The George Zimmerman verdict is
Scary: opens door to vigilantes,
to becoming the wild west all over.
Whether or not jury was right there’s no just result
“right to stand your ground”
If you think about it, any time 2 people believe they have a "right to stand their ground," you end up with escalating conflict. When I imagine what happened that night (and I admit this is my own imaginative reconstruction), I imagine 2 people each thinking they are just standing their ground. Zimmerman, believing he had a right to protect his community against someone he thought seemed suspicious, even if only because of the color of his skin and his clothing style. And Martin, believing he had a right to protect himself against someone who seemed to be stalking him
When 2 people stand their ground, you have a stand off where only 1 person can win
There’s always a loser,
Since nobody wants to lose, so each person raises the stakes--there is a mutual escalation.
In this case, the stakes were raised so high that at least according to zimmerman’s testimony, only 1 of them would come out alive
Nobody felt an obligation to stand down, to de-escalate,
to walk away, which was what the dispatcher had told Zimmerman to do
It was a tragic inability to de-escalate
This is the problem with the whole attitude of "standing your ground."
“Standing your ground” is not a jewish value
Talmud: Jerusalem destroyed because people insisted on their legal rights—
let’s say shimon owed rubin 10 zuz, but shimon only had 9
so rubin insisted on the full 10 zuz
Rubin wouldn’t compromise.
Rubin was right halachically—but he was wrong because he wouldn’t compromise
And for this Jerusalem was destroyed
In jewish court proceedings, too, the court is instructed to try to negotiate a settlement first
And only then to adjudicate
The whole idea of a settlement is that it’s not necessarily what the halacha calls for
It’s about making peace between the two sides
Because the world survives through peace, not through who’s wight or wrong
Any of us who are married or have been know this
How long would a marriage survive if spouses stood their ground
If spouses always insisted on having their way?
Here at FJC, we are trying to build a spiritual community
It’s a lot like a mixed marriage—we’ve got traditionalist and progressive jews
Which creates a beautiful challenge
the rules we davven by, whether we have a mechitza or not,
Are far less important than how we treat each other,
Whether we care for each other, and treat each other respectfully.
Any win-lose struggle is really a lose-lose struggle
Any time we have a conflict and one sides wins, really both sides lose.
May we all learn
To be more gentle, more understanding, and willing to always seek compromise, to find solutions by which everyone comes out feeling good about what we are building together.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
Zimmerman's acquittal in the eyes of the Talmud
I was shocked by outcome of Zimmerman trial
And signed petitions to eric holder to prosecute Zimmerman for civil rights violation
Shocking that Zimmerman profiled Trayvon Martin for being black in florida
Stalked him in his car, somehow provoked him,
And got away with killing him
It is a scary porecedent.
One wonders: does this open the door to a wild west mentality?
If someone stalks me, and I defend myself, can they then shoot me and claim self defense?
But I want to discuss a jewish perspective on the verdict per se
Even if Zimmerman’s actions were horrible
Which they were
Was the jury right to acquit, from a jewish perspective?
Was justice served?
In its discussion of court procedures for capital crimes, the Talmud institutes very careful procedures to make sure there is absolute proof of the crime. The Torah requires two witnesses, and the Talmud require that they both warn the criminal and unambiguously witness the act.
Sanh 37b:
It has been taught: R. Simeon b. Shatah said: May I never see comfort6 if I did not see a man pursuing his fellow into a ruin, and when I ran after him and saw him, sword in hand with blood dripping from it, and the murdered man writhing, I exclaimed to him: Wicked man, who slew this man? It is either you or I!7 But what can I do, since thy blood [i.e., life] does not rest in my hands, for it is written in the Torah, At the mouth of two witnesses etc., shall he that is to die be put to death?8 May he who knows one's thoughts exact vengeance from him who slew his fellow! It is related that before they moved from the place a serpent came and bit him [the murderer] so that he died.
The court procedure was so biased against false conviction that
Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah states: [Executing more than] one person in 70 years [would be considered a murderous court]. Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva state: “If we had been members of the Sanhedrin, no defendant would ever have been executed.” [Makkot 1:10]
To which of course R Shimon b Gamliel responds:
Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel responds, “they would have been increasing the murderers in Israel.”
But the halacha is that we are careful about this procedure, because it is better to let someone go than to punish someone who’s innocent
In fact, the judges on a bet din are instructed to look for reasons to acquit.
Pesachim 12a:—cannot convict person if there’s any doubt they are equivalent
Cites Num 35:25: “the congregation shall deliver”
Rashi: we look for a reason to acquit
From a utilitarian perspective: it’s better to convict people even if you’re not 100% sure
This is Shimon ben Gamliel’s argument:
We would be a safer society if courts could convict people like Zimmerman
It would send the message: you can’t be a vigilante
But from a moral perspective, our own moral integrity as a society comes first
The ends don’t justify the means
Courts need to make sure they don’t punish innocent people
Or they themselves are acting immorally
our own moral integrity limits what we can do to protect public safety
The Zimmerman trial shows our society has problems
The possibility that someone could think it’s okay to assault and kill someone for appearing suspicious, based on racial stereotypes
That we have vigilantes driving around on town watch acting without regard for the law
But it also shows our justice system can work
People can be acquitted if there’s just a possibility of being innocent
On a personal level, when we are judging others’ motives
And tempted to condemn them, to judge them negatively,
We should always look for a tzad zechut, a way to view their actions positively
And through this, preserve peace in our communities and families.
And signed petitions to eric holder to prosecute Zimmerman for civil rights violation
Shocking that Zimmerman profiled Trayvon Martin for being black in florida
Stalked him in his car, somehow provoked him,
And got away with killing him
It is a scary porecedent.
