Friday, October 30, 2015

Joanie Plous Bayer Young Leadership Honorary Award Acceptance Speech

Speech
I can only say thank you! I was so surprised to learn that I had received this award! And am so happy to share this with Rabbi Yammer, of whom I have heard so many wonderful things.  I am honored to have met you this evening.  I would also like to thank everyone here for attending and particularly to my congregation who have driven down from Huntsville to Birmingham. It is wonderful to see you all.
When Richard Friedman spoke at the Temple in Huntsville last spring in honor of Yom HaAtzmauot, he spoke of our rich Alabama history of hiring such strong rabbis like Rabbi Grafman and Rabbi Yammer and having faithful Jewish communities.  In a sense, because we are few in number, especially in the South, we have had to work harder to create strong and vibrant Jewish communities.  I pray, as has happened in our history, when faced with adversity, as we are currently around the world and on our college campuses here at home, lights of hope will emerge from the darkness and bring warmth and comfort to those around us.
The richness of Southern Jewish Life is not well understood in other parts of the country. I have been deeply blessed since I came here to be part of this rich heritage and to take my small part in its leadership.  This part of my life’s journey has been nothing short of a blessing for me and for my family.  I am grateful to be the leader of such an amazing congregation – Temple B’nai Sholom in Huntsville AL. I am grateful for the support and love of my friends and family – thank you to my husband Uzi, and children:  Aiden, David and Daniel along with my parents and extended family and friends.  I am grateful that this special community in Huntsville has shown and continues to show holy hospitality by welcoming in the stranger.  This community has taught me at their bed sides, simchas and sorrows how to be a rabbi today in the South; and I am eternally blessed simply to be in their presence in a daily basis. 
I want to share with you this evening just a few short thoughts.  One of the things which has always guided me has been the centrality of love.  We are taught in our Torah: “to love your neighbor as you love yourself. (Lev. 19:18). 
This is probably one of the hardest commandments to follow in the entire Torah.   It is difficult because many of us don't love ourselves and the faults we see in others are actually mirror images of our own.  It is easier to find fault in others than to turn the lens of introspection onto ourselves and work to change our own behavior. Yet that mitzvah is the foundation of how I understand Judaism – I have worked hard to grow to become an example of living an authentically modern Reform, life.
Rabbi Heschel wrote in an essay explaining his involvement in the peace movement that he was powerfully aware of a lesson from our prophetic literature: “that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings…that regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty, while all are responsible. [1]
We must continue to strive for a more just and whole world – a world where we remember that we are all created betzelem Elohim – in the image of God.  Adam and Eve the first people God created were not black or white; rich or poor; Gay or Straight; Republican or Democrat; abled or disabled; Muslim or Jewish or Christian, instead they were simply the children of God.  When we treat everyone as a child of God, when we welcome them into our sacred spaces and share with them our teachings, then we can become better ourselves.  Ben Zoma famously said “who is wise, one who learns from all” (Peirkei Avot 4:1).  When we share with them then we can learn from them and we can become who we are truly supposed to be:  Or LaGoyim A light to the nations.   Thank You!





Benediction

We have gathered this evening to honor and celebrate leadership. We have learned about different types of leaders and that we are in a challenging time.  It is imperative in these modern times to see the value of the sacred in our lives.
Rabbi Heshel said: “It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion--its message becomes meaningless.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism)
I pray that we once again see the relevancy that religion and God can play in our lives.  I pray that we are able to come together to build the community that we dream -  As the prophet Isaiah described: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.”(Isaiah, 11:6)
We pray for our brothers and sisters
Whose home are in Israel, our sacred homeland, in spite of terrorism.
We pray for their safety and their peace.

We pray for those who have been injured
That they have a speedy recovery of body, mind and spirit
Courage to continue to live and the ability to coexist in harmony with those around them

We pray that our leaders have the wisdom to lead
That instead of having their own interest, they have the interest of the people at heart
May they have the ability to see the path that needs to be taken and the courage to take the first step

We pray that the world’s eyes are open to see the suffering of our people
May they have the courage to work toward justice for all and act in mercy
May they be given the strength to defend against terrorism

Instead of being fearful of knives flying through the air
May they be turned into pruning hooks
Instead of being fearful of cars driving toward a bus or a crowd
May they be turned into carriages of peace

May the fundamentalists all over the world be given the ability to see the other
May we once again be able to form a community united in a Zionist ideal – a home for the plurality of Jews
May we then be able to be a light to the other nations of the world, demonstrating how to live in peace and prosperity together

El Male Rachamim, O God of Compassion please bless us to have the strength and the courage to grow and become the best of who we can be.  Please spread over us Your shelter of peace and speedily have compassion on us as we go through this harrowing struggle.





[1] Abraham Joshua Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, essays edited by Suzannah Heschel. p.225

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Everyone Counts!

DMV Closures in Alabama
Alabama again made national news this past month and again not for something to be proud of – the closure of 31 DMV offices around the state.  Why did they do this? Because the state was unable to pass a balanced budget and instead of raising taxes or adjusting the tax code, further cuts were made to an already anemic budget. 
Of the DMV offices that closed, most were in rural areas; this disproportionately affects people the poor, elderly and persons of color.  It is estimated that some would now have to drive over one hundred miles to be able to go to an office.
Many people have tied the closing of the DMV offices to the loss of effectiveness of the 1965 Voting Rights Act; a key part which was struck down in the 2011 lawsuit brought forth by Shelby County.  The section specifically required that any attempt by the state to alter its status quo which could affect voting in Alabama must have pre-clearance by the Justice Department.  While anyone can still register to vote and obtain a voter ID at their local Board of Registrar’s Office for free, the state has simply made it harder to function and to live.
Many people think of a photo ID law as a drivers’ license and fail to connect that they need only go to the Board of Registrar.  While the state assures us that we can renew our licenses online now, this still means that an estimated 40,000 people a year will need to go to only four offices in the entire state to receive new drivers licenses and examinations.  This applies to new residents, license renewals following suspensions and individuals needing to receive a license for the first time.  For other individuals it is possible to renew online or create digital licenses on your cell phone.
While it is true, these are improvements (the ability to renew online); it implies access to broadband internet, money for a smart phone and an ability to pay for it.  Yet there is extreme poverty in much of the state, for instance Lowndes County has a poverty rate of 37%. Furthermore race ties directly with the poverty rate: Broken down by race, 30.6 percent of blacks are in poverty, 31.2 percent of Hispanics and 12.4 percent of whites” according to al.com There is also a link to education - the less education a person has, the more likely they are living in a cycle of poverty.
While governor Bently denies that this decision to close the DMV was racially motivated, the result is still the same – people who are poor, persons of color, the disabled and the elderly are more directly impacted by this decision.  These are the people who need more services and who, as a result of the systemic structure of the state live in areas with fewer well-constructed roads, safe bridges, access to broadband internet and an ability to speak and have a voice in the election process.  The state must ensure the safety, well-being and education of its citizens, something I believe Alabama is failing at.   How could Alabama improve?
1.      Deal with an unfair tax system which: “The lowest-paid fifth of Alabamians pay 10 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes, while the top 1 percent pay just 3.8 percent.”  Stop taxing groceries and examine why 1963 was the last time the state dealt with the sales tax in a meaningful way. 
2.      Stop earmarks in the Alabama state budget to allow legislators more flexibility in how money is spent.
3.      Create a new constitution for the state of Alabama that is more favorable to the needs of the citizens of the state instead of one written in 1901 in an era of white supremacy.
4.      Stop talking about same-sex marriage and abortion and focus on what matter most to the citizens of the state – state sponsored services including expansion of Medicaid so that 139,000 uninsured people have access to healthcare under the Affordable Care Act and better infrastructure like safe bridges and roads and supply public transportation so people can go to jobs and medical appointments.  Improve schools and educational resources!

