Black and Jewish

Whaddown (a Chicago coloquilism for what’s up) Y’all,

I have always identified as a believer in the Jewish G-D, but not thinking I was able to call myself a Jew (I can tell you that story later). I was thinking, what if my Jewish friends who consider the scripture to be theoretical, do so, because they have not personally experienced the type of slavery and generational repercussions described in the text. This led me to the thought that American Descendants of Slavery should pay special attention to the text, as it completely describes a life of struggle and subjugation by not following G-D. If you are reading this and think that Jews look a certain way or have only looked a certain way, remember that color complex is a form of racism created to empower white supremacy by way of Manifest Destiny. My thoughts here are inspired by the Torah portion this week. (Deuteronomy 7:12–8:10).

I remember my first time in the synogague, we had gone on the advice of our instructor for our Intro to Judaism class. When we got there for Erev Shabbat service, we grabbed a prayer book and proceded into the sanctuary. I had been reading these prayers at home for about six months and knew how long they were. People stood up for the prayer, and boom, all of a sudden they were singing and the songs had soul to them. I immediately whispered to my wife, “ Black people would love this!” Bruh, when I’m saying every prayer, I mean EVERY prayer! The Psalms and prayers hit different when you hear them being sung in Hebrew. (Just go look up Sh’ma Y’Israel). I knew at that moment, why I had always been tied so deeply to the scripture. It was in that moment, that my “Black Church” upbringing praising G-D through music and seeing how use the scripture properly intersected.

As it pertains to my friends who are and are not Jewish who look at the text as theory and not reality. I would implore you to look at the current state of the country and think about applying a biblically contextual lens to your approach to social justice and national reform. Doing this will allow you to see the tangible effects of captivity, as they pertain to the generational effects on those families that were held captive. For those that have access to historical stories of survival of the Holocaust, you can hear in those stories the same, hope and longing for G-D who saved the people from Egypt, to save their souls. Praying at night while their captors sleep soundly in inequity. There is strength in leaning on G-D. When you can breathe that in it hits different.

As we navigate our next tomorrows as Americans, we must understand that as of 2019 approximately 68% of all of us identified ourselves as believers in the G-D of Abraham. What happens if we all live according to the word of THAT G-D? When we ensure fairness for everybody according to the word? How will that feel? I love y’all and there is nothing y’all can do about it!

Sean