12-Step Torah -- Parashat Noach
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It’s not the experience of today that drives people mad—it’s the remorse or bitterness for something which happened yesterday and the dread of what tomorrow may bring.

Sometimes when we behave badly, especially when it negatively impacts other people, it’s difficult to let go of the guilt and self-loathing.  It’s also difficult to move forward when we judge ourselves so harshly and do not take steps towards making amends.  We can’t change the past but we can transform the present and make a positive impact on the future.  As the renowned self-help guru Wayne Dyer once said: …. you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.

In this week’s Torah portion Noach, having witnessed the rampant evil and corruption in the world, God regrets creating man.  God then determines that except for a select few --Noah, his family and two of each animal-- the world and everything in it should be destroyed. 

While the text is clear that נֹ֗חַ אִ֥ישׁ צַדִּ֛יק תָּמִ֥ים הָיָ֖ה בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו , that Noah was considered to be the most righteous of his generation (Gen. 6:9), commentators have puzzled over what exactly this means. Would Noah not have been considered righteous had he lived at a different time?  In addition, can someone who was silently obedient to God despite knowing the devastation that was to come, be considered righteous? 

Upon emerging from the ark and witnessing this devastation, Noah plants a vineyard וַיֵּשְׁתְּ מִן־הַיַּיִן וַיִּשְׁכָּר וַיִּתְגַּל בְּתוֹךְ אָֽהֳלֹֽה, and he drank of the wine and became drunk and uncovered himself within his tent (Gen. 9:21).  Did the devastation he witnessed cause Noah to experience remorse for not standing up to God when he had the chance?  Did that remorse lead Noah to get drunk and escape contemplating what the future might look like in such a shattered world? Whatever the real answer, Noah is remembered not just as the most righteous of his generation, but the first person in the Torah to get drunk.

It’s not the experience of today that drives people mad—-It’s the remorse or bitterness for something which happened yesterday and the dread of what tomorrow may bring.

Shabbat Shalom.

Ellie

The road to resentment is paved with expectation.

When we expect something from another person it’s an all or nothing proposition.  When our expectations are dashed we can begin to feel resentful, hurt, or even angry.  But, if we instead hope or want someone to do what we ask, our response is likely to be less extreme when what we hoped for or asked for doesn’t happen.

In this week’s Torah portion, Bereshit, God creates man and woman on the sixth day.  That man and woman, Adam and Eve are driven out of the Garden of Eden for disobeying God when they eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  We are then introduced to their two sons, Cain, a farmer and Abel, a shepherd.    The first thing we learn about Cain and Abel is that while each brings an offering to God, God only notices Abel’s offering.  Feeling snubbed וַיִּחַר לְקַיִן מְאֹד וַֽיִּפְּלוּ פָּנָֽיו, Cain became angry and his face fell (Gen. 4:5).  If God doesn’t notice Cain’s offering, God does notice his anger and disappointment and tries to counsel Cain.  But Cain’s anger prevails and in a fit of jealous rage he murders his brother Abel.

Some commentators have observed that Cain and Abel made an offering as a way to show gratitude to God.  But in showing gratitude did Cain expect something in return from God?  Did he expect God to notice him in the same way he noticed his brother?  The road to resentment --and in this case murder, is paved with expectation.

Shabbat Shalom.
Ellie

                                                            Antisemitism 

House I live in
(by Abel Meeropol and Earl Robinson)
What is America to me?
A name, a map, or a flag I see
A certain word, democracy
What is America to me?
 
The house I live in
A plot of Earth, a street
The grocer and the butcher
And the people that I meet
The children in the playground
The faces that I see
All races and religions
That's America to me

The short film The House I Live in, which we watched as a community on Selichot evening was made in 1945 and starred a very young Frank Sinatra playing himself. Taking a smoking break during a recording session, Sinatra steps out into an alley behind the studio where he finds a gang of young boys surrounding another boy who they have trapped against the wall of a building.  When Sinatra asks the boys what is going on, they respond: We don’t like him; we don’t want him in our neighborhood and going to our school.  We don’t like his religion.  The boy they are chasing is Jewish.  Sinatra then gives the boys a lesson in tolerance, sings the title song, and all’s well that ends well.

With its American as apple pie lyrics about the grocer, the butcher, and the children in the playground, The House I Live in, written by composer Earl Robinson and lyricist Abel Meeropol, became a patriotic anthem in America during World War II.   Meeropol, a Jew of Russian descent who wrote under the pen name Lewis Allan, was a liberal Jew who loved the rights and freedoms America was based on, but was appalled by the way people of other races, religions and political views were often treated. The lyrics of The House I Live In reflect more the America he aspired to live in rather than the America in which he actually lived.  In writing the song, Meeropol wanted to express why the war was worth fighting.[1]

Almost a year ago, at a vigil held at my congregation in New Jersey after the Tree of Life Synagogue tragedy in Pittsburgh, I spoke the following words:
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Just 14 months ago, we heard the hateful words “Jews won’t replace us” spewing from the mouths of Neo-Nazis dressed in fatigues and carrying tiki torches and automatic rifles, marching in Charlottesville, Virginia.  We were horrified when TV cameras filmed on Shabbat morning a group of men carrying guns standing across the street from Congregation Beth Israel in Charlottesville, chanting Seig Heil and other anti-Semitic rantings.  We were stunned as this wave of horror washed over us -- as if we had been thrown into a time machine and found ourselves in 1930’s Germany.

