There’s a joke about the rabbi who at
the end of his career gets up and says, “you all either know what I’m going to
say, don’t care what I’m going to say, or think you could say it better, so I’m
just going to skip it. Shanah Tovah.” And then there’s the sermon that at least at
some point every rabbi must consider giving (and hopefully not give) saying
what you really think of everyone and everything.
I’m not doing the first, and I hope
I’m not quite doing the second. But I do
feel today will be a little bit of a risk, and so stay with me. Today I’m addressing climate change,
antisemitism, guns, drugs and politics… Yes, I think that’s everything. And how Judaism suggests you might be wrong
in what you think about all of them. Judaism’s
answers aren’t at least primarily, and I truly believe this, the types of
things we so often here. The answers
aren’t about tikkun olam or the coming of the messiah. Jewish concepts to be sure, just not the main
ones, the proper ones, for considering such weighty world issues.
For not only are those the wrong “first
concepts,” but in laboring under the notion they are, we do damage to Judaism
and to religion, and worst, to real living people - making their lives worse
and not better because of our errors.
Because, and I stake my reputation on
this --- if religion, if God, is positioned as being the solution to some issue
and then doesn’t address that issue – well what good is it? And if, as I deeply believe, there are issues
in your life and in the world that are not being addressed – issues religion could
help with, but is failing to do so, even when the pain and emptiness of those
in need is profoundly apparent – then we are radically failing to meet
people where they are!
Judaism’s answers to all these
dilemmas are the same. And they can be
summed up as Torah, Avodah, and Gemilut Chasadim – the
three things we are taught upon which the world stands. Torah here means Jewish thinking and
belief and striving to flesh out and fill in how the teachings of our ancient
path guide us today. Avodah is
practice of Jewish rituals and observance in our lives. And I’ll be a heretic and say not necessarily
even in a halachic way but in a “full” way.
That is to say – Jewish customs and practices imbue one’s daily
life. Maybe inconsistently and
incoherently, but fill it up, nonetheless.
And finally, Gemilut Chasadim
– means “acts of lovingkindness” but that kind of language is too malleable to wrong
impressions. Judaism’s concern has
always been anchored in what the individual can do for another individual. And what the community can do within its
reach. That’s not to say funds didn’t
exist even in ancient times to ransom captives carried over the sea by pirates,
for such things were known and did exist, but unlike how tikkun olam is
often used as a Jewish call to save all the world, the tradition is actually very thin on setting
that as a goal, while it is brimming with examples and calls to do gemilut
chasadim, and I think there is a reason why.
Because while it is a call to help
those in our own group, those like us, to be sure, it is even more the
call to see the person across from us, even our enemy who we despise, as still
being a human being who deserves a very basic level of respect. And what is that basic amount of
respect? That if we saw they were in
need of help with something difficult that we would help them! That we must help them! Despite how different, how repulsive they
might be to us – we would help them lift their burden. Could you do that today? Could you help the pro-choice person? The Trump supporter? The gun-owner? The progressive, the conservative? Now the truly “evil” person – for there are
such in the world, while we are called upon to fight evil, even here, we
mustn’t relish, we mustn’t delight, in defeating or even when necessary,
destroying the evil. But all too often
in our lives – our “enemies” aren’t “evil” they are people we don’t like, and
that is who I address your attention to.
“Healing the world” is noble to be
sure. But as used today, it is not often
presented as including helping the despicable, the forgotten - but gemilut
chasadim is, and that is why I encourage its consideration today.
So far, you may not disagree much
with me. You might be thinking, yeah, those
things are all important. But I hope you
will have questions, disagreement, argument, with my suggestion that they are
the answers to all of our current contemporary issues. Let me now spend some time saying why.
Let’s jump right in with climate
change. Judaism’s feelings on climate
change are old. Because even before
people could cause climate change, the story in the Torah of Noah’s Ark is a
warning from the very beginning that our ancient ancestors knew people would
ruin the environment around them, would, through their violence, through
their very nature, bring about the destruction of the world:
קֵ֤ץ כָּל־בָּשָׂר֙ בָּ֣א לְפָנַ֔י כִּֽי־מָלְאָ֥ה הָאָ֛רֶץ חָמָ֖ס מִפְּנֵיהֶ֑ם
“The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through humanity.” (Gen. 6:13)
While that is the key for the rest,
that’s not it about climate change. Because
climate change is old, too. And I mean anthropogenic
climate change – climate change caused by people – has been around for hundreds
and hundreds of years.
