Times for Restorative Thinking About Each Other and Ourselves

This past week was Parshat Acherei Mot-Kedoshim in the rhythm and cycle of Torah readings in the Jewish community. Sandwiched between chapters focused on the irreverent and immoral practices of two other peoples, the Jewish nation are told “You shall be sanctified and special because I the Lord your God am Sanctified (Kadosh).” This particular Chapter 19 of Leviticus/VaYikra is, we are told the middle of the Torah, the Five Books of Moses. The phrase “And you shall show love towards the other similar to yourself” is in the middle of this chapter, surrounded by injunctions such as to not place a stumbling block before the blind (that he cannot see), not to curse the deaf (who cannot hear your words), not to pervert justice, not to stand idly by while your friend or neighbor is so hurt, not to hold a grudge, to pay your workers on time and so many other dictates, including to “not hate your brother in your heart,” in the same spirit as loving the other as yourself. These actions are not easy, in fact they are the 24/7 stuff of which our daily lives are composed.

It is much more difficult to live by these all-pervasive laws and principles then specifics about what we eat, how we observe the Shabbat day and so forth. We are taught by Hillel that this love towards the other is a(THE)large foundational principle of all else found in Torah. It is this love, this concern, this empathy that I see compromised in our world too often today.

In a Shiyur I give weekly to a wonderful group of third through fifth grade day schools students, we are presently learning Beresheet (Genesis), Chapter 14 with all of the commentaries about the war between the kings of five different nations on one side and four national entities on the other side. It is a power struggle gone haywire. The kids know well that the kings are not behaving properly. In a second shiyur I give weekly to an amazing group of first and second grade day school students, we study the Weekly Portion – Parshat HaShavuah. There we were learning about this coming week’s reading, Parshat Emor. We were talking about the many restrictions on the Kohanim – the Priests who were the leaders invested with the preservation and facilitation of the religious praxis of the Jewish nation. We were discussing why so many restrictions were placed on the Kohanim in their personal lives. Within that discussion, we compared it to instances where there are not restrictions and leaders lapse into the well-known adage “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This finding was also noted in the power struggle being studied by our older group. In the younger group, one of the students remarked, “just like presidents today.” Touche!

This morning, I was listening to Morning Joe and a discussion about President Biden. They were discussing how transformative he might be or not be able to be. I got the feeling they were searching for the right word and the word RESTORATIVE popped into my head. That is what I think he is trying to do – be restorative, reminding us of corrupt practices and how they hurt others as well as the bad actors displaying them – reminding us to care about others, to not exact revenge, to not place stumbling blocks, curse and demean others, ignore the suffering of those around us. I do subscribe to the idea that is taught by so many of all faiths that if one suffers, all suffer. You cannot dig a hole under your seat in the boat and be upset that others are complaining – after all, your hole is not under their seats, right?

We all need to go back to the basics because the boiling point of hostility, hatred, ignoring the rights of others and so much else that are hallmarks of civilized people has been reached and is wreaking havoc in our lives. We must all consider that this boat we are all on is in danger and so too are we. We must understand that the message of Chapter 19 of Leviticus/VaYikra is that sanctity and the status of Kedusha is not a given, but must be earned through our positive and restorative actions. That is the only way we will achieve this aspirational status. Our leaders need to act to restore our sense of humanity for all human beings and groups, and we need to join them in doing so. Otherwise, we will continue this descent into the world of those who practice corrupt ways to the detriment of all. Our lives matter and depend on this! Do your part, please.