One wonders: does this open the door to a wild west mentality?
If someone stalks me, and I defend myself, can they then shoot me and claim self defense?
But I want to discuss a jewish perspective on the verdict per se
Even if Zimmerman’s actions were horrible
Which they were
Was the jury right to acquit, from a jewish perspective?
Was justice served?
In its discussion of court procedures for capital crimes, the Talmud institutes very careful procedures to make sure there is absolute proof of the crime. The Torah requires two witnesses, and the Talmud require that they both warn the criminal and unambiguously witness the act.
Sanh 37b:
It has been taught: R. Simeon b. Shatah said: May I never see comfort6 if I did not see a man pursuing his fellow into a ruin, and when I ran after him and saw him, sword in hand with blood dripping from it, and the murdered man writhing, I exclaimed to him: Wicked man, who slew this man? It is either you or I!7 But what can I do, since thy blood [i.e., life] does not rest in my hands, for it is written in the Torah, At the mouth of two witnesses etc., shall he that is to die be put to death?8 May he who knows one's thoughts exact vengeance from him who slew his fellow! It is related that before they moved from the place a serpent came and bit him [the murderer] so that he died.
The court procedure was so biased against false conviction that
Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah states: [Executing more than] one person in 70 years [would be considered a murderous court]. Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva state: “If we had been members of the Sanhedrin, no defendant would ever have been executed.” [Makkot 1:10]
To which of course R Shimon b Gamliel responds:
Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel responds, “they would have been increasing the murderers in Israel.”
But the halacha is that we are careful about this procedure, because it is better to let someone go than to punish someone who’s innocent
In fact, the judges on a bet din are instructed to look for reasons to acquit.
Pesachim 12a:—cannot convict person if there’s any doubt they are equivalent
Cites Num 35:25: “the congregation shall deliver”
Rashi: we look for a reason to acquit
From a utilitarian perspective: it’s better to convict people even if you’re not 100% sure
This is Shimon ben Gamliel’s argument:
We would be a safer society if courts could convict people like Zimmerman
It would send the message: you can’t be a vigilante
But from a moral perspective, our own moral integrity as a society comes first
The ends don’t justify the means
Courts need to make sure they don’t punish innocent people
Or they themselves are acting immorally
our own moral integrity limits what we can do to protect public safety
The Zimmerman trial shows our society has problems
The possibility that someone could think it’s okay to assault and kill someone for appearing suspicious, based on racial stereotypes
That we have vigilantes driving around on town watch acting without regard for the law
But it also shows our justice system can work
People can be acquitted if there’s just a possibility of being innocent
On a personal level, when we are judging others’ motives
And tempted to condemn them, to judge them negatively,
We should always look for a tzad zechut, a way to view their actions positively
And through this, preserve peace in our communities and families.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Imagine that you are trying to davven, on a beautiful sunny day in Jerusalem, singing the hallel with your full heart. Add to the scene that you are standing next to a restroom and surrounded by ultraorthodox Jews blowing whistles, throwing eggs at you, and calling you "zonah" (whore), "naziyah" (nazi) and "pritzit" (lascivious), and a blaring PA system trying to drown out your voice. I was terribly saddened by what the Women of the Wall went through this month, in their fight to allow pluralistic worship at the kotel, our peoples’ holiest site. Surrounded by crowds of yelling, whistling ultraorthodox Jews, kept in the back of the plaza by the bathrooms by the police.
Isaiah (56:7) says “my house shall be a house of prayer for all people.” That house is the Temple. What will it look like, when Indians and Native Americans and Christians and Muslims come? What prayer will be said there—one prayer, or a beautiful rainbow of prayers and voices, representing the multiplicity of beautiful human approaches to spirituality? Will the third Temple be an ultraorthodox shtibl, or will it be a mansion, allowing for all ethnicities, allowing for chanting and yoga, allowing for people who call God “Allah” or “Brahman” or “Love”?
It is sad that even segments of the Jewish people are unable to access our holiest site. The women of the wall represent most of the Jewish people, since orthodoxy is really a minority worldwide and a majority in Israel only because they are state funded. But this loud minority is keeping the wall hostage, preventing other Jews from davenning there.
This is particularly apropos in this period before Tisha B’Av, a holiday that marks the destruction of the Second Temple due to sinat hinam, causeless hatred among Jews. When one Jews tries to prevent another Jew from davenning, it is a hateful act, it is sinat hinam. When one Jew calls another Jew’s sincere spiritual expression “childish provocation,” as did Hillel Halkin, it is stupidity, judgmentalism, and sinat hinam.
I pray for the day when people will no longer judge each other’s spirituality, but can celebrate each other. I pray for the day when all peoples’ sincere attempts to bring kedusha into the world are honored and celebrated. I pray for the day when the kotel, the western wall, is truly liberated, is truly a house of prayer for all of us. And until that day, “over these I weep.”
Isaiah (56:7) says “my house shall be a house of prayer for all people.” That house is the Temple. What will it look like, when Indians and Native Americans and Christians and Muslims come? What prayer will be said there—one prayer, or a beautiful rainbow of prayers and voices, representing the multiplicity of beautiful human approaches to spirituality? Will the third Temple be an ultraorthodox shtibl, or will it be a mansion, allowing for all ethnicities, allowing for chanting and yoga, allowing for people who call God “Allah” or “Brahman” or “Love”?
It is sad that even segments of the Jewish people are unable to access our holiest site. The women of the wall represent most of the Jewish people, since orthodoxy is really a minority worldwide and a majority in Israel only because they are state funded. But this loud minority is keeping the wall hostage, preventing other Jews from davenning there.
