By the Grace of G-d
Dear Friend,
Multiculturalism or melting pot?
What do you prefer?
The arguments for promoting a society to become a melting pot are many. Let us start with the universally accepted virtue of unity. With a melting pot comes the gift of equal rights for all. Commonality of goals and shared destination makes for a cohesive society.
The multiculturalists will point out no less emphatically, that the uniqueness of the individual cultures is lost when different peoples assimilate into one new identity. The beauty of the mosaic is only to be had when one maintains their distinctiveness and brings it with them to society. Let us thus encourage people to maintain their distinctiveness.
The Torah portion this week sparked my thoughts about this topic.
The fourth plague brought by G-d against the Egyptian as part of the process of liberating the Jewish people, was the plague termed named by the Torah ‘inciting a mixture’.
It’s a name that gives room for some pondering. The name of the other plagues are more easily identifiable. ‘Blood’, meant that the Nile’s waters turned to blood. ‘Frogs’ meant that hordes of frogs swarmed the land of Egypt. And so with the balance of the ‘ten plagues’. They are all self-explanatory. This fourth plague has a name which seems a bit more vague.
The name of the plague is ‘orov’ as in ‘mixture’. A ‘mixture’ that is ‘incited’ against the Egyptians. A mixture of what?
The answer to that is pretty straightforward. It refers to a mixture of creatures that are easily provoked and get even more ferocious and downright destructive when incited.
The details of which kind of beasts they were, are obviously not all that important. This is why the Torah doesn’t give the exact details of what beasts were part of the plague. Just that it was a ‘mixture’. Rashi and the Midrash give some more details. Like snakes and scorpions that came up from the ground. Also other wild beasts. Beasts that we like to see from the windows of a car in safaris. Lions, tigers, bears and other such easily provokable animals.
The name of the plague though, is not ‘wild beasts’ but rather ‘orov’ which means ‘mixture’. The Torah is thus emphasizing that it was the mixture, the combined concoction of many species, that defined the punitive aspect of this particular plague.
Its scary enough when a bear comes to a city and seems bent on going on a rampage. Imagine lions, panthers, snakes and scorpions and a few other lethal creatures added to the mix? It was enough to create a panic and pandemonium that was intended to pressure Pharaoh into releasing the Jewish people.
There is something very unsettling when troubles come from many directions. Even people who usually cope well with stress, when the difficulty is multifaceted, they lose their calm and start to hyperventilate and panic.
Think about our past year and you will recognize that much of the panic is because of the ‘multi-facetedness’ of this attack on our ‘normalcy’. Health, economic, social and various other disruptions. Each problem on its own would be more manageable. Together, they form a greater source of panic and fear.
Plagues are not positive or nice in and of themselves. G-d brought the plagues to bring about a brighter future. To lead to Exodus and the Giving of the Torah at Sinai. This brought a liberation to the Jewish people and a purposefulness to the world at large.
Yet, the details of every plague contain a message for us. Something that we can inculcate and incorporate into our lives, making our way of living more moral and G-dly.
With this fourth plague, it’s a no-brainer. The G-dly message in this plague of ‘mixture’, would be to recognize the amazing undefeatable power of unity.
If ‘mixtures of wild beasts’ are so powerful, imagine how powerful ‘mixtures’ of good peace-loving people must be.
This would point toward the supreme virtue of the melting pot model.
Tearing down boundaries that divide us. Uniting as one. If even beasts can unite as one for G-d, how much more so humans can. And thus, create an unstoppable force of good.
Mixing is unity, unity is what G-d likes.
Hang on a second though.
There is a second part to this. If you don’t stop to hear the second part, it would be like getting a powerful medicine but not paying attention to the dosage. Medicine can be life saving. Too much of a powerful medicine can be lethal.
So, read on please.
This plague also speaks about non-mixing. Boundaries.
This is the first plague that the Torah explicitly describes as being ‘exclusive’ and affecting the Egyptian captors only and not the captive Jews.
Hashem said: I will set apart the land of Goshen, where My people dwell, so that there will not be any mixed horde there. Thus, you will realize that I am God not only in heaven but also on earth, in the midst of the land.
Now, to get wild beasts to stay out of Goshen would take a G-dly force of curtailing and preventing the wild beasts. Wild beasts don’t usually like to be told where to go and where to stay away.
The lesson from the containment of the wild beasts projects a G-dly instruction to create borders and boundaries.
Quite the opposite of the melting pot. Non assimilatory behavior is the message from this detail of the plague.
Some things need to be contained and defined by borders and fences.
G-d made a very strong two-pronged statement in this plague.
Mixtures are good.
Boundaries are critical.
The two above derived lessons from the one plague of ‘mixture of wild beasts that didn’t trespass the boundaries of the area of their free reign’, is that we need both attitudes.
We need to recognize the incredible blessing of unifying ourselves.
All the while not forgetting the inviolable borders that protect our identities.
I will use a radical example although it is horrific, but it expresses the message powerfully.
Being cordial and friendly to children, even not your own children, is good. Smiling at any young child when you see them usually comes naturally and so it should.
When you see someone being too friendly, ‘overfriendly’, to children it is possibly a warning sign. It should not be whitewashed or ignored. G-d forbid that a pedophile should fall through the cracks and prey on defenseless victims because proper boundaries were not in place.
Friendly is good.
Boundaries are critical.
The message is clear.
There are vast areas of life in which G-d expects us to be unite with others.
Not to be disastrously mistaken as being license to tear down all borders.
There are critical and key aspects of our identities which must remain ironclad in their individuality.
To apply this lesson to ‘Jewish continuity’.
A Jew can and must contribute to the surrounding society. Many have pointed out with pride, the places of prominence that Jews occupy in the world of medicine (Pfizer and Moderna’s Jewish upper management, are trending topics now because of their success with the vaccine), science, business and government.
At the same time, a Jew must always robustly maintain his or her integrity and be unapologetically Jewish. Hashem created various differences between human beings. One of them is that a Jew is a Jew and a non-Jew is a non-Jew. To fudge or blur the boundaries would herald the end of Am Yisrael G-d forbid.
The fact that we are Jewish today is because of our ancestors unyielding commitment to the Torah.
Our commitment to the Torah today, is the only guarantee that there will be a Jewish people tomorrow.
Unite with others yes. Assimilate NO.
Being proudly Jewish is also the best formula to fight anti-Semitism.
To quote Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory
Non-Jews respect Jews who respect Judaism, and they are embarrassed by Jews who are embarrassed by Judaism.
Getting the perfect balance is a ‘balancing act’ but at least we need to identify our goals and work towards them without taking our eyes off the destination.
And think about this. The best thing you can do to help your neighbor, Jewish or non, and actually the best way to help the entire world, is by doing one more mitzvah and bringing more goodness into the world.
You and I doing more uniquely Jewish mitzvahs will be good for us and is also the most effective way of bringing good for everyone in the world.
Thank G-d we live in this golden age of history where we have the freedom to observe our religion without limitations.
Let us appreciate our blessings.
My dear friends, grab every opportunity to do something good for humanity.
Do another mitzvah.
Mashiach will come sooner and bring peace to the entire world!
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Yosef Kantor