And in response to even those
changes, we can see in the record of Judaism over the history of anthropogenic
climate change, going back as far as 700 years ago, that Judaism’s original
message about human violence has remained at the core of what it teaches to us
today.
What do I mean? There is a rather convincing set of arguments
that the world experienced what we call the Little Ice Age, a time of cooling
around, back in the Middle Ages, in part due to the massive loss of population
caused by the Black Death, which itself came about as a result of increased human
populations their interactions and density of settlements. The world’s population decreased from around
say 500 million to around 300 million.
Around 100 to 200 million people died in the course of the Plague’s
major outbreak between 1347 and 1351!
Can you imagine?! As many as a
fifth of people alive were killed. It
must have felt like the end of world - because it was.
The result was the reforestation of
great swaths of previously cleared land allowing for the capture of more carbon
and a cooling of the earth leading to the “Little Ice Age” – “Man-Made Climate
Change.”
Some suggest the impact was continued
by the European arrival in the Americas causing the further deaths of some 10
to 100 million people, something like 80 or 90% of the indigenous populations
of the Americas. Again, a massive and
relatively quick depopulation which also caused reforestation and temperatures
to cool., etc.
Now scientists do argue whether or
not human actions contributed to the Little Ice Age and even quite how to
categorize what that climate event was. But
our lesson, Judaism’s lesson, is the same.
For myself, I do believe in the
negative impact of human behavior on the
environment. But what I believe in even more,
based on the dismal numbers I just shared, is that the “solution” humans are
likely to offer to climate change has at least as much chance of looking like
it did during the LIA than anything “happy” - and probably more likely
than less.
Just think about it – from the 1340s to the
1540s as many as 300 million people, something possibly approaching a half of
humans, died from human spread diseases and violence? Not promising.
And what was Judaism’s response? Much the same as it had been before such things
happened. The historian Susan Einbinder
wrote about just this in her book, After the Black Death and notes the “great diversity in Jewish experiences of
the plague… Most critically, the continuity of faith, language, and meaning
through the years of the plague and its aftermath. Both before and after the
Black Death, Jewish texts that deal with tragedy privilege the communal over
the personal and affirm resilience over victimhood.”
How did Jews
respond? They rallied together and
relied on their traditions and beliefs for comfort and meaning in
the face of a violent and cruel world and never gave up on helping others
even if it couldn’t turn back such violence.
Jews were
murdered for causing the Black Death.
And for bad winters. And droughts
and everything else – and their response was to say their prayers and stay
loyal to their heritage. They relied on Torah
and Avodah and Gemilut Hasadim, to endure the literally
unendurable.
I’ve no doubt
shared before with you and likely will again how a congregant of mine from the
Former Soviet Union once, in speaking about some current event commented, “you
Americans always think things will turn out okay.”
It’s another
way of saying what Genesis said to us about people in Noah’s time.
Understand me –
my point is that we need to take the Jewish tradition’s point of view. A point of view of reality, the long view, of
the all too often bleak nature of humanity.
We do nothing to prepare ourselves for the world as it is when we
willfully ignore this.
We do everything
when we face the world as it is - change what we can, by embracing Torah,
the scope of Jewish beliefs, Avodah, Jewish practice, and Gemilut
Hasadim, the Jewish emphasis on helping locally and those difficult to help.
--
What about
antisemitism, my next topic? After what
I’ve said, do I really need to go into great lengths explaining this to
you? Has not an entire history of
Judaism been replete with people who hate us for who we are and even continue
to hate us when we try to stop being who we are, still wanting to kill us?
While we yet
live in one of, if not the most welcoming non-Jewish country in human history
for Jews, we also see how right there, close at hand, ready to reach out and
grab us, antisemitism is even here.
Again, we see
the wickedness in human hearts fully on display with antisemitism. And again, and again we know – now
first-hand, the response of the Jewish community to it. When Tree of Life Synagogue was attacked on
Shabbat, the next morning we had over 100 people here for a
special service – one of many held in our larger community in response. And while I believe I do in fact do a lot to
fight antisemitism, I also know that in 2000 years this is not going
away, yet my will to fight goes on.
You may have
seen the article just recently of the Holocaust survivor who hid a shofar with
him in Auschwitz. That! That is what I want you to take away from
the fight against antisemitism. Exactly
that level of commitment to Jewish Practice, Jewish Belief and Jewish Helping. We fight such hatred best by proudly, even
defiantly, relying on our tradition and what it offers us.