This is particularly apropos in this period before Tisha B’Av, a holiday that marks the destruction of the Second Temple due to sinat hinam, causeless hatred among Jews. When one Jews tries to prevent another Jew from davenning, it is a hateful act, it is sinat hinam. When one Jew calls another Jew’s sincere spiritual expression “childish provocation,” as did Hillel Halkin, it is stupidity, judgmentalism, and sinat hinam.
I pray for the day when people will no longer judge each other’s spirituality, but can celebrate each other. I pray for the day when all peoples’ sincere attempts to bring kedusha into the world are honored and celebrated. I pray for the day when the kotel, the western wall, is truly liberated, is truly a house of prayer for all of us. And until that day, “over these I weep.”
Friday, June 28, 2013
Acting on Impluse
In the beginning of the Parsha, Pinhas is rewarded with “briti shalom”, the covenant of peace.
It is his reward for actions in previous parsha
Israelites were seduced by idolatrous women at Bal peor
Zimri and Cosbi had intercourse in public
People were stunned, couldn’t think straight
Pinhas ran his spear through both of them in the act
Term for Pinhas in Hebrew: kenai—zealot
Someone who throws themselves in, mindlessly
Jumping in feet first, acting on blind impulse
Not thinking about the risk—
Zimri could have legitimately killed him in self defense
Most of us here aren’t zealots in that sense
But there is the temptation to be impulsive in our speech
To say exactly what I think, the moment I think it
I let you know exactly what kind of a person you are.
How horrible a thing you just did
Problem with Zealotry:
Too often bad motives
immaturity, impulsivity,
the thrill of controversy, self-promotion,
or advancing some sort of personal agenda.
Also: not very effective to improve people around you
If you jump on people who are wrong
Even if you’re right, they don’t want to listen
Pinhas’ reward is the covenant of peace—briti shalom
It’s an odd reward: he was hardly peaceful!
The Ntziv, Rav Naftali Tzvi Berlin, says it was a protection from recrimination
So people should know his motives were pure
Because all too often, when people are zealous,
Their motives are not pure
The truth is, we never fully admit our own motives, even to ourselves
And all too often when we act impulsively,
Or when we speak impulsively,
It’s really out of selfishness, vindictiveness,
The thrill of attack
Or other less than stellar motive
So in general we need to be more like aaron, a little more peaceful
When aaron would hear someone sinned
He wouldn’t attack them
He would befriend them
And the person would be so embarrassed to sin, because what would aaron think of that
When we see something we don’t like, and we are tempted to attack,
To jump in and criticize,
We need to act in a way that embodies brit, sacred relationship,
We need to approach all of our fellow humans
Even in the moments where they are doing something we can’t stand
with patience, love and peace
It is his reward for actions in previous parsha
Israelites were seduced by idolatrous women at Bal peor
Zimri and Cosbi had intercourse in public
People were stunned, couldn’t think straight
Pinhas ran his spear through both of them in the act
Term for Pinhas in Hebrew: kenai—zealot
Someone who throws themselves in, mindlessly
Jumping in feet first, acting on blind impulse
Not thinking about the risk—
Zimri could have legitimately killed him in self defense
Most of us here aren’t zealots in that sense
But there is the temptation to be impulsive in our speech
To say exactly what I think, the moment I think it
I let you know exactly what kind of a person you are.
How horrible a thing you just did
Problem with Zealotry:
Too often bad motives
immaturity, impulsivity,
the thrill of controversy, self-promotion,
or advancing some sort of personal agenda.
Also: not very effective to improve people around you
If you jump on people who are wrong
Even if you’re right, they don’t want to listen
Pinhas’ reward is the covenant of peace—briti shalom
It’s an odd reward: he was hardly peaceful!
The Ntziv, Rav Naftali Tzvi Berlin, says it was a protection from recrimination
So people should know his motives were pure
Because all too often, when people are zealous,
Their motives are not pure
The truth is, we never fully admit our own motives, even to ourselves
And all too often when we act impulsively,
Or when we speak impulsively,
It’s really out of selfishness, vindictiveness,
The thrill of attack
Or other less than stellar motive
So in general we need to be more like aaron, a little more peaceful
When aaron would hear someone sinned
He wouldn’t attack them
He would befriend them
And the person would be so embarrassed to sin, because what would aaron think of that
When we see something we don’t like, and we are tempted to attack,
To jump in and criticize,
We need to act in a way that embodies brit, sacred relationship,
We need to approach all of our fellow humans
Even in the moments where they are doing something we can’t stand
with patience, love and peace
Friday, May 24, 2013
God's Voice in the Hurricane
The magnitude of the tornado that hit Oklahoma this week was shocking
A level 5 tornado is a 1 in a thousand event
I saw an aerial photo: 20 blocks flattened
Over 200 mph, 1.3 miles wide, 22 miles on ground
Flattened 13,000 homes, 2 schools and a hospital
24 people killed incl 9 children, 237 injured, tens of thousands homeless
Given magnitude, actually amazing how few casualties
we read Psalm 29 when we take out the torah:
The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
The God of glory thunders;
The LORD is over many waters.
4 The voice of the LORD is powerful;
The voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars,
Yes, the LORD splinters the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes them also skip like a calf,
Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the LORD divides the flames of fire.
8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;
The LORD shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth,
And strips the forests bare;
And in His temple everyone says, “Glory!”
