Dvar Torah for Vaetchanan - A Need for a New Set of Commandments

If you had asked me earlier in the week to tell you what I would be talking about this Shabbat, I guarantee that it would not have been what I am going to talk about.

I would not have awoken one morning to see the picture of a smiling dentist next to the dead beloved endangered and protected which was lured out a nature preserve so that he could shoot it and claim it legal. He paid $55,000 for the opportunity to kill Cecil, Africa’s most famous lion and a national symbol of the people of Zimbabwe.

I would not have seen pictures and video of the Israel Defense Forces who were evacuating a settlement deemed illegal by the Israeli Supreme Court be accused of aiding the Nazis.

I would not have seen postings about stabbings by a religious zealot at the Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem, thought they were talking about events of a decade ago, and then realized that not only did it happen again, but that the same hate filled religious zealot had done it again after being released from prison three weeks earlier.

I would not regularly be hearing accusations that people who advocate for the Iran Deal, which attempts to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon which it could use to threaten genocide against Israel, are in fact working to hasten that result by so trying.

I would not have conversed with Reform Rabbi colleagues of mine made so uncomfortable by the nature of the advocacy in support of the Iran Deal that they find themselves believing, as unfortunately do I, that antisemitism is now fair to use as long as you don’t use the words, “Israel, Jewish national organizations, Lobbying, Money, Lies and War” together in one sentence, but using them over and over in connected sentences seems to be fine even for our national leaders in press conferences with Jewish advocates!

I would not have had a conversation with an African American childhood friend who was vigorously arguing that I shouldn’t call the Holocaust “the greatest evil” because he felt it important that I recognize that American slavery was. The Holocaust was my people’s evil.

And I would not have awoken this morning to the news that Jewish religious terrorists set two Palestinian homes on fire, killed an 18 month old boy, Ali Dawabsha, and severely injured his four year old brother who may yet succumb to his injuries.

I should not be entering this Shabbat with its Deuteronomic Torah portion containing the second rendition of the Ten Commandments along with the Shema and V’ahavtah, instead thinking about the exhortation to do violence against sacrilege in Chapter 7 and how that may have motivated despicable actions this week.

Thou shall not murder.

Thou shall not covet, much less steal.

Thou shall not create or worship false idols.

Thou shall not make false accusations against the innocent.

Thou shall not take God’s name in vain.

                   

What has happened in our world when those respected by society and the most pious neglect even these commandments?

I am disheartened by the events this week. I am crushed by the events over night in Israel.

I am made more hopeful by some of the responses to these awful things. Yair Lapid, leader of the “There is a Future” party, Yesh Atid, and a Member of the Israeli Knesset did a wonderful job of summing up much of how I feel about recent events in Israel in response to the terror attack overnight. He said:

We’re at war: for the future, for Zionism, for our existence…and we can’t afford to lose.

And our enemy is ourselves.

We cannot afford to lose sight of our goals, nor how important it is to stand up for our beliefs.

I am merely a rabbi. I do not claim to have prophetic visions and I certainly have not been visited by God upon a mountain as the Torah tells us that Moses was. But, I think, I have a few commandments to offer that might do us some good.

1. Thou shall remember that we are all created in the image of God, that all of us bleed red blood when we are injured, and that all of us cry, fear, laugh and hope.
2. Thou shall not dehumanize so as to consider murder something other and lesser.
3. Thou shall not act as if political advocacy entitles us to demonize our opponents.
4. Thou shall not allow hatred to rule over us.
5. Thou shall not forget that once people we certain that the world was flat.
6. Thou shall remember that we were strangers.
7. Thou shall remember that we were persecuted.
8. Thou shall remember to try to understand each other and overcome self-centeredness.
9. Thou shall remember to be compassionate.
10. Thou shall surely remember that “there but for the grace of God” could go any one of us.

May the coming week be a week that sees Shalom return to our world and be a greater part of our lives. 

May it be a week during which we see stories that make us hopeful and remind us of what is good in our world and of the best that people can be. 

Kein yehi ratzon! May it be God’s will!

Remove the Stumbling Block - A sermon for Jewish Disabilities Month 2013

Sermon for Mishpatim – Jewish Disabilities Month 2013

Rabbi David Kaufman

February 8, 2013

This week’s Torah portion is Mishpatim. Parshat Mishpatim contains many laws and statutes including the famous statement about damages, “An eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth,” which the rabbis come to understand to mean “the value of an eye for an eye and the value of a tooth for a tooth.” This Torah portion also contains laws about how to treat those in our communities who are less fortunate than we are and particularly, how to deal with those in our midst who are challenged to live normal lives.

Mishpatim reminds us (Ex. 22:20-24):

You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan. If you do mistreat them, I will heed their outcry as soon as they cry out to Me and my anger shall blaze forth and I will put you to the sword, and your spouses shall become widows or widowers, your children orphans. If you lend money to My people, to the poor who is in your power, do not act toward him as a creditor: exact no interest from him.

Remember that “you were a stranger.” The line is oft repeated in our tradition. Yet it means more than that. It isn’t that each of us was a stranger. The real force of the statement is that we were, are, and always will be strangers. We are forever strangers in a wilderness. For some of us, the challenge is greater than for others, but we all need help to get through the challenges in our lives and as we get older, those challenges that all of us will face will include disabilities.

