In This Moment Shabbat-O-Gram, February 12, 2021 - Making History During Black History Month; Purim's Coming, Doggone it! Vaccine Blessings; Snow in Jerusalem

In This Moment

Shabbat-O-Gram, February 12, 2021

Israel woke up to it's largest snowstorm in years

"The Joy of Snow" headline in Yediot Ahronot, above, 

with views of Jerusalem below - and click here for more beautiful photos.

This coin below from 2,000 years ago was discovered accidentally by an Israeli soldier.

Click here for the backstory

Shabbat Shalom

There is so much to talk about today.  Let's start with a reminder that this is Shabbat Zachor, which is the Shabbat preceding Purim, when we are reminded of the evil done to our ancestors by Amalek. There is a tradition from the Talmud that Haman, the antagonist of the Purim story, was descended from Amalek. Zachor means "remember."  Read why Jewish memory matters.

And for a sneak preview of my remarks tonight on Jewish memory, read this fascinating article about the "Ant-Nazi Jam" that took Twitter by storm this week.

Speaking of Jewish memory, last night I had the thoroughly enjoyable opportunity to deliver a Zoom talk for a Jewish book group in New Brunswick, N.J. on my book, "Embracing Auschwitz: Forging a Vibrant, Life-Affirming Judaism that Takes the Holocaust Seriously."  You can watch it here.

Purim's Coming, Doggone it!

Yes, that's me, hidden behind a virtual poodle mask.  This is the year to bring your Snapchat and Zoom filters to our grand masked spectacular - or just come as you are!  We'll read the Megillah, check out vintage Purim photos, announce the winners of our Purim Scavenger Hunt, sing and parade - all virtually - this Thursday evening.  And when I get tired of all the Haman noisemaking, I'll just mute you! Gotta love a virtual Purim!

See this guide to all things Purim from MyJewishLearning.

BTW, apropos to my poodle mask, dogs are often regarded warily in Jewish sources. Read here why dogs were actually big heroes of the night of the Exodus (for not yapping).  And see Emmanuel Levinas' reflections on a dog who made his home for a short time in the Nazi labor camp where he was imprisoned, and who joyfully greeted the inmates when they returned from forced labor.  It's time to give dogs their due (so to speak)!

News from our TBE Family

 

This past week, composer Shanan Estreicher premiered a piece called "All You Shining Stars" for improvised trumpet and strings. This work features the Israeli trumpet player Itamar Borochov and members of the Chamber Orchestra of New York. Each of the three movements is a meditation based on Psalms. Shanan's mom, Lori Frank and his brother Adam were inspirational to many of us before they died, and, as you will hear, Shanan has taken the creative torch from them. 

All You Shining Stars

 

I also want to celebrate the pending publication of Elon Green's highly acclaimed book, "Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York," which has been selected by Goodreads and Literary Hub as one of the Most Anticipated Books of 2021.   It's due out March 9.  Mazal tov also to Elon's parents, Hank and Diane, and sister Rachel (and her extended TBE family too!). See more about the book and Elon at his website.

 

Elon and Shanan were teens here many years ago.  I had a chance this week to Zoom chat with our current TBE teens just to check in to see how they are doing.  I was reassured by their resilience and their ability to make the most of a horrible year.  When I asked them whether the teen years are the worst time to be dealing with Covid and quarantine, surprisingly, and refreshingly, they said no, understanding that other demographic groups, like young professionals denied a chance to have a normal social life, or their grandparents, fearful for their lives, all have it worse.

Also, keeping it in the family, Wil and Carol Brewer have been telling me about their cousin in Australia, whose life has been disrupted tremendously by Covid. Ryan Abramowitz works on Jewish calligraphy and art, and Ryan's creations are exquisite. Ryan writes:

My Ketubah business is named Today Tomorrow Forever, inspired by a philosophy of creating Ketubot and art for all of life's simchas, which is cherished across time. The website and Ketubah gallery can be previewed at http://todaytomorrowforever.com.au/ 

Take a look for yourself.  I've featured one of the ketubot below:

 

Making History during Black History Month

 

