Balak 2015 – July 4 Weekend
I love it when July 4 falls on Shabbat. Both July 4 and Shabbat are celebrations of
freedom, and so the two parts of my identity – the Jewish and the American can
celebrate equally and at the same time.
Both holidays are holidays of freedom – July 4 represents the beginnings
of freedom for the colonists from Great Britain and Shabbat is a day to
remember going free from Egypt – instead of living on Pharaoh’s time and under
Pharaoh’s oppressive rule, God takes us out to freedom, gives us the Torah and
also Shabbat, the wonderful gift that for the slaves was a radical departure
from the heavy daily labor and for us is a welcome change of spirit and pace
today.
Both days may even end in fireworks, although
after Shabbat fireworks are much different – there is a tradition of pouring
alcohol onto a plate then taking the flames of the havdalah candle and lighting
the alcohol – it is beautiful as it burns down blue, dancing in the dim light.
We fought for freedom against Great Britain,
but although Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death,” we will see
how freedom and liberty are not exactly
the same thing. In Jewish tradition,
these two are not the same – the distinction is important and central to who we
are and what we do as a people,
When we go free from Egypt we go me’avdut
le’cherut, from slavery to freedom. But
in that freedom we do not have liberty to do whatever we want to do – we learn
that lesson time and again in the desert.
Bilaam the magician, who we read about this Shabbat, is also not at
liberty to do what he wants – the Rabbis teach us his intention is to curse the
Israelites, just as Balak hires him to do, God directs him only to give
blessings to the people instead of curses.
The word liberty suggests we’re emancipated, like a slave, as the Torah
teaches about a former slave - yetzei la’chofshi chinam, the slave is
emancipated from servitude and no longer responsible to the former master, now
no longer tied to a master, independent.
On the other hand, cherut, freedom, gives us
a chance to choose to accept God’s covenant at Sinai, or not, it is liberty
with a recognition of responsibility…
That is the responsibility that comes along
with the gifts of freedom, and that responsibility is a heavy and a scary one,
such a heavy and a scary one that tragically people, even nations, choose to
give up their freedoms to live in places as oppressive as Egypt was for the
Jewish people. An example that is all
too present and horrible is ISIS - these terrorists proclaim a new caliphate, a
new united Islam, their way, and only their way. For them, even Hamas, the terrorist group
that governs Gaza, is not strong and strict enough either in its religious
approach or in its politics.
Why would someone want to give up
freedom? The reports about recruitment
to ISIS are startling.
Sasha
Havlicek, chief executive of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue said. – "We're seeing young women (people) from
across Western countries both expressing their support for and migrating to
Syria now in totally unprecedented numbers," with the promise of living
under centralized Islamic rule, with the promise of free housing, water, and no
rent as the reports say, except that in order for all this to happen first they
must be willing to take away freedom from others and take their lives simply
because they do not adhere to the same religion or same principles. The horrific attacks in Tunisia, France, and
Kuwait were bloody and horrifying recent examples of this thinking.
The Israelites in the desert, the nation that
Bilaam sees from the hills is one that, with fits and starts, does take responsibility for its
newfound freedom and does take measures to give life and respect to fellow
Israelites – when Bilaam looks down and says his famous words “Ma tovu ohalecha
Yakov, mishkenotecha Yisrael.” ‘How good
are your tents people of Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel.’ The Rabbis ask
what is so ‘good’ about the tents of the Israelites? What makes them so unique from every other
desert people who set up tents? The
Rabbis teach they set up their tents so that the opening of one person’s tent
would not face the opening of any other person’ tent, to ensure privacy – privacy,
kavod/respect, something Pharaoh denied them in Egypt is now something they
seek to ensure for one another.
Cherut – freedom with responsibility - The
modern state of Israel does the same – we saw the way they set up a field
hospital in Nepal after the earthquakes that leveled buildings and whole
villages. They treated victims,
delivered babies, and more. They did the
same in Haiti and treated 2,700 patients in the Phillippines after the typhoon. Let’s not forget also the way that Israel set
up a field hospital to treat victims of the civil war in Syria and the way
Israeli hospitals have treated family members of PLO and Hamas officials.
Let’s not overlook that liberty is a good
thing, at least for a while – it’s the feeling of the beginning of summer
vacation, time to let go, but then
there needs to be structure, when we look at liberty to freedom as a spectrum,
freedom is the more mature and developed way to be, the way of challenging us
to build relationships, seek unity, visit the sick, and do all the other mitzvot
when even God does not step in to tell us ‘to do or not to do’. It’s up to us. It is this level of caring and reaching out since
it’s the right thing to do, the holy thing to do, that inspired Reverend
Clementa Pinckney and his parishioners at Emanuel AME Zion church in Charleston
to open the door to the alleged shooter Dylan Roof, to open the door and
welcome him in without a second thought, to the time of Bible study and prayer.
Events in Charleston, the Middle East, and
the heroic service of our men and women in uniform, remind us that the pursuit
of freedom requires risk and sacrifice – sacrifices that are often too much for
us, too painful to bear, but what better goal for us could there be than to
take the blessings of freedom we are privileged to have and extend them to
others, to close the gaps between us, and with other ethnicities and religions,
and to fulfill the vision of those who signed the declaration of independence.
Shabbat Shalom.
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