The psalm is describing a major storm moving in—first over the sea, then to Lebanon, and down to Israel. The repetition of the name Lord hammers in the point, of the power of God experience in nature, perhaps trying to mimic thunder.
I have sensed this power on top of Mt Adams, seeing the vastness of the land below me
In Utah, overlooking 2000 foot deep canyons
Sense: there is an immense power in the universe—
Awe is a unique human experience-
Yirah=aware of some\thing immensely greater than myself (not fear)
It is a scary experience, because in the face of such power
We are powerless—
Compared to tornado we are flecks on the surface of the earth
This force does not always bring gifts, it doesn’t seem to know me or care about me personally.
Heschel: awe: opening into something beyond the raw facts of the physical universe
calls on me to respond
Jewish response: Bracha “shecocho ugevurato malei et ha’olam
We notice it
We identify it with word “God,” which sounds like a name for an individual
But really a placeholder for unknowable source of these powers
What do we know about this power?
Massive power—we don’t remember how massive
Benevolent/life producing
Creates
Reveals—source of wisdom
Redeems—can tap into to escape difficult situations
Can tap into in our souls
Is this power benevolent?
At times seems benevolent
What if I say a brocho “shecocho,”
I notice the beauty and immensity—I appreciate it
I have stood with Hannah for an hour in the darkened bedroom
Watching lightning strikes out the window
What if it just so happens that the lightning strike,
the one I said my brocho over,
happened to kill someone?
Massive power, the forces that made for life,
Are massive beyond our individual control
And beyond our sense of what we as tiny humans want
Mishna: Bless on the evil as well as the good
1 approach: it’s all good (talmud, rabbi akiva)
R. Akiba was once going along the road and he came to a certain town and looked for lodgings but was everywhere refused. He said 'Whatever the All-Merciful does is for good', and he went and spent the night in the open field. He had with him a cock, an ass and a lamp. A gust of wind came and blew out the lamp, a weasel came and ate the cock, a lion came and ate the ass. He said: 'Whatever the All-Merciful does is for good'. The same night some brigands came and carried off the inhabitants of the town. He said to them:15 Did I not say to you, 'Whatever the All-Merciful does is all for good?1 (berachot 60b-61a)
It’s a wonderful attitude to have—
Trying to find a blessing in everything
Doing so, we may be able to turn an apparent curse into a blessing
But when 7 children die in a school, it’s not good,
it’s not God’s decree or punishment
those children were not meant to die
The truth is, we say a different brocho for the good or for the bad:
Hatov vehameitiv
Dayan ha’emet—when someone dies, try to accept it
We need to accept it, or we’ll suffer endlessly
Perhaps “true judge”—god was right
Or “judge of truth”—god has the right to give life & take it away
I have to accept it, or else live in perpetual psychic torment
So yes, we do see the hand of the divine,
but we experience it in a different way—we experience God as judge rather than benefactor.
don’t say a brocho on vinegar—not on a curse. There are things which are entirely negative, and beyond seeing God in at all.
Rambam: ultimately, needs to destroy to build—evil is secondary goal, not primary
Rav Kook wrote:
The world appears most advanced and perfected when seen in its developed, built-up state. But upon deeper reflection, it is possible to recognize that there is also a need for destructive forces in the world. If we can perceive the benefits of destructive phenomena — like the positive role played by forest fires in the growth and regeneration of a forest — then we may grasp how also these forces indicate the underlying purpose and Divine wisdom governing the universe.
So this divine power, which creates an amazing world, sadly also creates massive calamities.
But the same divine power can also speak through our souls, through our response.
When Anna Canaday, at Plaza Tower Elementary School, covered 4 kindergarteners with her body to save them, and protected them from a car that fell in the hallway—she survived, and saved the children, by the way—it weas the same power coming from her soul.
Rhonda Crosswhite, a 6th grade teacher, heroically lay down on top of her students to shield them from the rubble. “I was in a bathroom stall with some kids and it just started coming down, so I laid on top of them. I never thought I was going to die. The whole time I just kept screaming to them, ‘We’re going to be fine, we’re going to be fine, I’m protecting you.” All her students are now safe, and their parents credit their children’s survival to their teacher’s amazing courage. This was the same power as in the tornado.
When neighbors rushed to the school to lift rubble from victims, it was the same power.
The end of psalm 29 says:
The LORD sat enthroned at the Flood,
And the LORD sits as King forever.
11 The LORD will give strength to His people;
The LORD will bless His people with peace.
Just as God’s power is in the storm, so too can it be found in our own souls, in our efforts for peace and healing, in our ability to help, our ability to rebuild.
When Elijah went to the desert looking for God, on a visionquest, the Tanakh writes:
“behold, Gd passed by, and a great and powerful wind smashing mountains and braking rocks went before Gd; but Gd was not in the wind. After the wind came an earthquake; but Gd was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire; but Gd was not in the fire. [Gd created nature, but nature is not Gd.] After the fire came a still small voice.” And there he found Gd.
A level 5 tornado is a 1 in a thousand event
I saw an aerial photo: 20 blocks flattened
Over 200 mph, 1.3 miles wide, 22 miles on ground
Flattened 13,000 homes, 2 schools and a hospital
24 people killed incl 9 children, 237 injured, tens of thousands homeless
Given magnitude, actually amazing how few casualties
we read Psalm 29 when we take out the torah:
The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
The God of glory thunders;
The LORD is over many waters.
4 The voice of the LORD is powerful;
The voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars,
Yes, the LORD splinters the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes them also skip like a calf,
Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the LORD divides the flames of fire.
8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;
The LORD shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth,
And strips the forests bare;
And in His temple everyone says, “Glory!”
