ICNY’s Racial Justice Organizing Fellow
Minister Onleilove Chika Alston
Passover 2021:
The God Who Sees and Knows
By Minister Onleilove Chika Alston
As the Interfaith Center of New York’s Racial Justice Advocacy Fellow, I am guided and inspired in my work for racial justice by my own faith as a Hebrew and a follower of Yahshua. Many who are Torah observant are currently celebrating the holiday of Passover, and I would like to share with my fellow New Yorkers how this holiday inspires me to work for justice.
Growing up as an African American in Brooklyn, I first learned about the Exodus story by learning about the Civil Rights Movement. Although I was not raised in a religious home, I learned from a young age that God cares about oppression and frees those held in bondage. This knowledge has comforted and inspired me during this past year of crises – not only due to the COVID pandemic, but also due to the rise in hate crimes, and our collective reckoning with structural racism. During crises like these, it is through my relationship with the divine that I am able to face the reality of our shared circumstances – not ignoring the truth of what is happening around me, but trusting that I serve HaShem who comforts, heals, and gives justice.
In rereading the Book of Exodus during prayer to prepare for Passover, verse 25 of Exodus 2 struck me, because in this verse we read that God SAW the people of Israel and God KNEW. We do not serve a God who slumbers or fails to see the real pain we are in as a people.
Exodus 2:23-25 states:
During those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel – and God knew.
Exodus 2:25 is not the first time we learn of a God who sees. This verse harkens back to the Book of Genesis when a pregnant Egyptian servant girl is stranded in the wilderness and then miraculously saved. Hagar, the Egyptian mother of Ishmael, is the first person recorded in scripture as naming God when she names Him El Roi: The God who Sees Me.
In Genesis 16:7-13 we read:
The angel of God found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. Then the angel of Yah told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” The angel of Yah also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for God has heard of your misery. . . . She gave this name to God who spoke to her: “You are the Elohim who sees me (El Roi),” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”
When something is repeated in scripture, it is because we really need to pay attention and internalize it. In Genesis 16:11, we read that God heard the misery of the Egyptian Hagar, and in 16:13 we are told that God is The One who sees – both through the spiritual experience of a marginalized Egyptian servant girl. In Exodus 2, the children of Israel are now an enslaved minority in Egypt, and in verses 24-25 we are told again that God hears the cries of those being oppressed, and sees the suffering of His people.
To me, this drives home the point that HaShem SEES and HEARS the oppression that occurs throughout the earth. The ancient Hebrew people’s first major observance or feast day is a day to remember and mark their liberation from slavery. Justice and liberation are extremely important to The Holy One, and He does not ignore anyone’s oppression or suffering. As Yahshua quoted from the Prophet Isaiah at the start of his earthly ministry: “The Spirit of Yah is upon me to preach good news to the poor or oppressed.” (Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1)
Regardless of our religious or secular beliefs, I think we can all learn a great deal from these Bible passages. If you or your community are in pain, oppression, and bondage, let the holiday of Passover remind you that God sees your suffering and wants to liberate you. God sees and knows about unequal access to healthcare during the COVID pandemic. God sees and knows about police brutality. God sees and knows about hate crimes against our houses of faith, places of work, and diverse communities. God sees all those mourning the loss of loved ones over the past year. God sees you. God sees us. God sees our city.
The Torah was given so the newly freed Hebrew people could learn how to live in the liberation and justice of the God who HEARS and SEES the oppressed throughout the earth. God’s commandment to observe the Sabbath and holidays are reminders of this freedom – just imagine being a newly freed slave and being told you had one day each week of absolutely no work!
This Passover, I encourage all New Yorkers to examine their own faith traditions and find texts, traditions, and rituals that can inspire them to work for justice. God liberates us so we can comfort and liberate others, and right now New York needs people who can work together for justice rooted in faith.
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To learn more about African and African and African-American Hebrew understandings of Passover, I invite you to visit these links:
50th Anniversary of The Israeli Black Panther Haggadah
Abayudaya Ugandan Jewish Interactive Haggadah
and my own book, Prophetic Whirlwind: Uncovering The Black Biblical Destiny