This past weekend on Shabbat morning, the נְתִיבוֹתֶֽיהָ שָׁלוֹם , the paths of peace were shattered -- the Shabbat Shalom, the Sabbath peace, was smashed into 11 pieces; 11 beautiful souls taken from their families, from their community at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, and taken from the world.

Saturday’s tragedy has been described as the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States.  Perhaps this should not come as a surprise.  Antisemitism is on the rise.  In 2017 anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses nearly doubled from the year before.  From 2016 to 2017 there was a staggering 258% increase in White Supremacist incidents on college campuses.[2]

In 2016 more than half of the religious hate crimes in the US were directed at Jews.  In 2017 anti-Semitic incidents against Jews increased 60%.[3]  According to the Anti-Defamation League, this was the largest single-year increase on record since ADL started tracking this data in 1979.[4] This is not politics folks.  This is not fake news.  These are facts.

In the year since I spoke those words, the Anti-Defamation League recorded 1,879 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States during 2018, including the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue.  But that attack was one of 39 reported physical assaults on Jewish individuals last year -- a 105% increase over 2017. [5]

Around the world, more Jews were killed in anti-Semitic violence in 2018 than during any other year in decades, according to a report released in May by The Kantor Center at Tel Aviv University.  Assaults targeting Jews around the world rose 13% in 2018, with nearly 400 incidents worldwide.[6]  The spike was most dramatic in Western Europe, where Jews have faced even greater danger and threats. In Germany, for instance, there was a 70% increase in anti-Semitic violence.
 
According to the ADL, just 13% of the attacks in the United States during 2018 were carried out by members of white supremacist groups.  In the words of ADL’s chief Jonathan Greenblatt, this suggests more than a vast underground conspiracy and widespread recruitment by white nationalist groups.   What we are seeing is much worse. What we are seeing is the normalization of antisemitism.[7]

Similarly, Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress believes it is now clear that anti-Semitism in Europe is no longer limited to the far-left, far-right, and radical Islam. It is now becoming mainstream and often accepted by civil society.
 
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance defines Anti-Semitism as: a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.  Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities. That same definition was adopted by the European Parliament.

In her book Antisemitism Here and Now Deborah Lipstadt writes: Imagine that someone has done something you find objectionable. You may legitimately resent the person because of his or her actions or attitudes. But if you resent him [or her] even an iota more because this person is Jewish, that is antisemitism.  Imagine a driver who has been deliberately forced off the road by an erratic driver who happens to be black. The person who has almost been hit can legitimately complain to the other people in the car about the dangerous driver. But if he complains about “that black guy” who has done this, he has crossed the line into racism.[8]
 
Oddly enough, despite all these statistics, recent polls report that 74% of Americans have a favorable view of Israel and feel “warmer” about Jews than any other religious group, just ahead of Catholics[9].  Unfortunately and evidently, liking can co-exist with loathing.  Jews have been the most victimized religious group on the FBI’s annual list for hate crimes since the year 2000.

Throughout history, Jews have been whatever a given civilization has defined as their most sinister and threatening qualities.  Under Communism they were the wealth-obsessed capitalists opposed to the social and economic betterment of the poor and working class.  In 19th century Europe those on the political right accused Jews of being Socialists, Communists, and revolutionaries.  Under Nazism Jews were the race contaminators.  In today’s world Israel has become the last bastion of white, racist colonialism.[10]   

In a joke that is believed to have been told by Jews in 1930s’s Germany, Two Jews were sitting on one of the few park benches on which they were allowed to sit. One was reading the Berliner Gemeindeblatt, a Jewish communal newspaper; the other, the maliciously anti-Semitic Nazi publication Der Stürmer.  “Why on earth are you reading that thing?” the Gemeindeblatt reader asked his friend. “When I read a Jewish publication,” his friend replied, “I hear of our woes and terrible fate. When I read Der Stürmer, I read how we control the banks, world media, international governments, and how powerful we are. I much prefer the latter."

So, how is it with such a difficult history that we Jews are still around?  Surely there’s more to it than the old joke: They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.  The writer Walker Percy once quipped: Why does no one find it remarkable that in most world cities today there are Jews but not one single Hittite, even though the Hittites had a flourishing civilization while the Jews nearby were a weak and obscure people? 

