Posted by Rabbi Sharfman on
Facebook.com/CongregationKehillah on July 15, 2016.
As we begin to prepare for Shabbat, all is not peaceful. Not in our world, not in our country, not in Phoenix. Anger is rising. The problems we are facing are very real, very intense. I wanted to 'name' them, but you know what they are. To the events of the world and country the media shares with us, I'll add: neglect of our education and mental health systems; hatred of people simply for being who they are; leadership, economics - the idea that if you can get away with it, why not?
I read
an article by EJ Montini in this week's
Arizona Republic. Here's how the article started:
We've gotten really good at memorial services to honor the victims of gun violence.
Really good.
We proved it again in Dallas on Tuesday.
The motives of the killers have varied wildly over recent years. There have been mental health issues. Old-fashioned hatred. Irrational anger. Extremism. It goes on.
A few days after the carnage we get together somewhere near where the violence occurred so that those who were most directly impacted by the killings can gather to mourn and console one another. We install television cameras - because technology these days makes it seem as if every event in the country happens everywhere and at the same time.
So we all need to be consoled, no matter where we live...
Former President Bush said: "Too often we judge other groups by their worst examples while judging ourselves by our best intentions... We do not want the unity of grief, nor do we want the unity of fear. We want the unity of hope, affection and high purpose."
I think we should bring back mandatory Civics classes to teach that there are not only rights but responsibilities of life in a democracy, and deepen education in the arts and literature and music and all that is good and worthwhile in our world to cultivate minds and hearts.
Let's talk about great ideas and what it means to be responsible, what it means to be human, what we can do for each other with the precious time we are given in this life. Our Torah is filled with stories that teach us that the one thing we must never give up on is hope itself; not blind, impossible 'head in the sand' hope, but hope, knowing that the big battles of life, that life itself, can be transformed by deeds from the heart, persistently, contagiously; through building bridges and getting to know one another, and hearing each other's stories and joys and pains, through coming together and remembering that there is such a thing as the 'common good.'
I know that these are only small steps, but they are steps. As the 18th century Chasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught, there is one thing we may never do: Despair.
My daughter, Erica (thank you, Erica), reminded me of two teachings from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, which I share here to help reinforce and/or realign our thinking:
"...morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible."
"I would say about individuals, an individual dies when he ceases to be surprised. I am surprised every morning that I see the sunshine again. When I see an act of evil, I'm not accommodated. I don't accommodate myself to the violence that goes on everywhere; I'm still surprised. That's why I'm against it, why I can hope against it. We must learn how to be surprised. Not to adjust ourselves. I am the most maladjusted person in society."
'Maladjustment,'
à la Heschel, is something worth striving for.
