Dear Temple Emanu-El,
This weekend we will end the book of Exodus. It is Jewish tradition to say the words Khazak Khazak, v’nitkhazeik – Strength, Strength and may we be strengthened. Though in our society I often wonder about how we hear, act and live this word…strength.
When the Torah concludes we hear about God’s ‘mighty (strong) hand’ that brought us up out of the Land of Egypt. Indeed, being able to bring God to do battle on behalf of the Israelites is a type of strength. It will be this strength that we celebrate in the Passover Haggadah in a few weeks. Yet, this is God’s strength which (at least biblically) did not have a limit in any sense of might. So what then is the strength that we celebrate at the end of a book of the Torah or in the Haggadah?
I feel that our society often tells of strength in skewed terms. We see sports programs where ‘feats of strength’ are on display. Then there is the ever present commercial gymnasium where people are determined to lift weights (without any seemingly identifiable purpose other than to lift a certain number of pounds), but rarely is there strength seen in telling a story, or continuing to survive and thrive.
At some core level the telling of the story, be it of Torah or the Haggadah… I see this is strength. It hearkens to the line from Zechariah (made more famous by Debbie Friedman z”l) “not by might, and not by power, but by spirit alone will we live in peace.” As we go from strength to strength, may we see our strength in the story we continue to tell. Perhaps we might even say ‘from story to story, and we continue to tell our tale.”
L’Shalom,
Rabbi Jim