If we work together we can build a better future for the entire state.  The closure of the DMV offices are simply another in a long chain of limiting services to those who need it most.  The Bible teaches us that “…no inheritance of the children of Israel shall remove from tribe to tribe; for the children of Israel shall cleave everyone to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.” (Numbers 36:7) We are not supposed to have resources pooled so that one tribe has all of the land, instead everyone is supposed to benefit economically.  Furthermore, we are taught to take a census at the beginning of the book of Numbers to emphasize that everyone counts.  We have forgotten that in this state, the buckle of the Bible Belt.  Our legislators are focused on themselves and not leading the state for the betterment of its citizens specifically the poor.  The Bible teaches us not to neglect the poor, the widowed or the orphan, which is a euphemism for the people who fall in the margins.  We are only as strong as those who are in the margins, I pray that we are able to see them and find a solution to solve this human made problem of leaving them in the dust. 

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Israel in further violence and the world stood by silently

Image result for prayers for peace

Here we are again, another round of violence and another round of blame as each side in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict hunkers down for more senseless violence and feelings of loss of control. Over the past several days there has been an increasing wave of violence as the Palestinian Authority falsely claims that Israel wants to change the arrangement of control of the Temple Mount. 
The Temple Mount has historically been controlled by the Waqf following the Six-Day War when Moshe Dayan relinquished control to a third party to allow for unity.  Of his decision Dayan said:  “We have returned to the holiest of our places, never to be parted from them again….We did not come to conquer the sacred sites of others or to restrict their religious rights, but rather to ensure the integrity of the city and to live in it with others in fraternity.”  His decision is a radical one, it is probably the first time that an army conquered a religious site and instead of declaring it their own, decided to share and be inclusive. 
Perhaps this current wave of violence should not be surprising considering the long standing denial of the Western Wall as a Jewish holy site by the Palestinian Authority.  What is troubling is how an old libel is now finding its way into the mainstream press of today.  For instance even the New York Times recently released a story questioning the legitimacy of the Jewish claim to the Temple Mount.  The archeological record, along with the account in the Bible and extra-Biblical sources verify that the Temple existed on the Mount from the Time of King Solomon.  The only question in the mind of scholars is the exact location on the mount of the Holy of Holies and the Temple itself. 
Yet the fact that this question has been given the time of day by the mainstream press furthers latent anti-Semitic sentiments in the minds of many.  The questioning of this holy site by Palestinians offers a justification for the latest round of violence as a religious dispute as opposed to what it really is – an attempt by Hamas and other terrorist organization to further delegitimize the State of Israel.
At the UN, Abbas denounced the Oslo accords.  He recently said that the spilling of Israeli blood was pure and that Jews did not have the right to even walk on to Muslim holy sites.  He has slowly allied himself further with Hamas.  Hamas denies the right for Israel to even exist.  They are fighting a war, which is taking place on social media, college campuses and in the court of public opinion.  They are using violence to provoke Israel, so that the world once again condemn Israel when she eventually retaliates, while they still have the ability to claim themselves as victims.
Meanwhile Israelis try and defend themselves from attacks, which are silent.  There are no sirens overhead warning Israelis to take cover.  There is no signal indicating to them to run and hide.  There are only knives flying through the air attempting to insight further violence.  Abbas is calling to arms the Palestinians to defend a holy site which is not even under attack!
Most of the mainstream press is silent on the matter.  The Reform Movement released a statement condemning the violence.  The Jewish press is all too aware of what is happening. Yet, the Western press including CNN is silent, instead it focuses on each side blaming the other side and not backing down.  The reality is far different.    
Shame on them for being silent and turning a blind eye to the truth!   

I am so troubled at the level of hatred.  The Palestinians have blamed the Israelis for backing out of the peace talks, yet it was they who backed out.  The world is silent as Palestinians are being murdered in Yarmuk , a refugee camp in Syria.  The world only speaks out when it believes that Israelis are the culprits at the death of Palestinians
.    
Meanwhile the American Jewish community is still struggling to build bridges back together after this past summers divisive debate over the Iran deal.  We are not present to what is really happening.  We as Americans are only present to the things we want to see. 

In the close of the narrative of Isaac and Ishmael we see the two brothers coming together.  Isaac who was almost sacrificed by his father’s hand and was deeply traumatized by the event and Ishmael who was left to die in the desert becomes their brother’s keeper.  Together they bury Abraham (Genesis 25:9) and they settle near each other in Beer-lahai-roi (Genesis 25:11).  In the end, they learned that for the other to live in peace they had to be each other’s keeper.  There must be two states; there must be an end to the disgusting talk of delegitimizing the rights of one for the sake of the other.  The world community needs to have higher expectations of the Palestinians and see them for who they are.  They need to stop holding Israel to a standard no other western nation is held and they need to stop religious extremism which is the true source for much of this current pain.

I pray for my brothers and sisters!  I pray for the safety of the Israeli people, may they be able to walk freely and safely without fear of death! And may the Palestinians have courageous leaders who are able to support the people toward statehood.  

Monday, October 12, 2015

The Loss of the Religious Reporter for the Huntsville Times

The Loss of the Religious Reporter for the Huntsville Times


What does it say about society that we are losing newspaper beat reporters and reporting?  These are people who have dedicated their lives to the discovery of the truth.  They have taken the time to build relationships with people in a specific area.  They have learned the history not only of that field, but also how it applies to that specific geographic region.  They have a huge contact list of all of the relevant individuals and know who to ask the specific and necessary question.  Now there is one reporter for the entire state of Alabama whose beat is religion.  In a state that is by many considered the buckle of the Bible belt, with over 50% affiliations we have only 1 religion reporter.  There are of course other reporters at the Huntsville Times who will cover items as they are considered newsworthy. 
Yet who is to decide what is considered “news worthy?”  What about interest stories?  Are we as a society no longer reading those longer in-depth pieces of news?  Has our attention span shrunk to the point we can only handle something the length of a 500 word blog post?
I accept the fact that the newspaper industry’s business model has failed.  Newspaper companies are finding it challenging to make money by having a website.  Subscriptions have gone down as people have moved away from receiving their newspaper by reading a printed paper.  The news in the paper appears 24 hours after a story happened.  We are in the information age.  An age when we must consume vast amounts of information quickly, yet do we really digest that information? If we are so busy consuming, do we have time to process? 
Important and thoughtful pieces about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will  no longer be printed as “A Rabbi and Imam Pray for Peace,” instead it will appear only if there is some drama attached to it when an over stretched reporter will come and ask a question and may or may not understand the nuance of a specific situation.  The loss of beat reporting is a loss for the whole community.  Sensationalism will be the bread and butter of the press as the press feels obligated to continually feed a machine - the machine of “breaking news” or “headline news.”
One of the reasons that the online newspaper model is failing goes back to the same reason that the loss of beat reporting is a problem.  It is the loss of relationships.  Companies want to feel as if their advertising dollars are being well spent, that the person who is working with them cares about their company enough to help them design the right type of advertising.  When the people who sell ad space no longer care or are no longer in the same positions very long then how can they care?  Beat reporting is the same.  A beat reporter may get someone to talk because the person trusts that what is being said will be taken in the best context.  There is a relationship; the interviewee and the interviewer understand one another.   Now that those ties are being broken, the quality of the news will suffer just as the website of newspapers are suffering. 

