{"id":507154,"date":"2010-04-02T12:01:03","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T16:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogs.rj.org,2010:\/rac\/\/2.2631"},"modified":"2010-04-02T12:08:42","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T16:08:42","slug":"from-slavery-to-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/507154","title":{"rendered":"From Slavery to Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three very interesting – and very different – stories in
\nmy inbox this morning remind me of the power of the story of the Israelites’
\njourney from slavery to freedom. It is, as we are taught, a story for all
\ntimes, and one that can inspire all peoples.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Washington Post <\/i>columnist Michael Gerson has a
    \npowerful column<\/a>
    \ntoday about modern-day slavery in Sudan, making it personal rather than
    \nabstract by putting names, faces, and heart-wrenching stories to paper. It is
    \nan urgent wake-up call to the terrible, tragic reality of human rights
    \nviolations in the wake of Sudan’s civil war. Too much to tell in one column,
    \nGerson adds some additional thoughts     here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    The report is a tragic reminder that for too many people
    \nyet today, slavery is not a metaphor for other types of “narrow places” in our
    \nlives; it is a grim reality.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. J.J. Goldberg picks up another piece of the Passover
    \nstory in his     report<\/a>
    \nin The Forward<\/i> on how Google founder Sergey Brin, who was raised in
    \nMoscow, became the driving force behind Google’s decision to stop filtering
    \nsearch results in China. Influenced by memories of his childhood in Soviet
    \nRussia – its totalitarian regime and rampant anti-Semitism – Brin was, from the
    \noutset, wary of doing business with China because of its “censorship
    \nrequirements and totalitarian culture,”     The
    \nWall Street Journal reports<\/span><\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n

    Brin’s actions here remind me of another piece of the
    \nPassover lesion, that we must act in every age as if we were, personally,
    \ndelivered from Egypt. Brin draws on his personal experience under an
    \noppressive regime to help, in his way, bring freedom to others.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. And finally, this<\/a> amazing Chava
    \nAlbertstein version (also below) of the Passover song Had Gadia. <\/i>Written in
    \n1989, it still feels all too relevant today.     Rabbi Marc Gopin<\/a> translates for us
    \n(although the pain and longing in Albertson’s voice need no translation):\n <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n

    On all nights, all other nights I asked only Four
    \nQuestions. <\/i>
    \n This night I have another question: <\/i>
    \n “How long will the cycle of violence continue?”<\/i>
    \n Chase and be chased, beat and be beaten, <\/i>
    \n When will… this madness end?<\/i>
    \n How have you changed, <\/i>
    \n How are you different?<\/p>\n

    I changed this year. <\/i>
    \nI was once a sheep and a tranquil kid
    \nToday I’m a tiger and a ravening <\/i>wolf
    \nI was once a dove and I was a deer.
    \nToday I don’t know who I am.<\/i>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    I hope your celebration of Passover is joyous,
    \nmeaningful, and rewarding.<\/p>\n

    <\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Three very interesting – and very different – stories in my inbox this morning remind me of the power of the story of the Israelites’ journey from slavery to freedom. It is, as we are taught, a story for all times, and one that can inspire all peoples. Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson has a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-507154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}