As we commemorate Black History Month with this weekend's showing of "Shared Legacies" and our panel discussion on Sunday (see flyer at the bottom of this email), it's important to understand just how complicated the relationship has been.  As this article indicates, American Jews need to come to grips with the racism in our midst.  We have both been targets of White Supremacy and at times its accomplices.  Similarly, Black Americans have both joined hands with us to combat all forms of hate and have, at times, abetted anti-Semitism.  It's not an easy conversation to have, but we can't avoid it.  At the same time, we need to build up a foundation of trust, and that is what we have been doing this year.  Nurturing and re-establishing those historic ties between the Black and Jewish communities is the most important things we can be doing now, for there is strength in numbers, and that is precisely what is needed now, post January 6, as the task at hand has been so clearly defined.  Racism must be undone, and white supremacism must be ended.

 

Plan to stream the film this weekend and join us on Sunday.  Register now at this link, as the film stream link is now live and will be sent to you upon registration.  After Sunday, we are planning more opportunities to focus on this topic, including the book discussion on "Caste" this Monday, the Freedom Seder on March 21, and more.  We are making history during Black History Month, and well beyond.

The Season of our Liberation...

But When Will the Miracle Happen?

With Purim taking place this coming week, Passover is just a month behind.  Rarely before in our lives has the festival of Passover been so well-timed.  If all goes well - and that's a big "if - as we mark the liberation of our people from Egyptian slavery, we'll begin to liberate ourselves from the quarantine of Covid, not to mention the wicked winter we've endured.  At long last we will begin to inch toward normalcy, or at least what now passes for it.  Here at TBE, we'll hopefully be able to begin taking baby steps back into our indoor and outdoor prayer venues, while still Zoom-casting most events for those who remain home-bound. 

While the precise timing of this modern-day exodus is far from certain, what is certain is this: None of this would be possible without the vaccines, which are a modern miracle biblical in scope.  The partnership of science, faith and pure doggedness, made possible by the unlikely partnership of national and corporate rivals, enabled this miracle to occur in record time. 

I had my second shot a few weeks ago.  It seemed almost anti-climactic.  That week at services I reflected on what blessing would be most appropriate to say at the big moment, because there is a blessing for everything - if there is a blessing for the Czar than there has to be a blessing for SARS. 

It seemed to me that Shehechianu was the way to go - it reflected the once in a lifetime aspect of this moment, the triumph of life over death and the resuscitation of our entire society. Plus it was short and hey, there people behind me and I could just see them starting to kvetch as I pulled out a page from my pocket and started to recite something longer. 

There are lots of options.  For those who will be taking the vaccine this month, and I assume that will be many of you, here are a number of blessing options that I shared in last week's Shabbat-O-Gram: Here is a suggested blessing. Here is another  and another, and here's a nice selection, and some from the Rabbinical Assembly and here's a full halachic discussion of the matter from Orthodox sources. 

Then, once you've chosen the blessing, there is the question as to when is the right time to recite this blessing.  Here are some options:

(1) When the vaccine begins being distributed in our area (already happened)

(2) When people have been using it for a few months, and its efficacy has been clearly demonstrated

(3) When you, personally, receive it

(4) when you receive the second shot

Or (5) when the scientists say that we have achieved herd immunity.

When does the miracle take place? At the beginning or the end?  Was the miracle of the Exodus the execution of the first plague, the blood in the Nile?  Or was it the crossing of the Red Sea, the final plague?  Was it consummated when each individual Israelite emerged from the Red Sea - for that individual - or was the miracle complete only when the entire nation had emerged from bondage?

When should a blessing be said?

Is a personal healing the same as a national one?  We learn from Exodus 21:19 that we are obligated to heal a person who has been injured due to our negligence.  The Hebrew root word "R-P-H" is repeated, "Rapo - yerapeh," which teaches us two things.  First that the healing is both personal and national.  When we heal a single person in a society, we are also healing that society.  And second, the double injunction here has been taken as emphasizing the Torah's endorsement of the science of medicine. 

So healing is both personal and collective, and Judaism and science are partners.

This tells us that perhaps we should recite blessings both when we have received the vaccine individually and again when it is declared that we have achieved herd immunity, both here in the US and around the world.

