Juneteenth: Day of Dreams
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
June 19, 2020
The Jewish calendar is different from all other calendars. “How is it different?” you ask. Well, to begin with, our days don’t start when we get up, but rather on the evening before, at sunset. The reason usually given is based on the story of Creation, where we read, “And it was evening and it was morning, first day… second day…” and so on.
And that’s why it’s on Friday evenings that we have a special service to welcome the Sabbath; that is why the Passover Seder is held on the evening preceding the first day of the holiday, and why the Yom Kippur fast begins not on the morning of the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, but at sunset the evening before.
But there is yet another purpose for this practice, a psychological explanation with deep meaning. Twilight, the onset of darkness, has spiritual as well as emotional effect on us, often bringing with it feelings of sadness and gloom, and even the neurological phenomenon commonly known as sundowning.
Illuminating the darkness with candles and cheer helps in warding off sadness and dejection. The night, instead of being cause for fear and anxiety, thus becomes a time of hopeful anticipation.
Much has been written in Midrash and rabbinic commentaries about the phrase “And it came to pass at midnight” (וַיְהִי בַּחֲצִי הַלַּיְלָה, Exodus 12:29), the time when the Angel of Death came to deliver upon Pharaoh and all Egypt that final, terrible, tenth plague, the Death of the Firstborn. It was at that fearful moment—not an exact hour, but rather better understood as that most dismal and darkest portion of the night—that the Redemption of the Israelite People began.
Finding optimism while in the throes of despair is no easy feat. It takes vision and courage. It takes all our strength to overcome doubt and fear. It requires that we crack open that shell of Faith, deeply buried inside us, and within which Hope is encased.
We are living through challenging times today. The first wave of the COVID pandemic shows no signs of abating, and there’s already fear of a second wave come this fall and winter. The economy is in a shambles, and our confidence in the country’s leadership is quickly vanishing. Civil unrest is sweeping through our cities, the result of centuries of brutality and injustice directed against African Americans and other people of color, and scenes of savage violence, vandalism and cruelty are unfolding before our eyes daily. How easy it would be to give in to the darkness, to become discouraged, or else to join the surge of fury and rage.
And yet, in the midst of all this change and convolution, we are given a sign, a candle in the dark as it were: Juneteenth.
Juneteenth—the name given this day, the 19th of June—commemorates the abolition of slavery in America, and as such it’s a day that needs to be observed not only by African Americans, but also by all Americans. For slavery, while causing immense suffering on People of Color, has left a deep stain of shame and guilt on the rest of us, who have either taken advantage of, or benefitted from, this terrible injustice that was inflicted on millions of human beings.
The past three weeks have been transformative for all of us. It isn’t only the rioting, the marches and the demonstrations that we have been watching or participating in. It’s the eye-witness stories of racism and bigotry that we’ve been reading and hearing; the testimonies of indignities and humiliations; the cries of anguish that few of us paid heed to. Suddenly we see new meanings in old, degrading stereotypes that have been around for ages: Aunt Jemimah; Mammy; blackface.
The reawakening of conscience is no simple matter. Some claim ignorance, or else deny harboring racism. For many of us however, the vital question is no longer “What have we done,” but rather, “Have we done enough?”
And that’s why this year, Juneteenth is such an important day, to be observed not only by those who benefitted most from it—African Americans—but also by the rest of us, for whom this day represents our own awakening.
June 19, 1865 was the day on which the citizens of Galveston, Texas, first heard the news of the Emancipation of slaves, two and a half years after President Lincoln proclaimed it in Washington, D.C. On this day, Major General Gordon Granger of the Union Army issued General Order Number 3, announcing the end of the Civil War, and with it also the end of slavery in the United States.
But though slavery was abolished, the stated goal of this order, “Absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves,”[1] has yet to be reached. Slavery may have been abolished, but racism in America is far from gone.
In the Torah, it took the Israelites 40 years after the beginning of Redemption on that fateful midnight in Egypt to reach the Promised Land. During that period of time, there were many times when the people lost hope, when they rioted and rebelled. Some wanted to return to those terrible days of slavery, while others expressed even more drastic ideas on how to reach the shores of safety. In our own day and time, we find ourselves on a similar meandering path forward. And like our ancient ancestors, we have a long way to go.
And that’s why we have Juneteenth, a day that must become a national holiday—and is actually already on track to becoming that, with all our support. We need this holiday not only to help us remember where we came from, but also where we are going. Juneteenth not only represents the end of slavery, but is also a road sign, pointing out and illuminating the direction we must follow in order to achieve the goal we set for ourselves: liberty, equality and justice for all.
May the profound purpose of Juneteenth never be lost on us. May it help us celebrate the potential of every human being, regardless of race, creed, age or gender. Let it always remind us not only of the injustices of the past, but also of the work that yet needs to be done as we reach towards our dreams of a more meaningful and just tomorrow.
© 2020 by Boaz Heilman
[1] Major General Gordon Granger’s General Order Number 3, History of Juneteenth. Juneteenth.com (accessed June 18, 2020).
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