…Pesach, Shavuos and the journey between which is called Succoth which represents that long period of wandering – what Nelson Mandela calls The Long Walk to Freedom. Because we see freedom as a story set in time. I will give you an example. The essence of the story of the going out of Egypt is that God acts and intervenes…
…in all of literature about what Nelson Mandela called “the long walk to freedom.” Its message is that there is no shortcut to liberty. Numbers is not an easy book to read, nor is it an optimistic one. It is a sober warning set in the midst of a text – the Hebrew Bible – that remains the West’s master…
…sterner stuff, you might talk about the difficulties you will encounter on the way, what Nelson Mandela called “The Long Walk to Freedom“. Any one of those things would have been a great speech of a great leader. Moses did none of those things. Which made him a unique leader. Three times in those two chapters, he comes back again…
…that is another example of a story that in fact has been … Lord Sacks:… it’s had a particular impact on American history, but it also inspired liberation theologians in South America. And, to some extent, Nelson Mandela is echoing the phrase when he calls his autobiography The Long Walk to Freedom. I mean, you know, that’s — and Tabernacles to…
…to be a slave so that they can be active in fighting the cause of people who are oppressed. Tippett: And that is another example of a story that in fact has been … Lord Sacks: …it’s had a particular impact on American history, but it also inspired liberation theologians in South America. And, to some extent, Nelson Mandela is…
…the Book of Exodus, when Nelson Mandela entitled his autobiography The Long Walk to Freedom, each was adopting Israel’s story and making it their own. More than Plato’s Republic or Aristotle’s Politics, more than Rousseau’s The Social Contract or Marx’s Das Kapital, the Pesach story has been the West’s most influential sourcebook of liberty. “Since the Exodus,” said Heinrich Heine,…
…to be. When black Americans sang, ‘Let my people go,’ when South American liberation theologians in the 1960s based their work on the Hebrew Bible, when Nelson Mandela called his autobiography, The Long Walk to Freedom, each was adopting Israel’s story and making it their own. ‘Since the Exodus,’ said Heinrich Heine, ‘Freedom has always spoken with a Hebrew accent.’…
…understood the significance of the opening verse of Beshallach. Change takes time. Even God Himself does not force the pace. That is why He led the Israelites on a circuitous route, knowing that they could not face the full challenge of liberty immediately. Nelson Mandela called his autobiography, The Long Walk to Freedom. On that journey, there are no shortcuts….
…does he say to them? He might have spoken to them about liberty. He might have spoken to them about the destination that lay ahead. The “Eretz zavat chalav u’dvash,” the Land flowing with milk and honey. He might have spoken about the ordeal that faced them. What Nelson Mandela called “the long walk to freedom.” Instead, Moshe Rabbeinu did…
…child.[4] Moses’ lesson, thirty-three centuries old, is still compelling today. [1] Abraham Lincoln, “The Gettysburg Address” (Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Penn., Nov. 19, 1863). [2] Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (Back Bay Books, 1995). [3] Tamid 32a. [4] A statement attributed to Confucius. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR BO How did Jewish education ensure Jewish…