May that happen speedily - or at least by Rosh Hashanah!

An additional question is whether we recite the blessing before or immediately the shot is administered, or perhaps the next day, after side effects have worn off.  Blessings are typically recited before an act takes place (think of ha-motzi or the kiddush).  But in this case, maybe it more proper to wait, so that we might literally soak in the moment, and its impact on our bodies and our world.  I'll leave it up to you to decide when to say a blessing  and what blessing to say.  But at the very least, just utter a "Thank God!" before you get into your car and head home (or for those at drive-through vaccine stations, before you simply drive away, liberated).

As for Passover, let's take those baby steps out the door and back into our sanctuary as soon as it is deemed safe to do so, as we pray that this holiday, which will still be different from all other nights, will also be the Season of our Liberation.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

In this Moment: Ribeye Hammerman? Vaccine Blessings; A Venomous Pinprick; A Hand-y Yarmulka?

In This Moment

Shabbat-O-Gram, February 12, 2021

Photos of the week...

7th Graders trying on their home-made tefillin at our World Wide Wrap

Scenes from Temple Rock 

(the full album of Aviva Maller's photos is still being compiled)

---------------------

The Hebrew letter Aleph traces its ancient origins to a pictograph of an ox. Well, it looks like an Israeli company named for that letter might just be headed toward putting cattle out of business! Read more about what's at stake - er, steak - here.  For one thing, if Israel is to revolutionize the laws of Kashrut, the meat industry and animal husbandry, is my title now going to become Rib-eye Hammerman?

Shabbat Shalom

Evidently someone has been sending out SPAM in my name today. Just another annoyance of the Cyber Era.  We've had to become pretty savvy about such intrusions lately.  Rule of thumb.  If it looks suspicious, check the return email address.

 

Let me begin with a few quick announcements (and thanks to Sheila Romanowitz for sending that hopeful, uplifting and timely Shabbat art at the top of this email).

- If you know someone who is looking for work, TBE's Suzanne Fruithandler mentioned to me that Garden Homes is looking for Property Management / Customer service office support.  For more information, contact Suzanne directly, at suzanne@gardenhomesmanagement.com.

- This is Black History Month.  See flyer below for our "Shared Legacies" film and program.  In the meantime, take a look at these two backgrounders: 

Why Jews Should Celebrate Black History Month (Forward) and  When Black History Month and Torah Come Together (My Jewish Learning)

 

- Today we enter the happiest month of the Jewish year, Adar.  The Women of the Wall celebrated at the Kotel.. by being doused by coffee.  See the video:

Coffee Thrown on Anat Hoffman- Rosh Hodesh Adar

- A question arose this week following the presentation of the former president's  Orthodox defense lawyer David Schoen, who kept covering his head while drinking water: Can a hand be a yarmulke? I was always led to believe that a part of your body can't serve to cover the head.  But I was willing to give him an A for effort, especially given that wearing a yarmulke is more a matter of custom than law - and that I appreciated his decision not to wear one that day.  Read more about the custom of wearing a kippah here, and in particular this note, explaining that one's own hand can not be used. He may have had the tiny plastic bottle cap in his hand (which also may have been to small).  He also could have asked someone else to cover his head with his hand.  Imagine the conversation between David Schoen and, say, Chuck Schumer sitting in the front row.  "Hey Chuck, do you mind putting your hand on top of my head while I take a swig of this water?"  Halacha makes strange bedfellows!

- Many have been receiving Covid vaccinations this week (I had my second on Monday and will speak about it tonight in relation to this week's portion of Mishpatim).  Others have theirs scheduled for upcoming weeks. People have been wondering how to mark this awe-inspiring moment.  Here is a suggested blessing. Here is another  and another, and here's a nice selection, and some from the Rabbinical Assembly and here's a full halachic discussion of the matter from Orthodox sources.  This is undoubtedly the most blessed event since the birth of Moses.  But if you want to pick just one to clip and save, this one below (actually two, including the Shehechianu, which is what I said) is clean and simple - short enough so you won't hold up the line!