The psalm is describing a major storm moving in—first over the sea, then to Lebanon, and down to Israel. The repetition of the name Lord hammers in the point, of the power of God experience in nature, perhaps trying to mimic thunder.
I have sensed this power on top of Mt Adams, seeing the vastness of the land below me
In Utah, overlooking 2000 foot deep canyons
Sense: there is an immense power in the universe—
Awe is a unique human experience-
Yirah=aware of some\thing immensely greater than myself (not fear)
It is a scary experience, because in the face of such power
We are powerless—
Compared to tornado we are flecks on the surface of the earth
This force does not always bring gifts, it doesn’t seem to know me or care about me personally.
Heschel: awe: opening into something beyond the raw facts of the physical universe
calls on me to respond
Jewish response: Bracha “shecocho ugevurato malei et ha’olam
We notice it
We identify it with word “God,” which sounds like a name for an individual
But really a placeholder for unknowable source of these powers
What do we know about this power?
Massive power—we don’t remember how massive
Benevolent/life producing
Creates
Reveals—source of wisdom
Redeems—can tap into to escape difficult situations
Can tap into in our souls
Is this power benevolent?
At times seems benevolent
What if I say a brocho “shecocho,”
I notice the beauty and immensity—I appreciate it
I have stood with Hannah for an hour in the darkened bedroom
Watching lightning strikes out the window
What if it just so happens that the lightning strike,
the one I said my brocho over,
happened to kill someone?
Massive power, the forces that made for life,
Are massive beyond our individual control
And beyond our sense of what we as tiny humans want
Mishna: Bless on the evil as well as the good
1 approach: it’s all good (talmud, rabbi akiva)
R. Akiba was once going along the road and he came to a certain town and looked for lodgings but was everywhere refused. He said 'Whatever the All-Merciful does is for good', and he went and spent the night in the open field. He had with him a cock, an ass and a lamp. A gust of wind came and blew out the lamp, a weasel came and ate the cock, a lion came and ate the ass. He said: 'Whatever the All-Merciful does is for good'. The same night some brigands came and carried off the inhabitants of the town. He said to them:15 Did I not say to you, 'Whatever the All-Merciful does is all for good?1 (berachot 60b-61a)
It’s a wonderful attitude to have—
Trying to find a blessing in everything
Doing so, we may be able to turn an apparent curse into a blessing
But when 7 children die in a school, it’s not good,
it’s not God’s decree or punishment
those children were not meant to die
The truth is, we say a different brocho for the good or for the bad:
Hatov vehameitiv
Dayan ha’emet—when someone dies, try to accept it
We need to accept it, or we’ll suffer endlessly
Perhaps “true judge”—god was right
Or “judge of truth”—god has the right to give life & take it away
I have to accept it, or else live in perpetual psychic torment
So yes, we do see the hand of the divine,
but we experience it in a different way—we experience God as judge rather than benefactor.
don’t say a brocho on vinegar—not on a curse. There are things which are entirely negative, and beyond seeing God in at all.
Rambam: ultimately, needs to destroy to build—evil is secondary goal, not primary
Rav Kook wrote:
The world appears most advanced and perfected when seen in its developed, built-up state. But upon deeper reflection, it is possible to recognize that there is also a need for destructive forces in the world. If we can perceive the benefits of destructive phenomena — like the positive role played by forest fires in the growth and regeneration of a forest — then we may grasp how also these forces indicate the underlying purpose and Divine wisdom governing the universe.
So this divine power, which creates an amazing world, sadly also creates massive calamities.
But the same divine power can also speak through our souls, through our response.
When Anna Canaday, at Plaza Tower Elementary School, covered 4 kindergarteners with her body to save them, and protected them from a car that fell in the hallway—she survived, and saved the children, by the way—it weas the same power coming from her soul.
Rhonda Crosswhite, a 6th grade teacher, heroically lay down on top of her students to shield them from the rubble. “I was in a bathroom stall with some kids and it just started coming down, so I laid on top of them. I never thought I was going to die. The whole time I just kept screaming to them, ‘We’re going to be fine, we’re going to be fine, I’m protecting you.” All her students are now safe, and their parents credit their children’s survival to their teacher’s amazing courage. This was the same power as in the tornado.
When neighbors rushed to the school to lift rubble from victims, it was the same power.
The end of psalm 29 says:
The LORD sat enthroned at the Flood,
And the LORD sits as King forever.
11 The LORD will give strength to His people;
The LORD will bless His people with peace.
Just as God’s power is in the storm, so too can it be found in our own souls, in our efforts for peace and healing, in our ability to help, our ability to rebuild.
When Elijah went to the desert looking for God, on a visionquest, the Tanakh writes:
“behold, Gd passed by, and a great and powerful wind smashing mountains and braking rocks went before Gd; but Gd was not in the wind. After the wind came an earthquake; but Gd was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire; but Gd was not in the fire. [Gd created nature, but nature is not Gd.] After the fire came a still small voice.” And there he found Gd.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Why Charles Ramsey was the hero
What would you do, if you heard a scream from a neighbor’s basement? You’d call the police, for sure. But them what? Would you go over? Would you wait outside until the police come? Would you call your survivalist buddy to come over and storm down the front door?
We were all shocked by what happened in Cleveland, a monster imprisoning and torturing four women, mindbogglingly evil acts.
