January 14, 2007

Bible Portion

Every Saturday Jews around the world read a section of the bible. This past Saturday they read the first five chapters of the book of Exodus, or in Hebrew "Parashat Shmot". In this selection we read that that the Israelites have grown beyond a clan to become a nation and that they have been enslaved by their hosts, the Egyptians. Why are they enslaved? Because, as we read in Chapter 1, verse 8, "A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph." The meaning of that verse is clear, but what actually occurred is still argued over.

In Ma’asehet or section Sotah of the Babylonian Talmud, Rav and Shmuel, the leading rabbis of the third century Babylonian Jewish community, argued as to the meaning of the phrase "a new king." One said that the king was really new, and the other argued that the old king issued new decrees and transformed himself figuratively into a new king. What is the difference between the two?

The first rabbi believed that the original leader died and was replaced by a new leader who had different views, ideas and priorities and deemed the new nation of Israel a threat to his kingdom. The other rabbi believed that it was the same ruler who just changed his mind and decided that it was in his best interest to enslave the Israelites now, even though previously they were his ally. And why is this argument important?

Often times our elected leaders tell us that they support something and then vote against it or worse, vote against a part of it and then, when it doesn't matter, vote for it (like voting for closure but against the nominee). But even more then that priorities are important; we need to keep pushing the Democratic Congress to work toward progressive goals. We can not let them skate around the issues that we pushed them into power for, issues like Universal Health Care and ending the war in Iraq. We worked for them so they could be active in fighting to stop the escalation of the war in Iraq and not just passively let it happen.

Are there great obstacles in preventing the escalation? Of course there are, but that does not mean we shouldn’t try and stop it. We need to stand up to President Bush and force him to veto these bills and we need to force Republicans like Senator Mitch McConnell to filibuster these bills that benefit the average American. We need to force them to publicly defend positions that show their real priorities and beliefs. We need to show that Democrats will work for the common man and that Republicans won’t.

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