Scholar Ze’ev Maghen writes: Why are we still here? What is the key to our unique, defiant, unparalleled survival against all odds and forecasts?  ……..What is [the] ingredient that makes us the “Indestructible Jews?” What as Mark Twain asks, is the secret of our immortality?....Surely none of you will tell me…….it was our appeals, protests and screams for equitable treatment that sustained us, kept us in life, and brought us to this season. No…….[it was because the Jews] chose to build, to educate…………to defy antisemitism …… with Jewish learning, Jewish observance, Jewish strength and Jewish achievement.[11]

New York Times journalist Bari Weiss who became a Bat Mitzvah at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh offers, in her inspirational book How to fight Antisemitism, a series of instructional tips on forging ahead in our defiance of anti-Semitism. Here are a few – well more than a few.  Let’s just say here are some good ones:

1. Trust your discomfort. Despite our reputation for anxiety and hysteria ala Larry David, most of us minimize our discomfort in our desire to fit in.  Get over it.  If an organization you support is joining forces with someone you believe is anti-Semitic, don’t try to justify it.
2. Don’t trust people who seek to divide us, even if they themselves are Jewish.  For those of you who were here on Rosh Hashanah evening you know what I’m talking about. 
3. Allow for the possibility of change.  There are numerous examples of individuals who changed their ways including white supremacists and radical Moslems.  Don’t assume change is not possible.
4. Follow the Pittsburgh principle.  The reaction of the local community and the nation to the tragedy in Pittsburgh tells us we are not alone.  What happened in Pittsburgh may have been one more pogrom in our history but think about Kristallnacht.  On that night ordinary German citizens joined in or stood by to watch the fires burn.  In Pittsburgh the entire community including Muslim, Christian and government leaders, politicians, even the Pittsburgh Steelers, stood up and said no. 
5. Praise those who do the right thing.  There are many Frank Sinatras out there ready to defend their Jewish neighbors.  After Pittsburgh the Moslem community in the United States raised over $150,000 for the victims of the shooting.  In 1993 thousands of menorahs appeared in the windows of non-Jewish homes in Billings, Montana, in response to a rock thrown through the window of a Jewish home decorated with a menorah, a Jewish star, a dreidel, and the words Happy Hanukah.
6. Resist hierarchical identity politics.  On the right identity politics informs us that Jews can never be white enough or Christian enough while on the left identity politics posits the view that Jews can never be oppressed enough.  Don’t succumb to a deal where you have to check your identity at the door.  To do so means participating in our own destruction.
7. Never ever forget to love your neighbor.  This is an easy one.  When someone is attacked because of their identity and not their ideas, you should view that as an attack on you.
8. Wherever you are vote for freedom.  As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes: Jews have always been the irritant of empires because of our insistence on the dignity of the individual and his or her liberty.  The more a society prizes freedom the more Jews thrive.
9. Support Israel. If we ever do have to pack up, we unlike many before 1948, have a place to go.  And yes, we can support Israel while still demanding Israel live up to its ideals. In the words of NYT’s columnist Roger Cohen: to criticize Israel is imperative; to disavow it, for a Jew a form of ahistorical folly. 
10.  Build community.  In Judaism ten people are needed for a minyan.  The work of fighting antisemitism requires a posse of Maccabees[12]
11.  Lean into Judaism.  In Dec. 1897 Theodor Herzl wrote a short essay called The Menorah.  It was written in the form of a parable.  Here is a short excerpt: Once there was a man who deep in his soul felt the need to be a Jew.  His material circumstances were satisfactory enough………He had long ceased to trouble his head about his Jewish origin or about the faith of his fathers, when the age-old hatred re-asserted itself under a fashionable slogan. ….He believed that this movement would soon subside.  But instead of getting better, it got worse……The secret psychic torment had the effect of steering him to its source, namely, his Jewishness…..He began to love Judaism with great fervor. …….his vague feelings crystallized into a clear idea to which he gave voice: the thought that there was only one way out of this Jewish suffering—namely to return to Judaism.[13]
12. Tell your story.  The best and only way to respond to this moment is to practice a Judaism of affirmation not one of defensiveness.  As Bari Weiss writes: What is the probability that the people of Israel driven, as Moses put it, out to the farthest parts under heaven, would, in fact come back to their ancient land…..after two thousand years of exile, of persecution, of destruction, of expulsion, and of near elimination? That a people so despised would survive and thrive? 

 
In these difficult times our best strategy is to build without shame, a Judaism capable of lighting a fire in every Jewish soul—and in the souls of everyone who throws their lot in with ours.[14]  As Debra Lipstadt writes: I have repeatedly stressed that antisemitism is a delusional form of hatred.  It conjures a malign image of the Jew that does not in fact exist, and then it proceeds to find it everywhere.  But we cannot allow this delusion to lead to another delusion—that because this hatred is unfortunately, ever present, we must make fighting it the fulcrum upon which our identity exists…..What is necessary for Jews to survive and flourish as a people is neither dark pessimism nor cockeyed optimism, but realism.  It would be ludicrous to dismiss as paranoid the concerns of those who react strongly to the escalating acts of antisemitism in recent times….But at the same time, it would be folly for Jews to make this the organizing principle of their lives.  The need for Jews to balance the “oy” with the “joy” is an exhortation on the fight against hatred.[15]

Let us instead strive for the America Abel Meeropol longed for when he wrote:

The house I live in
A plot of Earth, a street
The grocer and the butcher
And the people that I meet
The children in the playground
The faces that I see
All races and religions
That's America to me…..
 
