Shavuot D'var Torah 5779

Please note that this was my D'var Torah at our shul Mekor Habracha this past Monday morning, the second day of Shavuot.

Thursday morning, I was thinking about this D’var Torah and how I wanted to share something that is a very important part of my professional and personal life, namely my work as an academic and facilitator in the world of Interfaith Dialogue and Learning. It felt to me, that as we celebrate Torah and its teachings and look at the world around us and the lack of understanding of “the other and each other” that continues to affront us in the barrage of too many troublesome situations, this was an important facet of my life to share with you. Namely, in my work with clergy, academics, and people of other faiths, I find respect and regard while we celebrate what we share and acknowledge and hold sacrosanct those specific practices and beliefs in which we appropriately differ.

Then after mulling this around a bit, I opened my email, usually the first thing I do when I begin my day of learning, work and play. And I found the following from a cherished colleague and valued friend:

Sunnie, During the meeting yesterday, we got onto the topic of Shavuot and you mentioned staying up all night to study/discuss "everything," I suppose related to Torah?

I'm leading the usual Bible study at St. Peter's on Sunday about Pentecost/Shavuot, so will discuss both with the group. They coincide in the calendar this year!

I came across this in a book: "stay up the entire night. . .studying and discussing a small section from each portion of the Torah." How do you do that?

Larry Sibley ( lecturer in practical theology at Reformed Episcopal Seminary, Blue Bell, PA, and visiting professor and faculty liaison at Baltic Reformed Theological Seminary, in Riga, Latvia).

So, this is where I will begin. How do we as B’nai Yisrael, also B’nai Avraham, along with others, best honor the Torah we celebrate on this Chag, besides seeing how late we can stay up and remain somewhat coherent while eating cheesecake? What is the foundational teaching and tone of that Torah and its dictates that we so cherish? Is it the very mid-point of VaYikra in Parshat Kedoshim where we read about how to treat people in our world, including loving the other as oneself? Is it found in the Tochecha we read last week, echoed a bit in today’s Haftarah reading from Habbakuk in tone about what happens when everything goes wrong and we do not abide by Torah and listen to God? Is it found in the final teachings of Sefer Vayikra we just completed during the last two weeks, including reminders yet again not to mistreat the GER amongst us whoever that may be, to not cheat, to care for the environment, be a good and contributing member of community, and of course, to remember that God is always with us and in us; holding us accountable? Obviously, it is all of this and so much more!

I feel an ongoing obligation to consider that as we sit here together today and these past two days to explore our intrinsic and hopefully intentional connection to the Torah and its teachings, we should also remember that unlike the world into which it was introduced, today we share these teachings with many others, specifically the Children of Avraham, namely the three monotheistic groupings of Jews, Christians/Catholics, and Muslims.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks often states that we must be in conversation with and maintain relationships with our other faith communities and their members. He also leads the way in doing just that, and this is one of the many reasons I am such a fan of his. In that tone, let me return to Larry’s email. Yes, we are experiencing a shared time of increased reflection and observance as well as celebration with our other monotheist siblings. Our Muslim brothers and sisters in faith just finished Ramadan. While we celebrate Shavuot, our Christian friends observe the Pentcostal. We are all celebrating and holding ourselves accountable to the One and Only One God, albeit with different nuances and elements. We are all the children of Avraham –Abraham-Ibrahim. And we Jews happen to be the oldest child, often not such an enviable position. Maybe that is why we often feel that we may be held to a higher degree of accountability in terms of facilitating a process by which the family gets along.

The week before last, I had the honor of planning one and speaking at two IFTAR dinners, one in Elkins Park, where our home and so much of our lives happens; and here in the city, where our hearts are and we actually appear as well. As part of the first IFTAR dinner, I shared the following from my Gemara learning a while back, as it related to the notion that we learn more about each other and share the experiences we can, without compromising our own faith and practices:

In the Talmud, a seminal text of Jewish law and practice, in Tractate Avodah Zarah, there is an extensive discussion about leather wine bags that were conventionally used in the ancient world to store and carry wine, and their permissibility for use by Jews if they had been used by non-Jews to store their wine. While this may seem rather inconsequential and a strange topic for this evening, the lengthy negotiations of the Rabbis regarding this topic are quite instructive and highly relevant to our gathering. The challenge addressed is both one of limits in terms of what was permissible for the Jews, given their dietary restrictions and purposes of use of wine, as well as one of respect and understanding that other religious groupings and people had other uses for wine that were not included Jewish practice, and as we know, some groups do not use libations at all.

