This week Parshat Va’era tells us of the horrid plagues that God brings upon Egypt due to Pharaoh’s stubbornness and selfish behavior. I would like to focus on the second plague-Tzfardayah. A frog by itself is interesting and curious, however huge numbers of frogs are overwhelming and can be crippling to a society as they were to the Egyptians. After God sends the Frogs, Pharaoh’s magicians not wanting to be outdone also produce more frogs which makes the situation worse. I want to look at this plague in another light.
Presently in this country, we seem to be growing more divided day by day with politics, racism, and socio-economic standings. It is harder to come together as a country especially because we are dealing with an invisible enemy, a virus that thrives off of close human contact. This makes everything so much harder and more difficult. People feel lonely and removed from their friends, social organizations, community centers, places of worship etc.
The actions of Pharaoh’s magician’s did not help the situation it only created more chaos. The actions of those who stormed the capitol created chaos and problems and made things worse for a country that is already struggling so deeply.
How did Pharaoh get out of this situation? He called Moshe and Aharon and acknowledged the existence of G-d and begged for the frogs to be removed. However after he did so he became stubborn again and went back to his old ways which brought on another much worse plague. If we as a country do not learn from our mistakes, if our leaders continue to harden their hearts, things will get worse. We can change the momentum of where we are heading as a nation simply by treating everyone and anyone we meet with love and kindness, by helping the stranger, feeding the hungry and healing the sick.
It is possible to do all of these things even in this crazy time we find ourselves in. We must remember not to harden our hearts the moment things seem to get a little better. We must be patient and determined to make a change and focus our efforts on keeping the momentum going in the right direction.
Shabbat Shalom, Cantor Joshua Diamond
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CELEBRATIONS AND GRATITUDE Thank you to Bill Berkowitz & Lucille Safir for the Dick Van Dyke presentation and thank you to Nadine Kaufman & Amy Mogel for coordinating the Book Club discussion. We look forward to more events.
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