- Purim is on the evening of Feb. 25.  Here are two assignments for you to make our virtual services the best virtual Megilla reading ever!  

1) SEND US YOUR VINTAGE PURIM PICS!!!  (I've also got lots). Show yourselves and your kids in their favorite all-time Purim costumes - send directly to me (rib-eye@tbe.org). I mean rabbi@tbe.org.

2) Come in virtual (or real) costumes yourselves, using Zoom filters, like the Texas cat lawyer filter video that went viral this week (and gave me the best laugh I've had in a year).  

Texas attorney accidentally leaves cat filter on during Zoom call | ABC7

- Stamford Interfaith Refugee Resettlement (SIRS) sends along this important announcement:

At this time, SIRS is pleased to let you know that we are beginning the process of applying to Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) for a third family to resettle in Stamford in 2021.  Many volunteers are needed for the various teams involved both before and/or after their arrival.  

 

Assisting in the resettlement of refugees is rewarding and interesting, and we hope you will find this is the right time to be part of this process.     

 

On February 17, at 6:30 PM, we will have a virtual Community meeting as we begin this new journey.  

 

At this meeting we will also share with you what SIRS has done over these last four years; the status of refugees in the world today; and the changes this year which should bring a significant increase in refugees admitted to Connecticut through IRIS. 

 

We invite you to attend this virtual meeting.  Please email one of us if you can attend, so we can send you the Zoom link for the February 17^th meeting'.   

 

We hope you will join in this journey. 

 

Peace, 

Jean Meyer  (jcc.meyer@hotmail.com) 

Amy Ewing  (amyofct@aol.com) 

Co-Chairs of Stamford Interfaith Refugee Settlement (SIRS) 

Last Week's Venomous Pinprick 

 

By now most of you are aware that our services were Zoom bombed last weekend.  The intruders were "kind" enough to wait until the end of our service to desecrate our sacred space.  The fact that the space was virtual did nothing to diminish the sense of violation that we felt, combined with anger and despair.  It was, on a smaller scale, what the whole nation experienced with the desecration of the Capitol last month, and re-experienced so vividly in the trial this week.  It is what Jews have felt whenever sacred spaces have been violated, from ancient times until today...with one big difference: We were never in any real danger.

Looking back - and we did a lot of postmortems this week - I'm proud of so many aspects of our response, including the fact that people turned up at services in large numbers every day this week, and hopefully will in even greater numbers this Shabbat.  

The fact that we did not succumb to fear showed that we recognized the low level of the threat and did not overreact.

It is true that even when the threat was far greater, like after the massacre in Pittsburgh, 400 people gathered in our sanctuary the following Friday night.  In that case we overcame the fear of real danger. In this case, we were stung for a moment, then turned around and realized that this act of intended intimidation was was in fact not an existential punch to our gut, but rather a pathetic pinprick by a couple of weak, gutless juveniles (and in saying this I must apologize to the many courageous juveniles I know - and I am not necessarily referring to chronological age).

As annoying and reprehensible as this act of hate was, it was also cowardly, because the perpetrators could fall back their on online anonymity.  But we recognized their weakness.  They thought they were intimidating us, but it was clear that night and over subsequent days that they did not. We had every right to be shocked and upset, but ultimately, we saw it for the fraud that it was.  I do not minimize the impact on those who are still shaking over what happened.  I'm just reminding you that the only thing we have to fear is the shadow of fear itself, our own muscle memory fear from our tragic history.  Last weekend we traversed through the valley of the shadow of death.  Psalm 23 teaches us that we have to overcome our fear of shadows, and we can do that with faith.

We were angry - I know I was, and part of me wishes I had threatened the intruders with my newly installed "Jewish Space Laser" as a way of mocking their Q-clouded ignorance.  But as I did say last week in an instant response to their stupid, hateful intrusion, this was the act of a desperate group that has found themselves on the losing side of a long-term battle against hate. The battle is far from over; anti-Semitism and racism were emboldened by January 6 and what led to it, but while we have much reason for engagement, we have no reason to fear.  

They can't hurt us. And we have our knee on racism's neck.

