In This Moment: Darkness, Paul Simon's old friend; The idolatry of displaying the Ten Commandments; A Blintz Barbecue for Shavuot & Memorial Day; Israel's Greatest Song, Again;

 

In This Moment  Cantor Kaplan and TBE teens preparing for the June 11 Cantor's Concert with the Zamir Chorale Shabbat Shalom, and Happy Shavuot and Memorial Day The festival of Shavuot begins at sunset. We are a co-sponsor of the Conservative movement's online Tikkun Layl Shavuot on Thursday night. In addition, we have services (in person and remote) Friday morning and evening and on Shabbat morning. Our business office is closed through the holiday weekend. Sometimes when Jewish holidays coincide with other secular or religious holidays, it's not easy to find common themes to link them. But it's always a fun exercise. We've seen Purim and Good Friday coincide, Tu B'Shevat and MLK Day, Rosh Hashanah and Labor Day, and that once-in-a-lifetime celebration we called Thanksgivukkah. I can't wait for Yom Kippur to fall on Halloween - but I'll be waiting a long time for that. In the Hebrew year 9995 (secular year 6234), the fast day will fall on Oct. 30. The rabbinic sages knew that the calendar is shifting ever so slightly but chose not to correct the problem, expecting the Messiah to correct it long before we need to have our seders in June and atone for our sins while dressed up as Spiderman. But of all the possible holiday combos that can occur, Shavuot and Memorial Day fit most perfectly - despite the dilemma posed by having a blintz barbecue. For one thing, Shavuot always includes memorial prayers. Yizkor will be recited on the second day of the festival, which this year will fall on Shabbat morning -- a convenient time to join us in person or remotely for those at the beach. Both Memorial Day and Shavuot focus our thoughts on those who have sacrificed, on their commitment, selfless sacrifice, and love. Just before the Torah reading on the second day, we read the Book of Ruth, the tale of a kind Moabite woman who chose to cast her lot with the Jewish people; Ruth is among the most exemplary, compassionate and courageous people in all of ancient literature. Every Memorial Day, I link to one of the great wartime speeches of all time, the eulogy given by Rabbi Roland Gittelsohn on Iwo Jima. It is hard not to get chills when listening to it. These holy words could just as easily have been uttered at Sinai. Iwo Jima is nearly as sacred a place as that mountain range on the journey to the Promised Land.

As for how to combine dairy (a Shavuot custom, see below for more info) and a traditional Memorial Day barbecue, here's an idea from Ha'aretz that keeps it all kosher. This Shavuot / Memorial Day party can include grilled fish, whole or filleted, grilled veggies with crumbled goat cheese, and grilled halloumi cheese. And best of all, you can finish off this decadent meal with a cheesecake (preferably an Israeli cheesecake), or with ice-cream, or even both, and it will still be kosher.

The Ten Commandments: Fetishized Idol or Feast of Diversity

Ten Commandments and World Religions - A Texas bill to force classrooms to display the ten commandments failed to pass yesterday - for now. This blatant crossing of the church-state divide has long been opposed by Jewish groups. The fetishization of the image of the commandments is, ironically, a form of idolatry, which is explicitly prohibited in those very commandments. For Jews, the Big Ten are just the appetizers. Our tradition has many more that are of equal or even greater significance than the Big Ten. Would Texas like to display all 613 in their classrooms, including the one that allows for leniency on abortion? See the entire list of 613 here, and send it to your favorite Texas representative. Or maybe the key is to use this legislation as a springboard for the promotion of religious pluralism. Instead of fetishizing those dusty tablets with the Roman numerals, why not display versions of the commandments found in different faiths? No one ever claimed that "our" Ten Commandments are unique; if you search online you'll find lots of different versions. In the packet found here, I compare and contrast the "Big Ten" as they are presented by major world religions. Did you know that for Hindus, the "tenfold law" as they call it, includes self control, forgiveness, wisdom and abstention from anger? Buddhists include not merely killing, stealing and coveting wives, but also refraining from "divisive, harsh and senseless speech." Imagine planting two tablets containing that on a courtroom lawn! For the Sikhs it is a sin to argue with your parent. An African proverb states, "If a parent takes care of you up to the time you cut your teeth, you need to take care of them when they lose theirs." Islam vociferously condemns the murder of innocents and Confucianism states, "No crime is greater than having too many desires." Check out our Big Ten against all the others. And then let's post them all, side by side. Just not in public school classrooms. See also: Hang Ten? Ten Commandments in the Public Square