Rescue after 10 years of enslavement was amazing:
A neighbor, Charles Ramsey was inside his house eating a McDonald’s meal when he heard a woman across the street began kicking at the door and screaming. He goes to the porch, hears her screaming “help, let me out.” Ramsey opened the door helped kick in the aluminum screen door through which Berry and her daughter escaped
“I’ve been there a year, she’s been right there next to me a year.”—this was the first time he had any inkling of anything off-kilter with his neighbor. He said he never had a clue anything was wrong. When he heard the screaming, he said, there is no feeling, you just do what you need to do.
It is an amazing story of heroism.
But there were also missed opportunities
Neighbors had called police over the years about weird things they saw:
three naked young girls crawling on all fours with dog leashes around their necks while three men (likely Castro's brothers) watched,
troubling pounds and screams,
a little girl looking out of an attic window.
3 years ago: neighbors heard a blood curdling shriek from the basement. The neighbors called the police. Nothing happened.
Last year a little girl saw a naked woman crawling out of castro’s house
And Castro was fired from his job as a school bus driver, after abducting a child for a joy ride in the school bus, which might have made police all the more concerned about reports about unusual activity at his house.
The neighbors say cops rarely followed up — once, they briefly knocked on Castro's door but left when he didn't show. The cops say they were never called. Or maybe they chalked it up to domestic disturbance, a couple quarrelling, and didn’t want to get involved.
It’s easy to blame the police for these missed opportunities. This is their job. But really it’s all of our jobs too. But could the neighbors have done more? Could they have been more tenacious?
The Torah says, “do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor, and most of us clearly seeing someone in distress will act to do something about it. Rashi: if we truly love our neighbor as ourself, we will never speak negatively about them, or seek to harm them, or desire for anything but the best for them. Certainly anybody would have called the police.
What if Ramsey had just called the police? Maybe they would have come on time. Or maybe they would have come a little too late, Interviewed Castroi, and found nothing amiss.
What made Ramsey’s response different was that he didn’t just call the police. He went up to the door, and seeing a hand sticking out, battered in the door.
Too often, when we are called to help, we do a half baked job. We offer to help someone, and it doesn’t happen, there’s no follow through. The neighbors tried to help over the ten years, they called the police, and went on with their day. Obviously, nobody wants to be a vigilante, but the question is, how much of a response fulfills my duty?
Judaism tells us that when you take on something, any mitzvah no matter how small, you see it through, and do it beautifully.
You should safeguard the observance of all the commandment(s) that I am commanding you today, so that you will live, multiply, and come to possess the Land that G-d swore to your forefathers.
-- Devarim 8:1
Rashi: The term "all the commandment(s)" is to be taken literally.
[Another interpretation:] According to the Midrash Agadah [the verse is saying]: If you have started a mitzvah, finish it, because only the one who completes it is credited with [the mitzvah]. As the verse states, "And they buried the bones of Yosef, which the Jewish people had brought up from Egypt, in Shechem" (Joshua 24:32). Was it not the case that Moshe alone took care of this [mitzvah of taking the bones, and not the Jewish people]? However, since he did not complete it, it is credited to the Jewish people, who did complete it.
Don’t just start a mitzvah, see it through.
If you were here for the lovely barbeque, you saw the detail with which Alex and his crew not only cooked, but set up tables, and even had a service line with sterno burners. If you’re called to help, you do a great job.
Doing a mitzvah completely, thoroughly—not stopping for another mitzvah, not multitasking. I saw couple a sitting, talking, and one was checkling facebook. If you’re going to be present with your spouse, be totally present, be able to give your full attention. The sources state that if you start a chapter of Talmud, you should finish it—mesayyem—that’s why we have a siyyum. Whenever we do a mitzvah, we should finish it.
Another expression of this is the notion that osek bamitzvah patur min hamitzvah—if I’m busy with one mitzvah, I don’t stop for another. This is why a groom doesn’t have to davven the night of the wedding—he’s busy with the bride. Don’t get torn by even two different things. Don’t move on until you’ve done a really great job at the first thing. Perseverance.
What could perseverance have looked like here? It means just calling the police might not be enough. Asking this neighbor who they were, and asking to talk to them. It means waiting outside until the police come, and making sure they investigate thoroughly, and if they don’t, calling the police station. It means not passing the job off to someone else, not wiping our hands clean and moving on.
What are the mitzvah opportunities in our own life, and how can we do them really well? If someone is sick, not just visiting them once, but visiting them weekly or daily, bringing them meals, not losing steam. If someone is homebound, as a number of our congregants are, it means visiting them, cheering them up, not losing momentum. If someone needs a job, helping them with their resume, their outfit, maybe a mock interview.
Mishna (Kiddushin 39b) teaches us that “whoever performs one mitzvah is well rewarded and his days are prolonged and he inherits the world.” The Jerusalem Talmud, in commenting on this mishna, reads this notion of one mitzvah differently. It argues that "ONE Mitzva" refers to one that a person dedicates him/herself to with particular diligence. The Jerusalem Talmud mentions "Talmud Torah, Bikur Holim, Gemilut Hasadim and other mitzvot that require a high level of perseverance." The Jerusalem Talmud means to say that if one performs one mitzva b’emunah, with real devotion, he’s worthy of having the Divine spirit rest upon him/her. (David Ebstein)
Let us all find our signature mitzvah; maybe something we're good at, or maybe just something where we are needed, and do it well, see it through, bring that one beautiful act, that one diamond of a mitzvah, into the world.
We were all shocked by what happened in Cleveland, a monster imprisoning and torturing four women, mindbogglingly evil acts.
