FOR JUST A MOMENT…WE WERE ONE
The news of the day these days is often shocking, erratic and divisive regardless of our politics. We keep adjusting, whatever grounds us, in order to steady ourselves so we can feel some normalcy. It’s all so relative, but it has all been disruptive. No matter how hard we try, we know on some level the grounds beneath us are shifting; our seas are swirling. We can feel it viscerally. There is no escaping it. In just a matter of months, however we once experienced “normalcy,” something has shattered; something we might designate as the protective rule of law, liberty, a kind of openness and inclusiveness—all of it we may feel is being taken from us.
There has always been displeasure of the “other” here and everywhere else, even within our own Jewish world. Pharisees vs. Sadducees, Talmudists vs. Hasidim, Ashkenazim vs. Sephardim, Orthodox vs. Reform-- so much divisiveness, so much unnecessary strife, but healthy debate as well.
Extremist hatred though is something else. Nobody needs to inform us about where hatred and prejudice can lead. We have lived it century after century; we embody it, and because of our victimization, we know and empathically feel the pain of discrimination. Who better to understand if not the victims of it themselves? And, as if we could forget, as if we could walk this earth without our historical consciousness, God reminds us over and over in Torah to be kind to the stranger because we were once strangers in a strange land.
We are God’s witnesses to God’s existence in the world. Every time we observe Shabbat we are proclaiming God as Creator. Every time we reach out and help others we are serving as God’s witnesses to God the Redeemer. All of the unknown good deeds performed daily in the world, all of the unsung heroes we never read about, are measured against evil. It is so easy to lapse into negativity and pessimism. Evil is indeed a contagion overwhelming our senses and causing fear.
We wonder where this will all lead; we feel mired in a morass of divisiveness rather than a unity we sensed not so long ago might be possible notwithstanding the continuing spewed venom of racists and anti-Semites living on the margins. We felt we were on the right track even with all the complexities of being a nation. Sometimes one step forward and two steps back, but other times two steps forward and only one step back. It felt progressive, like we had learned some of the historic errors of the past. And now this malaise.
There has always been displeasure of the “other” here and everywhere else, even within our own Jewish world. Pharisees vs. Sadducees, Talmudists vs. Hasidim, Ashkenazim vs. Sephardim, Orthodox vs. Reform-- so much divisiveness, so much unnecessary strife, but healthy debate as well.
Extremist hatred though is something else. Nobody needs to inform us about where hatred and prejudice can lead. We have lived it century after century; we embody it, and because of our victimization, we know and empathically feel the pain of discrimination. Who better to understand if not the victims of it themselves? And, as if we could forget, as if we could walk this earth without our historical consciousness, God reminds us over and over in Torah to be kind to the stranger because we were once strangers in a strange land.
We are God’s witnesses to God’s existence in the world. Every time we observe Shabbat we are proclaiming God as Creator. Every time we reach out and help others we are serving as God’s witnesses to God the Redeemer. All of the unknown good deeds performed daily in the world, all of the unsung heroes we never read about, are measured against evil. It is so easy to lapse into negativity and pessimism. Evil is indeed a contagion overwhelming our senses and causing fear.
We wonder where this will all lead; we feel mired in a morass of divisiveness rather than a unity we sensed not so long ago might be possible notwithstanding the continuing spewed venom of racists and anti-Semites living on the margins. We felt we were on the right track even with all the complexities of being a nation. Sometimes one step forward and two steps back, but other times two steps forward and only one step back. It felt progressive, like we had learned some of the historic errors of the past. And now this malaise.
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And then, whatever our differences, we witnessed the majesty of nature in that wondrous eclipse and our differences were forgotten for a few fleeting moments. There it was peaking through just around the edges. And God, looking down as we looked up with those funny glasses must have thought it’s still possible. It is still possible.
May this High Holiday introspective season cause us to more fully appreciate our blessings and to work energetically to ensure them. It is still possible.
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Keyn Yehi Ratzon.
So may this be God’s will. Amen. Warmly, Rabbi Debra Nesselson Elul, 2017 |
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