Darkness is for Dreaming
Brooklyn, winter 2025
Dear friends,
I've been sitting with my rabbi, Jim Ponet, and another of my rebbes, Elana Ponet for the last couple of hours studying Torah and discussing this moment politically, in an attempt to figure out what should go in this letter. It all revolves around this week's parashah, Parashat Bo, in which we go from the 8th plague, Locusts, through to the final Plague of the Death of the Firstborn Son. The ninth plague, Darkness is described as a darkness so thick that it paralyzes you. If you were standing when it started, you'll stay standing til it ends. If you were sitting, you'll stay in your seat. Then comes a dramatic showdown between Moses and Pharaoh, which leads to the final plague. But the part we found most compelling in its strangeness was chapter 12, when right before the 10th plague, suddenly the action stops. Then we are thrown into the future, where Jews will be remembering this very story by performing a series of elaborate rituals involving symbolic foods and sacrifices called "Passover." I offer you little bits of this lively study.
Rabbi Jim says:
Yesterday was the beginning of the Hebrew month of Shvat, which signifies that spring is coming. Whether we are ready for it or not some hope is approaching.
Elana adds: It's the season of seeds. In the earth.
Rabbi Jim: Hazorim Bedim'a - those who plant through their tears - and I'll add their sweat and blood - Berina Yiktzoru - will reap with happy song.
Elana: The question is what do we want to plant right now? What do we want to grow? We're not just responding to things we don't like, we are planting!
Rabbi Jim: In this week's parashah, in the middle of a disaster for Egypt, and the Hebrews running for their lives from Egyptians who want them dead - in the middle of this the text suddenly stops and says:
By the way, from next year through eternity you're going to mark this very day by a festival. It tells us exactly what we will do with the matzah and the maror and the rest of it. It makes order of the chaos.. As we call Passover: The Seder (Hebrew for order). This moment that we are living through right now is not only Hipazon, rushing around madly to get the matzah out of the oven before the Pharaoh changes his mind. It is a learning moment. This is either a moment of birth or of death. We are pregnant now. We are in a dangerous pregnancy.
Elana: We don't know what kind of birth it will be, if it's a boy, a girl, twins, Caesarian, we don't know.
Rabbi Jim:
This week we saw Bishop William Barber speak. He was asked: "They're taking away DEI. What are we going to do?" He said: "We first need to think about what worked and didn't work."
Elana: He called it an analysis. We're not going back, we're figuring out how to build a better system.
Rabbi Jim:
This moment, said the Bishop, is an opportunity to review and rethink what we have done. So we are not going back, we have to think about where we are heading.
Me: That moment in the parsha when suddenly the high stakes drama pauses for a carefully thought out lesson in ritual, is a pause to consider where we are and where we are going. It's a short pause. We have only one night to do it. Halayla Hazeh, like in the Four Questions. This night. A night to ask questions and to discuss and plan our improved dreams for next year and beyond. Tomorrow morning, as soon as dawn hits we wake up and get going.
Elana:
Not wanting to see the darkness is a doomed attempt to escape it. Let's use it to dream.
Shabbat shalom,
PS. I hope you join Daphna, Yonatan and the rest of the musicians for Shabbat in the Upper West Side this evening.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Misha