Moses sees no one?
How could this be, when the Hebrew slave was right in front of him? Although Prince Moses is able to see the
injustice, he is unable,; it seems, to see his
fellow man. He wears the glasses of
privilege, which render another human being into an object – a vehicle, an
ornament, a cause, perhaps, but not a real person. The slave is invisible to Moses.
Our society works the same way. It is structured to make people in service
professions invisible. The housekeeper who
cleans the hotel room while the guest is out, and the busboy who clears a table
silently and without eye contact both learn to work unnoticed.
If we do not see them at work, neither do we see them in in
the rest of their lives. We do not see
how they soak their tired feet when they get home, or how empty their
refrigerator – and stomachs are – at the end of the month. We do not see the strain caused by the choice
between a child finishing her homework and turning off the light to save
electricity and money. We don’t see the
lucky break that never comes.
Temple Emanuel is an economically diverse community. Some of us eat in restaurants and some of us
work in them. Some of us trade stock and
some of us stock the shelves. Others of
us exist in both worlds. We do not know
each other’s economic reality.
It is incumbent upon us, as members of one community, as
Jewish families who sit and pray on the same benches, to notice each
other. Out in the busy world, we might
fail to see each other. In synagogue, we
recognize each other, appreciate each other, connect with each other. We see what Moses, in his first foray into
the world, could not: each person’s worth. Within the gates of the synagogue and,
hopefully, in the great wide world beyond, let us pause and look deeply into
each other’s eyes and there see the spark of the Divine that is our shared
humanity. Let us see each other.
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