Rosh Hashanah 5771

As I sat in services during Rosh Hashanah this past week, my mind wandered as I listened to the prayers. When I heard he words Day of Remembrance, I was stirred. Somehow this small group of people whose influence on civilization over millennia seem to forget that we are all connected. All Jews who survived the Shoah knew that they were connected. The Nazis would not let them forget. They did not care whether a Jew was Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Secular or your family had converted to Christianity a generation or two before. They did not care whether a Jew was married to a Jew or non-Jew. A person meeting their qualifications was lower than human and a virus to be expunged. Following that horrific tragedy, we found that we are One people. The fate of the smallest of us is connected to the fate of all. Why after only 65 years do we not remember and understand that simple fact?

Why can we not remember Torah or what our prophets and sages said? Just a few quotes I recall. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Leviticus 19:8. “What is it that the Lord your God requires of you? To act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with the Lord your God? Micah 6:8. The story of the pagan who tells Hillel he will convert to Judaism if he teaches him the entire Torah while he stands on one foot. Hillel responds, “Do not do unto others what is hateful to you. All the rest is commentary. Now go and study.” Such straightforward precepts, that even I understand. They must be for some other group, not for us.

I know that I have previously blogged on the “Blind Men and the Elephant.” Maybe my thoughts here are similar. We Jews all have the same body of writings to teach us. Jewish tradition teaches us that debate is the proper forum to air our ideals. Instead of challenging ideals, we denigrate our opponents. We cast them as less than equals. Liberal Jews cast the Orthodox as evil fundamentalists and the Orthodox cast the Liberals as apostates. Rather than acknowledging that each has a large following and finding areas of cooperation, we prefer to fight.

What does it mean, when we say in our prayers the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? If the perfect view of God were so simple, we would say the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Midrash teaches us that each of our fore-fathers had a slightly differing view of God. Why should we be different? I am not asking any Jew to accept any other’s view are 100 percent correct. I ask only that they treat others with dignity. If we cannot make peace with ourselves, how can we continue to survive as a people? This is not the first time in history that we have bickered and attacked one another. Jewish historians blamed the destruction of the Second Temple and the Jewish dispersion into the Diaspora on similar actions. Wake up, O Israel, before such a calamity or worse befalls us.

As we begin 5771, let the piercing sound of the Shofar awaken us to our dilemma. I pray that we work together to insure that we continue as a people another 4000 years. In the outside world, we have great antagonists who promise our destruction. If we continue our self-hatred and demonization, we only assist them. If we embrace each other as brothers and sisters and stand united, no outside force can harm us.