Dvar Torah - Natanaele Wynchank

Shabbat shalom friends, family and congregants.

Today I will be speaking about my Parsha, Shemot (from the book of Exodus). Chapter 1 begins when a new Pharaoh comes into power, who we think is Ramesses the 2nd. And he is threatened by how the Israelites had flourished. So he forced them into slavery, and later issued a decree that all male infants were to be slaughtered. When Moses was born, his mother refused to bring harm to her son. So she put him in a basket and placed him in the river Nile. Pharaoh’s daughter found him and took him in. When Moses grew up, he saw a Hebrew being beaten by an Egyptian. So Moses killed the Egyptian and fled Egypt. G-d spoke to him in the form of a burning bush and told him to speak to the Israelites. But Moses was reluctant.

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There is a lot that happens in my Parsha, but I have decided to focus on the theme of “dehumanisation” and speaking up against injustice. The first time you see dehumanisation is when Pharaoh decides to force the Israelites into slavery and hard labour. Because Pharaoh felt insecure, paranoid and was scared that the Hebrews would rise up against him and take over Egypt. But forcing them into slavery didn’t really appease his anxiety. And they kept on growing. So he decided to instruct all the midwives in Egypt to kill every Hebrew male baby that was born. The midwives subtly rebelled by making excuses, saying that the Hebrew babies were born too quickly and they were out before you knew it. So then Pharaoh decided to be even more extreme, and instructed for all Hebrew male babies be thrown into the river Nile to drown. I think what he did was very psychopathic, and unjust. Because targeting minority groups and enslaving a whole nation and murdering infants is dehumanising and inhumane. Another example of dehumanisation and violence would be when Moses struck the Egyptian instead of rugby tackling him to subdue him. I think that was very wrong of Moses, firstly because it was quite hypocritical and secondly it’s wrong to take someone’s life. He was so outraged by the violence he witnessed, but then resorted to violence himself. I think it’s quite interesting how Pharaoh ordered all Hebrew male babies to be killed and then later, with the 10^th plague it came back at him (where all Egyptian male first borns died).

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And how this story relates to me: Long before I was born, my grandmother (aged 10) and her family were living in Oujda, Morocco. When one day soon after the State of Israel was declared, a bunch of Muslim rioters attempted to attack my great grandfather Élie Bensadou, who was working at the market. But then a bunch of his Muslim colleagues and labourers surrounded him and protected him from the mob. On that day 47 Jews were killed by those rioting mobs. It relates to my parsha because people stood up for him. They didn't just stand by and allow something terrible and violent to happen. Which meant that, like the midwives from my parsha, they had a very good moral compass. These stories inspire me to do good in the world and to treat everyone equally and speak out when someone has done something wrong. Dehuminisation does not only come in the form of killing, enslaving and violence, but it can also come in more subtle ways. Like bullying or shaming. And as a bar mitzvah, I will stand up for myself and others when someone’s dignity is being undermined.

Shabbat shalom!