"No other country - and no other #1 song" Here's the list of Israel's 75 greatest songs, as chosen by readers and listeners of Yisrael HaYom newspaper and the radio station Kan Gimmel. You can hear most of them on this YouTube playlist. The number one song of all time is one that I spoke about in depth last High Holidays. "I Have No Other Country." (Ein Li Eretz Aheret), continues to stir the hearts of Israelis, more even than "Jerusalem of Gold "(#6). Number two on the list? The classic, "Ani V'Ata" ("You and me will change the world..." And only in Israel would the number four song of all time be a song that we associate with kichel, herring and black and white cookies - Adon Olam (the Uzi Hitman, Hasidic Song Festival version), which can be sung to just about any tune - but this one has stuck. To hear the #1 song, click here and scroll down to my second day RH sermon. In that sermon,.here's what I said about the song that was just voted Israel's #1 of all time. --------- When he died in 2005, the Israeli public voted this Ehud Manor's most popular song The guy wrote literally over a thousand songs, so many of them immortal standards and much more optimistic.   He wrote Chai, for God’s sake, which was a winner at Eurovision, and, Ba-Shanah ha-Ba'ah the most optimistic, hopeful song ever written! Od Tireh, Od Tireh, Kama Tov Yihye – you’ll see, you’ll see, how good it will be – next year, next year, next year. While “Ba’Shana Ha’Ba’a” has a hopeful and nostalgic note to it, “Ein Li Eretz Acheret” is all fire and flame.   And that is the one he is most loved for. And this song, with its bone rattling pain and even shame – combined with an unbreakable, almost mystical love for the culture, the language and the soul of his people and his country – that’s the one that Israelis call a patriotic standard. There is no issue about self-criticism. No problem with grappling with Lebanon War and it’s stained history – this song would be probably banned if it were sung in Florida.    But this song gained power over time, and like so many of our prayers and great poems, gained meaning and resonance through shared national experience. In November of 1995, after the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin that same song was chanted on streetcorners where the Israeli youth lit candles. They called them the candle generation.     While our Millennial generation of the ‘90s was busy asking their parents for Beanie Babies and Tickle Me Elmo, Israeli youth were lighting candles on street corners and singing Ehud Manor’s song. They agonized over how things could go so wrong, how their beloved country could generate such hate – and zealots like Yigal Amir, dark souls who killed with such impunity.    And all we could do, as Israel buried its beloved leader and then endured a horrific string of bus bombings and other attacks, was say, from afar, “Shalom, chaver.”    And THAT is the song brought out twice by Nancy Pelosi, first after January 6 and then again after the Dobbs decision this past June.  Her favorite Israeli song turned out to be about America too. And now, that song unites November 1995 and January 2021; it brings together the War of Attrition and the War on Abortion. These are the words that could capture the tears of Peres and Pelosi.   We have no other country. We will not stay silent when our country has gone astray. And we shall prevail. But we will always be proud, and it will always be our country.   Am I tempted to abandon America because it is increasingly slouching toward authoritarian rule? No way! Because there are people in this country who hate me simply because I’m a Jew? What else is new?    And am I going to give up on Israel, the first homeland the Jews have had in 2,000 years, because Israel too is flirting with anti-democratic leanings and policies? No way! Ein li Eretz Aheret. Were I Hungarian I would be angry as hell at what Victor Orban has done to that country – and I would fight to change it. Same thing if I were Russian, or Turkish, or Nicaraguan.   We Jews, and we Americans have it easy in comparison. We need to have that same courage – to be proud and to stand up for the ideals of our country.