No religion is an island and the more we sensationalize the sacred, the more we continue a process of eliminating the Bible and deep thought from the consciousness of the World, the more that we will feel alone.  We will suffer as we try and fill that void with more and more stuff whether it is information or materialism.  The void will never be full.  Only when we are truly open to though and engagement will we find a deep connection and be able to more fully connect.  As Abraham Joshua Heschel said: “The purpose of religious communication among human beings of different commitments is mutual enrichment and enhancement of respect and appreciation rather than the hope that the person spoken will prove to be wrong in what he regards as sacred.”  May we find ways to continue the important act of religious communication to learn and support the other.  

Friday, October 9, 2015

Erev Rosh Hashanah 2015 Birth and Birthdays

Birth and Birthdays (Erev RH 2015)
Shanah Tovah, I feel blessed to stand before you this evening and celebrate the New Year with you.   It is an amazing thing to be given the gift of another year of life.  It is an amazing thing to hold a newborn baby in your arms, as Uzi and I had the privileged of doing just two months ago.  They are such symbols of hope and they are our future.   It is that future that I want to talk with you about today – a future that concerns me as much as it concerns all of us. 
We read in the Psalms:
“The Earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein.  For He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.” (Psalm 24)

But how much do we think about the Earth as belonging to God? It is easy for us to forget who owns it especially when we think about ourselves at the top of the proverbial ‘food chain.’

As a student at Hebrew Union College, one of my joys was visiting the rare book room in the library.  It had the most interesting books, including a Talmud covered in pig skin from the Middle Ages.  (The set belonged to a Christian scholar of sacred text.)  You could see inside of several books, on their title page, the various owners inscribed their names.  If you were curious you could get a pair of white gloves, examine the book and learn about its journey around Ashkenazi Europe. 
For me this thought is symbolic for the story of all human possessions.  All of our belongings travel and we only have a lease on them for a short while.  Take a moment to think about your possessions.  How many of you have pieces which belonged to a family member or maybe even many family members before it ended up into your possession?  Then think about what you want to pass on to the next generation. 
Today, I wonder if we remember that we are only short play actors on the world’s stage.
When I watch shows like “Buried Alive” on TLC about people who are hoarders, I see people whose stuff has taken over their lives.  When I watch HGTV and see people redesigning their homes so that it has their design aesthetic and they throw away working appliances I start to wonder - who is controlling who?  When I see closet organization ideas to store all of the stuff that we accumulate and listen to complaints about the lack of storage in old houses - I really start to wonder. 
Why do we have so many more things than our parents did? Do we really need them? And what is their actual cost to our lives? Our community? What is the cost of owning all of this stuff?

When we open the Bible, the first thing we read is that the author must have been a naturalist.  The descriptions of all of the plant life are wonderful.  God did not begin by describing life up a mountain or inside of a Temple, but among fruit trees, shade trees, bushes, shrubs and flowers.  The description of the Garden of Eden was designed to make us feel and think of a lush paradise full of natural beauties and abundance.  While we were expelled from the actual garden, that growing splendor was always a part of our world.  It sustains the spirit.  Just think about how refreshed you feel after a walk in nature.  Even as our scientific knowledge grows I find the intricate web of life described from the valued insects, dead leaves and soil under our feet allow for such amazing green growth above and around us.  
The Bible offers us a history of creation by defining the good, beautiful, radiant Garden of Eden.  We are supposed to be reminded of that amazing place so that perhaps we can nostalgically think back and treasure it - perhaps even to reestablish it in the present world. 
“Believe in the future, but do not scorn the past.  Out of what is good in yesterday, build your tomorrow.” ((The Bible says))
Let us think about our past.  What has been good that we may need to restore?  What old way of creating can we learn from and items can we treasure? What can we look at and recreate as our joy today?  Does living a more simplistic life free our spirit?
While the relationship of humanity to nature began when the world was created, and is something that we honor on Rosh Hashanah, it is something which is becoming more and more strained.  We seem to be destroying the lush garden around us in greedy pursuit of quick wealth.  We tore apart the forest which took thousands of years to create, we stripped below the soil for coal and now we go even further as we mine shale for gas. 
Our quest for cheap product is striping the Earth around us of valuable resources.  Our oceans are becoming more acidic as we pollute the air around us, over fill our landfills and fail to act as stewards of the Earth.  The cost of our greed and materialism seems to be our own destruction.

As we start to think about who we are this Rosh Hashanah, we are told that we must judge and purify ourselves in the light of God’s standards.  The prayers teach us of the birthday of the world, the celebration of the rebirth to something better.  We are described in the Book of Genesis as individuals in a covenant with God.
But are we really honoring that covenant by our actions?
Are we acting with righteousness? Am I being useful to my family, to my community and to society?
Am I honoring my obligations?
When we read the creation story in the Book of Genesis, God tells humanity to fill the Earth and ‘master it’.  We have mastered it.  We may have taken that commandment literarily. 

Rachel Carson’s famous book “The Silent Spring” describes the over use of poison insecticides which are able to destroy entire food chains from small insects, to fish, to birds to shrubs and instead leave wide areas of destruction.  The destruction led ultimately to the decline of the song bird population, leaving our garden paradise silent.  The book written from 1958-1962 ignited the environmental movement, took on the chemical industry and asked important questions.
Rachel Carson went on to tell a congregational subcommittee, a year after the book was published: “Our heedless and destructive acts enter the vast cycles of the earth and in time return to bring hazard to ourselves.”  The amazing thing that Rachel Carson did was question the amazement of modernity by examining its impacts on the natural world.  She wrote that: “We are rightly appalled by the genetic effects of radiation, how then, can we be indifferent to the same effect in chemicals that we disseminate widely in our environment?”
Before congress, Rachel Carson made a valuable comment: “If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed either by private individuals or by public officials, it is surely only because our forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and foresight, could conceive of no such problem.”  We want to trust that the products around us are manufactured in a safe and sustainable way.  But instead of being allowed to self-examine and self-reflect our response to such questions as a society shuts down the possibility of that important act.
Not long after Carson published her book, she was attacked by the chemical companies and accused of being a communist, a crazy spinster with too many cats and made to look looney.  Yet she was able to hold her own before congress, on CBS in a special hour long interview and whenever questioned.  Her science was thought to be forward thinking and accurate.
What we now see is that same type of attack from those same types of companies against people who question them.  The book, “Silent Spring” was so effective, was because it was the first book of its type to argue so eloquently the issues of environmentalism.  Since that time, the issue of environmentalism has become politicized and now there is a partisan reaction to a topic which effects everyone a topic which should not be open for partisan debate. Even today, Rachel Carson is accused of using “soft science” and blamed for malaria around the world.  Though leading scientist agree that after time DDT looses its effectiveness and would not have worked against fighting malaria vindicating her.  There are still websites denying the accuracy of what she represented. 

