue is no different than that of bending the knee to a human being. Both entrench hierarchies, reinforcing the oppression of the weak by the powerful. Little wonder that when Moses returns, the Torah indicates that the Israelites were acting like participants of a Pharaonic regime, demeaning and possibly even subjugating each other. We who today venerate the tangible are similarly at risk for serving gods of metal or flesh. We may be out of Egypt, but we can only know if Egypt is truly out of us if we treat all others as our equals, and fashion societies that affirm the dignity of all.