Gmar Chatima Tova

Ellie



[1] https://www.songfacts.com/facts/frank-sinatra/the-house-i-live-in (accessed August 2019)
[2] ADL finds alarming increase in white supremacist propaganda on college campuses across U.S. https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-finds-alarming-increase-in-white-supremacist-propaganda-on-college-campuses (accessed August 2019)
[3] Anti-Semitism in the US https://www.adl.org/what-we-do/anti-semitism/anti-semitism-in-the-us (accessed August 2019)
[4] Audit of Anti-Semitic incidents: year in review 2018 https://www.adl.org/audit2018 (accessed August 2019)
[5] Antisemitism on campus up by 70%--AMCHA Initiative report. https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Antisemitism-on-campus-up-by-70-percent-AMCHA-Initiative-report-602018 (accessed August 2019)
[6] Aron Heller. “Anti-Semitic attacks spike, killing most Jews in decades.” https://www .apnews.com/0457e96b9eb74d30b66c2d190c6ed7e5 (accessed August 2019)
[7] Bari Weiss. How to fight Anti-Semitism(New York : Crown, c2019) 82
[8] Deborah Lipstadt. Antisemitism here and now. (New York : Schocken Books, c2019) 13
[9] Bari Weiss. How to fight Anti-Semitism(New York : Crown, c2019) 21
[10] Ibid. 31-2.
[11] Ibid. 166.
[12] Ibid. 194.
[13] Ibid. 199-200.
[14] Ibid. 205.
[15] Ibid. 240.

 

                                                             Democracy  
Democracy (by Leonard Cohen)

It's coming through a hole in the air
From those nights in Tiananmen Square
It's coming from the feel
That this ain't exactly real
Or it's real, but it ain't exactly there
From the wars against disorder
From the sirens night and day
From the fires of the homeless
From the ashes of the gay
Democracy is coming to the USA

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight
Getting lost in that hopeless little screen
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
That time cannot decay
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
This little wild bouquet
Democracy is coming to the USA

In the song I just sang, Democracy, written in 1992 by Leonard Cohen of blessed memory-- Cohen a nice Jewish boy from Montreal notes that democracy won’t come  through the government but through a fresh wind, a hole in the air -- It’s coming from the silence on the dock of the bay, from the brave, the bold, the battered heart of Chevrolet; from the sorrow in the street, the holy places where races meet; from the homicidal bitchin’ that goes down in every kitchen to determine who will serve and who will eat. 

Cohen combines a certain amount of cynicism with hope-- that we are not the democracy we claim to be and that racism has yet to be abolished, but that America is trying to getting there. 

In the Jerusalem Talmud Rabbi Akiva and Ben Azzai have a disagreement as to which is the most fundamental principle in the Torah.  Rabbi Akiva quotes the book of Leviticus:   וְאָֽהַבְתָּ֥ לְרֵֽעֲךָ֖ כָּמ֑וֹךָ אֲנִ֖י ה'You Shall love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18). So well-known is this verse in relation to Rabbi Akiva that it was made into a popular song, Amar Rabi Akiva-- Rabbi Akiva said. Ben Azzai on the other hand, quotes Genesis:   זֶ֣ה סֵ֔פֶר תּֽוֹלְדֹ֖ת אָדָ֑ם This is the book of the generations of Adam.(Gen. 5:1)  Rabbi Akiva’s statement is straightforward-- the most important thing that the Torah teaches is to love your neighbor as yourself. But Ben Azzai’s statement is not quite so straightforward.  What exactly might he have meant with his seemingly peculiar quotation from Genesis?  It becomes much clearer if we look at the entire verse:

זֶ֣ה סֵ֔פֶר תּֽוֹלְדֹ֖ת אָדָ֑ם בְּי֗וֹם בְּרֹ֤א אֱלֹהִים֙ אָדָ֔ם בִּדְמ֥וּת אֱלֹהִ֖ים עָשָׂ֥ה אֹתֽוֹ:  זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה בְּרָאָ֑ם וַיְבָ֣רֶךְ אֹתָ֗ם:
This is the book of generations of Adam—When God created man, God made man in the likeness of God; male and female God created them (Genesis 5:1–2).