When we left the Garden of Eden, God asked Adam a powerful question: Acha? Where are you now?
Where are we now? Are we choosing to be in denial about something we know to be true? Are we focused on greed? Are we choosing to be in denial and look at the topic as partisan?  Are you labeling me as the liberal rabbi from the north for even bringing this topic forward on Rosh Hashanah?
Regardless of where we are, we must live with the consequence of our actions.
Again, I look to the book of Genesis, to find insight into understanding that very consequence of human progression and denial.
We can learn four specific truths according to Nehama Leibowitz –
We read in Genesis from the creation of humanity which gradually unfolded by “the deeds and habits of man, his inmost thoughts and secrets intrigues and true motives of his actions,” to the repudiation of the sovereignty of God. 
The first sin was committed by Adam.  It was not that he simply ate from a tree of knowledge.  There were many trees in the Garden.  He was specifically told not to eat one tree.  In this we see that Adam’s true test was a test of discipline and his true acceptance of the yoke of heaven.  Adam’s transgression was that he chose to do as he chose as if he was master of all and failed to obey God.  
The second sin of humanity was homicide.  The Torah does not explicitly state the reason that Cain killed his brother Abel.  The rabbis offered several midrashim as to why this tragedy happened.  In one specific story they focus on an argument that the brothers had about how the world was divided.  One said the clothing was his and the other said the land was his.  This specific  midrash continues by offering another reason that what they were fighting. They were arguing about where the Temple should be built and what materials the Temple should be made from.  The last option was that the brothers were really fighting over Eve.  What the rabbis were describing was not simply the specific case of Cain and Abel, but understanding the motivations that we have to commit such a crime.  The midrash therefore offers three considerations as to why we resolve to violence.  The first is economic considerations, they quarrel over material possessions.  The second reason is bloodshed is over ideological grounds – where and how the Temple should be built.  The last view is over sexual passions – they were fighting over Eve. 
The third major unfolding is of Lemech, a descendent of Cain.  Lemech and his son Tuval Cain were forgers of brass and iron instruments.  We read that Lemech boasted: “For I have slain a man for wounding me, and a young man for bruising me.” (Genesis 4:23-24).  What is it that he was boasting? That he had created more powerful weapons that he was able to lord over his fellows and commit indiscriminate murder even for a small offense of causing a bruise to form. 
The last group of sins in the first bit of Genesis is the verse: “And they took for themselves wives whomsoever they chose.”  Thus we moved from having domain over the vegetable and animal worlds to domain over each other.  Rabbi David Kimhi points out in the Hebrew that Elohim and ish are used to describe the nobility, while adam alludes to the oppressed class. 
We therefore see that the moral standards decline as material development and civilizations progress forgoing to take into account God. 
Yet even if we achieve great and amazing things, then we have achieved nothing if what is left behind is destruction.  The next event in Genesis is the flood and we read that all of Cain’s descendants aside from Noah die.  That is a devastating consequence for committing sin. 
Even though our society is urbanized, with amazing technological resources we are dependent upon the Earth.  Peter Goldmark, the former Rockefeller Foundation president, puts it well: “The death of our civilization is no longer a theory or an academic possibility; it is the road we are on.”[1]
Why do we discuss this topic?  I am not speaking for the perspective of politics, but of spirituality.  We are stewards of the world around us.  We need to take that stewardship seriously. 
I have hope that this situation can be turned around.  That we can limit desertification by soil erosion, over use of our water tables, over population,
Following the destruction at Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt turned the country from a peaceful economy to a war based economy.  He planned on the production of 45,000 tanks, 60,000 planes and several thousand ships.  By 1944 the US had made 60,000 war planes, 2229,600 aircraft, and 5,000 ships.  It was a huge shift from a peacetime economy to a wartime economy.  It did not take restructuring in decades, it was able to do it in a matter of months. 
I believe that when we hit a tipping point we will ultimately start to change our environmental policy.  We will work at a grassroots level and encourage our government to create policies that will save our planet.  Whether it is the issue of tax restructuring to create an honest marketplace, enhance the recycling program here in Huntsville to include glass, work to support family planning programs to shrink the population or encourage TVA to get its power from sustainable sources over coal we can make a difference. 
You may look and say that this is impossible.  Change is too hard to effect.
When we form a sacred community, we do so based on trust.  When we look around the world and see so many people whose motivation is cheap, intentions are dubious and actions make us sick we have to look no further than our sacred community to counter that.  One of the things that is amazing about a sacred community is that in its simplicity and beauty of those around us, we find people who we can trust, putting our hearts in their hands.  I pray that God guard us against the feelings of cynicism and instead remind us by gazing up them, that they have created a little Garden of Eden here.  That if we can do it here, we can do it around us as well.
Our world is not a safe world.  We are poisoning the land, air and sea.  We are under threat of terrorism and violence where disillusionment of the good of humanity is dominate.  We pause now and wish for a new kind of year. 

Just as we pray in the morning blessings: “Praise to You Adonai, our God and Universal Ruler, who – in partnership with Wisdom – formed and created crevices and channels within humankind; it is shown and known in front of Your honorable throne that if one of them were to be [inappropriately] opened or closed, it would be impossible to continue facing You, even for a single hour.  Praise to You Adonai, Healer of Flesh, inspiring in what You can do.”  Please inspire us to be able to find the power to work to reopen crevices and channels both in our soul and in the world around us to heal and perfect it. 



[1] On the Edge p.10

Erev Yom Kippur 2015 Privilege

Erev Yom Kippur - Privilege
Judaism is at its core an ethical religion.  It deals from the very beginning in the book of Genesis, with the first crime committed – the murdering of Abel by his brother Cain.  God asks Cain after the crime, “Where is your brother?” Cain answers, mockingly, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
It was not that God did not know where Abel was, nor was God was unaware of what happened.  God was holding up a mirror to Cain reflecting back to him what his actions were.  God wanted Cain to understand a deep truth - we are each other’s keeper.  We are responsible for one another. 
In today’s society it is a lesson we struggle with. 
When I say terms ageism, sexism, anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia, classism or able-bodied-ism I am sure we can all think of an image of someone who is discriminated against in some form or fashion.  Perhaps we think about white supremacists waving a confederate flag, while burning a cross on the lawn of someone who they disagree with. We often think of it as an isolated incidents.  But what I want to talk about today is not that type of oppression. 
As a Jewish young adult, I remember going to Girl Scout camp and my bunkmates learning that I was Jewish.  One asked me where my horns were.  She looked at my head closely that evening as I brushed my hair and I told her, “I had no horns!” I came home and asked my mom what she meant by that question, my mother said it was a silly thing that ignorant people thought that Jews had horns. 
Most of us rarely encounter anti-Semitism, yet it is something that we are all aware of.  Last year at this time a drunken man left a message on my voicemail on erev Rosh Hashanah describing destruction that we would face.  He was hallucinating and meant it as a warning coming from love.  Yet as a result of that call, the FBI was called as was the police who investigated to determine who it was and if it was a credible threat.  Though we were given the all clear just a few minutes before services were to start, several people did not attend services that night because of fear for their safety.  We also heard about the shooting at a synagogue in Nashville TN last spring and are aware that while we might not experience it, anti-Semitism is there.  It is a virus lingering just below the surface.  
Yet for most of us, we live lives of quiet contentment.  We do not think about the appearance of a violent act as anything but a singular event.  Words like racism, homophobia and classism conjure images in our minds of loss of freedom, verbal and physical violence even death.  They appear to be someone else’s problem.  The problem of blacks, gays and poor people.
But I believe that it is something even more sinister than that.  It is effective because it is linked with a powerful arm – privilege.  We say the word and this brings to mind people who are blessed to be able to afford luxury.  Or, for some of us, it brings to mind reverse discrimination and we feel defensive. 
Why anti-Semitism works is that it brings to mind the assumption that the world is and must be like the dominant culture.  Here in the South, our dominate culture is Christian, specifically evangelical.  That dominate-culture leads toward blindness for the “other.”  When there is a public dedication at Veterans Day or Memorial Day we often hear a person speaking says: “In Jesus’s name we pray.” When they say this, they have excluded not only Jews, but Muslim, Hindus, Native American’s and so forth.  I am sure that it was not the speakers intention to exclude, often times they were not even aware that other people might be in the audience. 
Racism works similarly because it says the norm and display of power is that of white, while black, Asian, Arab, Native American or Pacific Islander is other.  There is a systemic display of the institution of white, middle or upper class, male, young, heterosexual and able-bodied as “the Norm.”  It is an invisible system around us which we may not even be aware of. 
Let me offer you an example of the system and institution.  Peggy McIntosh in her groundbreaking essay “White Privilege and Male Privilege” first published in 1988 came up with a list of 46 ways in which “the Norm” is institutionalized.  I will only share with you a brief smattering.  I want to share this because we have a difficult time thinking about the institutions which are around us, which we help support and support us exclude someone else.

