In this week's parashah, Vaera, we encounter the four expressions of redemption that form the foundation of our Passover seder. Gd promises: "I will bring you out" (Hotzeiti) from hard labor, "I will rescue you" (Hitzalti) from enslavement, "I will redeem you" (Ga'alti) through mighty acts, and finally, "I will take you" (Lakachti) as My people. While the word "chosen" doesn't appear until Deuteronomy 7:6, this final promise ("I will take you") contains within it the concept of selection that has been used to justify anti-Semitic tropes ever since.
But what does it mean to be "chosen"? Many elementary school teachers maintain job boards where students rotate weekly responsibilities: one distributes materials, another collects papers, someone cleans the whiteboard, another sharpens pencils. In the normative classroom, these children aren't selected because they're favorites or superior to their peers. They're assigned tasks that need doing. Each role matters. Each student contributes.
This is the essence of our "chosenness," not hierarchy, but assignment. We were given a specific duty: to keep the flame of Torah values burning brightly in the world. For millennia, we have maintained this sacred responsibility, carrying forward emunah (faith), chessed (kindness), and tzedek (righteousness) through every generation.
Yet throughout history, forces have sought to extinguish our flame. From ancient Egypt to medieval Europe, from the Shoah to today's resurgence of hatred, whether the Hanukkah massacre at Bondi Beach or last weekend's synagogue arson in Jackson, Mississippi, there are those who would plunge the world into darkness by snuffing out our light.
There's a sagely parable of the father who gave each of his children a single candle. "Guard your flame carefully," he instructed. The children quarreled over whose candle burned brightest, whose wick was straightest. In their arguing, they gestured wildly, and extinguished each other's flames, leaving the room in darkness. Only when they huddled together, rekindling each flame from the others, did light return in one combined flame, brighter than before.
The greatest threat to our flame today isn't only external hatred; it's internal division. When we argue so fiercely that we extinguish each other's light, we do the work of those who hate us. They count on our discord to justify their darkness.
Our call to action is clear: Stand together. Support one another even in disagreement. Protect each other's flames, for together we create an unstoppable radiance. Let us be proud keepers of our sacred assignment, bringing the combined light of our tradition's wisdom to illuminate a world that desperately needs it. Because we are Stronger Together.
Shabbat Shalom,
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