I've always maintained that Genesis, or Bereishit as we call it in Jewish circles, is my 'favorite' book of the Torah's five. Why? Because I like the personal-ness of the narratives, the focus on intra-familial relations, the clear lessons for banding together and lifting one another up from strength to strength. During my years as a US Air Force Chaplain, I always found these narratives very useful in discharging one of my biggest - in terms of time spent on it - duties: person-to-person counseling.
But when we transition to the book of Exodus, Shemot, at this approximate time of the year, there is an important lesson inherent in this very shift. With the opening of Shemot, the focus has changed from that of more personal relations, conflict and accommodation, to that of a great epic of a people. The patriarchal family has become the People Israel, and the challenges that they face in the book of Exodus will ultimately shape the destiny of this people and through them, the world.
Most years when I am propounding this message, I am thinking about the passing of the Christmas/Chanukah/New Year's holiday season and getting on with 'normal' life in its aftermath. As a chaplain, I was always sensitive to this shift. During the holiday season, many of us focus on the cheer and festivities of the season. Sometimes it feels forced. Despite underlying conflicts and issues, many folks try to force themselves to be merry because everybody else is, and they don't want to think they're the only ones not feeling that way. Of course, people are thus very likely to 'crash and burn' once the imperative to maintain the fiction is past. Despite the profound message of Christmas for those of the Christian faith, and certainly Chanukah for Jews, the holiday season often becomes 'all about me' - my enjoyment and celebration. I therefore see in the shift to Exodus at this time of year, a lesson for life: at some point, one must stop thinking only of oneself and expand one's perspective to a larger slice of the world around us. The great sage Hillel taught us this when he declared as recorded in Mishnah Avot: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I'm only for myself, who am I?"
This year as we make the shift to Exodus, we inaugurate the presidency of Donald Trump. Much has been made of the grief of those who supported the candidacy of his opponent, Hillary Clinton, whom the commentariat all saw as a shoe-in to win the election. Well, obviously that isn't how things worked out. The Electoral College, which America's founders set up as a way to ensure that the broadest slice of the country would determine the country's leader, elevated the one who won the most states rather than the one who won the most votes. This is the fifth time in our nation's history, that this has happened.
Of course those who were pulling for Hillary are deeply disappointed, and of course they are prone to have an extra regret because she amassed more popular votes. Personally, I was backing Trump, but I have been disappointed by election results in the past. We all have.
I would say, as I contemplate the Jewish world's shift from Genesis to Exodus and therefore from a personal narrative to something broader and more earth-changing as opposed to life-changing, that it's time for those still mourning the election of Donald Trump to swallow hard and move on. It's not always about you, and your own preferences. If I were a Democrat, I would be listening to thoughtful Democrats like Bryan Dean Wright and Congressman Tim Ryan, who are asking their fellow Democrats to look deep into themselves and their party, accept responsibility for losing the election, and work to return their party to the core values that gave it ascendancy for half a century. Actually, as a Republican I am listening to them also...I certainly don't want my party's leaders getting hubris and forgetting why the voters have given them a mandate to change and reform. At some point, the personal narrative must yield to the broader perspective. Let's use the beginning of the new administration, as an impetus to do just that.
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