D'VAR TORAH: We the [Jewish] People
Rabbi Marci Jacobs, Conservative Yeshiva Alum & Jewish Studies Faculty at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, MD
One of the conversations from my youth spent in a Jewish Day School that sticks most in my memory is the debate we had about whether Judaism was a religion or a nationality. Middle-schoolers on all sides of the issue passionately spoke up for their particular viewpoint. "We're am yisrael - we must be a nation!" "What about Shabbat, holidays, believing in God?! We're a religion!" Attempting to find an argument that would both sound sophisticated and win the debate, we never came up with a clear answer. As a college student, I learned about Mordecai Kaplan's concept of folkways, his idea that individuals could choose religious and cultural practices as a way into the tradition, as markers of identity and connection with Judaism and the Jewish people. Kaplan's ideas provided another lens through which to view Judaism, that of a civilization.
The essential question of what it means to be Jewish has cropped up with great controversy of late, and it is also deeply woven through the fabric of Parashat Shemot. In the eyes of the Torah, b'nei yisrael are unmistakably a nation, but what that means takes different shapes at various points in the parashah. At the start of the parashah, the term b'nei yisrael refers to the literal children of Israel, Jacob's sons and their families, who went to Egypt in search of food and stayed. We quickly jump ahead in time - there is a new Pharaoh, whose view of b'nei yisrael is quite different. "Look, the Israelite people are much too numerous for us." (Exodus 1:9) Here, b'nei yisrael are not just a family of refugee Hebrews, but am b'nei yisrael, the Israelite nation, and they are a threat.
Later, as Moshe encounters God and then takes the Divine command to Pharaoh, we have another description of the nation: "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Let My people [ami] go.'" (Exodus 5:1) In this rendering, we are ami, God's people. Not other - intimately connected to the Eternal.
Family. Outside threat. God's cherished possession. Each of these is a part of the Torah's view of Jewish peoplehood.
Family - Each of those named in the opening verses of the parashah was a part of the family of Jacob, the small group of people who traveled to Egypt during a crisis. Sforno's (Italian, 15th century) commentary to Exodus 1:1 emphasizes that each of these people was noteworthy, each a luminary, keeping the rest of the people from assimilating to the culture that surrounded them. Part of belonging to a family is knowing the names and the stories of the people who came before you, acknowledging their influence and their part in shaping who you are today.
Outside threat - The Or HaHayyim, (Morocco/Israel, 17th century) explains that there were four reasons underlying b'nei yisrael's demonization and ultimate enslavement: the deaths of Joseph, his brothers, and the entire generation of refugee Hebrews, and their extreme fertility. The first generation in Egypt, he explains, was welcomed as honored guests. After they were no more, at least in Pharaoh's eyes, the people no longer had the same special character. Instead, b'nei yisrael became known for unusually high fertility, which was seen as a threat. These denotations of nationhood were imposed from the outside, by Pharaoh and the Egyptians. When others, particularly those in power, determine our character as a nation, we lose our agency as a people.
God's cherished possession - Midrash Shemot Rabbah (5:14) imagines the scene when Moshe and Aharon go to Pharaoh. When they explain that they represent God, Pharaoh says he's never heard of this god, and goes to look in his book detailing nations and their gods. As if to refute their demand, Pharaoh explains that he found no mention of God in his book. Moshe and Aharon respond in kind, saying: "Fool!...Those other gods you mentioned, they are dead; but our God is a living God." To be so intimately connected with God is to tap into that which is eternal and beyond the limits of time, to be a part of that which lives and that which also gives life. When the Torah calls the Israelites ami, My people, God's people, it is reminding us that a core feature of b'nei yisrael as a people is our connection to God through life.
However we view the essential nature of being Jewish - nation, religion, or something else entirely - we can apply the Torah's instructions for how to understand ourselves. We must honor our history, the stories and influences of those who came before us. We must be mindful of our right to self-determination and avoid handing that right over to others. And we must assiduously pursue the power of life, remaining aware of the unbreakable link between ourselves and the Creator of all life.