Hello Darkness, His Old Friend On Paul Simon’s dark night of the soul, he wants it darker — much darker (Forward) See also It only took him 82 years, but Paul Simon has created a masterful piece of Jewish liturgy. (J Salkin). See also The Mysticism of Paul Simon (New Yorker): “Seven Psalms” is focussed on a more expansive, open-ended notion of God. Simon has described the piece as “an argument I’m having with myself about belief—or not.” Over and over, he imagines a divine presence, and then interrogates its borders. “The Lord is my engineer / The Lord is the earth I ride on, ” he sings on “The Lord.” He returns to the construction in a refrain, finding the sacred everywhere and nowhere: The Lord is a puff of smoke That disappears when the wind blows The Lord is my personal joke My reflection in the window I've been thinking about our troubled nature Our benediction and our curse Are we all just trial and error One of a billion in the universe? Simon has always been a seeker. In 1968, Simon & Garfunkel released “America,” a haunting song about being young, bewildered, and hungry: “Kathy, I’m lost,” I said, though I knew she was sleeping “I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why” Over time, his concerns became more existential. On “The Only Living Boy in New York,” from 1970, he admits, “Half of the time we’re gone, but we don’t know where.” Pilgrimage, homecoming, and absolution became recurring themes. On “American Tune,” from “There Goes Rhymin’ Simon” (1973), he sings about death as a glorious release: And I dreamed I was dying I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly And looking back down at me Smiled reassuringly The melody of “American Tune” was inspired by “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded,” a seventeenth-century hymn built around a medieval Latin poem that describes Christ’s body on the Cross. It’s not the only explicitly Christian material tucked into Simon’s discography. On “Getting Ready for Christmas Day,” a track from 2011, Simon lifts chunks of a sermon from the Reverend J. M. Gates, a Baptist preacher who released 78-r.p.m. records from the twenties to the forties. (In a 2011 interview, Simon tells a story about Paul McCartney showing up backstage after one of Simon’s shows and joking, “Aren’t you Jewish?”) ----------------------------------------- This is Paul Simon's spiritual last will and testament, though he claims in the lyrics to be in good health. It is a powerful album, and as always, Simon does not shy away from asking the hard questions. Sometimes mockingly and often awkwardly, he strains to find new metaphors for God where the old ones no longer work. It's an exercise I've engaged in often. Even with the mocking, often flippant tone, this is a serious piece of theological grappling, and as such is a nod to Simon's most Jewish of qualities. The grappling itself is a profound religious act. Even when he quotes from the Sermon on the Mount (in "Blessed") or juxtaposes "Silent Night" with the Vietnam-era 7 o'clock news, or cries about burning churches in the segregated south ("A Church is Burning") that for me is a summons to a very Jewish mission. And it's also a reference to Jewish martyrdom - the story of the Rabbi Chanina ben Teradyon that is recalled on Yom Kippur. While being burned at the stake by the Romans, he clutches a Torah scroll and says, "The parchment is burning, but the letters are flying free." A church is burning the flames rise higher Like hands that are praying, aglow in the sky Like hands that are praying The fire is saying "You can burn down my churches But I shall be free." Hear the whole album - and read the lyrics.

Recommended Reading Today's Israel Front Pages Haaretz (English) Jerusalem Post Yediot Achronot

