Bo 5784~Jan. 20, 2024

 Our parasha for this Shabbat, Bo, provides us with the final series of plagues that God enacts upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Ultimately, it is the final plague, the death of the firstborn of Egypt, that convinces the Pharaoh to release the Israelite nation from slavery and captivity. And what does it take for the Pharoah to be convinced? It takes more than the financial ruin of some of the previous plagues or the personal discomfort from others. Pharaoh himself must experience the consequences, that up until that point he was able to shield himself from.

While the Egyptian people themselves might have experienced lack of food because of the plagues which attacked their fields and their animals, the Pharaoh never experienced any a lack for anything. It took the death of his own first born for him to recognize not only his stubbornness, but also the devastation of the plagues upon his country. 

I wonder if he recognized that God spared his life for the current moment, solely for the purpose of his making the decree to free the Israelite slaves and allow them to go on their way to worship their God, as Moses demanded.

We all wonder what action will need to be taken for Hamas to free more than one hundred hostages, including a one-year-old whose birthday was on Thursday.

“Thursday, January 18, marks “the saddest birthday in the world,” as redheaded Kfir Bibas turns one-year-old while being held captive in Gaza”, said Jimmy Miller, first cousin to Kfir’s mother, Shiri Bibas.

The only celebrations taking place will be without the birthday boy, who, along with his 4-year-old brother Ariel, and their parents, Shiri and Yarden, have been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since they were all abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7th.”  (The Times of Israel)

And yet, there are so many people in our world, who are undisturbed by this story, and who place the blame of October 7th upon the Israeli government, state and people. Such is the case as reported on Thursday, in the NY Times of the journey of one Jewish woman who maintains that Israel is basically responsible and that Hamas was only acting to bring attention to the Palestinian plight in Gaza and in the West Bank. The article shares the fact on how younger Jews and Blacks are joining together and have bonded, supporting the pro-Palestinian cause.  

The article actually reflects upon our reading for this Shabbat. According to the article, the Passover seder misses the point regarding the concept of slavery because it is centered only on the experience of the Jewish people.  It is quite disturbing to realize that even amongst our younger generation of Jews, who we taught to look at the plight of others, tikkun olam, and to loving your neighbor as yourself, do not understand the truth and history of Middle East politics, nor do they understand that Hamas, Hezbollah and others are not freedom fighters; they are terrorists who entered a land, murdered, raped and took hostage civilians of all ages and still hold many hostages. They all misappropriated monies to house, feed and build infrastructure for the Palestinian people. Instead, they built hundreds of miles of tunnels, built mass weaponry aimed at Israel, use their own people as human shields, and kept their land impoverished, while their leadership lived in Qatar and other places in luxury.

There is even a new word that the Urban Dictionary has now placed in its list of terms or phrases that have become popular. The word is “Israeling.” One can even purchase a mug with the term on it. The term “Israeling” is one of those words that is a new obscenity, as far as I am concerned.

As I shared the listing via text with my adult children, they remember that as children I refused to allow them to play the tape of the Michael Jackson album that they had loved listening to because we realized that the lyrics included anti-Semitic terms. One of them responded via text: “it’s like when Michael Jackson sang “Jew me, screw me, kick me, kike me.” In the end, Jackson was forced to change the lyrics.

Here are some of the postings within the Urban Dictionary’s website:

When u say an egregious lie to cover ur big lie from before, hoping to elicit sympathy.
My girlfriend lied about being out with friends (but was with her ex) and in the middle of the argument she told me her mom was in the hospital and I was supposed to show sympathy and understand her hurt feelings. I should have also paid the hospital bill because it somehow was my fault. She was totally Israeling. by Truth teller G October 30, 2023

A sickly exaggerated desire to have something that belongs to someone else, and that you are ready to steal it by stepping over corpses.
He's been ISRAELING his neighbor's car for years, and when he realized he couldn't buy it, he crept up at night and stole it. by Oxford Curriculum Reviewer October 24, 2023

Falsely claiming ownership and assuming a victim role for something that isn't rightfully yours.
I swear mother, he's israeling, the t-shirt is mine! by Jeremyfisher445 November 4, 2023

The feeling of ownership over another population's land, resource access, and lives by way of having a god complex and religious scripture as testament to the right to commit criminal practices without accountability.
Hey, do you know what Yaacov is up to these days?
Last I heard, he's Israeling in Jerusalem.
by The Palestinian Hawk June 19, 2022

The act of taking something that is not yours and then kicking out the rightful owner.
Someone asked to share my table at a restaurant, and then asked me to leave the table because they had a meeting!
Looks like you just got israeled.
by Freefelestin October 21, 2023

There are several more pages in the urban dictionary related to that anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic posting. How do we overcome not only these rants of hatred, but how do we get the Pharaoh to understand?

Some commentators suggest that during the ninth plague, that of darkness, the true colors of the Egyptians came out. At that time, they gave whatever they had to their Hebrew slaves, wishing them the best and simply waiting for the Pharaoh to come to his senses. But let’s realize it took eight plagues before darkness, to bring them to their senses.

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi K