Kedoshim 2013/5773
To not stand idly by
Rabbi Neil A. Tow©
As we paid tribute on Yom Ha’Shoah to the victims of Nazi
terror, we focused on this year as the 70th Anniversary of the
Warsaw Ghetto uprising – a battle that was lost before it started, doomed to
fail due to overwhelming enemy forces and lack of support and supplies from
outside the ghetto.
The uprising began 70 years ago, today, April 19, 1943.
Nothing is left of the Ghetto – walking in the ghetto area
we see apartments, green lawns, roads, and memorials – and a soon to be opened
museum of Polish Jewry.
And as our recent Eastern Europe trip drew to a close, news
of an attack on innocent bystanders, fans of the Boston marathon, people who,
like me, stood on the sidelines cheering at the finish, helping in a small way
to get people toward the finish line.
People like Krystle Campbell, 29, 8 year old Martin Richard, graduate
student Lingzi Lu whose lives ended at that finish line.
“Lo ta’amod al dam re’echa,” our parsha teaches, “Do not
stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.”
If we know we can save someone, we should, but what if we do
not know the danger? What if we are as
surprised as everyone else? What
then? Is there a way to not ‘Stand idly
by’, a way to be active after the fact?
Can we fulfill God’s expectation of us even as the blood of our fellow
human beings stains the sidewalks on Boylston Street, or a Jerusalem street, or
a village in Syria, or anywhere else?
We think to ourselves, I am not an FBI agent, I cannot
assist with the investigation.
I am not CIA or NSA, I cannot help clarify intelligence
reports.
I am not a first responder, I could not be there to bind
wounds.
I do not live in Boston.
Can we be active in the debates and planning around issues
of gun violence and other violence in our area?
Yes.
Can we offer material, spiritual, and moral support to our
brothers and sisters in Israel who live in range of rocket fire?
Yes.
Can we muster the courage to step in when we see bullying
occurring between adults and kids?
Yes.
Can we offer our prayers for the victims of violence and
spread messages that there are non-violent ways to resolve conflict?
Yes.
We should honor though, at the same time, our ‘would have
feelings’, the sense that we could not offer assistance in the moment even if
we wanted to do so, perhaps even if we had been there – after all, we could
have become victims ourselves no matter how good our intentions or skills.
Jewish thinking gives us language and action points in this
situation. Missing an opportunity for a
mitzvah, for example, is much different than an intentional avoidance of doing
a mitzvah. If ancient Jews could not
offer the Passover sacrifice on time, there was a Second Passover opportunity
one month later. If we miss offering the
Morning prayer, we can ‘make it up’ later on – there’s even the text of an
Amidah called ‘Havinenu’ designed to be recited in moments of duress when we
cannot do a full version. Teshuvah is a
continual process of self-reflection and a road to reconciliation that opens
the chance for each of us to make right what went wrong between us and God, and
between people.
Action after the fact may feel too late, ‘token’, or just as
something that makes us ‘feel better’.
I believe though that the people centered wisdom of Jewish
generations suggests that we do not get mired in such feelings.
I believe in the story told to me by Rabbi Jeff Summit of Tufts
Hillel, of the Rabbi who taught, ‘What can we learn from the telephone? That what is said here is heard there.’
What we do here will echo there – wherever we could not be,
wherever we wished we could offer a hand, wherever we fear to go because we legitimately
feel we are putting our own lives in danger – the danger is the idleness or inertia,
that we stand, planted in place, until the moment when the evil finds us
Since I wrote and shared this piece with the congregation, and with colleagues on a listserv, I have thought about the final words, "...we stand, planted in place, until the moment when the evil finds us." I do not intend this idea to mean that evil will inevitably find us. Rather, I intend it to mean that if we seek to avoid proactive and constructive engagement, then we may someday fall victim to that which we otherwise could have worked to prevent, resolve, respond to, or bring to a meaningful conclusion. Pastor Martin Niemoller's classic statement on this topic is his poem:
ReplyDeleteFirst they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.