The Torah recounts that Moses "came to Horeb, the mountain of God. An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire out of a bush. He gazed, and there was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed."
How odd -- a bush ablaze, yet the flame doesn't destroy the bush! Sh'mot Rabbah, an ancient midrash, remarks that "just as the bush burns with fire but is never consumed, so Egypt will never destroy Israel." A bush that is constantly under attack, yet which thrives nonetheless -- an unimpressive plant, merely a bush, that became the preeminent symbol for our people throughout our long and remarkable history. And what an apt symbol it is.
We are, like the bush, very small. One out of every four people on the globe is Chinese. The Christian and Moslem populations constitute half of humanity. And Jews are a mere 12 million -- less than one three-hundredth of the world's people. A tiny people, we have suffered the attacks of every major Western and Middle Eastern power; Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs and the nations of Europe. All have taken their turn oppressing, expelling, or murdering Jews.
Yet, like the burning bush, we were not consumed. Instead, we continued doing what we Jews have always done; we continued to implement our sacred covenant with God, working to make the world more ethical, more compassionate, and more Godly.
Despite our lack of numbers, our relative poverty and our powerlessness, we have cast a healing beam of light on the rest of humanity. Our articulation of ethics -- embodied in the Ten Commandments and in the Holiness Code of Leviticus -- are common knowledge throughout the world.
The Jewish idea of 'tikkun olam' -- repairing the world -- inspires countless numbers of people, Gentile no less than Jew, to spend their lives giving to others of their time, their energy and their resources. We have, through our daughter religions of Christianity and Islam, spread the message that God is passionate about justice on a social level, and forgiving and loving to individuals. The notions that all are "created equal" and "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights" which undergird democratic theory springs out of our Torah, with its insistence that all are made in the Divine image.
The bush is still burning, still giving off light. In our generation, we have been blessed to witness the revival of our ancient language (Hebrew) in our ancient land (Israel). Not only a light to ourselves, we shine our light outward too -- only five nations are sending aid to Soviet Armenia, yet one of them is the State of Israel.
The lesson of the burning bush is a lesson about the shining light of being Jewish. Rooted in its own soil, illumined by the burning presence of God, the humble little thornbush became the catalyst for the liberation of Egypt's slaves. We, the people of the burning bush, if we cherish our ancient heritage and live its values, can do so too.
Shabbat Shalom.