Last
Saturday, I was with members of Congregation Tifereth Israel, reading names of
our congregants who had died within the last few months, when a young
congregant asked if we had heard about the 11 individuals who had been killed
during a rampage that had just taken place in the Aytz Chaim synagogue in
Pittsburgh? None of us who had arrived
at our synagogue early in the morning had heard the news before those words
were stated. The reaction was one of incredible sadness. And then of course
there was concern about whether we had secured our own doors to our own building.
Unfortunately many of us have been used to
hearing about anti-Semitic incidents occurring in Europe, but on Shabbat we
were hearing about the largest attack on Jews in America, an attack that took
place in a synagogue.
It is hard not to ask yourself questions
when faced with such hatred rearing its head in our country. What can be
done? Is it a hopeless situation for
us? I prefer to think not. I prefer to think that the world is capable
of standing up to this grave threat. As
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin and Dennis Prager wrote, “The world needs to remember
that Jew haters may begin with Jews, but never end with them. They hate whatever and whoever represents a
higher value and moral challenge.”
Perhaps that is why the values of democracy and western civilization
seem to be under attack by those representing ideologies that do not include
the concepts of equal rights nor freedom of religion. We need to remind ourselves that the world is
made up of large numbers of moral, freedom-loving individuals. The question we really need to ask ourselves is
how do we ensure that their desire
to continue living in a world that refuses to cave in to anything less, along
with our desire to see that day arrive, becomes a reality?
In the Torah, it took G-d aided by
mankind to bring about ge’ulah…redemption. We will continue to pray that G-d
will hear our prayers just as He heard the outcries of the Israelites in Egypt.
But, we must actively work to bring about a time when goodness overcomes evil,
when the values that Judaism has brought to the world will no longer be seen as
a threat, but a path to peace. We must never succumb to despair when it is our
job to bring a message of justice and righteousness into the world. A message of unity is far more powerful than
a message of violence.
I’d
like to end by quoting a friend, Rabbi Hayim Herring, who wrote in his blog: “Change
happens one person at a time, on the local level, and every individual can make
a difference by turning an “other” into a sister or brother. It’s not
complicated.
In our efforts to “harden our schools “and
“houses of worship” I’m afraid we’re going to permanently harden our hearts.
Making America great again begins with making America kind again. …. Kindness
and empathy will make America great again and that’s something that we can
control.”
If I were asked to put his words into Jewish
terminology, I would say it this way:
acts of Gemilut Chasadim, acts of loving kindness will bring more light
into the world…You should never doubt the power of goodness that you as an individual
can contribute to this world.
We must begin by working to eliminate hateful
words because they can lead to hateful, vile actions. We must work to make sure that after
witnessing the horror and destruction of last Shabbat/Saturday, that we will strive
to be leaders in our own spheres of influence to promote the sanctity of life.
May the souls of those who were murdered in
Pittsburgh last Shabbat be bound up in the bond of life. And may we always strive to bring honor to
their memories by fighting hatred whenever or wherever we witness it. We are
broken-hearted but we will not be broken.
No comments:
Post a Comment