Ben Azzai believed in the principle that all human beings were created b’tzelem Elohim, in God’s image and so no one person is superior to another.  Both sides of the argument -- the feelings of love for one’s neighbor and the belief that all human beings are created in God’s image, have merit. [1] 

However, without Ben Azzai’s principle that all men are created in God’s image the commandment to love your neighbor has no philosophic base.  Because we are all created in God’s image, all born with equal dignity, it should stand that we love our neighbor. It’s on the basis of b’tzelem Elohim that God can say to the children of Adam -- Love your neighbor as yourself. As philosopher Hermann Cohen wrote: the love of a neighbor is dependent upon God’s creation of man, and not upon the subjective feeling with which I love myself or somebody else. [2]

The idea that certain essential rights and liberties are inseparable from the very creation of human beings is not just found in Ben Azzai’s quote from Genesis.  It is deeply rooted elsewhere in the Bible as well-- in the idea of covenant, the belief that every man or woman is free to choose between good and evil, and the idea that the right law is ultimately founded on the righteousness of God and not on the will of any human being, even if that human being is a King or Judge. [3] Could it be that the American writer E. B. White was familiar with the argument between Rabbi Akiba and Ben Azzai when he wrote: do not try to save the world by loving your neighbor; it will only make him nervous.  Save the world by respecting your neighbor’s rights under law and insisting that he respect yours  [under the same law].  In short, save the world. [4]

Known more for his children’s books such as Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, than for his body of essays, White lived and wrote through several of the most contentious periods in our history-- the depression, World War II, the McCarthy era, the Cold War, and the Civil Rights movement-- writing about all of them in the New Yorker and Harper’s magazines. [5] 

In the early days of World War II after the Nazis invaded Poland and plunged Europe into a war that would last 6 years, White described a day he spent on the waters in Maine: 

It struck me as we worked our way homeward up the rough bay with our catch of lobsters and a fresh breeze in our teeth, that this was what the fight was all about.  This was it.  Either we would continue to have it or we wouldn’t, this right to speak our own minds, haul our own traps, mind our own business, and wallow in the wide, wide, sea. [6] 

About democracy White wrote: It is the current suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere.  Democracy is a letter to the editor. 

We often hear people say that in the United States “freedom is not free.”  This is often used in reference to the military and wars fought and won to protect the values of the country- to remind people that democracy didn’t just magically happen.  Thousands of people were killed and/or died for us to sit here and sip as Mark Manson writes in that same book I mentioned last week whose name I cannot entirely say on this bima: for us to sit here and sip overpriced mocha Frappuccinos and say whatever the bleepity bleep we want.  It’s a reminder that the basic human rights we enjoy were earned through a sacrifice against some external force. [7]   

But these rights were also earned through sacrifice against some internal force.   As Manson writes:  Democracy can only exist when we are willing to tolerate views that oppose our own, when we’re willing to give up some things we might want for the sake of a safe and healthy community…..democracy requires a citizenry of strong maturity and character …..Freedom demands discomfort. It demands dissatisfaction.  Because the freer a society becomes, the more each person will be forced to reckon and compromise with views and lifestyles and ideas that conflict with their own. [8] 

Life gets worse without democratic representation, in almost every way.  And it’s not because democracy is so great.  It’s more that a functioning democracy [bleepity bleeps] things up less often and less severely than any other form of government. [9]  As Winston Churchill once famously said: Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.

Menahem Mendel of Kotzk, a 19th century Hassidic rabbi also known as the Kotzker Rebbe once wrote: Who among you, created in the image of God, could compare himself with his creator?  Yet I say unto you: Even if the heavens were to descend or the earth to break asunder, a man must not renounce his rights. 

In his book, Judaism and the American Idea, Milton Konvitz notes how the biblical story of creation helped to establish the idea that there is an eternal order that is natural, moral, divinely ordained -- an order that was around prior to and independent of human life. [10]  The same God who created the sun and the moon created Adam and Eve, and just as God was the law maker for the former, so, too, was God the law maker for the latter. If God can make laws that regulate the physical bodies, God can make laws to guide the actions of human beings.  According to Konvitz, no man, no king, no government, can alter that moral order.

This is perhaps the origin of the notion of the Rule of Law, that all things, events, and actions are subject to law.  As a system of values, Judaism places an emphasis on law. In addition to the Torah we have the Mishnah, the Talmud, rabbinic commentaries, codes of law, responsa literature, and on and on.

From the very beginning of American civlization, the founding fathers who thought of themselves as Israelites who had left Egypt and entered the Promised Land, where they might live under the laws of God and not men, moved towards a law-centered civilization.  So fully did they identify with the Israelites that Benjamin Franklin wanted the country’s great seal to depict Moses parting the Red Sea. [11] 

Judaism accepts the teaching of the school of Rabbi Ishmael that “the Torah speaks in the language of men” and so there are bound to be differences of opinions over what the law is and what it requires.  But this is no way weakened Halakha, Jewish law.  Rabbinic texts record hundreds of disputes; between Hillel and Shammai; between Rav and Shmuel; between Abaye and Rava.  All opinions were duly recorded as disputes for the sake of heaven.  Each opinion was regarded as of value.  Not only did the sages call out errors made by other rabbis but some called out their own errors. 

The greatest test for the Rule of Law comes when the head of a government asserts he or she is beyond the reach of the law.   The Tanakh provides several examples of rulers who were not beyond the law no matter how much they tried.

