I recently read a piece by Tali Puterman, the director of Racial Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Justice Organizing at Temple Israel in Boston. For Puterman, Juneteenth’s proximity to the Jewish holiday of Shavuot is thematically significant. Seven weeks after the exodus from slavery, Shavuot honors the transmission of Torah - all its laws and morals - at Mt. Sinai. Juneteenth also commemorates emancipation from slavery and the anticipation of full rights and recognition. And yet she shares these vignettes from her imagination, which also represent those watershed moments:
An impatient Israelite stands at Mount Sinai, waiting for the overdue arrival of Moses and the promise of a new way of life.
An enslaved person sighs with frustration. Years after the Emancipation Proclamation, the law is not enforced.
A modern Black American is angered that even now - hundreds of years after a promise of freedom - she experiences systemic racism in the only country her family has known for generations.
These three vignettes are separated by hundreds, if not thousands of years, and yet they are linked in experience. The ancient Israelites were newly freed from slavery, waiting for their new life at the base of Sinai with anticipation. And yet, what was taking so long? Where was the proof of their covenant with God? Was it all a dream? Had God abandoned them in the wilderness? Would God really continue to guarantee their well-being and prosperity?
Similarly, Juneteenth celebrates emancipation, but highlights the gap between the Emancipation Proclamation and when the law was implemented.
Cut forward to today, we know that Black people in America still await the realization of true freedom and a covenant with our country that ensures safety and prosperity for all. In many ways, we remain in the wilderness.
Puterman shares that Dr. Leah Ben-Ami inspired these thoughts: “Dr. Ben-Ami shared the significance of celebrating these holidays. She expressed that, due to living in a society that privileges certain historic narratives over others, it was not until later in life that she became aware of Juneteenth. She wondered how her enslaved ancestors heard the news of their freedom and compared it to the experience of the Israelites at Mount Sinai as they were waiting to receive the Torah.”
I think it is important to highlight Dr. Ben-Ami’s point that we live in a society that privileges certain historic narratives over others. It has been a long haul for Black Americans to have their story told - how our country was built on the backs of their ancestors. It has been a long haul, we have made progress, and we have more work to do.
Juneteenth reminds us, even mandates us, to tell the stories. It’s a crucial federal holiday for this reason. I knew nothing of Juneteenth as a child. As I look back on my knowledge of the Civil War and slavery, it is a woefully reductive story. But ask Noah and Asher and they can both give you an articulate, well-informed primer on Juneteenth, including the fact that there was a gap between the Emancipation Proclamation and when enslaved people knew their status had changed or could do anything about it. They will also tell you that the end of slavery was not the end of their struggle.
They know from me and Mark, and they know from school, that racism still pervades our society. We make a concerted effort in our home to teach about white privilege and what they can do to be part of restorative solutions. We also teach them about anti-semitism and the ways it is similar to and different from racism.
Is it easy to have these conversations with an 11 and 8 year old? No.
Is it taking too long for the dream to become reality? Yes.
And despite the discomfort and frustration, each generation is obligated to listen to the stories they’ve been told, dig up the ones that weren’t shared, and pass forward as much Torah as they can to bring us closer to the dream God has for us.
As Rabbi Tarfon famously said: “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.” Translated literally: you are NOT FREE to neglect the work of justice. We abolish slavery because the only chain that binds us is the moral connection between us and the rest of God’s creation. You are free to do everything except ignore your moral responsibilities to others.
Also, did you know there’s more attached to Rabbi Tarfon’s famous saying? The quote is much longer than “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.”
It continues…first with, “If you have studied much Torah, you shall be given much reward.” I interpret this as, “the more we discover our history and our values, the more we will thrive as a society.”
Then: “Faithful is your employer to pay you the reward of your labor…” Our God does not enslave us, our God sets us free and compensates us for our hard work!
And then concludes: “...And know that the reward given to the righteous is in the age to come.” That is, true freedom may still be ahead of us, but we need not wait quietly for it to come.
“It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it; If you have studied much Torah, you shall be given much reward. Faithful is your employer to pay you the reward of your labor; And know that the reward given to the righteous is in the age to come.”
L’dor vador, from generation to generation, indeed.
