Last year, my kids and I walked from our home to the park a few blocks away. My son Jeremy decided to roller-skate there, even though he was still learning how. He could skate on his own during the smooth stretches of sidewalk, but needed help to keep from falling over bumps. We progressed at the pace of snails with my letting go whenever the sidewalk was even and holding his hand whenever he encountered a bump. (It took us almost half an hour to reach the park only a few blocks away!)
As we moved along, repeatedly letting go and grabbing hands again, I felt that this pattern was intrinsic to human nature. When everything's fine, we coast. We feel independent and self-sufficient; we can go it alone. However, when we reach bumps in the road, then we feel the need to hold onto one another.
In this week's Torah portion, the Israelites hit a bumpy part of the road - to say the least. Sh'mot(names), which begins the book of Exodus, recounts how we became enslaved in Egypt. In this excruciating time, the portion is filled with stories of people reaching out to one another. The Hebrew midwives risk their lives to save babies (who Pharaoh has commanded to be killed). Pharaoh's daughter rescues baby Moses from the river, and his sister Miriam steps in to ensure that he is reunited with his mother. When he grows up, Moses intervenes three times to help a person in need - twice to help an Israelite who was being beaten, and once to assist a Midianite women harassed by shepherds. And throughout, lots of couples are having children: "But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and grew..."
As a people, we too hit a tough stretch this past year - to say the least. Between the war in Israel last summer and the horrific murders in the synagogue in Jerusalem this fall, it's been a heartbreaking year to be a Jew. With terror attacks from Sydney, to Pakistan, to Montreal - just to name a few - it's been a painful year to be a human being. On a personal level, the year included losses both in our family and community. In beginning a new book of the Torah, we recently began a new secular year. Hope for a fresh start mingles with lingering uncertainty about whether the difficulties of this past year will continue.
In reflecting back, perhaps the only good thing that can be said about bad times is that they have a way of bringing people together. Somehow, in the tough times, you are unable to lie and pretend that everything is okay, and that you don't need anyone else. In those moments, some of the strongest connections are forged.
This week's portion recounts that "God saw the Israelites" and was moved to redeem them. What did God see - According to one commentator, "God saw that the Israelites had compassion upon one another. When one of them finished his quota of bricks, he would help his friend."
Each year, we read the story of the Exodus not merely as descriptive of past events, but as prescriptive for the future. Sometimes, the most profound truths in life are also the simplest. When you reach bumps in the road, hold hands.