TBE B’nai Mitzvah Commentary: Jackson Goichman on Bamidbar, plus Zoom video of the service and screen shots Intro to Judaism class: source materials, video and audio of the sessions  Ruth: Midrash and Aggadah (Jewish Women's Archive) Shavuot: The Jewish holiday that became all about children - Shavuot, which was originally an ancient pilgrimage festival, has gone through many changes over the years – as has Judaism itself. The Covenant of Redemption: Shavuot (Rabbi Irving Greenberg) - A superb summary of the themes of this holiday, from his book, "The Jewish Way." After Passover, Shavuot comes along and shakes the foundations of existence (Shaul Magid - TOI) - What if Passover and Shavuot are actually opposites — not compatible but in tension with one another? Shavuot is not (only) the culmination of Passover, but (also) its subversion. The danger (or perhaps hazard) of Passover is remaining mired in the ethnos, in the familial comfort of the Exodus, without the event in which God enters the world and introduces that which is utterly new. This is the moment where everything changes irrevocably, where the tradition is both introduced and overcome: That is matan Torah — the giving of the Torah. The Book of Ruth: A Serious Comedy (Nechama Ashkenazi) Why Dairy on Shavuot? (MyJewishLearning) Scroll down to bottom or click here for more reasons. Park East Synagogue is still searching for its next leader as another assistant rabbi exits (JWeek) - The saga continues... Auschwitz museum begins emotional work of conserving 8,000 shoes of murdered children Lehrhaus Brings Flavors of the Jewish Diaspora to Somerville (Boston) - Not to mention an extraordinarily fun cocktail list—and community space for learning. The Lehrhaus food menu dances around the globe, featuring ingredients like chakla bakla, a mixed pickle from Baghdadi Jews that migrated to Western India; the Moroccan spice blend ras el hanout; and herring, brought to Jewish markets by the Dutch way back in the 15th century. Closer to home, there’s plenty of Old Bay, that famous Maryland spice mix—it was created by a Jewish refugee from Germany. And the mac and cheese kugel is “an ode to the Jews of color in America,” says Clickstein, based on a recipe from Michael W. Twitty’s Koshersoul: The Faith and Food Journey of an African American Jew. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the fish and chips, an early favorite, ultra-crispy and served with amba vinegar, s’chug aioli, and Old Bay fries. (Amba is a pickled mango condiment with Jewish-Indian roots; s’chug is a spicy hot pepper and herb condiment from Yemen.) “It’s a Jewish dish, something I didn’t know until I joined this project,” says Clickstein. As the story goes, Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Spain and Portugal in the 16th century landed in what is now the United Kingdom, bringing with them pescado frito, fish they’d fry on Fridays, thinly coated with flour, which helped preserve the fish so it could be eaten cold the next day. (There’s that Shabbat timing again.) “You can tell the old fish and chip shops are the real deal if they still have matzoh meal as an option for breading,” notes Clickstein. See the website at https://www.lehr.haus/ There Are Lots of Jews in Hollywood. Let a Rabbi Explain Why (Rolling Stone, Jay Michaelson) - ...Chapelle was also right when he said, “I’ve been to Hollywood, and… it’s a lot of Jews. Like a lot.” That is true, and it’s true for specific, historical reasons. But it is, as he continued, a “delusion that the Jews run show business.” That delusion of control — whether of finance, politics, or media — is a classic antisemitic move. When did you last think about who “controls” farming or automobiles or rail companies? No one talks about white, Christian men controlling certain industries. It’s only when there are Jews around — again, due to specific historical causes — that this delusion becomes a conspiracy theory.  The professor who says Yuval Noah Harari is wrong (Ha'aretz) - It wasn’t Homo sapiens' smarts that defeated the Neanderthals but their greater resistance to disease, says British public health sociologist Jonathan Kennedy. He discusses his new book on the subject with Haaretz Rabbis and Karaites | Dr. Miriam Goldstein (podcast) - From roughly the 9th through 12th centuries, Jews—or at least, those living under Islamic rule, who formed a majority of world Jewry—were sharply divided between Karaites, who rejected the authority of the Talmud, and Rabbanites, who accepted it. Miriam Goldstein, in conversation with J.J. Kimche, puts the flourishing of the now-obscure Karaite sect in its historical context, explains its lasting impact on mainstream rabbinic Judaism, and tells the story of Arabic’s rise and fall as a Jewish language. (Audio, 66 minutes.) A God Just Like Us (Hartman) - Yehuda Kurtzer and SVARA’s Benay Lappe discuss Torah as the inheritance not of an elite and pious few, but of all Jews — especially those on the margins. SVARA scholar Rabbi Lauren Tuchman will be joining us for our Pride Shabbat service on June 2. What is SVARA? - Find out about this traditionally radical yeshiva. At SVARA, everyone—queer, straight, trans, alef-bet beginners, experienced talmudists, secular, religious, Jews, non-Jews—everyone learns together in a mixed-level bet midrash. And no matter where you dive in, you’ll gain a sense of empowerment to shape a tradition that has always been yours. A new documentary takes a deep dive into the ancient and modern practice of Sabbath. Sabbath: An Ancient Practice Meets the Modern World. It will be on public television soon (see the trailer; and you can watch it free online). The two-hour film begins airing on PBS stations June 1. 60% of Americans back reevaluating ties with Israel if judicial reform passes - poll (TOI). See also New Saudi Opinion Poll Shows 40 Percent Still Back Some Ties with Israel. Now there's a twist! A Key Responsum by the Conservative Movement Law Committee: Calling non-binary people to the Torah Calling non-binary people to Torah honors (New Rabbinical Assembly Responsum, from 2022). I'll be discussing it on a Shabbat during Pride Month. Share This Email   Share This Email   Share This Email

Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road

Shabbat-O-Gram

Mazal tov to Emily Marrinan and her family, as Emily becomes Bat Mitzvah this Shabbat afternoon and our thanks for sponsoring this weekend’s Shabbat announcements and Shabbat-O-Gram.

 

 

 

While we find ourselves in the midst of a ridiculous string of snowstorms, we can be grateful at least that major events have not been affected.  Last weekend we came together for events both joyous and sad.  On a bone-chilling Friday night we joined together for services downtown.  Saturday night’s Temple Rock was incredible fun

Saturday night’s Temple Rock was incredible fun -see our online album here.  You can also see our Tu B’Shevat album here, featuring last week’s seder for the younger grades and our Thursday “Top Chef” competition for our older grades (see photos above and below).  Oh yes, and there was that football game on Sunday night.  My prediction, alas, was incorrect.  I had the Patriots winning by 3, and as we all know, they won by 4.

 

 
 

This week’s Torah portion is Yitro, which includes the Ten Commandments.  See this source material comparing our “Big Ten” to similar colelctions from other world religions.  You’ll find many similarities, a needed reminder that no moral code - and no religious group - exists in isolation.

Judaism: Shaken and Stirred

In the midst of all the joy and fun of last weekend, on Sunday we had two funerals in our sanctuary and an additional one in our cemetery.  Many, many turned out to honor Penny Horowitz, a woman loved and admired by our whole community.  Among Penny’s pet causes here at TBE were two events that ironically are occurring this weekend.  One is our Scholar in Residence program, which she and Michael created here many years ago as an ongoing, annual event.  This year’s guest is Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin, a noted author and speaker, who promises to shake and stir us with his brand of “Martini Judaism.”  Read this interview with Salkin in this week’s Jewish Ledger. 

His Friday night topic (service begins at 7) is “Israel without Apology.”  Given the great concern so many of us have about Israel, along with the ambivalence many feel, I am hoping that this lecture will lead to some honest, constructive conversation.  Here’s what Salkin says in the Ledger interview:

There are three steps to effective Israel advocacy, according to Salkin. “First of all, people have to know the facts - the history of the Arab-Israel dispute, the origins of the Palestinian issue, and what Zionism means and has always meant,” he says. “Second, we need a communication strategy. It doesn’t work to simply fire back our perceptions and our truths; we need to engage others who might not agree with us on everything, but who might, nevertheless, be partners in dialogue. Finally, we need to defend Israel unequivocally.”

On Shabbat morning, Rabbi Salkin will speak on, “What They Never Taught Us in Religious School.” What are Judaism’s most controversial teachings and why don’t we talk about them more?  And after our sit-down Kiddush lunch, he’ll speak on “The Gods Are Broken” - The legend of Abraham breaking his father’s idols is Judaism’s most famous (non-biblical) story. Do Jews still have the courage to break contemporary idols?

