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 13
The Israelites are enslaved for a long time. They groan under their bondage and cry out. God hears their moaning and sees their suffering. Then, the Torah teaches, “God knew.” What did God know? And why did God only know then? Recall that, centuries before the Exodus story begins, God had told the patriarch Abraham that his descendants would suffer in a foreign land for 400 years before their ultimate redemption and restoration to the Promised Land. Many biblical commentators observe that the actual period of enslavement falls far short of that lengthy period, maybe by as much as two centuries. Perhaps “God knew” that it was time for the people’s suffering to end, even if prematurely. Perhaps God discovers that God’s plan was perfect in theory but brutal in reality. And perhaps even God could only know this after hearing the Israelites’ cries and seeing their degradation. As my wise, dear friend Episcopal Reverend Wallace Adams-Riley reflected to me recently, “Some things you can only know once you experience them.” If this can be true of God, how much the more so of us?
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