THE LAW OF THE LAND IS THE LAW – AND THAT MEANS YOU TOO

One of the things I do is cheerlead for religion. As an observant and dedicated practitioner of Judaism, I truly believe that the foundational principles and the dictates of Jewish practice have the potential to truly bring out the best in each of us. I find the same to be the case for my friends and colleagues of Christian, Moslem and other communities of faith. That being said we have a problem, and succinctly stated, here it is. There are those who are members of all of our faith traditions who believe that by observing what they consider to be the “letter of the law,” they are exempt from its spirit or any other system of law which may be relevant to their lives – including civil law, laws of humanity and so forth. In so doing, they may not even be following the letter of the law, but that is an entirely longer and more complicated conversation. Too many stories. We all know the unfortunate barrage of narrative of sexual abuse, tax evasion, misappropriation of funds intended for a stated purpose in our religious communities and so forth. There is the self-proclaimed fervently religious individual who sets himself up as a paradigm of all that is right and correct in life who proceeds to build a huge house in a township and proudly states with a laugh, “I have broken every ordinance they have. We got around them.” Then there are the honorees in religiously observant communities who absolutely use public funds inappropriately or do not properly report income and skirt their taxes. There are the communities that push sexual misconduct under the rug and coerce people to let the community deal with the problem so as not to “harm” the community. Business dealings in our non-profit religious organizations that occur between a religious leader, who is an employee, and the board that governs the community of faith. All of these are seriously problematic, both from a legal point of view as well as from the religious perspective as well. In Jewish teachings, we learn that “dina d’malchuta dina” -- the law of the land is the law! That is to say that NO OBSERVANT JEW is exempt from being a totally honest and law-abiding citizen. This standard is also held by my colleagues mentioned above in their respective communities. No wonder too many people turn away from what they observe as the blatant hypocrisy of religious communities. While I totally understand their angst, and cannot say they are wrong, I do believe that we all need to step back and remember that there is never any guarantee that this Priest or that Rabbi or another Pastor or youth leader, just because they are working within the context of the religious sphere necessarily lives according to the proper codes of conduct. Yes, there is way too much “hiding under the cloak,” so to speak. So how do we address this problem, especially in our present climate where more and more passes seem to be given to those in authority or those who “seem to be” so religious? We learn in our Jewish teachings to choose your own mentor (Rabbi or leader) and to acquire for yourself a friend to share your journey. Here is the answer. We need to ask ourselves who are our role models and be careful NOT to yield to what may “seem to be Kosher,” if you will, but rather insure that you are associated with those who are, as we learn in Jewish texts, “tam v’yasher” – or truly and completely honest and acting with integrity. If we can do this for ourselves and empower those around us NOT to assume but to ask questions and choose carefully, very carefully, then perhaps we will be able to truly help our various faith communities put all that they are and the wonderful lessons they teach out there for all to see.

THE CONTINUATION OF SPECIAL and THOUGHTFUL DAYS IN THE JEWISH CALENDAR

I write this on the eve of Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Memorial Day in the Jewish calendar, which comes precisely four days after the end of Pesach/Passover, when we celebrate FREEDOM and its many gifts as well as challenges. We all go to ceremonies, light candles, listen to survivors tell their story and say NEVER AGAIN – never again should such a horrid event occur. Then a mere week later, we observe and celebrate Yom HaZikaron – Israel’s Memorial Day and Yom HaAtzmaut – Israel’s Independence Day. Wrapped up in these two observances which come on two consecutive days is the particular admixture of our losses, namely those who have died in defending Israel, along with the celebration of Israel being a recognized, powerful and in many ways remarkable entity in our world today. But this did not just happen and it is critically important that we are always mindful of the many different elements in our lives and how they interact with each other, often in complicated and extremely protracted ways, reflecting a most delicate balance and ever-present vulnerablity.

Earlier today, when I was learning with my favorite second graders at Perelman Jewish Day School, I asked the students to think about the aftermath of leaving Egypt and all that we discussed in learning about Pesach/Passover. In doing so, I made two columns on the board, one named YISRAEL and the other named MITZRAYIM. I then asked them to think of words to describe each. We began as one might expect, with the clearly identified good guys (Yisrael/Israel) and the bad guys (Mitzrayim/Egypt). For Yisrael, the kids used the descriptive terms of NICE, KIND, HARD WORKING, TRUSTING IN GOD, CARING ABOUT EACH OTHER and so on. For MITZRAYIM, such words were elicited as BAD, MEAN, POWERFUL, SELFISH, RUDE, and such. Then at one point, one child shouted out US for YISRAEL. At that point, I had achieved what I wanted. Within this time frame, one kid asked “Weren’t there any Egyptians that were nice?” Then we were really off to the races for what I wanted to convey to these very wise seven and eight year olds. We spoke about how this is NOT always an issue that can simply be reduced to GOOD guys and BAD guys but in actuality, we all have the potential to be either and elements of both are included in the complexity of who we are as human beings. We can turn too easily to the default position of I AM GOOD and THE OTHER IS BAD, whatever that may mean. That being said, this reduces humanity to what it is not – singular and easily caricatured. …

Okay, so now it is mid-Thursday and I have attended Yom HaShoah programs and taught a class about what it means to be a perpetrator or a bystander and go on with your life while terrible things happen. In preparing my class, I used a particularly chilling source which included excerpts from Daniel Goldhagen’s book, Worse than War, which shows in a carefully and skillfully constructed argument how the behaviors of a perpetrator can seep into the most cautious of us and how we, the GOOD people, can become part of what is VERY BAD and wrong. He shows how the Nazi perpetrators among many others in various atrocities were good family men, went to church, loved their families and participated in the very human actions that they told themselves were not part of the lives of those they wished to annihilate. It was precisely through this process of dehumanization that people “joined the party,” so to speak, and were complicit in the horrors that have occurred, both in the events today commemorates, and in too many cases since then.

While it is clear that those of us who see ourselves as honest, caring and good people want to (and need to) distance ourselves from what is evil, it is important to recognize its presence and to understand and feel our own vulnerability to its pull. I feel that this is the case in the country in which I live at this time. While rhetoric has reached an increasingly high pitch, and the most bizarre statements are made by the person, who supposedly represents this country and its ideals to the world – too many have reduced what is a clear and present danger to comic and dismissive antics. TOO MUCH IS AT STAKE.

In a few days when Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut are observed with solemnity and then celebrated with joy in Israel, the joining of the messages – the visceral participation in a nation wide moment of silence where cars literally stop on the highway and everyone gets out and stands at attention, similar to what happened today, will lead to the parties and the streamers and the joy of celebrating seventy years of the Third Commonwealth of the State of Israel. BUT, and this is a most important qualifier – NO ONE will not be mindful of the losses that led to that victory – both when the world realized that Jews were not safe in Europe too late and in the loss of life that birthed this country, with its good points and not-there-yet points.

I would ask that Americans take a card from Israel’s national playbook. We CAN NO LONGER afford to glibly allow that adage of old reoccur, namely that evil happens when good people do nothing. We must all act! We must all remember! We must ALL understand that if one is vulnerable and threatened we are all vulnerable and threatened! If some are not free, we are all not yet free! Only when we understand this, can we say NEVER Again (recently co-opted by just such a movement of threatened populous in the United States) and truly mean it!