parsha bit: Va'eira

[cellio]

When God sent the plague of blood, it affected not just the Nile but all Egyptian water. Rabbi Avun ha-Levi said that if a Jew and an Egyptian sat together, drinking from the same jug, the Jew drank water while for the Egyptian it was blood. Even if the Egyptian had the Jew pour the water for him, it turned to blood in his hands. Only if the Egyptian paid money for the water did it remain water. (Exodus Rabbah 9:10)

I think this is a sad midrash in one way. If, in the midst of oppression and plagues, a Jew and an Egyptian were able to sit down together as peers (which would be pretty remarkable), wouldn't a better teaching be that for that Egyptian, the water stayed water? But perhaps my modern thinking informs this; such a thing would certainly have undermined some of the power of the plagues. The p'shat (plain reading) of the torah account does not seem to allow for innocent Egyptians, which troubles me. I think we're supposed to read it at the grand, national level, not at the level of individual participants. I have trouble doing that sometimes.

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, perhaps it is teaching us that even innocent members of a society bear some responsibility for the actions of their governments.

For example, I'm not saying that those of us who oppsed the war in Iraq are responsible for what happened. But this midrash teaches us to oppose such things publicly, to write our representatives and to tell them what we think. In short, to get involved.

What's that old saying? "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

[cellio]

This is a good and troubling point. Yes, we have to stand up and object when our representatives don't represent us. On the other hand, we don't know that no Egyptians did so, either.

I don't want to be held individually accountable for Bush's policies (which I have written my congresscritters about), but I recognize that the world can rightly hold the nation accountable.