All week long I’ve wondered what I would write about…..would
I talk about the Mishkan and the prescription for building an edifice that
would allow G-d to live among the people….or would I talk about the increase in
anti-Semitic incidences across the United States within the last several weeks.
Personally, I decided I could not shy away from the latter
topic, because whether I like it or not, every time I walk into this building
or enter the threshold of my home, I worry
about what is going on all over this nation.
Every time I hear a news report about cemeteries that have been
desecrated or JCC’s or other Jewish institutions that have faced bomb threats,
I cannot help but feel that somehow the safety net that Jews have felt in
America over the recent past is now weakening.
You may or may not realize this, but the Temple had a bomb
threat last spring and it was at that time that Marcia Kushner, Gary Hill, Seth
Harris, and I met with members of the ADL and homeland security as well as our
own police force to ascertain how to go about beefing up the security of our
building. Now it’s true that the Temple’s
threat was eventually traced only to a single-acting teen in Illinois who was
calling up Jewish institutions and leaving threatening messages, yet it brought
about for us a heightened awareness that we should not be lax about our own
security. We have attempted to put into
place a security plan and to bring the Lincoln Jewish Community School on board
with its details. We have now installed
security cameras, and we already had a second door lock with a code and a
policy of using only one entrance so we can monitor who enters the
building. Do we have more to do to make
our plan complete, absolutely, and this will be addressed at an upcoming board
meeting, but to be honest each of the details of the plan is merely a proper
way to react if things should ever go awry.
Is there anything that this Jewish community can do to
ensure that anti-Semites don’t pick us as their targets? Is there anything that we members of a Jewish
community can say to our non-Jewish friends in the community about what
we’d like them to do to help us in times
when hatred seems so vocal? In a few
minutes I will let you share your thoughts about this. But for right now, I’d like to explore the
types of conversations that I have heard going on amongst Jews I know which
bring me great concern.
The 9th day of Adar, is known on the Jewish
calendar as the day two thousand years ago when healthy disagreements between
Jews became destructive and no longer were existent for the sake of
Heaven. The 9th of Adar falls
on Monday night/Tuesday this week. The
destructive disagreements of 2,000 years ago forgot the way in which the
principle within Judaism known as tochecha, was to be carried out.
Tochecha means offering rebuke when you believe an
individual’s behavior should be challenged. “The principles for offering rebuke
encourage us to engage with the other in a learning conversation. They suggest
beginning with understanding the other side’s story and perspective. How did
the other person understand the incident or interaction? Did they know their
behavior would hurt you? What values or priorities were at play for them? Is it
possible that you misinterpreted the situation? The answers to these questions
emerge only from hearing their side of the story (Ibn Ezra on Leviticus 19:17).”
“Once we have heard the other side’s story, we must share
our own in a way that can be heard. If we can explain it clearly, respectfully
and at the right time and place, the hope is that the other side will learn and
grow, perhaps resulting in an apology or acts of teshuvah (repentance) (Ramban
on Leviticus 19:17). When both sides in the tochecha conversation are able to
listen and share their conflicting stories and interpretations of a difficult
issue with the intent of increasing understanding and enhancing the relationship,
tochecha can indeed bring more peace to the world.”
I don’t see us having challenging conversations in a loving
way. We pick on one another for political divisions, for having different
interpretations about why anti-Semitism is occurring. I see hackles going up when opinions vary. I
see attacks on personality taking place in public domains which in essence from
a Jewish stand-point is tantamount to murdering an individual. Patience and gentle language have all but
left many interactions. It is a no-brainer in my way of thinking that if
someone approaches me by yelling in my face or by confronting me with force,
that I will tune their message out even if it has merit..
Our internet world allows us to ignore the Laws of
Interpersonal Relations written in Sfat in 1996 by Rabbi Zvi H. Weinberger and
Rabbi Baruch A. Heifetz, which state that “ It therefore follows that this
mitzvah of offering rebuke is fulfilled
not only through the reprover talking but also through listening [i.e., he or
she must both speak and listen]. The reprover must be prepared to listen to the
response of one’s friend, for as long as one is only coming to talk and berate
one’s friend, and one is not prepared to listen and accept what the friend has
to say back and the explanation that he or she may offer—the reprover does not
fulfill the mitzvah. “
We may not have the answers that we can agree upon about why
anti-Semitism is now rearing its ugly head, but I do believe we can agree that
we don’t feel comfortable with it doing so.
We may not all see eye to eye about the current administration’s
efficacy in rebuking anti-Semitic actions, but I do believe we all want to see
a strong national response that says that individuals terrorizing through
hateful words and deeds will be punished by the full force of the law.
We personally may not be able to stop a bomb threat or a
cemetery desecration, but we must stand together united and not divided because
ultimately our divisions will undermine our well-being just as the hate being
perpetrated by outsiders does.
In today’s parasha, there is a section that talks about two
cherubim that stand facing one another at the entrance of the ark covering. We
are told, “ And you shall make two
cherubim …. And the cherubim shall spread out their wings on high, screening
the ark-cover with their wings, with their faces one to another.”
One explanation of this
passage that I like was written by Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch. He wrote (on
Exodus 25:20): “The whole nation of Israel is represented not by one cherub but
by two, by a pair of cherubs…. Israel will become a pair of cherubim who, in
mutual respect and consideration, are peacefully directed one to the other,
each one there for the other, each a guarantor for the other, each entrusted to
the other – in brotherly co-operation, a whole nation keeping and protecting
the whole community….”
This image, is an
important one for us to remember even today. As Jews, we must care about
guaranteeing the safety of one another, of being peacefully directed toward one
another even when others are threatening us with violent acts. We can hold diverse opinions, disagree with
one another, but we still need to face one another in peace and
brotherhood. Then and only then will our
disagreements be for the “sake of Heaven.” Then and only then, will we be able
to face the challenges facing our Jewish communities in this great nation. May
we one day merit to see the cherubim facing one another!
Shabbat Shalom
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