--
Over the summer
I had recommended to me a book which I read called White Fragility. It argues the inherent racist nature of white
society in America. It was a challenging
book to the say the least, but what did it make me think about? That pressing moral issues of our day, like gun
control, like opioid drug addiction, issues that have become national issues - that they’ve become so only at this time
because now, they are impacting white communities, with whom, let’s face
it, we Jews tend to have way more in common when it comes to things like this.
Even though the
majority of people killed with a gun are not killed in a mass shooting or even
by homicide – but rather through suicide.
And even among homicides you are far, far more likely to be killed by a
gun if you are a non-white American than even a Jew sitting in synagogue.
And yet it is now
that we are “up in arms” about this. I
mean, I guess better late than never.
Hearing that,
don’t you feel just a little ashamed that you didn’t think to be upset by any
of the gun violence before it was white people and white kids getting
shot? I mean, maybe you were, but I feel
like probably not.
Or as the
comedian Dave Chappelle observes, white opioid addiction is considered an
emergency of health in America now, while black crack addiction in the 80s was
about crime and the helpful advice of, “just say no.” Seems like maybe we are failing our fellow
human beings, let alone our fellow Americans.
So when I
express, brazenly, on behalf of Judaism, that Judaism probably wasn’t really
helping you figure out how to help people who were suffering anyway, because if
it were, you would have been outraged long before now, I think that’s
appropriately brazen.
And when I
further suggest that a deepening of our attachments to Judaism, to life
punctuated by moments of holiness so we are keen to notice the holiness of the
world around us and of the people around us, to a Judaism that recognizes the
image of God in all others - To a Judaism that recognizes the suffering
that all people carry and endure in a world - as I feel I have taken
great pains to demonstrate is too often a terrible place given what we
do to each other – that is what we need more of.
We need a world
where you light Shabbat candles every Friday and just as regularly put money in
your pushke, your tzedakah box, as our ancestors did. We need to see our Rebbe’s Tisch revitalized
to feed the needy who have never gone away in our community. Do you know Long Island has a problem with
human trafficking? I did not until I
attended a meeting of the Sherriff’s Chaplains Council, but in fact many
people, many women and children, are treated like slaves right where we
live! That is outrageous and shameful. And furthermore, I think that is
something if we worked together, we could actually do something to
significantly address.
We need to act
passionately in the right ways. And we
must recognize sometimes we will try and not be able to help – and yet still
try.
And that brings
me, finally, to politics. Carrying on
from where I was – just like my summer reading was making the case that being a
white person and not ever seeing, or interacting with, or having friends, or
even caring at all about people of color isn’t so far of a jump from actually just
being racist against people of color for whites – I would imagine that not
knowing or talking to or being friends with or caring about people who are
really, really, really different from you on political issues is probably not
making it any better for you to be able to work with those people to solve
things.
Now, if you
want to take my bleak assessment of people and say, “well there’s no point
because bad people are bad” I really think that’s disingenuous when it comes to
people of opposing political views.
And here’s why. Judaism teaches beyond a doubt the following:
1. People
are full of pain and hurt and fears and burdens just like you. They have lost, they have had dreams
completely crushed, they have been hurt in ways they may not even realize by
people who should have never hurt them.
2. They
are also creatures of God like you. None
of us asked to be created. And none of
us is better than any other. And as we
are praying about today, none of us is free of “sin” (you know I know that you
love it when I talk about you all being sinners).
And so, if those things are true, and we have them
in common, couldn’t we be just a little more thoughtful and kinder towards each
other?
What do we do in the face of a violent
world? A changing world? A world full of so many hurt and broken
people? We can acknowledge that we don’t
have nearly the answers and nearly the influence necessary to address all
issues, perhaps not even to understand those issues.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. We are taught “not to abandon the work even
if we cannot finish it.” I don’t want
you not to care, not to try – just to realize that may be all you can do, and
that’s okay.
Because ours is not the mission of only one
life. Ours must be a mission that
embraces the history of humanity of which we are only a part. On that scale we can only hope to nudge
things a little this way or that. And
for such a mission Judaism is perfectly fit.
Teaching us gemilut chasadim, seeking to lift up the burdens of
others, Torah and Avodah, of study of Jewish belief and practice
of Jewish ritual.
In this year ahead that I suspect will be
challenging and hard for us as a nation, for us as the Jewish People, for us as
the world, and most likely for us – let our lives be enriched and inspired by
the mystery and majesty of Torah, Avodah, and Gemilut Chasadim
and recognize in them – in Jewish Thought, Jeiwsh Practice, and Jewish Helping,
the tools for meeting all life’s challenges.
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