What I found particularly interesting about this discussion is the assumption prompting the discourse. Namely, that the Jews and other people around them had ongoing contact, interacted with each other and understood that one person’s worship and use for libations was not the same as that of another in their worship. This notion is not lost on us in terms of all aspects of our practice, including differences amongst us, including various ways of refraining from the pleasures of life (including observance of fast days and days of restrictions for Jews, Ramadan for Muslims, Lent for Christians, etc.) which will differ amongst our groups but the shared notion of doing so should engender a sense of connection to one another.

In other words, this discussion about the permissibility of how to store wine and insure it was permitted for use was not about fear, exclusion, negating the existence of the other or any type of disrespect; rather, it was about how far do we go in interacting with each other while maintaining the integrity of our respective distinct identities. Parenthetically, in another part of this discussion, there are lengthy negotiations about doing business with other people in different communities during their festivals and days of observance, noting that we should all honor and respect each other at such times, while maintaining certain respectable distances as appropriate.

An offered conclusion in one stream of this discussion was that if the wineskins are new, the bags may be used for Kosher wine after use by others, for the wine from previous use had not permeated the bag and thus altered the state or the taste of the wine to be used for Jewish practice, which was the actual concern. This was not the case regarding old wine skins, that had become more supple and less resistant to the absorption of what they contained, thus taking on elements of the wine that had been already placed there, and as a result, not permissible for use by the Jewish members of the community. In this discussion of sharing and interaction, here there are limits that insure the distinct identity of each group part of the gathering. What a wonderful lesson in maintaining the character of who we each are while joining others in creating spaces of sharing such as this beautiful space this evening.

In our world today, imagine if we would all live by the foundational teachings of all of our religious traditions which teach • Love your neighbor as yourself - • Do not make war with other nations, turn your swords into plowshares - • Every human being is created in the image of God - • Do not embarrass or hurt another, for if you do so, you are embarrassing and maligning God -

Among my most treasured belongings are a German/Hebrew Tanach and Siddur both published in the late nineteenth century in Germany. Allow me to share with you how they came into my possession. My parents had dear friends, Gibby and Gladys Stahl. They were generational German Protestants and lived through the horrors of World War II on the other side, albeit with conflicted and disappointed feelings regarding what happened in their own faith communities, regarding Jews, people with various physical challenges, gay people and the others that were targeted for persecution, with of course the Jews singled out for extinction. These two books were found in a stockpile somewhere and given to the Stahls as “souvenirs” of this people called Jews. They did not know what to do with them… until they met my parents, the first Jews with whom they had ever had contact, and ultimately to become among their closest friends. Uncle Gibby, as we knew him, gave these books to my parents and said “I think this will mean something to you.” First of all, I am amazed that he held onto these important “survivors” for as long as he did as they did not have meaning for him. And now, I have them in my library – to remind my family and those in my home and to act as witnesses both to what happens when we forget to act the way HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants us to act towards each other and also what happens when people can be kind and patient enough to learn from each other. This is one of the stories that comes to mind when I think of my parents and the legacy they left me, most appropriate today as we prepare to say Yitzkor and bring to mind all of Klal Yisrael, including our past generations.

We know this is such a central part of our task and Tafkid (purpose) as observant Jews – to include, think of, and act on behalf of others. Even amidst our Torah reading today as we recount the obligations and observances connected to the Shalosh Regalim (three pilgrimage festivals), we are reminded that while we rejoice, we are to assure that our families, our servants, the Levite, the Ger, orphan, widow and all in our cities are to be included. We must be kind to the other, we are commanded to include the other, and today, Rabbi Sacks would have us speak, celebrate and learn with all others and ultimately to realize that as people of faith, we share much more than we may think. On this particular topic, the traditions that have informed the generations of all Children of Abraham do agree and we should not be sidetracked by those who would have us believe otherwise.

Chag Shavuot Sameach to all.