Mina's Musings: Sh'lach L'kha 2015

Sh’lach L’kha 2015 – Standing for What You Believe

Shabbat Shalom.  I have a confession to make.  I rarely watched Seinfeld when it was on in the 1990s.  It was probably a good five or six years AFTER the series ended that I began watching it on late night re-runs.  Over time I have come to appreciate its humor, though some of it still is not my cup of tea.  Nevertheless I was surprised, along with much of America, when I heard what Jerry Seinfeld said this past week about the state of comedy in the United States.  He was quoted saying in an interview on The Herd with Colin Cowherd:   “I hear that all the time…I don’t play colleges, but I hear a lot of people tell me, ‘Don’t go near colleges. They’re so PC.’”  Seinfeld says teens and college-aged kids don’t understand what it means to throw around certain politically-correct terms. “They just want to use these words: ‘That’s racist;’ ‘That’s sexist;’ ‘That’s prejudice,’” he said. “They don’t know what the [heck] hell they’re talking about.”

So that was Seinfeld bemoaning the deterioration of our ability to speak freely, joke freely.  Then on Wednesday I heard about North Miami principal Alberto Iber who was fired for a comment he posted on Facebook.  Specifically he posted something in support of the police-man in McKinney, Texas who was seen pushing – fairly roughly – a 15 year old girl to the ground at a pool party gone bad.   In response to some shock that Mr. Iber was fired over the words he wrote supporting law-enforcement, Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said in a statement.  “Judgment is the currency of honesty…Insensitivity – intentional or perceived – is both unacceptable and inconsistent with our policies, but more importantly with our expectation of common sense behavior that elevates the dignity and humanity of all, beginning with children."

As an aside I have to say I couldn’t believe what I had read from Mr. Carvalho.  How can anyone’s job be secure if they have to worry about PERCEIVED insensitivity?  Lord, help us.  In any case, what do these two very different examples share?  The fact that slowly but surely we in this country are losing our ability to speak freely in this country without CONSTANTLY worrying about being accused of insensitivity, racism, sexism, and all the other isms.  And why would I, a rabbi, worry about this?  Because the Torah teaches us that we must be allowed to share our thoughts – even when we are wrong, even when our ideas are controversial or out of-sync with what others think, even if everyone else thinks we are wrong.

In Exodus 23:2 we read:  “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou bear witness in a cause to turn aside after a multitude to pervert justice.”  And in this morning’s Torah portion we read about what happens when a majority of people – a VAST majority of people – come to the wrong conclusion.  That is, in the incident of the spies, 10 out of 12, or 83% of the spies return to Moses with a report about Israel that says they should not try to enter the land.  The spies not only tell Moses this, they spread their sense of fear and worry to the entire congregation, causing the community to break into loud cries, doubting God’s promise to bring them to the land, etc.  Into this wilderness of bleakness come only two voices – Joshua and Caleb – to offer a different perspective.  Caleb and Joshua say that indeed the Israelites COULD conquer the land, but the people want to hear nothing of their differing opinions.  Indeed, rather than listening to Joshua and Caleb the Israelites rail against Moses – and by implication Joshua and Caleb – and beg to go back to Egypt. 

In thinking about the Israelites reaction to Joshua and Caleb, I thought of one of the few quotes from Aristotle that I remember:  “Suppose then, that all men were sick or deranged, save one or two of them who were healthy and of right mind.  It would then be the latter two who would be thought to be sick and deranged and the former not!”

Indeed, Aristotle could have been referring to this story when he made his quote!  As our Etz hayim Humash comments on this verse:  “Joshua and Caleb risk their lives by acting with integrity and standing up to a misguided majority.  In the end, it is the majority who will die in the wilderness and the people of integrity and courage who will survive to see their dreams realized.”

This is a lesson we must heed today.  That is, today we worry all too often in this country what the majority thinks.  And then on top of that we worry about what the minority thinks as well.    But that isn’t a way to live.  It’s not the way to think, the way to serve God, or even help our fellow human beings.  To do that we must think freely, clearly, without fear.  We must speak out for what WE believe is right, even if others tell us we are wrong.  We must not succumb to groupthink, when groupthink is often wrong.

God gave us ears to hear, brains to think, and mouths to speak.  As Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook once said, "I don't speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don't have the power to remain silent."  So too should we make our voices heard on whatever issues are of importance to us.