As we begin to read the first of the ten plagues, we see a contradiction in the Torah. At the start of Parashat Vaera, God tells the people that they will be taken out of the depths of slavery. It is hard to imagine during the most difficult times of one’s life that they will one day see and experience freedom.
Watching the return of the hostages last week and the hope of the return of four more Israelis tomorrow, while they said they could feel our prayers, they did not experience the essence of freedom until they embraced their mothers in tears. The Kotzker Rebbe explains that there are two necessary stages of freedom. The slave must be set free physically, but then the slave must also shed the slave mentality. When the Torah uses two different words for God taking the Jews from slavery, there is a promise of both of these stages.
A story is told of a person who made a superficial tour of an art gallery. They told the curator, “Are these the masterpieces I have heard so much about? They are quite ordinary.” The curator replied, “Don’t you wish you COULD appreciate them?”
In order to have freedom, we must appreciate our freedom.
Monday, January 27th is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We mark not only the memory of those who perished but also the ways in which our brothers and sisters sought their freedom.
One such way is through the arts. On Tuesday, January 28th, in partnership with the Sinai Temple Mental Health Center, we invite you to a private screening of the award-winning film: As Seen Through These Eyes.
The film highlights Holocaust survivors who use art as a means to approach all that they witnessed and experienced. They fought Hitler with the only weapons they had: charcoal, pencil stubs, shreds of paper, and memories etched in their minds. Writer, director, and producer Hilary Helstein has brought together artwork, archival footage, and interviews with survivor artists including the late Simon Wiesenthal for a gripping documentary that makes a compelling statement about the human spirit enduring against unimaginable odds.
The film will be accompanied by a curated tour of the Merage Gallery and a discussion with the director and producer, Hilary Helstein.
This Shabbat, we once again read the power of the freedom our ancestors found in the Exodus narrative. And today, we once again remember the courage of our people who sought freedom in the depths of the valley of the shadow of death.
Today, we remember and will always tell their stories.