Rescue after 10 years of enslavement was amazing:
A neighbor, Charles Ramsey was inside his house eating a McDonald’s meal when he heard a woman across the street began kicking at the door and screaming. He goes to the porch, hears her screaming “help, let me out.” Ramsey opened the door helped kick in the aluminum screen door through which Berry and her daughter escaped
“I’ve been there a year, she’s been right there next to me a year.”—this was the first time he had any inkling of anything off-kilter with his neighbor. He said he never had a clue anything was wrong. When he heard the screaming, he said, there is no feeling, you just do what you need to do.
It is an amazing story of heroism.
But there were also missed opportunities
Neighbors had called police over the years about weird things they saw:
three naked young girls crawling on all fours with dog leashes around their necks while three men (likely Castro's brothers) watched,
troubling pounds and screams,
a little girl looking out of an attic window.
3 years ago: neighbors heard a blood curdling shriek from the basement. The neighbors called the police. Nothing happened.
Last year a little girl saw a naked woman crawling out of castro’s house
And Castro was fired from his job as a school bus driver, after abducting a child for a joy ride in the school bus, which might have made police all the more concerned about reports about unusual activity at his house.
The neighbors say cops rarely followed up — once, they briefly knocked on Castro's door but left when he didn't show. The cops say they were never called. Or maybe they chalked it up to domestic disturbance, a couple quarrelling, and didn’t want to get involved.
It’s easy to blame the police for these missed opportunities. This is their job. But really it’s all of our jobs too. But could the neighbors have done more? Could they have been more tenacious?
The Torah says, “do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor, and most of us clearly seeing someone in distress will act to do something about it. Rashi: if we truly love our neighbor as ourself, we will never speak negatively about them, or seek to harm them, or desire for anything but the best for them. Certainly anybody would have called the police.
What if Ramsey had just called the police? Maybe they would have come on time. Or maybe they would have come a little too late, Interviewed Castroi, and found nothing amiss.
What made Ramsey’s response different was that he didn’t just call the police. He went up to the door, and seeing a hand sticking out, battered in the door.
Too often, when we are called to help, we do a half baked job. We offer to help someone, and it doesn’t happen, there’s no follow through. The neighbors tried to help over the ten years, they called the police, and went on with their day. Obviously, nobody wants to be a vigilante, but the question is, how much of a response fulfills my duty?
Judaism tells us that when you take on something, any mitzvah no matter how small, you see it through, and do it beautifully.
You should safeguard the observance of all the commandment(s) that I am commanding you today, so that you will live, multiply, and come to possess the Land that G-d swore to your forefathers.
-- Devarim 8:1
Rashi: The term "all the commandment(s)" is to be taken literally.
[Another interpretation:] According to the Midrash Agadah [the verse is saying]: If you have started a mitzvah, finish it, because only the one who completes it is credited with [the mitzvah]. As the verse states, "And they buried the bones of Yosef, which the Jewish people had brought up from Egypt, in Shechem" (Joshua 24:32). Was it not the case that Moshe alone took care of this [mitzvah of taking the bones, and not the Jewish people]? However, since he did not complete it, it is credited to the Jewish people, who did complete it.
Don’t just start a mitzvah, see it through.
If you were here for the lovely barbeque, you saw the detail with which Alex and his crew not only cooked, but set up tables, and even had a service line with sterno burners. If you’re called to help, you do a great job.
Doing a mitzvah completely, thoroughly—not stopping for another mitzvah, not multitasking. I saw couple a sitting, talking, and one was checkling facebook. If you’re going to be present with your spouse, be totally present, be able to give your full attention. The sources state that if you start a chapter of Talmud, you should finish it—mesayyem—that’s why we have a siyyum. Whenever we do a mitzvah, we should finish it.
Another expression of this is the notion that osek bamitzvah patur min hamitzvah—if I’m busy with one mitzvah, I don’t stop for another. This is why a groom doesn’t have to davven the night of the wedding—he’s busy with the bride. Don’t get torn by even two different things. Don’t move on until you’ve done a really great job at the first thing. Perseverance.
What could perseverance have looked like here? It means just calling the police might not be enough. Asking this neighbor who they were, and asking to talk to them. It means waiting outside until the police come, and making sure they investigate thoroughly, and if they don’t, calling the police station. It means not passing the job off to someone else, not wiping our hands clean and moving on.
What are the mitzvah opportunities in our own life, and how can we do them really well? If someone is sick, not just visiting them once, but visiting them weekly or daily, bringing them meals, not losing steam. If someone is homebound, as a number of our congregants are, it means visiting them, cheering them up, not losing momentum. If someone needs a job, helping them with their resume, their outfit, maybe a mock interview.
Mishna (Kiddushin 39b) teaches us that “whoever performs one mitzvah is well rewarded and his days are prolonged and he inherits the world.” The Jerusalem Talmud, in commenting on this mishna, reads this notion of one mitzvah differently. It argues that "ONE Mitzva" refers to one that a person dedicates him/herself to with particular diligence. The Jerusalem Talmud mentions "Talmud Torah, Bikur Holim, Gemilut Hasadim and other mitzvot that require a high level of perseverance." The Jerusalem Talmud means to say that if one performs one mitzva b’emunah, with real devotion, he’s worthy of having the Divine spirit rest upon him/her. (David Ebstein)
Let us all find our signature mitzvah; maybe something we're good at, or maybe just something where we are needed, and do it well, see it through, bring that one beautiful act, that one diamond of a mitzvah, into the world.
Bamidbar 5773: What's in a name?
This parsha is the census of the Jews in the desert, a count which is not only by number, but also by names, and also reports each of these tribes having a flag. The midrash says that the jews saw that the angels had flags, and they were jealous, so God gave them flags too. So this census is not just about one large number—it’s about appreciating every single individual, about calling their name lovingly, just as God lovingly says the name of each star as he puts them in the heaven, as psalms mythically depicts the process.
