The birthright of the Jew allows him or her to protest violence and wrong behavior wherever it may be found. For centuries we have been true to that mandate. We were among the first to actively protest conditions in communist Russia. We were among the few who openly rejected Apartheid in South Africa. We were in the vanguard of the Civil Rights movement in America. Our leaders marched with Dr. King. We died and suffered with Blacks in Alabama and Mississippi, in Georgia and in Illinois. We have been at the forefront of labor protests; we have lived by the motto that unless every man is free, no man is free.
We have survived every conceivable kind of punishment for our contrary, but often correct, views. We have been tortured and gassed, shot and hung; we have been put to death in the most horrific ways. Yet, we have never stopped protesting the evil in our midst.
Where did such a tradition begin? With Adam? He was part of the problem. He was the first to disobey, but for a wrong reason. With Cain? He was the first to murder to get his way. With Noah? He was the first to flee evil to save his own skin. With Lot? He decided to live quietly in an evil town and thus not get himself in trouble.
Abraham, the first Jew, was also the first to protest evil in the world. He stood up for the righteous people of Sodom, even at the risk of his own life. But there was still a bit of the pagan in him when he attempted to sacrifice his own son.
Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery, but Joseph rose above the actions of his brothers and created a plan to feed all the peoples of the known world who were in danger of death by starvation. He never protested evil, but he did do something about suffering.
Moses did protest evil. At first he was reticent to accept such a position until God forced him. Then he was fearless before Pharaoh, and time after time returned to condemn the evil ways that he was treating the Hebrew people. Moses' first act of protest was to kill an Egyptian slave master who had no compassion of the Hebrews he was to oversee. He continued protest all of his life. He protested the acts of the people in very forthright language when they were wrong.
He protested God's actions when he thought that God was wrong. In this sedra, God wants to destroy the Hebrew people, but his hand is held back by the arguments of Moses. Indeed, Moses not only taught us to protest, but also taught us to protest against God. Moses taught us that one must never fear to face an enemy, one must never fear to stand up against injustice. He taught us not only to be a moral people, but also to be a people that lived for justice in all that we do.
He commanded us to never be comfortable while others are suffering. Always strive, he taught, to face evil and conquer it.