{"id":51669,"date":"2019-03-19T23:19:38","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T21:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=51669"},"modified":"2022-10-11T15:43:17","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T12:43:17","slug":"liberation-gratitude-empowerment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/liberation-gratitude-empowerment\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberation, Gratitude, Empowerment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the entire Torah, there are two pieces of mandated liturgy: words of prayer required at a specific occasion. One of them, Birkat Kohanim<\/em>, are the words the priests would use to bless the people Israel. Those words are still used on holidays and by parents to their children on Friday nights as Shabbat begins. A second piece of fixed liturgy is found in Deuteronomy 26, and it is known today because it forms the core of the Passover Haggadah. In antiquity, it was required to be recited when farmers would bring their first fruit offerings to the Temple as a gift.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because this is the only fixed liturgy demanded of the average Israelite, we would expect that it would tell our core narrative, and also tell us the consequences of our central story. And indeed it does.<\/span><\/p>\n

The passage begins by recounting that our ancestors were wanderers, refugees who wandered down to Egypt and were enslaved and oppressed there. When we cried out to God, God responded as a force of liberation, striking down Pharaoh and setting us free. Then God brought us to the Land of Israel and we are able to be in the position to give back by bringing these first harvests to the place God has selected for service.<\/span><\/p>\n

Noteworthy in this recitation is that we begin not with our storied and powerful past (as so many national stories do), but instead with our own perilous fragility, our own forced wanderings and suffering. Rather than finding welcome in Egypt, we were enslaved brutally.<\/span><\/p>\n

But we are told not to dwell on the slavery to cultivate a grievance or to nurse rage. Instead, we tell it as a story of liberation \u2013 that indeed our faith teaches us that God is always bringing Pharaohs down. And our confidence in the triumph of liberation makes us identify liberation with God directly, and to respond with gratitude. But gratitude isn\u2019t the end of the story either. Instead, we recognize that real gratitude finds expression in empowerment and generosity. Knowing that we have been freed and blessed inspires us to give back, to pass the gratitude along in the form of donations so that others may be free and fed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Liberation, gratitude, empowerment: that is the arc of the Jewish story, and of our responsibility to our fellow human beings to this day. Show gratitude by caring for others; only when we share with those who lack do we merit the gratitude at all: \u201cYou shall enjoy, together with the Levite and the stranger in your midst, all the bounty that the Lord your God has bestowed upon you and your household (26:11).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":51670,"id":51670,"title":"dt26-liberation","filename":"dt26-liberation.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt26-liberation.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/liberation-gratitude-empowerment\/dt26-liberation\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"dt26-liberation","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":51669,"date":"2019-03-19 21:19:09","modified":"2019-03-19 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