subject: Parshat Bo - Because We're Jews [print this page] Parshat Bo - Because We're Jews Parshat Bo - Because We're Jews
A group of soldiers were working on some documentation when their commander asked them a simple question. "Why are we required to put the Hebrew date on the top of all official documents?"
The soldiers immediately started shooting out answers. "Tradition," one would say. "No," came the nonchalant reply. So we won't go to jail? Nope. In case someone doesn't understand the other kind of date? Uh-uh.
"Because we're Jews," he said. "Because we're Jews."
I remembered this moment recently when I was having a discussion with my fifth graders about the significance of Rosh Hashana (the Jewish new year). I compared Rosh Hashana with the secular new year and asked my students why New Year's Day was important. I couldn't get any answers more profound than it's proximity to their sibling's birthday or their one day when they get to stay up late. Yet when I suggested that perhaps this might be a sign that the day was entirely irrelevant to the Jewish people, the students jumped up with excitement, if not rage.
You see, in Parshat Bo we are given the mitzvah of Rosh Chodesh, celebrating the beginning of each month of the Jewish calendar. We are offered the opportunity to remember dates of excessive import to the Jewish people, dates we are told to remember time and time again. Every day of the week is counted in its relationship to Shabbat. Every month throughout the Torah is counted in relation to the month of Nisan, the months the Jews were liberated from Egypt. And every year is numbered in relation to the date of the creation of the universe.
And despite all this, despite all of the tremendous opportunities we have to celebrate our glorious past, far more Jews celebrate New Year's Day than line the synagogue pews on Rosh Hashana. And Rosh Chodesh is all but forgotten amongst the masses. We abandoned our rich and illustrious culture in favor of what!? A day that many believe is the anniversary of the circumcision of Jesus, and 2010 years since little baby Jesus came into the world! We celebrate the first inklings of a faith that would be responsible for over a millennium of challenges and difficulties for our people.
Perhaps this all helps explain the somewhat bizarre location of this mitzvah, smack in between the ninth and tenth plagues, the plagues that would result in the end of the Jewish people's first of many experiences with slavery, degradation, and murder. Why in the world are we being told to remember the months right now? God is telling us that it is so easy for us to forget ourselves amongst the nations of the world. But we always need to remember, no matter where we are or what we do, we are Jews and we need to behave like Jews.
In just a matter of months after the most glorious departure in the history of the world, the Jewish people are going to be trapped in a desert and starving. They're going to start whining that it really stinks for them that they're hungry in a desert, when they used to eat their full in Egypt. A sad commentary on human priorities. We would rather be trapped in abject slavery, beaten, battered, threatened, and slaughtered... but with readily available food, then inching closer to a life of endless personal and spiritual freedom, with a prerequisite period of discomfort and suffering.
Things don't seem to change. Our priorities are still as confused as ever. On a day to day basis we forget who we are and where we came from. We are Jews, and should be beyond proud.