What’s in a name? Shakespeare said a rose by any other name would still smell so sweet. Claude Levi Strauss said much the same thing but much less poetically when he said that signifiers and signifieds—i.e. names and what they refer to—have an arbitrary relationship. In other words, the name is not the essence, the name is just a placeholder by which I refer to a particular thing. Flowers could have been called anything else.
But there is a sense, in Judaism, that the name goes to the essence of a thing. Isaiah 43:1 says “thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” In other words, the name is unique, core to who I am, and it is how God relates to me—it gives me an unbreakable relationship with God. There’s no relationship without a name.
Martin Buber, in I and Thou, says we can relate to people as an it or a thou. In an I-thou relationship we open our whole being to the other. He describes an experience sitting on a park bench, and opening up to someone I don’t know, without even speaking. It has always been a troubling example: can I really have a deep relationship with someone I don’t know? Can I truly love you if I don’t know your name, what is important to you, what hurts you and what gives you joy? What kind of a relationship do I have with you if we both sit in shul for hours, go to Kiddush, eat, but never get to know each other? I need to learn your name.
Someone this week asked me, “rabbi, what can I do to help,” a question I always LOVE being asked. My answer was: sit at a different table at Kiddush. Get to know someone else, find out about them, how their week was, what’s on their mind. The truth is, I don’t like it if talking in shul gets disruptive, but I am in favor of jews talking, getting to know each other. That’s real community.
To know someone’s name is to have a relationship, to see them as a person.
The name also goes deeper, to something essential about what I am. In that quote from Isaiah, God knows our name because he formed us—it is at the core of who we are. What is essential about what I am? What about me can’t be boiled down to just a number, a telephone number, or an IP address? Is it just what I like, my hobbies and tastes? What could have been known about me the moment my soul was placed in my body?
The slonimer says that my name refers to my unique mission. Each of us has a unique mission in the world, and this is what makes us unique and also creates this inseparable relationship with god. The mission is some particular mitzvah that we are put on earth to do. He says we can discover this mission by seeing whatever mitzvah meets the most resistance from our own negative inclinations—when do I get lazy, say I’m not going to bother, or it’s too much trouble, or “I’ll leave that one for the more ‘observant’ Jews to worry about.” Another approach I have seen is the opposite—what mitzvah do I do really well, what is my signature mitzvah? This is my true name, by which God knows me, and forms an unbreakable relationship with God.
The flags, too, don’t just identify me, they also identify my relationship with God. The midrash says, that god said to Moses, make the flags for my name, because they are my children and my hosts, so I want flags in my name. The flags had God’s name on them. So the name is how God sees us, what is unique about us, and the flags refer back to God, make the circle complete. And ultimately, this is our name, the fact that we can live as God’s children is our truest name, what can make us most unique and most human.
What’s in a name? Shakespeare said a rose by any other name would still smell so sweet. Claude Levi Strauss said much the same thing but much less poetically when he said that signifiers and signifieds—i.e. names and what they refer to—have an arbitrary relationship. In other words, the name is not the essence, the name is just a placeholder by which I refer to a particular thing. Flowers could have been called anything else.
But there is a sense, in Judaism, that the name goes to the essence of a thing. Isaiah 43:1 says “thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” In other words, the name is unique, core to who I am, and it is how God relates to me—it gives me an unbreakable relationship with God. There’s no relationship without a name.
Martin Buber, in I and Thou, says we can relate to people as an it or a thou. In an I-thou relationship we open our whole being to the other. He describes an experience sitting on a park bench, and opening up to someone I don’t know, without even speaking. It has always been a troubling example: can I really have a deep relationship with someone I don’t know? Can I truly love you if I don’t know your name, what is important to you, what hurts you and what gives you joy? What kind of a relationship do I have with you if we both sit in shul for hours, go to Kiddush, eat, but never get to know each other? I need to learn your name.
Someone this week asked me, “rabbi, what can I do to help,” a question I always LOVE being asked. My answer was: sit at a different table at Kiddush. Get to know someone else, find out about them, how their week was, what’s on their mind. The truth is, I don’t like it if talking in shul gets disruptive, but I am in favor of jews talking, getting to know each other. That’s real community.
To know someone’s name is to have a relationship, to see them as a person.
The name also goes deeper, to something essential about what I am. In that quote from Isaiah, God knows our name because he formed us—it is at the core of who we are. What is essential about what I am? What about me can’t be boiled down to just a number, a telephone number, or an IP address? Is it just what I like, my hobbies and tastes? What could have been known about me the moment my soul was placed in my body?
The slonimer says that my name refers to my unique mission. Each of us has a unique mission in the world, and this is what makes us unique and also creates this inseparable relationship with god. The mission is some particular mitzvah that we are put on earth to do. He says we can discover this mission by seeing whatever mitzvah meets the most resistance from our own negative inclinations—when do I get lazy, say I’m not going to bother, or it’s too much trouble, or “I’ll leave that one for the more ‘observant’ Jews to worry about.” Another approach I have seen is the opposite—what mitzvah do I do really well, what is my signature mitzvah? This is my true name, by which God knows me, and forms an unbreakable relationship with God.
The flags, too, don’t just identify me, they also identify my relationship with God. The midrash says, that god said to Moses, make the flags for my name, because they are my children and my hosts, so I want flags in my name. The flags had God’s name on them. So the name is how God sees us, what is unique about us, and the flags refer back to God, make the circle complete. And ultimately, this is our name, the fact that we can live as God’s children is our truest name, what can make us most unique and most human.
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