short of breath

Despite the unyielding flow of terrible news, I do hope that you are starting the year with connection, comfort, love, and hope. A community member started an email to me this week (inspired by a friend who started her emails that way) and it felt like the only reasonable way to begin my Friday email today. 

We are at a turning point, both in Torah and in the world. Let’s begin with the world.

The past few weeks we have lived through a U.S. backed coup in Venezuela, Israel’s continued devastation in Gaza, the obscene murder of Renee Good in ICE-occupied Minneapolis, the threat of anti-immigrant abductions in Philly, violent repression in Iran, ongoing bloodshed in Congo and Sudan, the supreme court prepare to bar trans athletes, I won’t go on. The news is relentlessly devastating. 

The world is aching. And I imagine we are each earnestly asking, what can we do? Is this moment the seed of defeat or redemption? 

So too in Torah. After 400 years of slavery, the Israelites have reached their breaking point. The hard labor has whittled their spirits. They call out, desperate. And finally the Holy One hears them. 

Exodus 6:5 reads,
וְגַ֣ם ׀ אֲנִ֣י שָׁמַ֗עְתִּי אֶֽת־נַאֲקַת֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר מִצְרַ֖יִם מַעֲבִדִ֣ים אֹתָ֑ם וָאֶזְכֹּ֖ר אֶת־בְּרִיתִֽי׃

“I have heard the cries of the Israelites enslaved in Egypt and I will remember my covenant.”

This is the moment when the story turns, the seeds of liberation are planted. The internal will of the people prepares to rise up. But not without trepidation. 

Moses in particular feels both called and afraid, in part due to the weariness of the Israelites, who are “mikotzer ruach u’meivodah kashah” (Ex: 6:9).  
"מִקֹּ֣צֶר ר֔וּחַ וּמֵעֲבֹדָ֖ה קָשָֽׁה׃”

Nearly impossible to translate, this refrain captures this Israelites feeling of inadequacy, both physical and spiritual. They have shortness of breath from the hard labor. And they are short on spirit from the difficulties of slavery. Moses and the Israelites are unsure they can muster the strength and courage required. 

I imagine many of us can relate. After so much time on high alert, our spirits are also prone to be weary. At the end of a week like this, I too feel kotzer ruach - short of breath. 


And yet the legacy of the Exodus story is alive within us and it could not be more timely to read it this week. On Tuesday night 125 people filled the KT sanctuary to prepare to keep ICE out of our neighborhoods. This is precisely what we need to be doing. (So much gratitude to Rabbi Lizzie for organizing this! And stay tuned for another training). 

The most important media I have consumed this week is this episode of adrienne maree brown’s podcast How to Survive the End of the World (thank you Rabbi Mó). Her guest, Autumn Brown, a single mom and resident activist in Minneapolis described her experience as “Intense, Frightening, Surreal and Inspiring." 

I imagine we are more connected to fear and intensity. I find myself returning to the last time Minneapolis was rising up and the final words of George Floyd, z”l, who literally could not breath. 

As we enter Shabbat, let this be an invitation to take a deep breath, to literally lengthen our breathing. To turn our attention to community and relationships, to that which sustains and inspires each of us. 

I encourage you to support organizations in Minneapolis like https://defend612.com/ and https://unidos-mn.org/, as well as ICE OUT efforts here in Philly led by the New Sanctuary Movement, Juntos and others. To organize hyper locally, block by block, in our neighborhoods and schools. To call our elected officials. To wear a whistle. To avail ourselves of any action within our capacity!

And also to exhale. To breathe and sing, lest we underestimate our own power. 
Let this week be the seed of redemption!