1.       I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time. Just look at who your friends are on Facebook

2.       I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.  Even if you meet people, who do you really invite over to your house?

3.       If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.  Look at your neighborhood, where do most of you live?

4.       I can go shopping alone most of the time, fairly well assured that I will not be followed or harassed by store detectives.  Have any of you ever been accused of shop lifting?

5.       I can turn on the TV or open the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely and positively represented.  Please just look at a copy of any magazine and see who is in there

6.       When I am told about our national heritage, I am told that people of my color helped make it.
 
7.       The curriculum my children will be given will testify to the existence of their race and won’t be relegated to a subsection.

Again this is an example. But the same thing could be said about ageism.  We value young, able-bodied people who can carry items.  As a society we look at people who are older as “dated” and unaware of gifts which they have.  That is why movies like the Expendables 1, 2 or 3 is so popular.  It shows old men as still able and that they still know some tricks – it breaks one of the norms our society has. 
As a result, it is easy to make the assumption that anyone who is different than the “norm” either does “not exist or must be trying, not very successfully, to be like people of my own race.”
Therefore the term privilege that we think of and deny exists because it makes us uncomfortable is that we think of privilege as a favored state – whether earned or conferred by luck or birth.  A better term is dominance.  There is dominance in our society; it is that of the White Anglo Saxon Protestant culture. Just think of the term “Protestant Work Ethic” coined by economist Max Webber to describe a connection in the relationship between the spiritual life and its subtleties in connection with the material life.  That the evolution from the middle ages to our modern economy took place in Protestant areas of the world were somehow seen to dominate other areas of the globe and that the acquisition of wealth was almost a religious duty - that wasting time and money is a sin. 

We live in a bubble denying that other people struggle.  Often we are oblivious to the plight of people other than ourselves.  We tell ourselves: “I am simply trying to live my life.  I am trying to earn money to afford a home.  I worked hard for what I have.”

I would love for us to open that bubble up and be more inclusive of others.  Yet that is hard to do, it takes work and effort.  It can be scary.  It is especially hard when we are fearful of our safety or jealous of what someone else has.  When that happens the true head of Racism, anti-Semitism and Hatred appear.  Recently a Muslim student built a clock and it was thought to have been a bomb by his teacher.  In this case we see a fear that we have about Muslims and a connection with violence.   This fear has been present within us since September 11th.

But fear blinds us, the bubble numbs us and think only of our own struggle clouds our minds to the institutions around us.

We fail to remember a beautiful picture from the book of Genesis - the story is the tower of Babel where everyone was able to come together to build a tower that reached the angels in heaven.  When God saw what the people were capable of, he gave everyone different languages and scattered them.  No longer could we work easily together.  But instead we were going to have to work hard to do something that was once so easy.  We were going to have to struggle to communicate even the most basic ideas.  It became easier to be with people who looked like us, thought like us and talked like us. 
It is a hard thing to talk to someone so different than you.  You must be wholly secure with your own identity and open enough to see the other person.   Just ask any married couple how easy communication is.  Now imagine you want to communicate about an idea with someone who is from a different culture than you and how when you say the color red you might think of crimson while someone else will think of maroon.   Even within a community, communication can be challenging.  

When we think about Moses, we think about someone who was strong, he was after all a leader, a prophet, someone who set the pace and the tone for the entire community.  Yet, if you remember well he had a lisp and Aaron, his brother, had to speak for him.  When he was first leading the people, he was exhausted and never slept because he had to deal with various issues – all the time.  His father-in-law, Jethro, a Medianite priest, taught him how to approach leadership differently.  He directed him to delegate so that Moses only had to make decisions for the most challenging cases. 
Moses, while dominate, was not totally able bodied nor was he totally knowledgeable in all things.  We are all like Moses in some way.  I am white, and some doors open for me that would not for someone else easily.  Yet, I am Jewish, from the North and am dyslexic.  So other doors will always be a challenge for me.  There is no hierarchy in oppression, in some ways if we were to think about it, all of us have things about us which is different from the “Norm” all of us have some doors which open more easily for us and other doors which will always be a challenge. 

There is a strange and magical legend found among many stories about the creation of the world.  The legend tells the story that this world was not the first world that God created, he created others, was discontented with them and destroyed them.  This view of the world describes God as the great Experimenter.  Therefore when God finally created the world he was able to say with justification, “Behold, it is good!”
This summer the Central Conference of American Rabbis embarked on an effort – to find 40 rabbis willing to walk for one day from Selma Al to Washington DC with the NAACP carrying a Torah weighing 18 pounds in an attempt to bring to light issues of racism in this country.  They were hoping for 40 rabbis that each rabbi would carry the Torah for one day and that this would take place in the month of August and into early September (just before the High Holidays) when most rabbis would be away on vacation or busy preparing for this important time of year. Surprisingly they had nearly 200 volunteer.  On Facebook, I saw pictures of my friends and colleagues wearing their yellow shirts, walking on the side of the highway protected by the police who sixty years ago would have harassed them.  Many shared their experiences on a blog and described the feeling of walking as a part of history. 

Of his experience, my friend Rabbi David Levy wrote: “America’s journey is not a look back to where we have been, but a journey forward into a better future for our country.  Each step taken is a cry for criminal justice reform, each mile walked is a call for education reform, every sore limb aches for an end to the plague of economic inequality and every day closer to Washington is a day dedicated to restoring voter rights that continue to be denied to many.”
That is what the journey represents – a vision of hope for a better tomorrow.  But before we can achieve a better tomorrow, I am struck by a warning from the head of the modern Mussar movement spoken over a hundred years ago:
“When I was young, I wanted to change the world.  I tried, but the world did not change.  Then I tried to change my town, but the town did not change.  Then I tried to change my family but my family did not change.  Then I knew: I must change myself.” Rabbi Israel Salanter

The idea that we can change the invisible system around us is overwhelming. Simply to become aware of it is the first step.  The question is now armed with a different understanding of dominance, what will we do?
The answer is found in our sacred text.
To rebuild our world…we must rebuild ourselves.  When Moses said that we had a decision to make between life and death, and that literally the commandments were in our hands should we decide to engage with them.  But failing to engage with them and with the world around us prevents us from being a co-creator with God in completing the work of creation. 
The amazing thing about significant leaders of our people such as Noah, Abraham and King Hezekiah was that they were described in simple human terms as “walking with God.” Imagine yourself walking please.  When you walk, you walk so naturally, you don’t even think about it.  You go step by step forward, trusting that you won’t fall.  When we say in the Viahvta: “Set these words, which I command you this day, upon your heart.  Teach them faithfully to you children.  Speak of them in your home and on your way,” what we are saying is that we need to walk in the way of God.  If we repent today, the Day of Atonement, but fail to engage the remainder of the time, than we have failed to truly return to God.
Our prophet Micah teaches simply:  “It has been told to you, O mortal, what is good, and what the Eternal requires of you – Only this: to do justly, and love mercy and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8)
It sounds simple.  But it is a hard thing to do.
There is no explanation in the midrash given as to why God chose this world as the one which will endure.  Just when we feel as if there is so much pain in the world; so much heartbreak we must remember that at one moment it satisfied God.  Every day of creation is a blessing which God said was good.  God placed us here to be a co-creator not necessarily because the world is good, but because we have the privilege and the opportunity to make it a better place.  Sometimes when we face the chaos of the world, the pain it can feel overwhelming.  Yet the feeling of futility and frustration can be used to guide us on our way toward a process of acknowledgement and confession. 
“The way we rebuild the word is to rebuild ourselves.  We will live by the words of Moses: Not in heaven, not overseas, but in our hearts and on our lips, shall live and grow the creative word of the Living God.” (Rabbi Freehof)

The lesson of Yom Kippur this year for me is that I am my brother’s keeper.  I am imperfect and so is he, but I will love him as I love myself and we will walk on the path of God together as a co-creator working to perfect the world with each step we take. 

