Pinchas 2013/5773
The Pace of Change
The Supreme Court handed down decisions that changed the
dynamics around the Voting Rights Act and the power of states to administer
voting related re-districting and even voter identification programs. The Court also ruled that federal benefits
are available to same-gender couples and effectively ruled that California will
become the 13th state with marriage equality.
While I would like to address these issues, tonight I want
to focus on issues here in Bergen County, and elsewhere, that the Supreme Court,
and even local justice systems, cannot decide with cases and rulings, issues of
tzedakah, the larger category of justice and the pursuit of a more harmonious
existence for the peoples of our country, the many cultures, languages, and
religions of the 900,000 residents of Bergen County, of New Jersey, of our
whole country and beyond.
We began on Tuesday the period of the 3 weeks, 3 weeks
between the 17th of the Hebrew month of Tammuz and the 9th
of Av, the time that recalls the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem and
many other tragedies of Jewish history.
Our discomfort with blaming the victim aside, our tradition teaches us
that ‘sinat chinam’, causeless hatred between people was the key factor in the
destruction of the Temple. The
Babylonians and Romans only capitalized on what was already a weak, shaky
foundation, that could well have imploded from inside without the help of
tyrants and their armies.
Our Torah reading from Parshat Pinchas leads us back into
the world of the ancient Temples, refreshing our memories of the rich and
colorful offerings we made at the altars during the annual festivals. Our prophets kept a close watch of our
relationship to the Temple and its rituals.
They emphasized time and again that a society rife with injustice is a
shame that makes the Temple offerings meaningless.
The elusive unity that could have, theoretically, protected
our Holy Temples, the unity of building a just society that would render the
Temple rituals complementary and beautification of our collective efforts –
these things together comprise a significant challenge for us here in Bergen
County and beyond. These things when
writ large, when we draw them over the diversity in our neighborhoods, remind
us that there are too many gaps in knowledge of the other, that in those dark
in between spaces we may form assumptions and biases, and we have seen
tragically the results of prejudice in attacks on synagogues within the last
two years. The divisions are both internal
and external to the many groups who live in our County. As I work with the Jewish Community Relations
Council to build partnerships between the Jewish community and others – with
Koreans, African Americans, Latinos and others, I realize that the high level
or organization in the Jewish community is something we take for granted. I do not argue that our high-level of
organization means that we are highly efficient, but we do have a central
address that unites, or at least attempts to unite, our Jewish
communities. In meeting with Korean-American
leaders, it is clear that while many are active community leaders in their own
right, they are still searching for grounding and methods for growing their
communities in ways that Jewish communities were over 100 years ago when
millions migrated from Eastern Europe to American shores and sought to organize
themselves and create institutions that would serve and reflect their needs and
aspirations.
We have done a good deal of interfaith work through our
congregation, but Glen Rock is a small town in a County of 70 municipalities, a
County of rich diversity. If we can turn
prejudice into tolerance, lack of knowledge into familiarity and friendship, and
increase awareness and sensitivity, then we will go a long way toward healing
the conditions that the Rabbis described in Jerusalem prior to the destruction
of the Temples, the rifts among people that weakened our people, that left us
vulnerable. If you would like to be a
part of the outreach effort, please join me and my colleague Rabbi Stephen
Sirbu and the Community Relations Council in our work. One face to face meeting with leaders of
another Bergen cultural or faith group could open up a whole world that was
hidden beforehand.
Shabbat Shalom.
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