Isn’t It Time? Podcast

Toward Passover 5783/2023

Isn’t It Time for Rereading Exodus

Image descriptions for video provided below plus full transcript.

Podcast: Episodes with Transcripts

Rereading Exodus information and downloadable booklet, Isn’t It Time?

Isn’t It Time? video transcript

Every year in the Jewish calendar, in the annual Torah reading cycle and in the cycle of holidays, we find ourselves trapped in at least two ways

First, two groups of people are entangled in Mitzrayim, the Narrow Place of biblical Egypt. Everyone in the story, Yisraelite, Mitzrayim-ite and anyone else affected by the systems in place experiences the grinding of the millstone that is Mitzrayim.

The Exodus story narrates escape — a mixed multitude leaving the one Narrow Place — only to spend the next forty years in a wilderness, grumbling at leaders and one another, stumbling through uncertain terrain.

With each new year, we seem to find ourselves, in our current lives, mired again in the same old grumbling and stumbling of the Exodus narrative, believing ourselves free of the Narrow Place and yet still ground under and grinding with that millstone that is Mitzrayim.

To truly get all of us out from under, we need to ask some new questions of the Exodus narrative, look carefully at some of the systems grinding today and our part in them. Instead of aiming for a violent and relatively permanent parting, we must look at how multiple groups can together build more spacious, inclusive space. We must view escaping Pharaoh as an act that requires toppling our own privileges.

If we begin now, engaging the age-old Exodus story in new ways, we can inspire change where we are right now.

So, let’s get to it. Join me in the Rereading Exodus Along the Anacostia journey. Isn’t It Time?

Isn’t It Time?

Descriptions of images and text appearing on screen:

  1. Rereading4Liberation.com logo picture — multicolored, lightweight scarves
  2. Broken piece of matzah with text scrolling: “Genesis, Exodus….Deuteronomy; Genesis, Exodus… Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot.”
  3. Ripped chain-link fence with text: “Every year, the Exodus story finds us trapped in at least two ways.”
  4. “Two groups are entangled in Mitzrayim, the Narrow Place of biblical Egypt” over illustration of ancient pyramid-building laborers carrying heavy stones on their backs; an overseer with a whip behind them. from Book of Exodus (by Jim Padgett) from Distant Shores Publishing
  5. “Everyone in the story, Yisraelite, Mitzrayim-ite, and others affected by the systems in place, experiences grinding of the millstone that is Mitzrayim,” over abstract image of millstone inscribed “Mitzrayim” atop flour.
  6. “The Exodus story narrates escape — a mixed multitude leaving one Narrow Place…” over image of sand between walls of water, parted in storm (image: iforce via Pixabay)
  7. “Only to spend forty years in a wilderness, grumbling at leaders and one another, stumbling through uncertain terrain” over image of sand dunes (image: Falkenpost via Pixabay)
  8. “Once again in the Narrow Place. Again, or still, a crossing ahead” overlaid on matzah
  9. “Once again…” remains while image shifts to six sets of fingers pointing accusingly at one another
  10. Pointing image remains, and text shifts to “Believing ourselves free but still ground and grinding under that millstone” (image: Tumisu via Pixabay)
  11. Millstone graphic again with added text: “‘the millstone that is Mitzrayim — racism and inequality and militarism” and “To get all of us out from under we must ask new questions of the Exodus narrative”
  12. Millstone graphic remains with new text: “consider systems grinding today and our part in them.”
  13. Cover of Rereading Exodus along the Anacostia with added text: “Instead of aiming for a violent and relatively permanent parting…” Cover itself shows stylized map of DC’s rivers with title and “Some lessons of Cross River Dialogue, Charnice Milton Community Bookstore. Virginia Avniel Spatz.”
  14. “…we must explore how multiple groups can build spacious, inclusive communities” over same cover image
  15. “Escaping Pharaoh must be seen as an act of toppling our own privileges” over photo of radio station glass front, one (broken) window boarded up with plywood reading: “‘The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of racism’ — MLK”
  16. “Engaging the age-old Exodus story, and our own, to inspire change where we are right now.”
  17. Cover of Isn’t It Time? booklet shows that title over original cover and “Engaging….right now” (above). Added text reads: Join in. Rereading4Liberation.com
  18. Rereading4Liberation.com. Isn’t It Time? Rereading Exodus.

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