I’m not
sure about you, but these last few days have been the most depressing,
discouraging, and upsetting of the past year.
It has been a year of lows, but this past week’s events in
Charlottesville, were the most searing of all.
We
watched as Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, and avowed Racists marched openly in
army fatigues, carrying torches and semi-automatic weapons. We saw Heather Heyer, a young woman who cared
deeply about others, murdered while marching for justice. We lost two Virginia State Police officers,
H. Jay Cullen and Berke Bates and many others injured in the attacks.
The
scene was vicious and the remarks by our president were bewildering, utterly
lacking clarity, and horribly damaging to the future of our country. Yet, it was words by another man, an ordinary
man, that truly moved me and made me reflect upon the horrors of this last
weekend.
AlanZimmerman, is the synagogue president of Congregation Beth Israel, the Reform
and I believe the only synagogue in Charlottesville, Virginia. I apologize if you already read his words
which were shared widely, but it bares repeating.
The congregation
knew for weeks that a protest would occur this past weekend in
Charlottesville. Yet, the police refused
to provide them with an officer during services. Luckily, they were able to hire a security guard,
for the first time in their existence.
During the service, three men dressed in fatigues and armed with
semi-automatic rifles stood across from the street. Parades of Nazis passed his building,
shouting, “There’s the synagogue!” with chants of “Seig Heil!” and other
anti-Semitic language alongside swastikas and other Nazi symbols.
Alan’s
heart broke as he advised congregants to use the back entrance instead of the
front and to please go out in groups, for their safety.
Later
that day, Nazi websites posted a call to burn his synagogue. He and one of his rabbis wondered, “Should we
go back to the temple to protect the building?” What could they do if they were
there? In precaution, they had already
deemed an attack within the realm of possibilities and had removed their Torahs,
including a Holocaust scroll from the premises.
Throughout
his poetic and haunting article, Alan kept coming back to the same phrase: “This is America in 2017.”
As a
Jew growing up in Ohio, I experienced small amounts of anti-Semitism. Jokes and pokes by so-called friends or
others. Yet, I always believed that the
Jewish community went overboard on calling out everything as
anti-Semitism. It was our “sheep calling
wolf” moment. Yet, this moment is not
the years of my youth. This is not
normal times. This is 2017 in America.
Our Torah
portion, Re’eh, speaks about this issue directly. The Torah describes the existence of false
prophets. These are individuals (and
groups of individuals) who will lead us down the wrong path, who will turn us
away from our morality and ethical behavior.
They are powerful because of their charisma. They have power because of their many followers
and of their message which deeply impacts people’s thinking. Yet, we know that they are false prophets;
they will lead us astray.
What
should be our answer in combating these false prophets? The Torah provides one line, one answer: “You
shall walk after Adonai your God and fear God.
You shall keep God’s commandments and obey God’s voice, serve God, and
cleave to God" (Deuteronomy 13:5).
This doesn’t
seem like a powerful response. When
there is a false prophet, when there are those who actively seek to hurt us or
destroy our very being, our answer is to walk after Adonai and keep God’s
commandments? It seems too passive, too
meek.
Yet,
yesterday, a rabbinic colleague, Rabbi Alex Kress, shared an incredible gem
written by Rabbi Avraham Mordechai of Gur, a Chasidic rebbe from the turn of
the last century. The Gerrer Rebbe teaches that this phrase, “You
shall walk after Adonai, fear God, keep the commandments” appeared previously
in last week’s Torah portion. Last week,
the statement was singular. When you,
each of you, walk with God… Yet,
this week’s phrase in the plural, “When all of you walk…”
The Gerrer
Rebbe teaches that in normal times, each person can be God-fearing alone in our
own homes. We don’t need each other; we
can do it by ourselves. Yet, (And these
are his words), yet, when heresy and anarchy prevail in the world, the power of
the individual is insignificant, and there is need for good people to combine,
to form a mighty force, which will defend against our detractors.
When the
Torah speaks about the false prophets, it is writen not in the singular but in
the plural. When they (and they are
always a they), when they come together, we are insignificant by
ourselves. We must unite together
against those who wish to destroy us.
This is
not normal times. This is America in
2017. We can’t do it alone, we are insignificant. We must do it together.
And together
we will. These were some of the brightest
moments of last weekend: It was John
Aguilar, a 30 year Navy veteran, who took it upon himself to stand guard over the
Charlottesville synagogue. It was dozens
of strangers who stopped by the synagogue and asked if they could stand
alongside them. It was their wonderful rabbis who stood on the front lines with
other Charlottesville clergy opposing hate.
This is
not normal times. This is America in
2017. We can’t do it alone, we are insignificant. We must do it together.
And so
we will. On Monday August 28th,
I alongside others from Bolton Street will caravan down to Washington for the
1,000 Ministers March on Racial Injustice (it’s not just for rabbis!). Alongside the interfaith community and the
Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, I and others will march. If you are able, please join me!
We will
reach out to our interfaith allies. We
will continue to work on justice issues around education, racism, and
anti-Semitism. Our Social Action
Committee is gearing up and we need your help.
Let us know if you wish to help.
And I
urge you to make donations of tzedakah to Jewish and non-Jewish organizations
that are working for justice. We need
people and dollars, to make systematic change.
In a
few days, the Solar Eclipse will occur on the shores of our country, for the
first time in many years. There will be
darkness across our country, yet only for a few minutes. The sun will shine again; the rays of light
will be a beacon to us all. This is now a
time of darkness, yet together, we can bring light into our world. One candle at a time will bridge the darkness
towards light. Together, our light will
shine. Amen.
