Dear friend,
My favorite Passover story is about the Israelites as they were leaving Egypt. In Exodus, the Israelites were described as Chamushim, which literally means “armed as they left.” Maybe they were armed with arrows or stones to throw, but remember, these people were leaving before their bread even had time to rise, so I can’t imagine they had time to prepare much in the way of weapons. A more likely translation seems like they were “armed with the spiritual power of God.”
At JewBelong, I often recoil from too much Hebrew because, well, frankly, my Hebrew isn’t great. Yours probably isn’t either. But stick with me for this story. That word Chamushim…the root is Chamesh, which means “five,” suggesting only one-fifth of the people crossed the Red Sea. But what the heck happened to the other four-fifths?!
One of the five groups (let’s call them Group One) stayed back. They were like, “Hey, look, slavery is not optimal, but at least I know what to expect. I get fish, I have a life. Yes, I’m a slave, but I am not ready to risk my life for that crazy Moses.” That group assimilated and became part of Egyptian society. There are probably people in Egypt today who descended from those Jews.
That leaves four groups that packed up their stuff in a mad dash and headed to the Red Sea.
Group Two; well, it was awful, but they were literally scared to death. Through their paralysis of fear, they flat out died.
Group Three got to the Red Sea and turned around and shouted, “Let’s fight!” Although this is kind of admirable, it turned out to be a bad decision because the Egyptians were a huge army, and Group Three was not. They fought bravely, but they lost and were slaughtered.
Group Four was very big on praying. One of them said, “Let’s cry out to God!” So they did. But the thing is, that is all they did. Just prayed and prayed. Even God was like, “Hey, why do you only cry out to me?” So, God asked Moses, “Why are they only crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward!” In other words, God was saying, “This is not a time for prayer. This is a time for action. I’ve been very clear, and now I need you to trust me and GO.”
Enter the star of the story, Nachshon. Nachshon Ben Aminadav. He was from the tribe of Judah. And he was the guy that basically said, “Okay, I hear you God, I’m going!” So he stepped into the water. He kept walking until the water reached his nose and then, the miracle came and the sea started to part. Moses saw what was happening with Nachshon, so he slammed his staff down and the sea split! Nachshon started crossing, and everyone else in Group Five said, “Hey! I don’t know who that guy is but he looks like a man of action! I’m going with him!” So, Group Five followed Nachshon and went through to safety. Party time!
So, what’s the lesson in this story? Sure, it’s all about Nachshon’s faith and courageous action. But more importantly…it’s about US!
Every single one of the 15 million Jews on this planet are descended from Nachshon and the rest of the people in Group Five! And yes, that includes all the people who have chosen to convert to Judaism; for all of you, probably even a little extra. WE are the ones who took action. It’s in our DNA to step into the sea even in the face of unspeakable challenges.
It’s worth noting that pieces of Groups One through Four of us are inside of us, too. Sure, sometimes we just want to assimilate, sometimes we are too afraid to take action, sometimes we want to fight when obviously we can’t win, and sometimes we pray when we should take action.
Now, maybe more than any of us have ever experienced, we have to remember that this is the time to act. To be Jewish and be proud! Speak out for justice. Don’t shy away in the face of rising antisemitism. Defend our brave brothers and sisters in Israel in the face of terrible hatred because if things get worse and we need to flee to Israel, they are the ones who are protecting it for all of us.
Is this hatred what we asked for? Of course not, but our ancestors didn’t ask to be slaves, nor did they ask for the Holocaust, nor did they ask for the horrors of October 7th. When you get scared, just remember, you are literally descended from those brave men and women of Group Five. Keep them in your heart and you will never feel alone.
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Happy Passover!
Love, Archie