Rosh Hashannah Morning 2015

Rosh Hashanah Morning 2015

Boker Tov!
So often when we think about the story of the Binding of Isaac, we focus on the actual sacrifice.  We think of Abraham tying up Isaac, we think about Isaac, who was just 16 years old according to some, willingly offering himself up; we think about the Angels coming and saying “stop!” at just the right moment.  But we don’t think about how this one event impacted those associated with it. 
Where is Sarah?  Is she aware that her life’s partner, Abraham, is about to offer up the son that she prayed and prayed for to God?  Does she loose her trust in Abraham that day, believing that he will always be there to protect her and her family? After all, how could he protect her, if he is willing to kill her son? She lost her family that fateful morning.  Specifically for Sara, though Isaac never died according to the Torah, she lost him.  In fact we learn that they never did see each other again.  There is a tradition that Sara did discover what was happening on top of Mount Mariah and it crushed her.
What about Abraham? He lost his wife; their relationship was never the same.  Not long after this event she dies. 
What about Isaac?  He seemed too scarred by this event that he did not participate significantly in the world around him again.

For the key players – Abraham, Sarah and Isaac this event was tragic.  They each lost something significant as a result of it.

NO one can say in this room that they have not lost someone or something.  Everyone has experienced loss.  Perhaps it was a loved one.  Perhaps it was a child.  Perhaps it was a loved business or perhaps it was a pet.  Perhaps it was a love.  Perhaps it was a career.  Some of us have lost money and therefore our status within society.  Others of us have lost our marriage.  More significantly as we age most of us lose our mobility and independence.  We lose trust that our body will respond the way it always had. Whatever it was for you – your health, your family, your career, or even a dream – we have all lost something we loved.
When I engage with a person or a couple in pastoral counselling, often I hear about them describe a problem.  Sometimes, I hear strong emotions like hurt and anger or betrayal.  But usually, if I work closely with them, I can find something else.  I can find what is lurking behind those emotions – what is lurking is usually a loss of some sort.
Everyone has experienced loss.  Sometimes that loss is exacerbated by feelings of entitlement.  That this was not supposed to happen to me; yet I assure you this happens to you because you are a human being and suffering is part of the human condition.
Yet we can learn things from our suffering.

The poet Irving Layton wrote:
“There were no signs”
By walking I found out
Where I was going.
By intensely hating, how to love.
By loving, whom and what to love.
By grieving, how to laugh from the belly.
Out of infirmity, I have built strength.
Out of untruth, truth.
From hypocrisy, I wove directness
Almost now I know who I am
Almost I have the boldness to be that man
Another step
And I shall be where I started from.[1]

From suffering we learn how to have compassion for others and how to understand others.  When we see that someone has suffered a loss, whether it is developmentally appropriate like watching them grow up to learn that the world is not black and white. To losing their innocence by discovering that the dream they wished, hoped and prayed for erupts before their very eyes.  We know about loss.  As we experience loss we can tap into the well of empathy and compassion we have for one another. 
We can help hold that person in the deepest bonds of love.

When I was a little girl, I would spend a week every summer visiting my grandparents.  My grandparents, I thought were the coolest – they had cable and MTV.  My mom was opposed to cable and we never had it when I was growing up.  Therefore I could watch a ton of MTV and my sister and I could have dance parties – i.e. the best time ever.
What was amazing about them was my grandfather’s love with John Wayne.  He loved almost all of his movies.  Whenever there was one on, he would watch it.  During my maternity leave, I decided to watch a John Wayne classic while walking around my living room at 1am trying to get Daniel to go to sleep.  I got to see John Wayne in all his glory.  He was the American ideal – total independence!  Yet the more I thought about John Wayne as our ideal, the more problematic that image became for me.
How could he choose to help others or have sympathy for others?  If he suffered anything, he would swallow the pain and trudge on.  In the end of the film, he would have regained what was lost; he was always in control and always won.  This, in many ways is the myth of America - that we need only rely on ourselves.  That the pain we are experiencing will make us tougher.  One of the things that we often say to each other is: “God only gives us what we can handle and that it is a test for us to pass on our own.”  But imagine if you are hearing that phrase.  How untrue it is.  Someone says it because they can’t handle that amount of pain and they want to feel separated from it. 
But that is not the Jewish way.  The Jewish model of community is something that teaches that we are supposed to rely on each other.  That we are supposed to be present with and for one another by bringing that pot of chicken soup to someone who has the flu; a food tray to a house of mourning; rocking a newborn baby so that a tired new mom could sleep.  These are things that I have seen this community do for each other.  This past winter we had an unprecedented loss that our community experienced.  Two individuals – one a past president and one someone who grew up here passed within in days of each other.  What I saw from this community was also a miracle.  People drove from one shiva minyan to the other one to ensure that there was a community presence at both places.  People held both families in loving arms.  When a few days after that, a member of our board lost his mother, again people came together to his house to help create a minyan.  When this community lost a Rabbi, the community rallied.  When the daughter of this community who became a cantor passed while still in her prime, the community rallied.  When her sister passed away, the community rallied.
Whenever this community experiences loss, this community rallies.  In spite of all of the pain of those losses, this community stood up and said:Shema Yisrael Adonai Elohanu Adonai Echad”.  “Hear oh Israel Adonai is our God, Adonai is One.”  We remembered that the letter Yain and Dalled appear larger in the Torah.  When put together they spell the word AID or witness and that we are taught to witness people’s suffering just as much as we are commanded to be present with the bride and groom and bring joy to every occasion.   When a mom in this congregation was sick and unexpectedly hospitalized, this congregation stood up to say even though you have lost your health temporarily, we are here.  Let us help take care of your children so that you can recover. 
The Jewish way is to pray and act as it says in the Talmud, “a man should always associate himself with a congregation.” (Berakhot 30a)  We cannot offer our prayers individually, but our stormy and tempestuous hearts must merge and blend into a beautiful chorus.  We must, “rise above our individual uniqueness to achieve a sense of communal unity” (Soloveitchik p. 76).  In the book of Job, we learn that one of the lessons Job understood from his suffering was how to be a member of his community.  To be present when the community suffers and celebrate the joys when the community finds happiness.  That is the meaning of the verse: Then “the Lord turned the fortune of Job, when he prayed for his friends.”(Job 42:10) 
I want to offer my own experience of this community, of how you supported me.  Some of you know that my last pregnancy was a hard one for me physically.  I was in the hospital on 4 different occasions because I had such a hard time keeping food down.  I want to say thank you for being there for my family and being so supportive.  You are amazing community!  You are a blessing to those around you!!!
One of the biggest stories of loss is the story from the Garden of Eden.  The Garden was a place of paradise where we had our needs met.  We were not wanting anything or missing anything.  Yet when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge, we as a society lost our moment in Paradise, we lost our innocence.  In a way we have always mourned that loss.  We strive to live in a feeling of utter joy and happiness all the time, to recreate the garden around us.  But God taught us that it was lost to us.  God put angels as guards to the entrance and hid the entrance to us so that we could not get back.  Do you think that the Garden of Eden ever left us or we left it?  It is still with us, though we will never be able to reenter the actual place.  That is why we have moments in our lives of absolute bliss. 
We tell each other the story of the Garden of Eden because we don’t want to accept that we will never be allowed to go back.  Yet we cannot return.
There is a before and an after.  We had something and then we lost it.  Things will never be the way they were before.  There will be a new normal. 

