Holocaust Remembrance - using the past to build a better future

Today is Yom Ha-Shoah – Holocaust Memorial Day.

Recently I saw these estimates:

In 1939 there were 2.3 billion people on the planet and 17 million Jews.
Today there are 7.7 billion people on the planet and 15 million Jews.

We cannot calculate the immensity of our loss as a people.

We cannot imagine what was lost to our world without 6 million more Jews. 

We must make sure that their memories serve as constant reminders for us to make the world better.

We must fulfill our calling and be a light unto the nations. We must be like Aaron in this week’s Torah reading following the death of his sons. As he sanctified himself to enter the Holy Tent in the desert, so we must sanctify ourselves with the teachings of our traditions and become holy.

How can we become holy?

Leviticus answers this question too. The holiness code that comes next week, directs us.

-      We must care for the poor and the dispossessed

-      We must not steal or deal deceitfully or falsely.

-      We must pursue a society of fairness for all.

 On this day, in these times, and at this time of year our mission as Jews continues to be crystal clear – take care of one another and the entire world – pursue justice.

 Hoping that on this day of remembrance of the worst tragedy to befall our people in the last century, on this week of mourning for another despicable act done against us, and during this season of contemplation, we may still turn our mourning into a spark that kindles our inspirations to seek repair for everyone.

Share our Stories, Heal the World

Shabbat Va-Yeira
November 3-4, 2017 – 15 Cheshvan 5778

Torah: Genesis 18:1 – 22:24
Haftarah: II Kings 4:1-37

“Indeed, I have known him, in order that he may charge his descendants and his household after him: they shall keep the way of God, to do what is right and just, in order that God may bring upon Abraham what God spoke concerning him.”
(Genesis 18:19)

This pivotal weekly reading comes during another difficult week in our State of New York and our country.

As our hearts go out to our family, friends, and fellow New Yorkers in the wake of yet another act of violence against humanity, I continue to ask: How can I fulfill the promise of doing “what is right and just”?

Hatred and intolerance seem to swirl around us. Scratch the surface and our personal and communal insecurity can quickly turn to anger. I know that I must take my elevated heart rate, my visceral responses, and turn them into expressions of my experiences that others can hear without recoiling.

We must turn our concerns and our worries into stories that connect us to one another. Yesterday, a teacher of reconciliation, Terry Cross, shared this piece of Native American wisdom with the Racial Equity Roundtable: “The shortest distance between two people is a story”.

Our stories are filled with our strivings to do righteously and live justly. Let us figure out a way to share what we’ve lived so that others can view us as companions.

May your week and Shabbat be filled with stories that bring us together,

Jonathan

This is what hope looks like...

One of our many chants yesterday, "This is what hope looks like...", referring to our twenty-thirty people marching on America's Journey for Justice with the NAACP, from Selma, Alabama, to Washington DC, was repeated often.

This photo illustrates another dimension of what that chant means:

Three rabbis, the president of the NAACP local chapter in Camden, South Carolina, and a significant contingent of our sheriff's department escort, who were with us almost the entire day.

When the NAACP organized America's Journey for Justice, and when we march and post photos, we almost never see the unbelievable efforts of law enforcement to make it happen smoothly and without incident.

On a two-lane road we were accompanied by at least five patrol vehicles, directing and redirecting traffic, so that everyone could get around the one lane of traffic that we blocked with our walking. Walking with us all day were a few plain clothes State Police people. Their vigilance was astounding.

We were verbally harassed in a few places (someone did yell "White Power" at us out a passing car window). The dedication of our escort to the Journey for Justice's safety and success yesterday was best illustrated when the law enforcement personnel went into high alert, moved our march slowly into the center lane of a five-lane road, and placed patrol cars between us and a suspicious looking package near an unoccupied building.

The last year has highlighted some of the fundamental tensions in our society, and yesterday was an amazing reminder of the ways in which we are all in it together and dedicated to our shared safety and well-being.

May our anecdotes and experiences of trust begin to prevail so that we can continue to make America a place where justice prevails for all.

Rabbi Judy Schindler at Moral Monday

 Rabbi Judy speaks at Moral Monday.

I sound the shofar. 

Realistic Theology

Torah-Inspired, Reflection of The Day:

Today we look at B'chukotai, Leviticus 26:3 - 27:34 - two chapters, almost, with the first focused on the outcomes of following or not following God's commandments, and the second on the rules about vows, concluding with the last verse of Leviticus:

These are the commandments that Adonai commanded Moses for the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

As rationalists, we often bristle at the idea that following commandments would result in blessings and not following them would result in curses. Reward and punishment theology seems unrealistic at best, we even have a Biblical book arguing against it entirely - the Book of Job.

So how do we learn from these texts?

When we follow reasonable practices that help us get along with each other better, when we treat the planet better, we will likely find our lives turn out better. Following a social contract creates better society. Noticing that certain practices hurt the environment, and in turn our livelihoods and fates, and then changing our behavior, leads us to a better life for all.

Our theology should support demands for improved behavior, without threatening supernatural rewards and punishments.