Parshas Shemos: Moshe Teaches Us to Never Get Too Comfortable

At a protest in Miami, Florida, an Arab man attacks Jewish pro-Israel protesters - then turns his wrath on police

I find it’s best never to get too comfortable in whatever location I’m visiting.  What’s the point? Soon enough it will be time to move on.  I spent nearly a year in Sydney, Australia (during my pregnancy and shortly after Akiva’s birth), but I still never got all that comfortable.  I always knew I would have to move on eventually, and I was right.

It’s so tempting to want to feel “permanent,” but as Jews, we are all nomadic at heart, in some sense.  We’ve been on the move for so many generations that it’s hard to remember what really getting comfortable feels like.  Even Jews living in modern-day Israel can’t feel comfortable.  After all, at any moment a rocket could land on their house or, as in the case of the Jews who lived in Gaza, you could be forcibly removed from your home.  There is no place in the world where it is safe to be a Jew and get comfortable.

Oh, it’s tempting. Of course it is.  We have been lulled into such a false sense of security in much of the Western world.  In places like America and Australia, the governments and most of the citizens are so very accepting of Jews that they don’t even mind our complete assimilation (but we do – assimilation “kills” more Jews than the Holocaust, sadly).**  It’s easy to feel like we could get comfortable there.

But you never know how quickly things could change!  Moshe (Moses) was brought up in the house of Pharaoh. He was like one of the king’s adopted grandchildren. If anyone should have gotten comfortable, it’s him. I mean, he won the Egyptian adoption lottery!  Yet, Moshe never got comfortable.  His heart was always with the Jewish people.  He was raised in luxury, but he never for a moment stopped feeling the pain of his people who were enslaved outside of the palace walls.  And when he struck down an Egyptian, he did not even wait around to see what would happen. He just picked up and started running.  He didn’t stop to say, “Oh my, I had better go inside to pack up my jewels and gold and fancy linens.” He just left.

Arab children, raised in the US, dress up as terrorists and are educated that Israel is occupying even places like Syria and Lebanon. They are raised with hatred for the Jews and they are our next-door neighbors even in the USA.

We all have to live like this, with our bags perpetually packed. We cannot allow ourselves to get so comfortable that we cannot or do not move when we should. Imagine being in Germany in the 1930′s. In 1932 you buy a nice, big comfortable house.  In 1933 Hitler comes to power and establishes the first concentration camps.  Someone offers you a one-way ticket out of Germany. Do you close your eyes to the danger and say, “But I just bought this wonderful new home! I’m staying!”????  Of course in hindsight none of us want to admit we would have done that. But so many Jews in Europe did exactly that. “This is our home,” they cried – and then they died.  It’s a tragedy and one we all ought to avoid in our own lives and futures.

So don’t get too comfortable.  Just look at what is happening in Europe today – places that were once safe for Jews are now dangerous.  Trains are bombed and anti-Semitic attacks happen all the time.  Don’t feel safe just because you are in the US or Australia or anywhere else in the world.  When it is time to get up and move, be ready.  Because, like us, you may find yourself on the road one day.

Read more on Parshas Shemos: Remember Who Your Family Is! (And the Role of Women in Judaism)

**An edit from Rabbi Ben explaining the meaning of this statement more eloquently than I could:
“The saying “assimilation “kills” more Jews than the Holocaust,” simply means that more Jews are lost to assimilation than that were killed in the holocaust. Be the numbers right or wrong, I think it is a simple statement that says nothing more than, ‘Judaism is dying a slow death do to assimilation.’
For ‘halachic Judaism,’ to exist ‘halchicly Jewish women need to have babies.’ If a million Chinese study Talmud and keep Shabbat, halachic Judaism will not exist anymore.
‘Cultural assimilation,’ have been continuously used throughout history. Sometimes it is done tactfully, and at times it is forced. From the treatment of the aboriginal people in Australia, the Native American Indians in the United States, to going back thousands of years to ancient Rome and Greece, governments have, and continue to find ways to transform minority beliefs to that of the majority.
Jews in France practically disappeared in the nineteenth century because of assimilation. The Jews in France today are mostly of North African descent. This happened because of the openness of the French culture and Jews marrying out. 
Thus Judaism can still exists without Jews, as much as a movie can exist without anyone watching it. However, eventually, if no one watches the movie it will be forgotten. Jewish people without the practice of anything Jewish, would disappear.”