אני קושית יפה/I’m a Cute Black Girl Pg 70

This week the Torah portion that was studied was Exodus. Just read my Rabbi’s Dvar Torah and it spoke to me. Kinda weird how whenever I make the time to study the Torah the portion that I read speaks to me and gets the cogwheels in my head spinning.

Every time I read a story from the Torah; I am reminded how history continually repeats itself.

There are still slaves in the continent and across the globe today.

Every day someone is immigrating to a brighter land for better opportunities.

This week we begin a new book of Torah – Sh’mot, Exodus. We all know the story that begins here – as the family of Jacob and Joseph that comes down to Egypt grows into a nation of familiar tribes who quickly draw the fear of the local authorities because of their size, and perhaps because of their differences, and they become a persecuted and enslaved people. But beyond the narrative of the Exodus, is the theme of exodus itself. What does it mean to leave a place? An exodus is not just a general or short-term leaving. It usually means a complete departure; an emigration – usually by a group of people rather than an individual. An exodus also implies an entry of some kind, on the other side of things.

A coming into; An immigration. As Jews we have experienced many exoduses and many new beginnings. Sometimes voluntary, other times forced. Today, as a people, we don’t physically migrate together as we once did. However, there may still be spiritual goings out and comings in that we experience together. As we shift into a new secular year and into a new book of Torah, we can question ourselves as individuals and as a community – what do we need to collectively move away from? What do we need to leave behind? And what destinations to we need to look toward? As a community we are continuing the work of deepening the ways in which we are truly welcoming and inclusive and accepting of all kinds of diversity. We know that there are still outdated patterns of thinking and behavior that, as a community, we need to make an Exodus from, as we continue to move closer and closer to a Promised Land – a version of ourselves that is promised but not yet achieved. In 2023, and in this new cycle of Torah reading, may we find ourselves drawing ever closer to the best that we can be. Moving together as one community – going out from that which no longer serves us and coming into our full potential.
Kein Yehi Ratzon. 

I need to move away from the things that hold me back.  It is time that I really sit down and acknowledge what I want from my life and be stern with myself and everything that fills my life and decide what helps me get closer to that goal and what holds me back and then I need to let go of what holds me back.

I need to reach my full potential and I know that isn’t the way I have been living my life. Last year was a great kick start and I cannot let myself slip back into the hole I have been in for the past decade or so.