A Modern Day Moshe?
A Modern Day Moshe?

 

In this week's Torah portion, Shemot, we are first introduced to Moshe Rabeinu. What made Moshe so special that he was chosen by God to be the first leader of the Jewish people and take them out of Egypt? What were his qualifications? What was his life experience? What did he have on his CV?

In fact, very early on, well before God ever speaks to Moshe at the burning bush, we see three separate, but related incidents that give us a clue into the type of person Moshe was. These three incidents are quickly described in five consecutive verses (Exodus 2:11-16). In rapid succession, Moshe does the following: He goes out and sees an Egyptian beating an Israelite and intervenes by killing the Egyptian, the next day he sees two Israelites in conflict and intervenes again, and finally when he flees to Midian, he saves Jethro's seven daughters from the local shepherds who were harassing them.

What does all this prove? That Moshe was a busy-body? That he broke up fights? What's the big deal? I can understand Moshe stepping in when the Egyptian was beating the Israelite, after all, Moshe was an Israelite too. For the same reason, one can also understand why Moshe intervened when the two Israelites were in conflict the next day, but why did he defend the seven daughters of Jethro, the Midianite priest, against the Midianite shepherds? That wasn't his fight. He didn't have to take sides. He should have stayed out of it.

A story from a few years back can shed light on this. In December of 2007, a young Jewish man, Walter Adler, was riding the Q train late at night on the New York City subway. A group of rowdy teenagers came barging through his car yelling 'Merry Christmas' to all the startled passengers. Adler responded with a 'Happy Hanukkah'. One of the teens turned to him, 'Channukah? That's the day the Jews killed Jesus!'

Before Adler could reply and try to reason with them, the youths physically attacked him. Many of the other passengers just minded their own business, too afraid to get involved. But one young passenger, Hassan Askari -- a Muslim student from Bangladesh -- came to Adler's aid, and the group began physically and verbally assaulting him too. Eventually police came aboard the train and arrested the youths who assaulted Adler and Askari. "A Muslim-American saved us when our own people were on the train and didn't do anything," Adler said.

What was so unusual about Moshe is not that he defended his Israelite brother when he was getting beaten by an Egyptian (that was naturally the right thing to do) or that he intervened when the two Israelites were in conflict the next day, but that he stepped in when the daughters of Yitro (a man he had no connection to at the time) were being harassed. Davka because it wasn't 'his fight', but it was for the sake of "justice" and standing up to help those who need help, regardless of their race, sex, or religion, that made Moshe (or lehavdil the young Muslim on the subway) so great.

There have been several stories in the Israeli news lately that have been very disturbing. We’ve heard about women being harassed by hareidi extremists for refusing to move to the back of a separated public bus and for immodest dress,, and about hareidi youngsters being attacked on their way home from school. Another news item showed that apartment owners in Kiryat Malachi were refusing to sell or rent apartments to Israelis of Ethiopian origin, and another the Puah Fertility Institute being threatened for having a privately-run conference for a hareidi audience that features only male speakers. What would Moshe have done if he had witnessed these events going on in Israel today? I think he would have taken a stand.

Perhaps we cannot all act like Moshe Rabeinu, but can't we at least act like Hassan Askari?