I mentioned that this weekend there would be two programs near and dear to Penny.  For many years, she handled bar mitzvah related matters at our gift shop, including invitations and the sale of tallises.  Every year, our seventh graders learn all the ins and outs of tallit and tefillin - and they get to try them on.  We call it the “World Wide Wrap.”  Bar Mitzvah class Parents and students will wrapping this Sunday morning (we're inviting 5^th and 6^th grades too) and then Rabbi Salkin will speak on “Putting God on the Guest List: How to Reclaim the Spiritual Meaning of Your Child’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah.”  Our men’s club is providing breakfast.

So it promises to be a great weekend for everyone, and one where we will be able to honor the memory of Penny Horowitz by promoting the living, vibrant Judaism she was so instrumental in perpetuating here at TBE.  See the full scholar in residence schedule here.

Jews and Marijuana

Next Tuesday night at 7:30 I’ll be exploring what Judaism has to say about the ongoing debate on the legalization of marijuana.  Just to give you a little sampling, check out this article on the biblical roots of this topic.  Our “Hot Topics for Cold Months” series will continue with a conversation about Israel and Democracy on the eve of their elections, on Feb. 25.

 

I hope you'll be able to dodge the snowflakes and spend some time with us over the weekend.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

Guns and Moses

 

Guns and Moses

 by Joshua Hammerman

This week’s portion of Yitro includes the Ten Commandments, including that oft misinterpreted, “Thou shalt not kill.”  The Hebrew word found there is not “kill,” but “murder.”  Judaism does allow some killing, including the killing of animals for food - albeit in a strictly regulated, humane fashion - and the killing of human beings in self defense, including morally justifiable wars.

But murder is a different matter entirely.  The prohibition includes traditional concepts of cold-blooded criminal behavior, but the commentator Ibn Ezra explains that the definition of murder goes beyond that.  He writes, “One may murder by the hand and by the tongue, by tale bearing and character assassination.  One may murder also by carelessness, by indifference, by the failure to save human life when it is in your power to do so.”

By this interpretation, 30,000 Americans are murdered in this country by guns every year.  In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of walking wounded in this country, people like Gabby Giffords (who brought us all to tears with her appearance this week) whose lives have been unalterably changed by those hand-held weapons of mass destruction that we call guns.  The Torah has commanded us not to be indifferent in this matter.  And now, in the aftermath of a string of unbearable tragedies, culminating in Newtown, the call for common sense gun reform has become the moral cry of this generation.  

That’s why, when extended a special invitation, I went to Washington this week, to join 80 clergy organized by Lifelines to Healing.  We received a White House briefing from the Vice President’s senior staffers working on this issue and then we presented our joint clergy statement, Healing the Soul of America from Gun Violence, both to the Administration and then to a press conference on Capitol Hill.  As we ascended the Hill, it became clearer than ever before why I was there.   Like Abraham Joshua Heschel with Martin Luther King in Selma so many years before, I felt like we were “praying with our feet.”

This is nothing less than the Civil Rights movement of our time.  This is a true “Right to Life” initiative, in fact, one that cuts across all lines of race, socioeconomic background and creed. 

As our statement says:

We affirm that every life is precious in the eyes of our creator and our God has no pleasure in the death of anyone.  We are committed to uniting around the common pain and loss of who have suffered in Newtown and New Orleans, Chicago and Columbine and Oak Creek and Oakland.  We are committed through our work to heal the soul of a nation.  We will be vigilant partners in the struggle to transform our communities from the valley of the shadow of death to the land of the living.

