Parsha Shemot — Leadership. Slavery, Colonialism, Economic imbalance

With all the talk of Climate Change, Poverty we need to have a closer look at the history of mankind and the global challenges of today.

שמות א׃יד

Exodus 1:14

וימררו את־חייהם בעבדה קשה בחמר ובלבנים ובכל־עבדה בשדה את כל־עבדתם אשר־עבדו בהם בפרך׃

And they made their lives bitter with hard slavery, in mortar, and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field; all their service, which they made them serve, was with rigor.

I heard a podcast from Rabbi Sacks z’l, and he was asked if he ever had “a crisis of Faith’). He immediately answered yes. I have had many crises of faith in Man. Indeed, when we look at history this is so true.

Let’s look more at Slavery and its counterpart Colonialism.

Quoting Stephen Fern from Ark 2030 https://ark2030.org/ on LinkedIn “A comment on one of my posts this morning suggested that undeveloped countries had brought the climate crisis on themselves through uncontrolled population growth. Hmmm ….

Maybe taking a look at the history books would tell a different story. Entire continents were pillaged by the ‘empire builders in Europe. Britain, France, Holland, Spain, and Portugal led the way.

The word ‘commonwealth’ was perhaps the greatest misnomer in history as we plundered, raped, and pillaged our way around the world. There was no ‘common’ about it. Families across Europe still live lives of unimaginable privilege and luxury based upon their forefathers taking whatever lay before them. Even humans were treated as a commodity to be traded and exploited.

It is unarguable that colonialism delivered some positive features of ‘organised society’ around the world — not least a sense of law and order from structured government. but at what cost?

Had we truly ‘shared’ the wealth then perhaps these ‘undeveloped’ countries wouldn’t be undeveloped anymore. We would have invested in education, healthcare, and economic sustainability.

The Ark mission will help to redress this imbalance on an epic scale, reversing 200 years of destruction in 10 years. Why don’t you join us? The developing world are the victims of the climate crisis and not the cause of it”

Indeed, even today there is Forced labour, modern slavery, and human trafficking

At any given time in 2016, an estimated 40.3 million people are in modern slavery, including 24.9 million in forced labour and 15.4 million in forced marriage.

It means there are 5.4 victims of modern slavery for every 1,000 people in the world.

1 in 4 victims of modern slavery are children.

Out of the 24.9 million people trapped in forced labour, 16 million people are exploited in the private sector such as domestic work, construction, or agriculture; 4.8 million persons in forced sexual exploitation, and 4 million persons in forced labour imposed by state authorities.

Women and girls are disproportionately affected by forced labour, accounting for 99% of victims in the commercial sex industry, and 58% in other sectors

https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/lang--en/index.htm

Indeed, The UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires organisations with an annual turnover of at least £36m to make a public statement on steps they are taking to identify and prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains.

https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/

This brings us to world efforts to combat climate change, world poverty, and embrace ESG.

Especially, I want to focus on Gaps.

The above images are just illustrations of the problem today. Without going into the extreme examples of Poverty and what can be done about this, I want to write a few words about the average Joe or Jill and especially the younger generation.

The minimum is wage is not a living wage, especially in today’s world. Approximately 21 percent of Israelis were found to be living under the poverty line — more than in countries such as Mexico, Turkey, and Chile. The OECD average is a poverty rate of 11 percent. The ratio of House Prices to Income is rising making owning a House an impossibility. We are burdened by direct and indirect taxes, and consistently struggling to not only balance our income and costs but also our work-home balance and lifestyle.

We then had Covid19. Covid19 taught us things are temporary and we should take anything for granted. It showed us the potential of a more spiritual, family-centric lifestyle. How many of us spend too many hours of the day making a living? and not enough on meaningful activities.

So, while we strive to make a change on the personal level, there is no need for a change in global leadership.

The Torah readings of Exodus deals with Freedom and Leadership. The solution to the problems of today’s requires leadership. What kind of leaders do we need to make the world a better place?

Let’s, see the following words of wisdom by Reb Shlomo Carlebach on Parsha Shemot

SEARCHING FOR A LEADER

And Moshe was shepherding the sheep of Yitro…(Shemot 3:1)

Imagine if today we were looking for somebody to save the world. What kind of person what do we look for? We would want someone who looks very intelligent and who is handsome and a good speaker. A real polished personality.

But when G-d looks for a leader, this is not what He is looking for. When G-d wanted to find someone to take the Jews out of Egypt, He was looking for something else.

Do you know why Moshe was chosen?

The Midrash says (Sh’mos Rabbah 2:2) that says that Moshe was a shepherd. His father-in-law lived on Mount Sinai, and he used to take his father-in-law’s sheep out on the mountain to graze. One day a little sheep ran off. Moshe Rabbeinu started running after the sheep, calling it all kinds of sweet names and saying, “Please come back, please come back.”

The sheep ran all the way up to the top of Mount Sinai. It found a tiny little lake and stopped to drink, and Moshe found it there. He waited until it finished drinking. He then took the sheep, put it over his shoulders, and he said to the sheep, “You poor little thing. You must be so tired after all that running.”

Then Moshe looked fondly at the sheep and said, “My sweetest sheep, I wish we could talk to each other.”

At that moment, G-d said to the angels, “If Moshe takes such good care of sheep, can you imagine how well he will take care of My children?”

And that was the moment that G-d appeared to Moshe Rabbeinu at the burning bush.

I bless you and me that we should always talk to each other and know that we are G-d’s children.

Good Shabbos!