In the II Book of Samuel, King David sets up Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba’s husband to be killed in battle so he could be free to take Bathsheba as a wife for himself.  When Bathsheba gives birth to David’s child, the prophet Nathan confronts David with his crime and David responds: חָטָ֖אתִי לַֽה'  I have sinned before God (IISam 12:13)

In I Kings, King Ahab of Samaria lets his wife Jezebel contrive the murder of Naboth, whose vineyard is coveted by the king.  The prophet Elijah confronts him with his crime.  Ahab responds by fasting, renting his clothes and putting sackcloth on his body.

In each story the king tried to take what was not his to take.  In each case the king plotted the murder of someone standing in the way of his getting what he wanted.  In each case the king was held accountable by the prophet of his day.  In each case the King repented.  In Tanakh the prophet was the voice of God, the voice of conscience; the voice of outraged morality. Prophets were at the very least, the journalists, congressional oversight committees, and grand juries of their day. [12]  

If in the Bible we can trace the origins of the human race to a single person who was formed by God in God’s own image, the Talmud brings that idea to its fullest maturity. [13] The Talmud sought to protect the accused against a miscarriage of justice. Circumstantial evidence no matter how convincing, was not acceptable (Tosefta Sanhedrin 8:3).  Juror-judges could reverse a vote from guilty to not guilty but not the other way around.  The younger members of the court were first to announce their vote, so as not to be influenced by the actions of their seniors.  In civil cases a majority of one was sufficient to establish guilt but in criminal cases a majority of two was required.

The Talmudists developed a system of democratically constituted town councils which were charged with the administration of local municipalities.  Since this whole process would bring individuals in positions where they exercised power over the lives of others, it was then the job of the community to develop instruments of social control to temper that power. [14]

The Sanhedrin, the Jewish court system at the time of the Temple, ruled that in order to make sure a King was kept humble, he was required as soon as he took the throne, to write his own Torah scroll for himself.  He was required to have that scroll with him on all occasions, even when he sat down to eat.  The king was not allowed to have more than a certain number of wives and if he did  he was flogged. He was not allowed to have more than a certain number of horses, and if he did he was flogged.  He was forbidden from filling his private treasury and if he did he was flogged. [15]

As E. B. White wrote: I just want to tell before I get slowed down, that I am in love with freedom and that it is an affair of long standing and that it is a fine state to be in, and that I am deeply suspicious of people who are beginning to adjust to fascism and dictators merely because they are succeeding in war.  From such adaptable natures a smell rises.  I pinch my nose [16] ........ Democracy, if I understand it at all, is a society in which the unbeliever feels undisturbed and at home.  If there were only half a dozen unbelievers in America, their well-being would be a est of our democracy, their tranquility would be its proof. [17]  

It’s coming to America first
The cradle of the best and of the worst 
It’s here they got the range
And the machinery for change
And it’s here they got the spiritual thirst
It’s here the family’s broken
And it’s here the lonely sa
That the heart has got to open 
In a fundamental way
Democracy is coming to the USA

Sail on sail on
O mighty ship of state
To the shores of need, pass the reefs of greed
Through the squalls of hate
Sail on, sail  on, sail on......

G’mar Chatima Tova 

Ellie

1. Milton R. Konvitz. Judaism and the American Idea. (Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, c1978) 44.
2. Ibid. 45 
3. Ibid. 38
4. Martha White, ed. E. B. White on Democracy (New York : Harper Collins, c2019) location 853
5. Ibid. location 90
6. Ibid. location 95.
7. Mark Manson. Everything is fu’d. (New York : Harper Collins, c2019)  21.
8. Ibid. 212.
9. Ibid.
10. Milton R. Konvitz. Judaism and the American Idea. (Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, c1978)  41.
11. Bari Weiss. How to Fight anti-Semitism. (New York : Random House, c2019) location 19. 
12. Milton R. Konvitz. Judaism and the American Idea. (Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, c1978) 60
13. Ben Zion Bokser. “Democratic Aspirations in Talmudic Judaism.” In Judaism and Human Rights (New York : W.
14. Ibid. 148.
15. Milton R. Konvitz. Judaism and the American Idea. (Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, c1978) 62.
16. White, Martha, ed. E. B. White on Democracy (New York : Harper Collins, c2019) location 488.
17. Ibid. 1481.

                                                                           HOPE
​
Rise Up (by Audra Day)                                  

You're broken down and tired
Of living life on a merry go round
And you can't find the fighter
But I see it in you so we gonna walk it out
oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo--oo
move mountains
oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo--oo
move mountains
And I'll rise up, I'll rise like the day
I'll rise up, I'll rise unafraid I'll rise up
And I'll do it a thousand times again
And I'll rise up high like the waves
I'll rise up in spite of the ache
I'll rise up and I'll do it a thousand times again

Back in 2001 my life underwent a transformation.  When I say transformation I don’t mean I changed my hairstyle; or got a makeover; or bought a new car; or got a new job……. No wait that’s not right, I actually did get a really fantastic new job that year. But in essence what happened to me in 2001 was a massive shift in the way I thought about life; in the way I presented myself to the world; and in the way others responded to me.  Without that transformation I would surely not be standing in front of you today.  In fact, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be standing in front of anyone or anywhere were it not for the miraculous new and positive direction my life managed to take.