For victims of the Holocaust, there was life before and there was life after, and there was hell during.  How were people able to pull their life back after facing such a catastrophic tragedy?  How did they go on living after losing so much?  Did they find God or did they decide, because of all of their loss and pain, that God did not exist anymore? What is then experienced is God’s silence. 
Victor Frankel describes his reconnection with God and feeling redeemed after leaving a concentration camp. 
One day, a few days after the liberation, I walked through the country past flowering meadows, for miles and miles, toward the market town near the camp.  Larks rose to the sky and I could hear their joyous song.  There was no one to be seen for miles around; there was nothing but the wide earth and sky and the lark’s jubilation and the freedom of space.  I stopped, looked around, and up to the sky – and then I went down on my knees.  At that moment there was very little I knew of myself r the world – I had but one sentence in mind – always the same: “I called to Adonai from my narrow prison and God answered me in the freedom of space.”[2]

Rabbi Joseph Solovetchik, a modern orthodox rabbi, wrote an article offering a theology of loss. In his article he offers an understanding of the binding of Isaac by emphasizing something powerful about loss.  He taught that when God explained to Abraham what he had to do, he also explained that he would never have Isaac back again.  Therefore the Akeidat, the Binding of Isaac, challenged Abraham both in the present and in the future.  This tragedy and loss that Abraham and Sara were to undergo, therefore impacts every subsequent experience. 

When I speak to someone who has a strong belief in God, I hear someone who has a dual experience.  At various moments they feel God’s nearness while at other times experience God’s distance.  We love to say that there was a good reason for suffering, yet for many of us, loss is so terrible that no reason could possibly be given that would be good enough.  We will never understand the “why?” of suffering.  All we can do is utilize our experience by asking a different questions: “for what?”  “What was the purpose of my suffering?”

I have been privileged to walk with many of you in your loss. It has sensitized me further to concealed pain.  When I perform funerals I find myself even more appreciative of the finitude of life and value the sweetness of the present moment all the more.  Why is it that we must experience actual pain to have developed this sensitivity? Why can’t I just read about it in a book? The answer is that it must be lived!  It must be experienced because we are human beings with both an intellect and a body.  “Hesed means to merge with the other person, to identify with his pain, to feel responsible for his fate.” (Solovetchik). 
I have found that when we come together, when we arrive and are present then the Holy is with us!

I hope and pray that we are able to enjoy the present in a far sweeter way.  It is only in enjoying the present moment that we can truly become sensitive to all aspects of life.  May we be able to continue our quest to experience God, to cleave to Him, as he communicates to us through a cloud of mystery and uncertainty.   I know that somehow we will find our way through our losses, with God’s help along with the help of our community and loved ones.
May you have a shannah tovah u’metukah.  A sweet, healthy and happy new year where you are able to celebrate the joys of life and present for its sorrows while still feeling deeply connected to those around you. 




[1] Mishkan HaNefesh, Machzor for the Days of Awe, CCAR Press, New York 2015. p.35
[2] Mishkan HaNefesh, Machzor for the Days of Awe, CCAR Press, New York 2015. p.35

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Yom Kippur Morning – Israel and the US today 2015

Yom Kippur Morning – Israel and the US today 2015
An overarching theme in the Bible is a directive: “Be not afraid and be of good courage”
This past summer, while on maternity leave, I went to visit the Space and Rocket Center.  Under the Saturn V rocket they have a wonderful exhibit on the history of the space program in Huntsville.  They also have a bridge that was built to connect between the tower and the rocket.  The bridge they have there is #8.  When I saw that, I understood it to mean that there were seven bridges built before it.  Before they even got to building bridge #8, there were sketches and drawings, discussions and debates about wire locations, light locations, types of metal to be used and so forth.  It took NASA many, many, many tries before making up one small part of the mission which would send humans into space. 
I also saw a piece of paper where all the engineers who worked on the construction of the Saturn V signed their name.  What an extraordinary list of people.  It was not just Werner Van Braun; there were many people who each contributed something special.  Perhaps some of you in this room helped in some significant way. 
What I saw in the bridge and in the piece of art was that it takes a committed group of people, working toward a vision of something greater than themselves to be able to build a bridge together, walk across it and achieve something incredible.
Building a bridge is something extraordinary; it takes courage to want to move from one side to another side.  It is scary to go across it. Rebbe Nahman taught, kol haolam kulo gesher tzar meod, “the whole world is like a very narrow bridge,” v’haikar lo l’fahed, “and the main thing is not to fear.” 
Yet we are afraid.  We as a Jewish community are fearful of many things.  We are fearful that we are becoming assimilated.  We are fearful that our youth are losing engagement with Israel.  We are fearful that Iran will develop nuclear weapons and use them against Israel. 
I am not an expert on weapons, many of you in this room work directly in this field every day, and therefore perhaps you are the ones who should be expressing a view about the Iran Deal.  Some of us have lobbied on behalf of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) by expressing concern that the Iran deal might “facilitate rather than prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and would further entrench and empower the leading state sponsor of terror.”[1]  Rabbi Rick Block, a past president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, explains:
“Under prior legislation, most sanctions on Iran were to sunset only when the president certified to Congress that Iran no longer provides support for acts of international terrorism and has ‘ceased the pursuit, acquisition, and development of, and verifiably dismantled, its nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and ballistic missiles and ballistic missile launch technology.’ The deal accomplishes none of these goals. Rather, Iran receives as much as $150 billion in frozen assets, will reap immense profits from post-sanctions commerce, and can spend as much as it will to promote terrorism. Much of its nuclear infrastructure remains intact and it can continue R&D in weaponization….Administration officials initially promised a deal would include "anytime, anywhere" inspections. This one does no such thing. Instead, a cumbersome, convoluted process to address Iranian violations provides ample time to conceal most kinds of evidence.”[2]

While there are others of us who believe that while this deal is far from perfect it is the best viable option.  J-Street, one such Jewish organization issued this statement:
 “[This] agreement…is the best chance for keeping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon…. It creates the most rigorous, intrusive inspection regime in history. It opens Iran’s program to the light of day, keeping illicit military uses off the table. It protects the international sanctions regime, allowing them to snap back into place if Iran cheats. It puts a long-term, lasting end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. And it cripples Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, blocking every pathway to a bomb.”[3] 

