Dear TBZ community:
“May joy come in the morning after this dark and long night”
This has been my blessing on my Shabbat N’kabla message over the past two weeks. Inspired by the verse in Psalm 30:6:
בָּ֭עֶרֶב יָלִ֥ין בֶּ֗כִי וְלַבֹּ֥קֶר רִנָּֽה – We may lie down weeping at nightfall, but joy comes in the morning.
This same verse was quoted by Senator Warnock after winning the election in Georgia two weeks ago, and by President Biden as he was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States this past week.
Many months ago, in my Rosh Hashanah sermon, I quoted Sikh activist and lawyer Valarie Kaur from her address during a watch night service at the Metropolitan AME Church when she asked us to consider birthing as a metaphor for the creation of something new for our country:“What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb?
I imagine that like me, many of you are breathing a little easier after Wednesday's inauguration. After pushing and breathing and reminding ourselves to take deep breaths, this time feels like a new beginning, a moment of birth, a time of hope, of possibility and of beauty. After just the first day of a new administration, we see the beginning of the end of this dark and long night, of this long and hard labor.
If we continue with this metaphor of birthing, we know that after a baby is born, the journey is not complete; it has just begun. The most difficult, and challenging moments lie ahead - raising the child.. That journey comes with mistakes, with fears, and with abundant joys. This moment calls us to hold the joy and elation of this new life, this new chance for America, but calls us even more to take responsibility as does a parent to raise a child. We must raise this new America. As Rabbi Sharon Brous beautifully prayed at the National Inaugural Service: “Give us strength as we usher in the dawn of a new America, a justice-driven multiracial democracy... A new America, built on love, rooted in justice and propelled by our moral imagination.”
In this week’s parasha, we read the last three plagues of Egypt, including the plague of darkness.
וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהוָ֜ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֗ה נְטֵ֤ה יָֽדְךָ֙ עַל־הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וִ֥יהִי חֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־אֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם וְיָמֵ֖שׁ חֹֽשֶׁךְ
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Hold out your arm toward the sky that there may be darkness upon the land of Egypt,
a darkness that can be touched.”
Rashi explains:
“A darkness that can be touched: A darkness more dark than the dark of night. The dark of night grew darker still. The word translated as touch is really a form of the verb "to grow dark.....The midrash takes this verb to be from "to grope," indicating that the darkness was so thick it was doubled and redoubled, until it became a darkness of substance, mamash.”
And the Torah describes the plague further:
לֹֽא־רָא֞וּ אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־אָחִ֗יו וְלֹא־קָ֛מוּ אִ֥ישׁ מִתַּחְתָּ֖יו שְׁלֹ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֑ים
People could not see one another, and for three days
no one could get up from where he was
Ramban, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, explains:
People could not see one another, and for three days no one could get up from where he was… This darkness was not merely the absence of sunlight, so that the sun set and it was as dark as night, but it was a thick darkness--that is a dense fog that descended from the sky...This darkness extinguished every light, just as in deep mines and other places of intense darkness
no light can exist.
Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, stunningly began her poem on Wednesday recognizing the experience of thick darkness, darkness that can be touched, the darkness, that we have been touching for the last four years:
When day comes we ask ourselves
Where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
And then she beautifully and with hope reminded us that morning is coming:
And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.
She reminds that dawn and joy is coming, and that it belongs to us!
A nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished.
She reminded us that we can fix the brokenness, we can heal, and that we are not done. We have an opportunity to birth a New America and raise it with love and compassion.
To author a new chapter,
To offer hope and laughter,
Amanda Gorman tells us that we can step out of the darkness:
When day comes we step out of the shade,
Aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it,
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
Let us be the light in this new dawn.
May this Shabbat bring renewal and blessings to all of you and your loved ones..
May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity.
May all those who are ill find healing.
May we have a joyful and restful Shabbat!
Shabbat Shalom,
