CANTOR’S CORNER

Cantor Eyal Bitton shares a few thoughts on prayer and the parasha of the week.

2024-01-06 Parashat Shemot

We need a minyan to say Kaddish. We can’t do it alone. We need a minyan to recite the Amidah aloud. We can’t do it alone. In services, we can’t read our most sacred book without a minyan. We can’t do it alone.

Our prayers are almost all in the plural. It’s a reminder that we don’t stand alone in our search for a sacred life. It’s a reminder that no one is an island. We need others. On Saturday afternoon, for mincha, we say:

ה׳ צְבָא֣וֹת עִמָּ֑נוּ מִשְׂגָּֽב־לָ֨נוּ אֱלֹהֵ֖י יַעֲקֹ֣ב סֶֽלָה:
ה׳ הוֹשִׁ֑יעָה הַ֝מֶּ֗לֶךְ יַעֲנֵ֥נוּ בְיוֹם־קָרְאֵֽנוּ:
Adonai Tz’va’ot is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Adonai, help us; Sovereign, answer us when we call.
(Psalm 46:8, Psalm 30:10)

We are not an island. God with us. We have spiritual companionship, divine support. We also have each other. This is why the text is in the plural. We are not praying as individuals; we are praying as a community, for each other, and WITH each other.

The Torah portion we read this Shabbat is the first one in the second book of the Pentateuch: Shemot. This parasha begins with the names of Jacob’s sons. We recount their names because we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors. Specifically, the generation that finds itself in Egypt as slaves are part of a longer story, part of a greater heritage.

In one of the most well-known passages of the Torah, Moses encounters God through the burning bush. He is charged to lead the people of Israel. He declines, however, arguing that he can’t perform this task alone. God promises to be by his side.

When God instructs Moses to speak to Pharaoh, Moses protests, saying his speech is not good enough: “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exodus 4:10). God tells Moses that Aaron, his brother, will be his spokesman.

Remember how Cain asked if he was his brother’s keeper in the first parasha of the previous book, Bereshit. The first parasha of the second book, Shemot, harkens back to that moment and speaks of brothers supporting each other.

Recall, once again, to an earlier section of the first parasha, when God creates Eve, saying: “It is not good for the Human to be alone; I will make a fitting counterpart for him” (Genesis 2:18).

Just as in the first parasha of the first book, the first parasha of the second book of the Torah underlines an essential truth about human beings: no one is an island. Indeed, we are asked to turn to each other. We are asked to turn to God.

In our personal lives, there is comfort in this essential truth. We are social beings, connected to one another. We are connected to friends, to people we love, to family.

And today, our community finds itself in a challenging time. Many of us feel alone. We must remember that no one is an island. We are interconnected. We are asked to turn to each other. We are asked to turn to God.

Through the power of connection, we will triumph. It’s a long road. In this week’s parasha, the people of Israel begin their journey to liberation. And liberation was not won quickly nor easily. But let us remember, as well, that God’s promise in this parasha was not just liberation for liberation’s sake.

Twice in this parasha, God stresses that we, as a people, are tied to a land. Indeed, our connection to each other is not just spiritual or emotional; it’s tangible. Our connection to our people is also tangible – and has a physical center.

“I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
(Exodus 3:8)

“I will take you… to a land flowing with milk and honey.”
(Exodus 3:17)

No one is an island. We turn to each other. We turn to God. We turn to our homeland.