But of all the things that changed for me that year, one particular detail stands out more than any other.  The year 2001 was the year I first encountered hope.

Having grown up with a verbally abusive mother and having lived for many years with an alcoholic husband, hope had rarely if ever entered into my vocabulary let alone my thoughts and actions.  Up until 2001 my days were focused on a single thought--making sure I – and by extension, my husband Joe-- got through the day safe and sound.  I was consumed with survival.  I was filled with fear. 

In Rise Up, the song I just sang; a song made famous by Audra Day, the lyrics cry out that despite being broken down and tired; despite the ache in our hearts-- we can and we will shake the fear; we can and we will move mountains, and together we can and we will rise up. What drives us and gives us the confidence to rise up is hope.  Later on the lyrics proclaim: All we need is hope and for that we have each other.

In 2001 my life crashed all around me.  I could no longer hide from the world what was happening at home and I was faced with two choices.  As one of my best friends said to me at the time: Ellie, you can go down with the ship-- or not.  Fortunately for me this wasn't a choice at all. I wasn’t ready to give up.  I wasn't willing in the least to go down with the ship.  It doesn’t mean it was easy.

While in those early days it was basic survival skills that got me through, as I eventually got back on my feet a little bit more, it was hope that carried the day.  It was hope that saved me. 

Hope is defined as “the perceived capability to derive pathways to a desired goal and motivate oneself despite possible obstacles, to use those pathways and achieve your goal.”  Just like the Little Engine that Could, thoughts such as “I think I can” serve as motivators for us in pursuing goals.[1]

But, using the word hope in a sentence doesn’t mean we are hopeful.  When someone says: “I hope you have a great day” it isn’t an expression of hope, it is a wish.  Unless the person who speaks that sentence is going to spend the entire day with you they really have little control over whether or not you will have a great day.   When someone says, “I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow,” this is also a wish since most of us anyway, have no control over whether it is going to rain tomorrow or not.[2]

Hope is something unique to human beings.  As Dr. Shane Lopez writes in his book Making Hope Happen: Whenever someone poses the question, what’s unique about humans? feel free to skip the usual answers about opposable thumbs, the use of tools, and language, and instead answer: Hope.”[3]

When we are hopeful we have high expectations for the future, as well as a clear assessment of the obstacles we need to overcome in order to get there. It isn’t just something you sit around and wish for or wait to happen.  Hope requires action. It is the belief that your future can be brighter and better than your past and that you have a role to play in making it better.[4]

According to Shane Lopez people who are hopeful share 3 core beliefs.
First: the future will be better than the present.
Second: I have the power to make it so.    
Third: There are many paths to my goals and none of them is free of obstacles.[5].
 
In the course of human history hope has not always been perceived as a positive force.  Plato called hope a “foolish counselor,”  while the Greek philosopher Sophocles believed human suffering was prolonged by hope.[6]  Benjamin Franklin declared that anyone who lives on hope will die fasting, while Friedrich Nietzsche like Sophocles called hope “the most evil of evils because it prolongs man’s torment.” Religious leaders have consistently used hope to buoy the spirits of their flock, but demagogues have utilized it for their own nefarious purposes.[7]

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes about one of the most formative moments in Jewish history-- the encounter between Moses and God at the Burning Bush when Moses asks God what name he should use when people want to know who God is.  God’s response is mysterious – Ehyeh asher Ehyeh, literally I will be what I will be. As Rabbi Sacks writes--God’s name belongs to the future tense.  God’s call is to that which is not yet.  If we fail to understand this, we will miss the very thing that makes Judaism unique. [8]

In Torah the Jewish story begins with God’s call to Abraham to leave his birthplace and travel to the land that I will show you, (Gen. 12:1) but Genesis ends with the promise unfulfilled.  In Exodus Moses is called to lead the Israelites back to freedom and the Promised Land.  But a journey that should have taken days takes 40 years and by the end of the Torah, the end of the book of Deuteronomy, the Israelites have still not fulfilled the promise. It’s a gloomy conclusion but it is also a hopeful one because we don’t know the end of the story.  The story is incomplete.

At the end of the Tanakh, the end of the Bible, the Israelites are in exile again – this time in Babylonia and they have been given permission to return from almost the same place from which Abraham and his family set out.  So here’s the deal. The stories in Tanakh have a beginning but while there is an end, it’s always just beyond the horizon.  We always seem to be looking towards the future—like to the Messianic age when nation shall not lift up sword against nation. (Isaiah 2:4)

Having said all that, in the Torah hope is presented for the first time in history as a positive force. While the Greeks believed in fate, that our future is determined by our past, the Jews believed in freedom, that there is no evil decree that cannot be averted.  As we will sing in a little while:

U’tshuvah, u’tfilah, u’tzedakah,
Ma’avirin et ro’eh ha-gezeirah
But repentance, prayer, and deeds of charity have the power to transform the harshness of our destiny.
 