Ridding our schools, streets and homes of gun violence is a moral issue of the highest order.  People think that current attitudes will never change, but they are changing as we speak, just as they changed over the past generation regarding smoking, seat belts and littering.  Gun owners and NRA members understand the need for common sense reform, especially regarding background checks.  Nearly 90% of Americans support this.  No doubt, guns have become an enormous part of American culture, so much so that even at a conference devoted to reducing their impact, we kept on finding ourselves using expressions like “armed with arguments,” “shoot from the hip,” and “fire away.” I'm purposely refraining from using "bullet points" in this article.

Gun violence is about teen gangs and angry husbands, it’s about homicide and suicide, it’s about household accidents with make-believe cowboys and it's about mentally unstable (and undiagnosed or unreported) young adults armed to the teeth.  Until Aurora and Newtown, most in suburbia paid little heed to the massacres occurring every day in America’s inner cities.  As one red-state evangelical minister stated plainly at my conference, "Shame on us."  Now we are feeling their pain too – for just as God feels the pain of all children equally, so should we weep not only for those innocent victims in Newtown, but for 15 year old Hadiya Pendelton, who was shot a mile from the President's Chicago residence this week, after seeing him sworn in last week as a majorette in her school band. And we weep with Shirley Chambers the Chicago mother who lost all four of her children to gun violence.  All human life is of equal value.  Let those four Chambers children now become the fourth child at our Seders this year, along with the Newtown 20 and all the children, everywhere, who have fallen victim to our society's gun-sanity: they are the "child who cannot ask," because we allowed them to be killed on our watch.

Yes, Ibn Ezra was right.  “Thou Shalt Not Murder” means all of us, all who have allowed human beings to be murdered when we could have done something to stop it.  We are guilty of betraying the Sixth Commandment with our misguided understanding of the Second Amendment.  In fact, the Second Amendment is not in any danger of being violated if we take semi-automatic assault weapons, the ones designed for military use, out of the hands of civilians.  No one is violating any sacrosanct freedoms if we ban high capacity magazines, like the one used in Aurora.  No, in fact, we are defending a sacred freedom: the freedom to stay alive. And let’s face it.  The NRA is funded 80% by gun manufacturers.  For their leadership, this isn’t about defending freedoms.  This is about defending profits.

In Detroit last week, a third grader came to school with a gun.  A third grader! When the police asked why, he said, "I need it for protection." 

Guns or People?

The old argument that guns don’t kill people, people do, no longer holds up (if it ever did).   Wayne LaPierre’s claim that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun is fatally flawed.  Our sources tell us that the world is not full of bad and good people.  We are all good and we are all bad.  Moses himself was bad at times – he killed an Egyptian officer, after all, when his own life was not in danger.  What drove him was anger, and anger got the better of him much later on, as well, when he disobeyed God’s command by hitting the rock rather than speaking to it (Numbers 20:12).

It was for that incident that Moses was denied entry into the Promised Land.  Some might think it a harsh punishment, but the Torah is giving us a clear message here that excessive violence can never be tolerated.  Moses was angry at the people, calling them rebels, and his anger got the best of him. So he resorted to blows rather than words.  If even Moses, our greatest leader, was susceptible to irrational violence, then it’s not about crazy people doing crazy things; it’s about perfectly normal and good people who fly off the handle and do crazy things.  The difference is, now we have semi-automatic rifles, the kind built by Russians to kill Nazis, and these rifles are designed to spray bullets without aiming, to hit soldiers randomly.  Those are the bullets that hit Shirley Chambers’ 15 year old daughter randomly, and so many more.

Back in Moses’ time, people got just as angry as they do now, but it was much harder to kill. Back in Moses’ time, people got just as angry as they do now, but it was much harder to kill. And people did not take such pride in their weaponry. It’s hard to imagine that Moses (the original Moses, not the guy who played him) would have said that his trusty rod would have to be pried from “my cold, dead hands.” Given his history, if he had wanted to trade his rod in for a rifle, Moses might have had to wait a bit before passing a background check.