Compare the hateful words uttered by a couple of pathetic pranksters posted on our Zoom windows last week to what this family saw from their real window in Germany on Hanukkah, 1932.

 

Or to this anti-Semitic flyer posted on a German train this week, blaming Jews for the plague. Gee, couldn't they at least be a little more original? We've been blamed for plagues since the Middle Ages.

The response on that Hanukkah in 1932 was to shine the light of their menorah, right back at ya.  And they were not afraid, even though the enemy literally knew where they lived.  If they were not afraid, neither should we be.

It is noteworthy that that assertive, courageous response occurred before Hitler manipulated an election to ascend to power, burning down the Reichstag and gutting German democracy along the way.  By the mid '30s, such courageous responses to hate were few and far between.  But on my personal fascist-ometer, I reckon that we are closer to 1932 than 1935 right now, and pointing in the right direction.

We should never underestimate the pure venom in the ideology of White Supremacy that was conveyed in last week's Zoom intrusion. It has not been this empowered and enabled since the Klan marched down those same DC streets a century ago.  But let us not wear the cloak of victimhood, as if to compare our suffering to the victims of Pittsburgh, Charlottesville, Selma and yes, now we can add the Capitol that list.  What for us was an annoying reminder was for them life-threatening.  It is that ideology whose life must be ended.

Last week's attack only highlights the importance of what we are doing as a congregation. Our efforts to combat hate with love throughout the community has intensified  - our spectacular paddle raise last weekend to help alleviate food insecurity is only the latest example.  And next week, on Feb 21 (see flyer on the bottom), we are partnering with local Jewish and Black organizations to watch and discuss the film "Shared Legacies," which if you haven't seen it yet, you must - follow the instructions on the flyer to access it and then join us for the panel discussion.

This program grew out of the fruitful, prolific and intensifying partnership we've developed with the Union Baptist Church.  Having joined together in events ranging from deep discussions of the roots of racism to cooking classes, we now are completing each other's sentences.  Next month, on March 21, we will partner on an interfaith Freedom Seder.  Mark your calendars for that one!

Ultimately that's the best response to last week's futile attempt to violate our sacred virtual space.  We respond to hate with intensified love.  We seek unity where unity is possible, and we never accommodate those whose ultimate goal is the perpetuation of racism, autocracy and alternative facts.

We've put in safeguards, but future attacks are inevitable, at least as long as Big Lies are repeated by those who know better and conspiracy theories like the Jewish Space Laser are allowed to spread.  But I encourage you not to succumb to fear or despair.  If we are intruded upon again, we will eject the intruder and move on, feeling momentarily pained for our lost innocence, but much sadder for our country's.

 

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

In this Moment: Super Bowl and Jewish Pirates; Jewish Exceptionalism and the Space Laser

