One Hundred Years later – Where Do We Go from Here?
Chief Rabbi Capers Shmuel Funnye
הרב הראש’ קפרס שמואל ‘פוננ”
We are about to enter the season of Passover – פסח, the word means to “pass or spring over”. This season is known as the first of the three pilgrimage festivals given to the Israelite people. We are all aware of the commandment that forbids Israelites from having Chometz in our dwelling places. Chometz results when one of the five species of grain: barley, rye, oats, wheat and spelt, (spelt is a member of the wheat family of grains) or their derivatives is allowed to remain undisturbed in contact with water for 18 minutes or more. Chometz results instantly when these grains are exposed to hot or salted water.
Israelites will be cleaning their homes and workplaces of Chometz over the coming weeks. Why? Because we are commanded to do so in the Torah, the Torah doesn’t tell us why, it simply says no leaven shall be found in the places in which you dwell. Now, our houses are clean and we make ourselves ready for The Lord’s Passover, which comes on Friday evening March 30, 2018 at sunset. We will conduct our Seder and eat our festive meal! Is this it? What about our freedom? Do I feel free after I have led a Seder and eaten the Passover meal? Does this story and tradition ever move from memorializing the past to looking towards our future? I know that the tradition says at the end of the Seder we say “Next Year in Jerusalem”! So maybe, that’s what most Israelites are looking forward to, getting to Jerusalem. I believe this is an ideal that should propel us forward as a people, by working together and learning to unite as the people of Hashem.
As we approach the Passover season, I’d like to offer an additional commentary. It has been One-Hundred years since Israelite communities around the world began to come into the knowledge of their Israelite heritage. This awakening took place throughout the world between 1896 and 1919 in North America, South America, West Africa, East Africa and other parts of the world. At that time people of African descent began to throw off the religious shackles of their oppressors and return to a Faith that burned deep inside their spiritual beings. That Faith was Judaism. It doesn’t matter if you call yourself a Black Jew, Hebrew, Hebrew Israelite, or Israelite or however you describe yourself, Judaism is the Faith that our ancestors returned to worship the Creator of the Universe.
The more our ancestors learned Torah, the more Torah they incorporated into their lives. Our forbearers grew in knowledge, and as they grew in knowledge the more they began to observe. We are a knowledgeable people. But it doesn’t seem that we have exercised the full extent of this knowledge. I don’t believe that we have learned to love each other, respect each other or trust each other. One-Hundred years later and there is no Israelite camp for our children, school, hospital, our home for our aging communities. We have not put together an infrastructure for our community. There is no full-time staff in place to serve the Israelite people. Why not? I believe that the issue is an inability to Trust each other. Israel is just not your synagogue, class, or camp, Israel is a people! How long before our leaders throughout this country and the world realize that Israel is a people! One People, One Aim, One G-D!
As I reflect on my travels throughout the world and examine the condition of African people in Africa, North America, and South America, I see our achievements, but I also see our shortcomings. This is true of African Americans, Africans, and yes Israelites. How do we move our trajectory forward so that we truly spring forward and pass from our current situation to a brighter future for our community? We were with a Pharaoh (Great House), in ancient times, and we came out of Egypt. The Hebrew word for Egypt, Mitzrayim, derives from the root word “Tzar” meaning “narrowness,” to the expanse of freedom-existential and national-gives the Passover story its eternal resonance.
Now is the time to leave Pharaoh (the Great House) and Egypt (Mitzrayim) (Narrowness) and come into our own. Get out of the house that doesn’t want you, the narrowness of our thinking that keeps us divided, and let us move into the expanse of our freedom. With this freedom we can build and we shall build our Peoplehood-One Hundred years later! Now is the time!
חג פסח כשר ושמח