We’re all familiar with the phenomenon. Sometimes, it is our parents who ask us the same question over and over again. Eventually, guilt kicks in and we do whatever it is that they ask. Sometimes, it is our children who ask the same question over and over again. Eventually, our desire for a moment of peace kicks in and we let them do whatever it is they want.
From one angle or another, our resistance gets worn down and we consider changing our mind. That’s exactly what happened to Pharaoh in this week’s portion. After Moshe and Aharon kept appearing before him saying, “Let my people go,” he began to reconsider.
So, he asked Moshe who would be going on this little journey into the wilderness. Moshe could have answered in a number of different ways. Moshe could have said, “All of us.” Or, Moshe could have asked, “Who will you permit to go?” But instead, Moshe offered the following reply to Pharaoh’s question: “Moshe said, ‘With our young ones, with our elders we will go, with our sons and with our daughters, with our sheep and with our oxen we will go,’ (Shemot 10:9).”
With this verse, Moshe answered the Pharaoh’s question. In doing so, however, it seems that also Moshe defined the community.
Is this a comprehensive list of the community’s members? Obviously, able-bodied adults of both genders are missing from this list. The Midrash, though, tells us that Pharaoh offered to let them go earlier in his conversations with Moshe. That offer, however, was not sufficient. Able-bodied people alone did not constitute the entire community.
So, who is missing? Today, we can list other sub-groups of our community which are not listed: the physically challenged, the mentally challenged, gay men, lesbians, survivors of abuse, orphans and others. These are people who are often excluded from our definition of community. They are often pushed to the periphery.
However, it is not clear that Moshe excluded them. Perhaps, Moshe’s answer to Pharaoh is a symbolic one. “Our young ones and our elders” represent ALL who are dependent upon the community for support. “Our sons and daughters” represent the future of our community. “Our sheep and oxen” represent our ability to provide for ourselves and sustain ourselves as a community.
So, we see that Moshe essentially defined a community as: A group of people that works together to provide not only for its productive members, but for its dependent members and its future members as well.
In doing so, Moshe also defined success for a community. We are successful when we provide not only for ourselves, but when have enough for those in need as well as for future generations. That is the challenge issued to us in Parashat Bo. May we have the strength to meet that challenge.
RAF.
