Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

Our Torah reading for this week includes the plague of darkness — “a darkness that can be touched”. (Exodus 10:21). What is “a darkness that can be touched”? The Seforno writes that God removed the natural darkness of the night and replaced it with the kind of darkness that cannot be expelled by the presence of light. Not even a lamp or a torch could penetrate this darkness, and therefore “a person could not see his fellow”. (Exodus 10:22). Here is a poem by Israeli poet Litel Mor (my translation) inspired by this passage:

                         Like the plague of darkness             In Egypt                      At once                     Total darkness                    It would have truly been possible           to feel darkness,                  to touch darkness, to see darkness,          to breath darkness, to smell darkness,        to lose ones mind from the abundant darkness.    So now I                     am with the light.

One cannot read this poem today without thinking of the darkness that Israel was plunged into on October 7, a darkness unlike any other in the State of Israel’s history. Not only the event itself but the worldwide responses to the event, the praise of Hamas from so many corners of the world, could drive one crazy. What kind of upside-down world do we live in, where millions around the world could cheer on mass murder, rape, kidnapping? A world where Israel, the victim of a genocidal terrorist organization, could be dragged in front of the International Court of Justice and be accused of genocide? “Where a person does not see the other or want to see him, there is darkness in the world,” writes the Ktav Sofer. When the legitimate right of Israel to defend herself is not seen; when the pain of Jews around the world is not “seen”, there is indeed darkness in the world.

Yet the poet refuses to allow herself to dwell in that darkness for long. She will not be pulled in to despair. She will live in the light. We are masters of our own destinies. We will chart our own course and choose light over darkness.