Parashat Bo (בֹּא) 5783, Unnecessary Deaths, and Equal Access to Health Care

        This week’s parashah is Bo (“Come!”), the 15th parashah overall, and third portion of Shemot/Exodus.  The last of the plagues, the first Pesach/Passover, and the Exit from Egypt are all in this week’s annual cycle of the portion for this week.

  Last year, we asked about Parashat Bo, and when Come really means Go,  from a linguistic and other points of view.   From an access to health care point of view, such a basic human right and whether everyone has actual access to that right shows the status of a society, and partly, how just or injust that society is.  This, in turn, shows how stable and prone to revolution or violence that society might be at a given moment in history, which is important for preventing violence, by checking inequality in various areas.

  The first pass-over is not what I would consider an example of justice, nor is it what I would want to hold up as an example of fairness, since the First Born who died were mostly, if at all, not implicated in the decisions and policy-making of that Pharaoh, even if some of those eldest children probably had a hand in upholding the unjust system, as overseers, inheritors, and heads of families.  It is, however, an excellent example of unequal distribution of resources, from information, to wealth, and an unhappy example of the consequences of injustice, that we can avoid in the future.  We really can Do Better.

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     Last week was the start of the book of Names/Exodus: Parashat Vaera 5783,  looking at the role of humility in public decision making and health care outcomes.

     While there are many ways to help increasing empathy,  Language Learning as a Fourth Tool for Empathy Building is both fascinating and practical.

     Empathy building is a crucial task, particularly in our contentious society today.  The task is tiring, and cannot be done all at once, but with careful planning, education, and greater cooperation between the generations, it can be done.

     We can really Do Better, and Project Do Better proposes a long term plan.

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