I would venture to guess that while people in our time get no angrier, they get a lot more depressed.  Mental illness effects one in four.  Suicide rates are rising, especially among young people and the military, and suicide is much more likely to be “successful” when you stick a gun in your mouth than when you overdose on pills.  When you use a gun, there usually is no second chance.  That’s why Moses did not get a second chance. The Torah understood how serious violence can become when it spirals out of control.  The spinning bullet is the embodiment of that spiral. And like a diamond, a bullet is forever.  Anger and depression impact us all.  That does not make us bad people.  Pills and rods don’t kill.  Sticks and stones merely break bones.  But a gun in the hand of an angry man or depressed woman – it’s the gun that kills, Mr. LaPierre. 

It’s the gun that kills.

at White House briefing

Rebuilding an Alliance and Saving Jews

Assault rifles and large magazines must be banned.  Even if it looks like Congress won’t muster the votes, remember that Martin Luther King came to Washington and told President Johnson it was time for a voting rights act.  Johnson said he had already spent his political capital and that it would take ten years.  The Civil Rights Act was a reality within ten months.

I am proud that I was joined by 8 other rabbis among the 80 at the conference.  Given that a major focus of these conversations was the plight of the inner city, this gave us a chance to begin to rebuild that alliance between African Americans and Jews that was so strong in the ‘60s.  This possibility was not lost on us.  We were touched by their pain and they appreciated our mere presence.  And we also understood that this is an issue that is paramount for all of us. It just took Newtown to wake us up to that fact.

See the photo below and tell me where it was taken:

No, it was not Newtown.  It was the Northridge JCC shooting in 1999.  As a Jew, I care about all innocent human beings, but I also know that my own people are especially threatened by a gun running culture that allows, through gun show loopholes, for white supremacists like Buford Furrow Jr.  to procure unconscionably lethal weapons without a problem and blast 70 gunshots into the complex with the intent of killing lots of Jewish kids.

Ending this plague is a moral imperative AND a Jewish imperative.  It is universal and particularistic.  It is the cry of our generation.

That’s why I won’t let my Congressional representatives off the hook.   The President's Plan to Protect Our Children and Our Communities by Preventing Gun Violence is robust enough to address all major aspects of this crisis, including school security and mental illness.  But it must be passed in full.

So this is the time for action.  I’ve collected a number of Gun Violence Resources for you, including

A Fact Sheet from Connecticut Against Gun Violence
FAQs from CT Against Gun Violence
The Enough Campaign
Rabbinical Assembly Source Sheet: Gun Control-Individual Freedoms vs. Communal Needs
Jewish Sources on Gun Control and the Right to Bear Arms
Guide to Effective Messaging in Preventing Gun Violence
Healing the Soul of America from Gun Violence: Joint Clergy Statement
Interfaith Coalition Calls for a National Call In Day

Take a look at them.  I have signed up to take the bus to Hartford for the March for Change on Feb. 14.  If you are coming on the Stamford bus, let us know.  TBE will be there in loud voice that day.  I am going to present our board with some options as to what we might do as a congregation to make our voice be heard collectively for common-sense actions to reduce gun violence that does not threaten the rights of gun owners.

TBE’s Francie Leader has written an open letter to the congregation, “Why I am going to the "March for Change."  As she puts it, “Change is what we need.”  Indeed we do, and now is the moment for it.

At my conference, we were told that the voices that are most influential at a time like this are those of teachers, police chiefs, mayors and clergy.  But you are an extension of all of the above, including the clergy.  We represent you.  You need to be heard, and when your message is coming from a place of faith, from a wellspring of moral wisdom, affirmation and resolve, it is all the more powerful.  Set aside Sunday morning, March 3, for a teach-in, where I’ll be presenting some Jewish sources related to this topic (some of which are linked above).  Did you know that the gun control laws in Israel are much stronger than here?  That’s partly because Jewish tradition believes strongly in the infinite value of every human life.

Life has become cheap indeed in America, a country where someone was likely killed by  gun in the time it took for me to write this essay.  30,000 per year is 30,000 too many.

For our children’s sake, this gun-sanity must stop.

Now is the time for us to make that happen.