In ThisMomnt  In This Moment Shabbat-O-Gram, February 5, 2021 On Friday night we lifted our TBE Kiddush cups to celebrate the life of Gene Wendell, who engraved them for every Bar/Bat Mitzvah for the past 67 years before his recent death.  Shabbat Shalom And happy World Interfaith Harmony Week.  I hope to see everyone at Temple Rock on Saturday night.  It promises to be a super evening, and it will be nice to welcome back an old friend, musician Assaf Gleizner, who will be providing part of the entertainment.  A special thank you to the entire committee and all our volunteers, as well as to everyone who has participated philanthropically in making this event so successful.  And this year, for the first time, we don't have worry about the risks of scheduling a major event in the dead of winter. (I suppose I shouldn't have just said that). Stuff to watch, hear or read... Join us also for services on Friday evening and Shabbat morning for services.  Shabbat morning will be another Shabbat-in-the-Round, filled with more music meditation and conversation. Our Torah portion this week is Yitro, featuring the Ten Commandments.  Click here to see a comparison of the Ten Commandments to other world religions.  And click here to see a packet on the tenth commandment, the impossible one, the only one that prohibits an emotion, the one about coveting. On Sunday morning at 10, our Men's Club will once again sponsor the World Wide Wrap with our B'nai Mitzvah families and anyone else who is interested in learning about the mitzvot of tallit and tefilin. Also on Sunday, an Escher exhibit is opening this weekend at the Columbia Art Museum in South Carolina and they have asked TBE member and noted Escher scholar Jeffrey Price to do a webcast at 3 PM to celebrate the show.  Access it here. It will only be available for live viewing. Last night, I had the pleasure of moderating an important conversation on climate for the Hartford Seminary and Interfaith Eco-Justice Network, with two excellent panelists.  You can watch it here.  One of the panelists, Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, stressed the importance of speaking out on this topic as much as possible. Here's a list of some of the things religious institutions can do to fight Climate Change (many of which we are already doing). Super Bowl 55 No prediction this year, but since the Buccaneers are so rarely in the Big Game, their appearance gives me the chance to note that there are some famous Jewish pirates (aside from Richie Hebner, who played baseball for Pittsburgh).  Take this guy, Samuel Pallanche, known as the Pirate Rabbi, who avenged the Inquisition on the high seas, attacking Spanish ships.   As an observant Jew, he made sure that his crew donated a tenth of their loot to charity (a Jewish custom known as ma'aser), and even kept kosher aboard his ship. As for theThou Shalt Not Steal part, well, the Spanish had done quite a bit of plundering of Jews as they were kicking them out, so the Pirate Rabbi was just reclaiming what was theirs. There were Jewish pirates of the Caribbean too, from this same era.  One might say that they were pre-avenging the genocide that would take place when the Spanish explorer named Columbus massacred the natives - including, one must add, their Chiefs.   In Hebrew a pirate is a Shoded - which is interestingly also a word for filibuster.  perhaps that implies a slow moving game or that a team needs to score 60 points to win. Both teams can score, but if anyone's hitting 60, it's Kansas City. There are lots of words for "chief" in Jewish sources, all of them more politically correct than the Kansas City team's name.  The most common are "Rosh" (head) and "Sar," (chief officer). Incidentally, both teams have Jewish linemen, but neither will play due to injury.  But who cares about the Super Bowl when there's always the Puppy Bowl!  Casey and Cassidy Hammerman got a head start this past week...

It's a fumble! 

Fear itself...

I don't know about you, but this week I'm in awe of the courage of Aleksei Navalny. Read the text of his courtroom speech and excerpts from his note from jail.  He said: "This is how it works: Imprison one person to frighten millions." And then those millions become prisoners too - prisoners of their own fear.  The Hebrew word "Yireh" means both "fear" and "to see." Once our eyes are opened to the consequences of our fear, we are able to overcome it.  For Russians today, just as for Israel during the Exodus, the consequence of paralysis was, and is, imprisonment.  In America, the consequences of fear are equally perilous.

Looking for an uplifting read? Read this story about a Jew who left his inheritance to a French town that protected him during the Holocaust. (Thank you to Donna Wolff for sharing).  And check out this Holocaust Denial Report Card put out last week by the ADL, measuring how social media platforms respond to the hatred that continues to proliferate online.  I'm happy to say that the streaming platform Twitch is at the head of the class - happy because that's where my son Ethan works, which gives me an opportunity to wish him a happy 30th (yes, 30th!) birthday on Sunday.  

Facebook - you've got some work to do!

Here's the thing.  Hate doesn't just happen; it's allowed to happen. And when it does happen, rapid response is essential.  Twitch is both strategically proactive and effectively reactive.  Facebook is neither.  

Of course, Holocaust denial is not the only crazy conspiracy out there that targets Jews.  Now we've got...

Jewish Exceptionalism and the Space Laser

Jews are good.  One might even say we're exceptional.  How good are we? According to some conspiracy theorists, at least one of whom serves in the U.S. Congress, good enough to build a space laser capable of igniting forest fires in California. 

How good are we? We can act, write and direct movies with the best of them! (Win that Golden Globe, Shira Haas of "UnOrthodox!) 

And we can govern. Last week's Big Kvell was that President Biden's cabinet boasted a "minyan of Jews." 

How good are we?  We can do wonders to fight diseases. Israelis lead the world in Covid vaccinations per capita. 

All that, plus we've got one-fifth of all Nobel laureates (you can see the whole list here).