“This month is Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month. According to the National Organization on Disability, 54 million Americans have some form of disability. That’s nearly one in every five Americans. According to the 2010 Census, one in 12 children in the U.S. has a disability; that means 5.2 million American children have a mental or physical disability. When you factor in friends, families, and community members, the number of Americans affected by disability issues multiplies exponentially.” (www.rac.org)

While some of us have friends and family members who face or faced significant physical and mental challenges from birth, life will challenge all of us as we get older. Our eyesight and hearing fade along with our memories and physical abilities. Where once we took the stairs two at a time, for some, it is difficult or impossible to take them at all.

We cherish our independence, the ability to live alone, to travel alone, to open doors alone. Yet life sometimes makes that difficult.

Many wonderful institutions in our community help those facing physical and mental challenges overcome them.

Mosaic, Easter Seals, Variety and whole host of other organizations and agencies work to improve the lives of people with disabilities in our community. Too many of us think about these organizations as working for “them,” others who are not like us, when in fact, they are very much like us. “Remember you were a stranger.”

Proverbs 31:8 tells us, “Speak up for those who cannot speak…speak up, judge righteously, champion the poor and the needy.”

And in Leviticus 19:14, we find “You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind.” It seems easy enough to do. We tend to look at this verse, particularly the second part as if all we have to do is not go out of our way to make things difficult. Yet what is the verse really telling us? What happens if we see that there is or will be a stumbling block in their path? Is not our obligation to help them to avoid it?

This verse from Leviticus is a directive that is literally applicable on a playground. Children often treat those who are different in not-so-nice ways. They may well tease someone who is deaf by talking behind their back, by ridiculing and then acting as if nothing happened. They could well find it amusing when someone blind would be made to trip. One can envision these things. We may even remember seeing similar behavior on the playgrounds of our youth. Some of us may have acted to prevent these actions. Others in shame may recall participating in them or doing nothing to stop them.

Adults certainly can do this type of thing as well, but we learn over time that we ourselves come to be treated in the way that we treat others. In fact, one of the best measures of what kind of person we are is the way in which we treat those with less power than we have.

Our Tradition speaks of the deaf, the blind, those with speech impediments and those with learning disabilities and in every instance we are encouraged to help the person with the disability to overcome it.

We read in Deuteronomy 15:11, “If there be among you a needy person, you shall not harden thy heart, but shall surely open your hand.” It is a statement about giving to the poor, but just as certainly it is a statement about reaching out to lend a hand. It is a statement about our need not just to avoid placing stumbling blocks, but to look ahead and make sure that stumbling blocks are not already there. We need to actively help, not merely to avoid causing problems.

I came across this in an article in the Forward about disabilities in the Orthodox community:

About 10 years ago, Jason Lieberman stopped wearing tefillin. This was not an act of rebellion — Lieberman’s cerebral palsy simply made it too difficult for him to put them on. Seven years later, Lieberman, 34, who serves as treasurer of Matan, which provides Jewish education programs to special needs children, sought help from his extensive network in the Jewish community: Where could he find an occupational therapist who had experience in training disabled Jews to put on their own tefillin? The answers disappointed him. Two rabbis offered to give him a heter — a dispensation — so that he wouldn’t have to wear tefillin at all. Another suggested that he get someone else to put them on for him. That was exactly what he was trying to avoid. “I know I have the skills to do it,” Lieberman told a rapt audience of rabbinical students... at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, in New York. “I just need someone who understands how my body works, to teach me how to do it.”

Or how about these questions found in the same article:

What do you tell a disabled Jew who is concerned that the cane she needs in order to walk to synagogue during the Sabbath violates the prohibition on carrying items? What about a wheelchair? And can her husband push it without violating the proscription against work? If that’s a problem, what if the wheelchair is motorized with a pre-charged battery? Will she be violating the Sabbath ban on electricity?

We Reform Jews would not bat an eyelash at these things, we would say come however you are able, but in the Orthodox community you cannot simply ignore Halakhah.

Yet, too often we do place stumbling blocks and put forth insults because we are not conscious of the needs of those around us. We simply are unaware that we offend, cause discomfort, or even harm. Our access doors and aisles are not wide enough, our thresholds too high. Our ramps too steep or too narrow. Our texts too small. Our amplification too low. Our patience too short.

As a congregation, we have tried in recent years to be more accommodating, but our building is hardly completely accessible. Staff offices and meeting rooms are on different levels without an elevator and the most easily accessible doors are not opened by our buzzer, but require someone to physically unlock them. Our building renovation project will to no small extent address this sort of access issue.

Our Tradition teaches us that people who are disabled can do wonderful things, not only for themselves, but for our people. Someone who is impaired of speech can even speak as God’s own mouthpiece.

And Moses said unto Adonai: “Adonai, I am not a man of words, either in the past, nor now, since you have spoken unto Your servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” (Exodus 4:10)

After Moses questioned God about his difficulties with speech, God responded.

“And God said to Moses: Who gives man speech? Who makes him mute or deaf, seeing or blind?” (Exodus 4:11)

The answer in the Book of Exodus is God. Yet my friends, we are God’s instruments. Let us do our best to help improve the lives of all of those affected by disabilities.

Kein yehi ratson! May it be God’s will!