A Little Bit Of Passover Reading

Passover is a time when we reflect on the Exodus from Egypt and the struggle for freedom that has colored our character and influenced our faith and world view. However, when thinking about this, I can’t help but feel that the struggle has been forgotten and is only considered a part of our tradition, a story that does not go beyond the pages of the Torah. When reading Exodus, I came across the following sentence that made me stop and really put some long thought in the meaning behind the words:

“If, while breaking in, the thief is discovered, and he is struck and dies, [it is as if] he has no blood.” – Exodus 22:1

I read this as meaning that G-d will defend the actions of man when that man is just in his actions. Not satisfied with my own view, I went digging a little further I looked into the interpretation found in the Talmud. Rashi, considered the greatest commentator on the Tanach (for those of you unfamiliar with the term is the original, Jewish name for the 24 books of the Bible) considered the millennia of interpretation and produced the following commentary:

"He has no blood. [This signifies that] this is not [considered] murder. It is as though he [the thief] is [considered] dead from the start. Here the Torah teaches you: If someone comes to kill you, kill him first. And this one [the thief] has come to kill you, because he knows that a person will not hold himself back and remain silent when he sees people taking his money. Therefore, he [the thief] has come with the acknowledgement that if the owner of the property were to stand up against him, he [thief] would kill him [the owner]. - Talmud Sanhedrin. 72a"

The reason for expounding upon this sentence is quite simple. The Pharaoh, while not in the literal sense as the aforementioned thief, was depriving the Israelites of life. By keeping them enslaved and reliant upon him to provide them with their basic needs, he was stripping them of their freedom and leaving them, for the most part, powerless. It was not until they found the strength in G-d and from G-d to fight this tyrant that they were able to break their chains and become, once again, a free people.

While G-d clearly lent a hand in this endeavor, we must not forget that we are to be a reliant people granted with the innate ability to defend and protect ourselves as well as our fellow man. For when men strip us of our ability to stand up and fight for ourselves, do we once again find ourselves as helpless as a slave in Egypt. We have a responsibility to ourselves and to G-d to never again allow that to happen and so we must embrace our inalienable right to keep and bear arms.

We cannot become overly reliant on a government promising to provide us with our basic needs. We must be self-reliant and ready to work for what we want, fight for what we need, and defend the freedom that we have. In the end, while G-d undoubtedly lent a hand, the exodus required the actions of man. Moses was the one who led his people out of Egypt. Passover is a time to embrace the fact that we can still hold fast to our faith while at the same time fighting for our rights, our freedom, and our life.

 

 

But Do You Have A Flag?

Columbus Day is almost over and it really made no difference to me. The only thing that I noticed was the fact that I couldn’t get a hold of everyone I normally would on a Monday. You couldn’t even take your cue from the government because they were closed already.

When you think about it and consider all that we have learned about Columbus over the years it makes you question why we even still have such a day. I personally think that it’s a difficult argument saying that you discovered a new world when there were people there to greet you. That’s like discovering a cabin in the woods that no one knew about, that wasn’t on any maps, knocking on their door and claiming the land as your own (if you survive of course).

To give you a little background, and save your finger from having to hit another button, here is the basic rundown from Wikipedia:

Many countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas, which happened on October 12, 1492, as an official holiday… Columbus Day first became an official state holiday in Colorado in 1906, and became a federal holiday in the United States in 1937, though people have celebrated Columbus' voyage since the colonial period. In 1792, New York City and other U.S. cities celebrated the 300th anniversary of his landing in the New World. President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of the event. During the four hundredth anniversary in 1892, teachers, preachers, poets and politicians used Columbus Day rituals to teach ideals of patriotism. These patriotic rituals were framed around themes such as support for war, citizenship boundaries, the importance of loyalty to the nation, and celebrating social progress.

Many Italian-Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of their heritage, the first occasion being in New York City on October 12, 1866. Columbus Day was first enshrined as a legal holiday in the United States through the lobbying of Angelo Noce, a first generation Italian, in Denver. The first statewide Columbus Day holiday was proclaimed by Colorado governor Jesse F. McDonald in 1905, and it was made a statutory holiday in 1907. In April 1934, as a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, Congress and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made October 12 a federal holiday under the name Columbus Day.

Since 1970, the holiday has been fixed to the second Monday in October, coincidentally the same day as Thanksgiving in neighboring Canada (which was fixed to that date in 1959) (note that October 12, 1970, was a Monday). It is generally observed nowadays by banks, the bond market, the U.S. Postal Service, other federal agencies, most state government offices, many businesses, and most school districts. Some businesses and some stock exchanges remain open, also some states and municipalities abstain from observing the holiday. The traditional date of the holiday also adjoins the anniversary of the United States Navy (founded October 13, 1775), and thus both occasions are customarily observed by the Navy (and usually the Marine Corps as well) with either a 72 or 96-hour liberty period.

Today seems to epitomize the fact that, given time, people’s shortcomings are frequently overlooked and their feats accentuated by historical storytelling. Truth be told, Columbus was a man who got lost on a voyage, the Gilligan of the 15^th century if you will, who, once he was given power, proved to be a tyrannical ruler and proponent of genocide. So, happy Columbus day everyone!