The Weekly Mission: Parashat Yitro-To New Beginnings (5778)

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The Weekly Mission Returns!

For those who know me from 2007-2013, you know I used to send out a weekly Dvar Torah (Torah commentary) called the “Weekly Mission.” The idea behind it was that the Torah is a mission driven text that speaks to us in every generation--regardless of how the faces of Pharaoh appear. I would end each Dvar Torah with “This week I will try to:...” as an attempt to offer a piece of weekend-wisdom, and a bite-sized idea on the weekly Torah portion...and that was it! 

I stopped in 2013 because I saw myself entering into a new stage of professional life; I assumed I’d be writing just as often, I was wrong. Things got busy, and though I did write 30+ articles on other platforms, my weekly Torah reflections came to a stop. The last piece I wrote was last week’s Torah portion (Be’shalach) five years ago, and now, five years to the week, I am back--Hineini! Note: Each piece will be 500 words or less!

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Last Shabbat I was at a program called “Shabbat Shira: A Celebration of Jewish Diversity.” The ethos of the program was to raise the voice of those are not normally heard, and to foster belonging for those who have felt until now, isolated from the community. Jews, stretching the gamut of social and religious experience gathered together to learn, to listen, to reflect and sing with the voices of our collective Exodus. On the weekend commemorating the Song at the Sea, we stood together yet again, only this time in Brooklyn, NY, 19 organizations strong, at a sea of the 21st century that we believe will split, yet again.

While reflecting on this experience, I wondered where the world would be if we just believed in each other a little bit more--if we believed that our communities being together and in dialogue and relying on each other for that, would increase our chances of building a movement or splitting the sea? Not just a belief in the goodness of friends and the kindness of strangers, but the belief in people you feel uncomfortable even entertaining a conversation with, let alone people you think can never change.

In this week’s Torah portion, the Jewish nation stands at the “Mountain of God,” also known as Sinai. The rabbis note that there were millions of people who stood at Sinai that weren’t native to the 12 tribes. With all of the issues that may have surfaced due to these “immigrants,” as the rabbis do note (RaSHI: 19:2), these mixed multitudes of heritages stood at the mountain and these same voices nevertheless stood at Sinai and together “like one person, with one heart (ibid).” These listeners had understood what miracles of Egypt meant and joined, like Jethro, the legacy of this Divine mission and nation.

This Week I Will Try to: to realize that although there are so many different kinds of Jews in the world who are so hard to understand, and so hard to get behind, I will seek moments of dialogue and moments of celebrating our common ground--Just make sure it’s the same mountain.

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