Atheists and Death in Toulouse - Dvar Torah Shabbat Ha'Chodesh 2012

Atheists and Death in Tolouse

Vayikra – Rosh Chodesh Nisan – Shabbat Ha’chodesh 5772/2012

Rabbi Neil A. Tow©

When I heard that the organization American Atheists were sponsoring a billboard advertisement in Paterson, a message targeting Muslims, I assumed this billboard would be in the part of Paterson where store fronts feature Arabic language and restaurants post ‘Halal’ on their signs. 

It turns out, the billboard is on top of a small two-story building at the intersection of 33^rd street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, right across from the august Temple Emmauel building.  This billboard – that has a twin on the Williamsburg Bridge – says, in Arabic, “You know it’s a myth, you have a choice.”

Too bad the American Atheists organization, that celebrates reason and science, did not do their research on the word ‘myth’.  While ‘myth’ might mean something like ‘fairy tale’ in common speech, its technical meaning is ‘a series of ideas that unfolds the worldview of a people.’  So, therefore, Atheism is as much a myth as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, or any faith or system of knowledge, such as science.  (The atheists flunked their English exam.)

The father and two children, and the girl, that Mohammed Merah shot and killed near the Ozar ha’Torah school in Toulouse all were involved in studying the deep truths of Judaism, the ‘myth’ of Judaism.  For them, as for us, we do not study this material to prove to the world that we are right and others are wrong.  We study it, grapple with it, annul some of it, and remake it because that is how the evolving process of a search for truth happens, even a search for scientific truth.  We may disprove older scientific theories, but we keep a record of them to see where we came from and to appreciate the contributions of those who came before us.

We mourn with Chava Sandler the wife of Rabbi Jonathan z”l and Aryeh and Gavriel z”l.  We mourn with Rabbi and Mrs. Monsenegro for their daughter Miriam z”l.   We mourn with them as parents, brothers and sisters, as people – people who are made of the same penetrable stuff.  All people on earth are, as Shakespeare wrote, ‘fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons.’  What we believe, what we cherish, what we work for, support, and sacrifice for and create is the stuff that makes us more than flesh and bone.

And so as much as I mourn the loss of life, I also mourn the loss of the potential for those lives to add beauty, meaning, and depth to the Judaism of which I am a part, of which this community is a part.   In a moving letter written by Chava Sandler she asks us, among other things, to continue on by encouraging our children, encouraging one another, to ‘be living examples of our Torah, imbued with the fear of Heaven, and with love of their fellow man.

If such dedication of oneself to study and to the good treatment of fellow human beings is what the American Atheists want to warn us against, then I ask them what do you offer me instead?  The Enlightenment ended neither war nor violence.  Soviet communism and national socialism were brutal regimes that themselves worshipped gods far more vile and bloodthirsty than any Biblical story, for example, might suggest. 

This Shabbat, Shabbat Ha’chodesh, the celebration of the first ‘chodesh’ the first month of our people’s freedom from Pharaoh, is a time to remind ourselves of a lesson we know well – that freedom has its privileges and its responsibilities.  Whether our Torah study may occur in the form of community service, participating in synagogue life, studying text, or discussing a book with others, it is our responsibility to engage with the Torah as a way of adding beauty to a world that so often challenges us with ugliness in words and actions.  We cannot bring back the dead, that is something with which I agree with the atheists and scientists.  We can though pick up and journey with the energy they gifted to the world during their short lives.

Our Judaism, our faith, is in fact a myth by definition.  The American Atheists say, “You have a choice.”  A choice to answer with word and deed whether it is a myth that moves me, inspires me, creates community, and makes me feel cared for and significant.  ‘You’ have a choice to say yes or no to this.  I proudly say “yes”.

Shabbat Shalom.