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Ariana Capptauber

On MLK Shabbat Create A Mindset of Freedom & Peace

Our inner worlds are formed by our outer world. This is true from our earliest days of life until our last. I witnessed this on a beach vacation recently; I was sitting by my one year old son as he played in the sand and I noticed him whispering “tshhh tshhh tshhh” absently. I wondered if the sound had meaning and then I realized: he was mimicking the sound and rhythm of the waves. Though he probably didn’t know what the waves were, he had already internalized them and was replicating them in his own speech. 

It struck me that this effect happens to most of us. What goes in must come out. Even as less impressionable adults, whatever we consume through our five senses, what we see, smell, hear, taste and feel, affects the way we behave. We cannot stop this unconscious bias, but we can curate our surroundings so as to cultivate the mentality we desire. 

For instance, the pursuit of freedom and justice relies upon a freedom mindset. On this Martin Luther King weekend, when we also begin reading the book of Exodus in synagogue, we can notice that both Moses and Dr. King were intentionally raised in environments that imbued them with a freedom mindset. They then encouraged freedom mindsets in others and built movements for redemption. 

As we will read this Shabbat, Moses was raised in a palace. When his mother Yocheved sought to save him from Pharaoh’s decree that all Israelite boys must be drowned, she unwittingly gifted him an un-slaved upbringing. With the help of God’s hand, baby Moses was brought to the princess of Egypt who adopted him and named him Moshe, as she said, ki min hamayim mishitihu, “because I pulled him from the water.” From that moment, Moses was defined as one pulled from slavery into another destiny. 

Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra, a medieval commentator, notes that God arranged this upbringing for Moses because those who were burdened by a slave mentality could not envision freedom, much less lead other people into it. Moses, on the other hand, had a “lightness in his soul” from his comfortable and well-educated upbringing, and thus was able to envision a world beyond Egypt. (Ibn Ezra on Ex. 2:3)

When Moses brought God’s message of impending delivery from Egypt to the Israelites, many asked, “who is this God? How can this be?” They did not believe in the possibility of freedom because they could not envision it; their mind’s-eye was shut by suffering. Even after witnessing the awesome miracles of the plagues, they were plagued with doubt. So long had they suffered that they were sure there was nothing but suffering and death in store from them. Only Moses, whose mind’s eye was less clouded by suffering, could build their faith and courage in the future. Without a leader modeling a freedom mindset, freedom could never be.

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was afforded a similar opportunity to cultivate a freedom mindset during his childhood. Raised in the Ebenezer Baptist Church, he spent his Sundays listening to his father, Reverend Martin Luther King Senior, preach messages of justice and nonviolence, of faith in God and in a better future. King’s mother, Alberta Williams, the daughter of another preacher, was also justice minded and civilly active. The two of them were active members of the NAACP and the Civic and Political League in Atlanta, alongside their work in the church. 

Raised in such surroundings, King knew where he came from and where he was going. He was rooted in the words of the prophets, to let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream, as Amos said. Or that according to the prophet Micah, God requires us only to do justice and to love goodness. Steeped in this setting, the young King learned to walk the walk of freedom and justice as soon as he learned to use his legs.

This shabbat, as we reflect on the legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, and begin reading the book of Exodus, we are also struck by another moment of impending freedom: that of the hostages that have been held captive for some 470 days. What is their mentality? How were they able to survive such unthinkable circumstances? Will they ever be able to regain an open heart, a sense of freedom? Or will psychological repercussions keep them imprisoned in their traumatic past?

And what about other Israelis? And what about all of us? Can we ever heal? After the terror of October 7th and the ensuing multi-front war, after the international bashing of Zionism and rising antisemitism, can we regain the confidence to envision a world of partnership and peace? Can we walk through the world as Jews, with open hearts and minds?

And what about Palestinians? What about those who have been evacuated from their homes for over a year, who have been living in horrific conditions, dying by the tens of thousands? When the fire has ceased, will they ever be able to envision a sky unmarred by fighter jets and plumes of smoke? Will they ever be able to envision a world of safety and freedom and lasting peace? Or will they assume that the world of this traumatic war is the only one available to them?

These questions that arrive with the (God willing) impending peace, are daunting. As frightening as it is to witness war, it is also frightening to watch the unfolding of an unstable peace, tensely wondering what will happen next. When the last hostage sets foot on Israeli soil, when the last bomb is dropped, will we breathe easily? Or will we still be locked in the mentality of war?

I fear that such a trauma is likely to haunt us for years, maybe decades. If we cannot heal from it, we may instead remain locked in a warfare mentality, suspicious, on alert, defensive, quick to attack. 

In the coming days and years, then, we must free ourselves from this mentality by immerse ourselves in the possibilities of peace. We must train our minds and thus our hands to respond like Aaron, who loved peace and pursued peace. We must rejuvenate ourselves by immersing in the waters of Torah, whose ways are ways of peace. 

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first chief rabbi of Israel before the founding of the state, wrote that, “the difference between a slave and a free person is not merely a matter of social position. We can find an enlightened slave whose spirit is free, and a free man with the mentality of a slave.” Rather, he said, “True freedom is that uplifted spirit by which the individual — as well as the nation as a whole — is inspired to remain faithful to his inner essence, to the spiritual attribute of the Divine image within him.”

As we wait with baited breath as watch as (God willing) peace unfolds, we must surround ourselves with teachers and teachings of peace just as surely as we have surrounded ourselves with news and images of war for the past 470 days. We must cultivate peace and freedom mindsets, so that the echo of peaceful teachings rings in our minds as clearly as the sound of the waves echoed in the mind of my one year old son. Only then will we be able to do justice and love goodness, like King and like Moses. Only then will we walk in the Torah’s ways of pleasantness and its paths of peace.

About the Author
Ariana Capptauber serves as the rabbi at Beth El Temple in Harrisburg, PA. She was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2020, where she also earned her Masters degree in Midrash. Rabbi Capptauber is passionate about social justice and also loves the arts and adventure. She lives in Garrisburg with her husband Baruch and their two young children.