So we've got a lot to be proud of, Jewishly speaking.

But then I heard Donniel Hartman, a renowned Jewish thinker, say that what makes Jews exceptional has nothing to do with either accomplishments or acumen.

He states:

With Abraham and Sarah, we are not merely encumbered by a family connection. We begin to be encumbered to a particular story, and past. Over the next fifty chapters in the Bible, we are taught and told our story. It is neither a beautiful story, nor one which is morally uplifting. There is no attempt to beautify the troubling stories. By leaving it untouched our tradition is teaching an essential lesson of Jewish encumberedness. The beauty of the story lies simply in the fact that it is ours.   

I discussed this surprising point at this week's class on Jewish peoplehood (see the video), "Together and Apart," and I contrasted it with some of the nice things said about us by some pretty famous people.  Just pick one or two of the quotes below.  No need to get a swelled head.

 

So what is it?  Is the Bible the Greatest Story Ever Told, the Best Book Ever for the Best People Ever, or is it all just hype?  Is the myth of Jewish exceptionalism in fact just more fodder for anti-Semites who fear our diabolical superpowers, when in fact we are just unassuming bunch of ex-slaves trying to do our humble best to make the world a little better?

This is no small matter at a time when the conspiracy theorists are winning the day, seizing every news cycle even as we discredit and mock them.  

My personal favorite parody response to this Q-Anon garbage came from the New Yorker:

And there's this, for Trekkies:

And there's much more...

But we can take little comfort in how absurd these anti-Semitic claims are.  It seems that people will believe just about anything as long as it is repeated enough times. 

To quote Hannah Arendt:

"If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer... And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please."

That's precisely the autocrat's playbook. I don't know if there is a sucker born every minute, but suckers can be mass produced with every tweet.  And that is why anti-Semitism has spread like - um - wildfire, at a time when anyone with a brain should know that Jewish financiers don't aim lasers at California forests.

So maybe we shouldn't be so dependent on Jewish exceptionalism in order to boost our self image.  Maybe it's time to stop patting ourselves on the back and understand that Jewish connection can be fostered in more authentic (and less obnoxious) ways.

When we open the Passover Haggadah, the story always begins in degradation with the darkness of slavery and the bread of affliction, and while the ending is happier, there is no "happily ever after." The Seder never brings us to the Promised Land. Jerusalem is there, on the horizon, but for "next year."  What's more, there is no Odysseus or Hercules to shepherd us over the finish line, all we've got is a little goat that daddy bought, and he stirs up a dystopian cataclysm.  Moses's role is downplayed in the Passover story.  Jewish heroism is consistently modulated in our texts, while human failings and moral complexities are emphasized.  Even stories that downplay God's role, like the Book of Esther, still feature flawed heroes. For all their courage, Esther and Mordechai come off looking like a couple of Bridgertons amidst the palace hijinks.

David, arguably our greatest hero, is also one of history's most tragic figures and callous sinners.  

We have no  super powers; we are in fact models of frailty.  But if we are are superhuman in any respect, it is that we are super at being human, or at least at trying to be. We elevate the experience of human resilience to an art form.

But despite our frailties, or perhaps because of them, our stories are still special to us and they would be even if we didn't find moral sustenance in their content; just as our more personal family tales are special to us not because our parents and grandparents were the most moral people ever, but simply because they are ours.  We are connected to our ancestors and the stories they've left behind.  We are, in Hartman's words, (based on the ideas of Michael Sandel) encumbered by them.

We gain strength from that grounding, the rootedness that gives us the confidence to reach out beyond our boundaries to help others.  That encumberedness is buttressed by the responsibilities of covenant, a covenant that was sealed at Sinai (the subject of this week's Torah portion of Yitro).

So let's not get caught up in all the banter of our supposed greatness.  We can take pride in Shira Haas because she is mishpocha.  Nothing wrong with that. But not because she is an example of some innate acting talent that Jews have cultivated.  That claim is a conspiracy theory waiting to happen: "Those shape-shifting Jews."

If our goal is to be exceptional, it is to be exceptionally human, always striving to become better.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.

Shabbat Shalom!

 

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman