Shofar AdarI/Adar II 5771
Jewish Family Congregation www.jewishfamilycongregation.org
March 2011
From the Rabbi’s Desk The unrest that has been felt across the Muslim world recently invites great sympathy, because it seems to be expressing the desire to be rid of tyrants and dictators. And that led me to wonder what the temperament of the Israelites was, as Pharaoh imposed more and more difficult expectations upon them. I wonder what the Jews of Persia were feeling, as Haman (may his name be blotted out) prepared his drastic manoeuvres against them. The desire to live in freedom seems to be a universal urge. But throwing off the tyrant does not always result in liberty, as the revolution in Iran in 1979 clearly demonstrated. Commentators well informed on today’s events point out that in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Bahrain, Syria, Libya, Iran, Yemen there is no figure comparable to Ayatollah Khomeini, who essentially hijacked the Iranian revolution in 1979, stepping into a leadership void to turn the popular uprising into an Islamic Revolution. Of course, in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, long outlawed and basically underground these many years, looms offstage, and though they remained in the background during the three weeks of demonstrations, there is little reason to be confident that they will remain there. I have heard Egyptian observers say that they do not fear the Muslim Brotherhood, but I am not so sanguine. The Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt back in the 1920s, is the intellectual progenitor of Al Qaeda and Hamas. It espouses a strict version of Islamic law, (sharia). Osama bin Ladin’s second in command, Ayman al Zawahiri, is a product of the Muslim BrotherFrom the Rabbi’s Desk Service Schedule Next Month’s Oneg Hosts President’s Message JiFTY Early Childhood Center The Religious School JFC Announcements JFCAdults ECC pictures
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hood. Because the Brotherhood was banned by the Mubarak government, it has had no visible leaders in Egypt, but that should not mean to us that they have no leaders. The uprising of the ancient Israelites against their own tyrant, the cruel Pharaoh of the Book of Exodus, was motivated by a desire for freedom too. But the concept of democracy, which is Greek in origin, did not exist at that time (approx 1250 BCE). Rather, as the Torah tells us, the Israelites chafed under the Pharaoh’s dominion, eager to be free to worship (and live) as their God required them to do. Until Moses was conscripted by God to lead the Israelites away from slavery, they had no leader, and they had no hope of exiting their difficult situation. Imagine starting a revolution without Twitter, without Facebook,, without email! (Actually, that is what caused the recent Egyptian uprising to mushroom so fast: the authorities turned off the Internet, which drove millions of people into the streets just to find out what was happening! Had the government left the Internet alone, would all those folks have stayed in front of their computers, thereby reducing the physical presence of people on the streets?). Were the Jews of Persia grumbling about Haman’s murderous intentions? Did the Israelites in Egypt meet in small groups to discuss solutions to their problems? (For that matter, did the Jews of Spain do that as the Inquisition closed in on them? Did the Jews of Russia commiserate over the czarist oppression they experienced?)
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