I believe Messiah has already
come. Actually, two messiahs. And no, not the loaves and fishes guy, and
not, for those of you who like nerdy Jewish references, not Shabbetai Zvi. No,
I believe they were Theodor Herzl and David ben-Gurion. I can give the rest of that sermon another
time – very quickly, Jewish tradition offers the idea that when the messiah
comes, first there will be Moshiach ben Yosef, kind of a preliminary messiah,
and then Moshiach ben David, the actual messiah. Furthermore, it is not at all necessary that
in coming the messiah does any miraculous things. In fact, one of the key things the messiah
needs to do is bring the Jews back to an Israel not subservient to any other
power. Hence – and truly, this is
serious for me, they were the messiahs.
No fanfare, no smoke, but making the miraculous, the nearly impossible
come to be.
Because Israel is the realization of
a dream. A dream made reality. Not always pretty, not always perfect, but a
dream, that a miracle would come to pass.
And that miracles don’t require a thunderbolt from on high, they can be
brought about by courageous and willing human hands.
The hands of those with dream. For what do dreams do? The best dreams inspire us. Give us hope.
The world today needs more of
it. While Judaism shapes the outline of
my dreams, looking to Israel reminds me dreams can become reality, with all
that reality implies about being imperfect and in progress – but a dream
realized, nonetheless. That hope extends
to my feelings about Israel and the Middle East, to the rest of the world, and
back to us here, and even to withinside us – here.
There is so much terrible in our
lives now – the ongoing stress and danger of Covid-19. The passing of an exemplary American Jew in
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. xamples of miscarried
justice as we only just saw in the Breonna Taylor case. The killing of police officers, civilians,
rioting and destruction, that have marred what should have been the patriotic
and time-honored American tradition of civil disobedience. All terrible.
All can cause us to want to give up hope.
It is said Franz Rosenzweig, the
great German Jewish philosopher was on his way to convert to Christianity when
he decided to attend Kol Nidrei services.
Hearing the prayer’s haunting melody and its message, directed precisely
at Jews like him, who, for whatever reason may feel they had to hide or give up
their Jewish identity, and declaring they, too, are beloved by God and part of
the Jewish People – Rosenzweig abandoned his previous plan and had what would
prove to be a historic change of heart.
Kol Nidrei which we only just heard,
is a call inviting us, however and whyever we may feel distanced from God, that
even if we’ve suffered physically or emotionally, even if had to give up or
hide our faith, that it is never too late.
As Americans, this should offer us
hope. The very real troubles of our
country can, with effort, with a dream, be overcome. And yet, as challenging as the trouble in our
lives may be, we mustn’t let them blind us to the truly horrible suffering of
others around the world. And for us as
Jews, some of that suffering we should feel ourselves forbidden to ignore.
Around the world in Asia, in a part
of China the Han Chinese call Xinjiang, and which is locally called East
Turkestan, the systematic persecution, oppression and even murder of the Uighur
community is taking place, even right now.
Something like a million members of this Turkic ethnic group have been
put in concentration camps. Some have
been sterilized. Some have had organs
taken from them. Islam, the religion
practiced by most of them, has been suppressed.
Mosques destroyed, Uighurs forced to eat pork and drink alcohol. Han Chinese have increasingly moved into the
area as part of an effort to erase the local culture.
If you want to talk about modern-day
parallels to the Jews’ experience in the Holocaust, this is it. If you want to talk about a dream to help
realize, to help make your own, this should be one of them. And it is with pride we should note that
various Jewish organizations, such as Jewish World Watch and the Lantos
Foundation for Human Rights and Justice (named after and led by the family of
Holocaust survivor, the late congressman Tom Lantos) along with others, are
already working to help these people. To
devote even some of our energy, a part of our dreams for a better world to
helping the Uighurs would be bringing a miracle into the world.
And it needn’t be with despair that
we look on such a situation in Asia, or any of the challenges we face
here. Wherever we look, we can find
examples of hard-fought and hard-won hope worthy of inspiring us.
We saw the Justice Ginsburg lying in
repose at the Supreme Court and in state at the Capitol Building. Saw for the first time a rabbi speak words of
comfort and praise, recite prayers in Hebrew, in that most American of settings. That should be a sign of hope – for any
American Jew that should be stirring.
And if you want to look for signs of
large-scale, region-changing, dreams coming true on a historic scale – look to
what has been happening with Israel, that constant source of hope for us as
Jews. While Israel struggles with
internal political dissension, and a permanent peace with the Palestinians is
yet to be had, it cannot be described as anything short of miraculous to see
Israel open relations with the United Arab Emirates and with Bahrain. To already be quietly achieving detente and
even cooperation with Saudi Arabia. And
likely to open diplomatic ties with other Arab countries such as Kuwait, Oman,
even The Sudan, if stories in the press are to be believed. So many thought that such a normalization of
relations with countries once pledged to Israel’s destruction would never come
unless what’s always been called The Peace Process was resolved first. Now it may very well be that what brings the
Peace Process finally to a close, will be the normalization of relations
between Israel and precisely those countries who once sought or supported
efforts to destroy it.
Now – the lesson we should derive
from all this. Has everything been
perfect regarding the tributes to Justice Ginsburg, certainly as Jews, we can
be proud to see how she has been honored, but as Americans we also all know
that for such a public and influential person, political fighting would also be
part of how she was eulogized and rembered.
Perfect? Impossible for it to
be. Inspiring? Certainly – that a woman and a Jew could be
honored so, that’s a dream realized.
And the same is true regarding
Israel. Are these agreements
ironclad? Probably not. Is it surprising how they came about? Most certainly? Are there others challenges and less than
perfect aspects to these breakthroughs?
Without a doubt. But even so, you
cannot deny that for all who hope Israel can live in peace and with good
relations to all those around it, we cannot but be hopeful.
These then, are the lessons we must
take away. Hope in difficult times springs from dreams of a better world, of
our own better selves. Dreams that we
refuse to abandon no matter how long it takes to realize them or what
challenges we must overcome. Hope comes
from fighting hard to make those dreams reality. And dreams of hope may one day bring about
reality changing miracles – that won’t make the world perfect but make it
better. That won’t happen through
supernatural intervention but because some Austrian journalist (Herzl), some
girl from Brooklyn (Ginsburg) some daughter of a congressman (Katrina
Lantos-Swett) has the chutzpah to think they can make a difference in
the world.
Let all of us go forward from this
place and into the New Year, and make our own chutzpadik dreams of
miracles realized happen in our lives.
G’mar Chatimah Tovah
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