Looking Forward and So Now, What? Lessons For This Moment from Jewish Teachings

I have been worried. I have been sad. I have actually been devastated. This is why. It is not necessarily because of recent events. As horrifying as they are, they do not surprise me. I see and acknowledge the trajectory that has taken us to this point. I know that the USA that I see myself and my family as being part of is not the same, by a long shot, for many that are part of this collective. What I find profoundly frustrating is that common decency, the most basic elements of civil conversations, the lack of trust and the abject fear of each other have reached excessive heights to the point of crushing so much that is good and right about who we are supposed to be, no matter how much we fall short of that in reality at any point in time.

When I am in pain, I turn to the teachings that bolster me – those of my Jewish faith and our foundational texts – that teach us how to intentionally live in this world. Here are some of these powerful concepts that are mulling around in my head these days. Why can’t we all agree to follow these most basic elements as we negotiate disagreements and even opposing ways of looking at our world. As I often say, if we do not all learn how to play nicely on the one playground we have – this earth – there will be no playground for any of us.

EVERY HUMAN BEING IS CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD – Rabbi Harold Kushner and so many others teach that human beings are the language of God. God created all in our world and it is noted that after each piece of Creation “God looked and said It is good.” After the Creation of the human being, God said “It is very good.” Unfortunately, a bit later in the narrative reflected in the Torah, God regrets making the human being. God has to recalibrate expectations of this individual with free will whom God created just in that matter, hoping for the best perhaps and realizing that we are bound to fall short. If we will fall short of God’s expectations, how much more so this is true amongst us in the human family. Nonetheless, God created and is part of each of us and will continue to be the case no matter who may want to deny this is so. It is our responsibility to figure this human family thing out and I believe God cries tears when we do not. We are taught not to embarrass or hurt each other because we are in fact doing the same to The One Who Created Us All.

AND GOD SAID TO CAIN, WHERE IS YOUR BROTHER? --- How should I know, am I my brother’s keeper, glibly responds Cain. The answer is YES we are each other’s keeper, each other’s guard, each other’s protector. As we have learned when any one of us refuse to take that role on and put any single person or group at risk in doing so, we are ALL at risk. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z’l often said, if we do not stand up for any group that is being threatened or maligned, then we have no right to expect that others will do the same for us. We have to understand each other, accept our differences and realize that at times we just will have to agree to disagree. If we cannot do this, as we read in this particular text in Beresheet/Genesis, “the bloods (of those we kill) will cry out from the ground.”

DESTROY AMALEK AND NEVER FORGET … -- Many commentators point out that this is not about the enemy outside of ourselves as much as the enemy inside us. The animus that brings humanity down to a state of inhumane actions is ultimately what will destroy all of us. When we persecute the weak or shout down the one with whom we disagree we destroy the very human part of all of us, that image of God that is the soul found inside of us. What Amalek did was to go after those who did not have a chance when they were vulnerable no different than other instances in which the stronger one took advantage of the one who needed their support, not their enmity. This is always a challenge whether we evoke the actions of Shimon and Levi towards the people of Shechem or those of any group who has the advantage over others who are compromised. We can all succumb to anger, to hatred, to forgetting that the “other” is just as human as we are. The very challenge that marks us as humans is when we rise above that to see the humanity in the other, whether that person is our friend or adversary. As Beruriah, an important woman in our Talmud said to her husband, Rabbi Meir, when he wanted God to destroy two people who were “evil” to him, “No do not pray for the destruction of people, pray for the obliteration of the evil that exists within us.”

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. – The Hebrew word for neighbor RE’AH is also the rooted word for that which is “not good” (necessarily). Some define it simply as “bad” but this is missing the point, for we are taught that it is the RA in each of us that sparks creativity – that says “all is not right or ‘very good’” and needs our attention. That being said, sometimes our initiatives come from a good or complete place and sometimes from a not completely good place, but no matter, we are to cherish all that we are. In this, we all have that inside of us which is good and complete and that which is not. When we are instructed to love the other or our neighbor as one’s self, we are being told to embrace that which is good and that which is not as good both in our own beings and in others. There are many other words that could have been used in this dictum – friend, brother, etc. but I think that the choice of this particular word teaches us that no one of us is completely good and finished and we are all on a journey, on which we will only be successful if we reach out and accept others, both those with whom we agree and those with whom we disagree.

DEATH AND LIFE ARE THE PRODUCT OF THE WORDS WE USE – This statement from Mishlei/Proverbs is worded very specifically. Note what comes first – the harm we can do with our words. The purpose of this wording is to give us pause – to, as the saying goes, THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK. As the Chofetz Chayim (a very wise Jewish teacher and thinker from years ago) teaches – ask yourself – What am I saying? What is the other person hearing? Why am I saying it? Is the way I am saying it appropriate in accomplishing a properly thought through goal? Will the person to whom I am saying it hear it? Then we are taught if we cannot answer these questions constructively, better to be silent. We MUST, according to Maimonides, consider words as actions, given what can evolve because of them, and proceed accordingly.

DO NOT STAND IDLY BY THE BLOOD OF YOUR NEIGHBOR – Remember what the words we speak can do. We have learned repeatedly that bystanders and those that do nothing enable evil and all that is not good to prevail. When another person is hurting or in pain, we are to act, NOT exacerbate that pain with words that can cause death or in acting from a power position as Amalek did. We are to feel invested in each other. We cannot say “I don’t know, am I my brother’s keeper?” as Cain did. All of this causes us pain and causes Our Creator pain. If we do not stand up for others in compromised positions, then as Rabbi Sacks stated, we will suffer alone. This is not what God wants, but in observing that unfortunately, to do these things is too much part of human nature, God regrets the creation of the human being.

I finish this writing on January 20, 2021, two weeks after a horrible attack on ALL OF US. We do not have to agree, clearly, we do not and will not – that IS our human nature and our CHOICE. BUT, we must come to an understanding that we have to use our words, our agency, our actions, and search our souls so that we can truly be the language of God we are meant to be. I am feeling a bit better this morning – a bit more hopeful – a bit less devastated – because I believe that we in the United States will now be led by a voice that understands we will not all agree. That leader will not mock the disabled, make disparaging comments about various religious groupings, call people of honor names, destroy verbally those who disagree with him, and not give hearing to those who disagree with him. As I write this, Joe Biden is in church praying for strength, praying for direction, praying that the best in him and the best in us will prevail. May God help all of us. May God to whom we all pray, whatever name we use to evoke God, protect us and remind us to be the best of humanity not the worst of inhumane treatment. May God bless America and all of the people that make it up and destroy the evil that lurks amongst all so that we can all be the best we can be!