“The agreement prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon for 10-15 years,” said Eran Etzion, Former Deputy Head of the Israel National Security Council, “this agreement is not about trust, it’s about verification.” Former Mossad Director Efraim Halevy added, “Without an agreement, Iran will be free to act as it wishes, whereas the sanctions regime against it will crumble in any case…if the nuclear issue is of cardinal existential importance, what is the point of canceling an agreement that distances it from the bomb?”[4] 
Only history will know the answer of which side of the argument was right but I am concerned about several things that have happened as a result and some things which have happened during this debate to the American Jewish Community. 
There has been a slow forming alignment of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with the Republican Party.  Perhaps it started innocently with a personality disagreement between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, but it has devolved into insults as each has attempted to throw the other under the bus in political situations. The problem is that Israel should not be aligned with either political party.  What AIPAC has done successfully for so many years is ensure that it worked across party lines for the betterment of the relationship between the US and Israel.  If Israel is seen as a partisan issue than we, the Jewish community loose. 
Even more troubling though has been how we have treated each other.  Rabbinic colleagues of mine who came out for or against the deal were accused of supporting or not supporting the Jewish community.  I received a phone call from a congregant, wanting to know my position on the deal and why I had not signed any petition.  They had gone online and checked.  I also received a troubling email from a congregant after I shared my feelings on the deal.  Instead of recognizing that we could both be right and both be wrong at the same time, they proceeded to send me emails trying to get me to change my position.  We must put aside partisan politics and adopt the attitude of partnership.
My position is irrelevant.  I am the spiritual leader of this community.  I am here to help you become better people, to walk with you in troubling times, celebrate with you at joyous occasions and provide Torah based advice.  I am not an expert on foreign affairs or affairs in the Middle East – though I am an avid reader on both topics and as many of you know, I love politics as a source of entertainment.
While I do expect people to project their insecurities on me or on rabbis in general, we as a rule, try to be forgiving, non-judgmental and understanding people, what really surprised me was the level of people’s emotions.  One of my friends was accused on social media of being a Nazi, a fascist and an Arab-lover because he had spoken for the deal.  Colleagues of mine in Florida described people truly forming sides around the issue and not being supportive toward one another.  While other colleagues of mine, who were supportive of the deal, were accused of being “Netanyahu’s marionettes,” “warmongers,” or “traitors.”
When New York Senator Charles Schumer came out this summer opposed to the deal he was accused on CNN of taking that stance because he benefitted from it financially.  His major supporters were opposed to the deal and so he should agree with them after all he is Jewish.  He was not believed to have come to that conclusion after a careful and deliberate consideration on his own.  I believe that it took courage for him to take that stance. 
We have cut each other down on social media, in public forums and lambasted each other in conversations.  We are not listening to all members of our community, some of whom believe and trust the President for seeing things we do not.  While others feel strongly that the President is wrong and that he has declared war on the State of Israel. 
OK, now what?!?!  The debate about the deal is over.  The deal, for good or bad is what is going to happen.
We need to become friends again with each other and reach across a bridge. 
During Talmudic times, the House of Hillel and the House of Shammai often competed with each other as to who was correct in understanding various points of Jewish law.  Each group would say they were correct.  Yet God spoke and answered the debate by saying:  “Eilu v’eilu divrei Elokim chayim -- These words AND those words are the BOTH the words of the living God.”[5] Even though both sides are competing, according to GOD they are both right.  Both offer wisdom and insight -- and we can learn from both.

One of my colleagues shared this poem on the CCAR Facebook page:
“The Place Where We Are Right” by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai

From the place where we are right
flowers will never grow
in the spring.

The place where we are right
is hard and trampled
like a yard.
But doubts and loves
dig up the world
like a mole, a plough.

And a whisper will be heard in the place
where the ruined
house once stood.

If we both believe we are right, than nothing lives there because we will destroy each other to prove a point.  We need to come together!  We need to once again build a bridge and see our neighbor sitting next to us in this community, reach out our hand and love that person. 
Since that the deal has gone through, I recently read an article in the Atlantic Magazine which offered a global perspective to the Iran Deal.
It pointed out that Lufthansa Magazine for touring suggested: “Teheran in a Day” in its most recent issue.  It featured a cafĂ© for young lovers, fortune telling birds, contemporary art, film and cuisine and the parkour girls of Abo Atash Park. By the way, these girls have been featured in The Guardian, on YouTube and in New York Magazine.  It argued that European, Chinese and Russian companies are happy to export business, purchase oil and engage in educational exchanges.  Whether we like it or not, the world is ready to embrace Iran again.[6] 
While it seems clear that Israel will be the country to pay the price for a more belligerent Iran, this is perhaps an area where the interests of the United States and the interests of Israel diverge.  President Obama seems focused since he came to power to realize the limitations of what the US can still do on the world’s stage after having struggled already in two protracted conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.   He wants to build coalitions and believes that use of the military is not the best option.  Perhaps he is right.  Perhaps he is wrong. 
We need to lobby congress to continue its support of Israel regardless of party affiliations.  In the face of a growing refuge crisis in the Middle East, where Russia may become the deal broker of a peace in Syria, Israel may become even more marginalized.  It is our obligation to make sure that does not happen.  We must encourage our leaders to view Israel not as a partisan issue, but an issue which affects all of us.  While Israel has come a long way from its fledgling days when the country started, it still needs an advocate and an ally now more than ever.
To accomplish this task we must continue the fight against the boycott, divestment and sanction movement which is strongest on many college campuses across this country.  We must work with our confirmation class students to give them the tools to be able to speak in an educated voice on this topic for Israel.  In Europe, where Israel is largely falsely accused of being an apartied state and abusing the Palestinians, we need to work against that image.  The United Nations has just agreed to hang a Palestinian flag among the flags of other global nations against the protest of the United States and Israel.[7]  Reykjavik Iceland voted to boycott all Israeli products until Israel is out of the “occupied territories” and then retracted that vote two days later.  The world community is not silent about the issue with the Palestinians and Israel is losing the PR battle.  Israel is seen as the aggressor in a conflict which is much broader than the Israelis or the Palestinians, but encompasses much of the Middle East. 
There is still much work to do. 
We will not be right all the time.  Some of the battles that we will choose to fight will not have the result we desire.  There will be times when we need to simply go back to the drawing board and sketch another bridge as we go across deep and treacherous chiasm. 
But as NASA had to go through many designs, so too do we need to make mistakes before building something correct. There is no getting this perfect; there is no getting it exactly right.  From each person we can learn something and become wiser. 
Ben Zoma says:
  Who is wise?
  The one who learns from every person…
  Who is brave?
  The one who subdues his negative inclination…
  Who is rich?
  The one who is appreciates what he has…
  Who is honored?
  The one who gives honor to others…
  (Talmud - Avot 4:1)
May we be able to learn from each other together to grow as a community and support Israel.  After, if we won’t speak for Israel, then who will. 
Or in the words of Hillel the Elder
If I am not for myself, who is? And when I am for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”-Hillel (Perikei Avot 1:4) 




[1] http://www.aipac.org/learn/resources/aipac-publications/publication?pubpath=PolicyPolitics/Press/AIPAC%20Statements/2015/07/AIPAC%20Statement%20on%20Proposed%20Iran%20Nuclear%20Agreement
[2] http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/250950-deal-or-no-deal
[3] http://act.jstreet.org/sign/tell-congress-support-deal/?akid=
[4]http://www.jewishjournal.com/rabbijohnrosovesblog/item/many_israeli_experts_believe_the_iran_deal_is_a_supportable_deal_despite_it
[5] Eruvin 13b
[6] http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/08/the-normalization-of-iran-another-view-from-israel/402562/
[7] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/11/world/middleeast/general-assemblyvote-lets-palestinians-fly-flag-at-un-headquarters.html?ref=topics&_r=0