If the Greeks gave the world the concept of tragedy, Jews gave the world the idea of hope. As Rabbi Sacks notes: Judaism is a sustained struggle, the greatest ever known, against the world that is, in the name of the world that could be, should be, but is not yet. There is no more challenging vocation. Throughout history, when human beings have sought hope they have found it in the Jewish story. Judaism is the religion, and Israel the home, of hope.
 
It is no accident that so many Jews spend their time pursuing justice; fighting poverty and disease -- refusing to see these things as inevitable. It is no accident that after the Holocaust, Jews did not become bitter and resentful, but instead looked to the future, building a nation whose national anthem is Hatikvah, the hope.[9] 

Elie Wiesel used to tell the story of a remarkable discovery he made in Breslov, Poland.  Over the entrance to the oldest synagogue in the city he came upon a sign that had surely uplifted the ghetto dwellers of the city 150 years ago, functioning as a challenge and a forewarning of the need for hope many years later during the Holocaust.  The sign read: Gevalt! don’t give up!

It's easy to be fearful of hope.  It seems so unlikely while fear seems so logical and persuasive.  After all, your hopes may not have come true in the past but maybe your fears did.[10]  Never be afraid to hope because once we become afraid we become paralyzed. Fear robs us of our courage, while our hopes can come true, sometimes against all odds.[11]

Mark Manson, in his book whose name I cannot entirely say from this bima, Everything is f’d, the opposite of happiness isn’t anger or sadness.  If you are angry or sad it means you still care.  You still have hope. You still give a darn. No, the opposite of happiness is hopelessness—the belief that everything is messed up so why do anything at all.[12] Hopelessness is the root of anxiety, mental illness, and depression, the source of so much misery, a major cause of addiction and a strong predictor of mortality.[13]

In order to conquer the fear of hope here are a few suggestions:
*Don’t dwell on the past; the past is over
*Be in charge of your own future.
*Be patient but not passive.  Nothing happens all at once
*Trust in God to help you along the way.
*Trust yourself.[14]

As Dr. Henry Viscardi founder of the National Center for Disabilities Services writes: The tragedy of life lies not in failing to reach your goals, but having no hope and thus no goals to reach.[15]

One of my favorite stories in Torah is the story of Joseph.  A bit of a spoiled brat, Joseph was betrayed by his family, thrown into a pit and left to die.  We can only surmise what Joseph was feeling in that pit, but eventually he did get out-- only to be sold into slavery.  And just when everything seemed to get better and he became a servant in the House of Potiphar, Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of sexual assault and he was imprisoned.  Here we know Joseph had faith. The text tells us, God was with Joseph and he knew one day his torment would be over. Eventually he was vindicated and promoted to second in command in Egypt. 

It doesn’t matter if the way you get to hope is through religious faith or evidence-based theory or an intuition or a well-reasoned argument, they all produce the same result—a belief in the potential for salvation in the future and the belief that there are ways we can navigate to get us there.[16]

David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel once said that in his country if you don’t believe in miracles you are not a realist.

While Mark Manson in his book whose title cannot be spoken, gives a very good argument for why hope is hopeless, he still offers a hopeful path.  Don’t hope for better. Just be better. Be something better. Be more compassionate, more resilient, more humble, more disciplined.   Many people would also throw in there, be more human, but no – be a better human….”[17]

….and then

Rise up, rise like the day
rise up, rise unafraid
rise up, and do it a thousand times again
rise up, high like the waves rise up, in spite of the ache
rise up, and do it a thousand times again
For you For you For you For you

L’Shana Tova u’metukah-- Wishing all of you a sweet and happy new year.  

Ellie
 
 

 

[1] Casey Gwinn and Chan Hellman.  Hope Rising. (New York : Morgan James, c2019) 8
[2] Feldman, David B. Rand, Kevin L., Kahle-Wrobleski, Kristin. “Hope and Goal Attainment” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 28, issue 4 (2009) 
[3] Shane J. Lopez. Making Hope Happen. (New York : Atria Books, c2013) 36
[4] Casey Gwinn and Chan Hellman.  Hope Rising. (New York : Morgan James, c2019) 9
 [5] Ibid. 18
[6] Ibid. 32
[7] Maurice Lamm.  The Power of Hope. (New York : Fireside, 1997) 19
[8]Jonathan Sacks. “Future Tense, How the Jews Invented Hope.” http://rabbisacks.org/future-tense-how-the-jews-invented-hope-published-in-the-jewish-chronicle/ (accessed August 2019)
[9] Ibid.
[10] Maurice Lamm. The Power of Hope. (New York : Fireside, 1997) 47
[11] Ibid. 51
[12] Mark Manson. Everything is f’ed. (New York : Harper Collins, c2019) 12
[13] Ibid. 13
[14] Maurice Lamm. the Power of Hope (New York : Fireside, 1997) 52 
[15] Ibid. 53
[16] Mark Manson. Everything is f’d (New York : Harper Collins, c2019) 15 
[17] Ibid. 228.