Mina's Musings: Yom Kippur 2016

Yom Kippur 2016 – Silence and Apathy Towards our Fellow Jews

Boker tov, good morning, and g’mar hatimah Tovah to each of you.  A short while ago we read from the Torah, the same words we read every year on Yom Kippur.  The reading is taken from parashat Aharei Mot, and begins with the words:

  וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָֹה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה אַֽחֲרֵי מוֹת שְׁנֵי בְּנֵי אַֽהֲרֹן בְּקָרְבָתָם לִפְנֵֽי־יְהוָֹה וַיָּמֻֽתוּ:

“Adonai spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they drew too close to the presence of Adonai.” 

The story of the death of Aaron’s two sons is one which confounds us to this day.  What exactly did they do that caused them to die?  Why do we begin our Torah reading on Yom Kippur, our day of atonement, with a reminder of their tragic deaths?  If the point of the day is atonement, why don’t we begin the Torah reading two verses later with the description of the purification offering instead of with a reminder of this terrible tragedy? 

An answer to all three of these questions is found in the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin (52a).   There we read that one day Moses and Aaron were walking along the way and Nadav and Avihu, Aaron’s sons, were walking behind them.  The rest of the community of Israel was walking behind Nadav and Avihu.  After walking behind them for some time, Nadav turned to Avihu and said:  “When will these two old men die and you and I will lead the generation!”  The Holy One, Blessed is He, was so incensed at what transpired between Nadav and Avihu that he said:  “We shall see who will bury whom!”

This is a fascinating story.  It teaches us that well before Nadav and Avihu had offered their “strange fire” to God, God had already determined that neither would outlive their fathers.  In essence the strange fire was a pretext for God’s delayed punishment of their disrespect and disregard of their father and uncle.  But there’s a problem.  It was Nadav who uttered those heinous words.  Why was Avihu condemned too?  The answer is hidden in between the lines of the story.  You see, God was upset at Nadav & Avihu concerning what transpired between them,  though Avihu hadn’t said anything.  His silence WAS his sin!  He didn’t contradict Nadav by saying “How could you say such a horrible thing?”  His silence was seen as an endorsement of Nadav’s disrespect, greed, and callousness, and therefore Avihu too was punished.

That explains a good deal about what the nature of their sin.  But I ask again, why are we reminded of their deaths on Yom Kippur?  I believe it is because on Yom Kippur, when we recite the Ashamnu and the Al Het, nearly half of what we ask forgiveness for is how we have used our words improperly – slander, extortion, false accusations, giving evil counsel, being deceitful, mocking, being scornful, using foul speech, engaging in foolish talk, and on and on.  Bringing up Nadav and Avihu reminds us that we are not only liable for the words that we say, we are equally judged by what we don’t say.  Now I know what you’re thinking.  Here’s the politics.  But you don’t need me to discuss politics.  If you see injustice in our country or world you already KNOW that Jewish tradition says you must step up to stop it.  There is a reason that Jews are over-represented in the social justice organizations of our great country.  The American Jewish community has been very successful in getting people motivated to perform acts of tikkun olam.    

But we are failing in a different area, and that is in standing up for our own rights as Jews, speaking out when we are being oppressed.  I know lots of Jews who are busy fighting against any perceived injustice on college campuses and across the nation, devoted to protecting every minority and group – every group except Jews.  What are they, what are WE doing to protect Jewish kids in an era when anti-Semitism on university campuses has skyrocketed?  What are they and we doing to make it clear to civil rights groups that the group that is victim to more religious based hate crimes than any other in this country is Jews?  Yes, you heard that correctly.  In 2014 – the last year we have statistics for – 57% of religious based hate crimes were committed against Jews.  In 2013 it was 59%!  Where are our many tech savvy social justice warriors when Facebook and Twitter repeatedly remove posts by Jews which complain about Palestinian incitement against Israel while SIMULTANEOUSLY refusing to remove posts advocating the murder of Jews?  Where are they?  Too often, they and we are silent.    

Worse, it’s not really their fault.  We have taught them that our needs, our ideas, our beliefs are open for derision and we don’t even know we’ve done it. Let me give you a small, but I believe, illustrative example.  I want you to think back to you or your children’s history classes in school.  In the unit on ancient Israel and early Judaism, who were you or your children taught that ancient - and implicitly modern Jews worship? If you are like me, my children, & almost every student I’ve ever had, it was Yahweh or Jehovah.  Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve never once prayed to either of those guys.  Let’s be real.  Hebrew doesn’t even have a w or a j.  How could we worship deities with those letters in their names?  And what did they call our holiest book?  Did they refer to it as the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible?  No. It was the Old Testament. To illustrate how dumb this is, in my freshman year at Wellesley College I took a course called Introduction to the Hebrew Bible.  Guess what we had to buy for the class?  It wasn’t an English translation of the Jewish Publication Society’s Holy Scriptures or Tanakh.  It was an Oxford Bible where we read from the Old Testament!  So while we were supposed to be studying the Hebrew Bible it was using a Catholic Bible that is not translated directly from the Hebrew but rather the Latin, has the books of the Bible in a very different order than in a Tanakh, and even has a different numbering of some verses!  And just calling it the Old Testament is a reference to the supersessionist theology that says the Church came to replace God’s covenant with the Jews. Nice thing to read in a Hebrew Bible class.  Gevalt.   

Simultaneously, when learning about Christianity everyone learns about Jesus of Nazareth, who is sometimes referred to even in history books as Jesus Christ, meaning Jesus the Messiah.  Kids are taught that Muslims worship Allah, the Q’uran is their holy book, and Mohammed their prophet.  We’re taught about Hindus and the Bhagvad Gita, Buddhism, Buddha, and the Sutras, etc.  Each group is described using the proper names that they use to describe themselves.  Only we Jews are described with words that others ascribe to us.  And we never open our mouths.  This self-enforced silence just grows with us over time.     

This must end.  When we allow someone else to define us, we damage our Jewish pride and identity, and we have much to be proud of.  We gave the world monotheism along with the ideas of a merciful, just, and loving God.  With Shabbat, we invented the weekend!  Many of the civil laws of the Torah have become universal, including the concept of monetary damages, equality before the law, asylum, and creating courts.  The Torah advocates animal rights and proper agricultural practices such as crop rotation.  Our tradition preaches optimism and personal responsibility rather than cynicism and blaming others.  Jews have been involved in nearly every great scientific discovery over the last one hundred years – not to mention that Jews created the Barbie doll, teddy bear, psychoanalysis, the ballpoint pen, and the ever important latex condom!  Culturally we are proud to claim as members of the tribe not just Albert Einstein and Jonas Salk, but pop icons Steven Spielberg, Amy Schumer, Allie Raisman, Drake, Pink, Scarlett Johansson, Bar Refaeli, and too many more to list.  Judaism uniquely teaches that ALL those who believe in God and are good people, regardless of religion, have easy access to the afterlife. Modern Israel has contributed countless patents, new technologies, and ways to improve life around the globe.  The commitment to tikkun olam which I mentioned before is one of our greatest gifts to the world.  Unconcerned about whether or not we will go to heaven – since we pretty much assume all decent people will – we instead devote our lives to making heaven on earth! 

Each Rosh Hashanah we blow the shofar to wake us up from our sins and apathy. We do so because we believe that when we wake up, God will be merciful to us.  This is in deference to Isaac, who was nearly sacrificed and then with a ram.  It is to Isaac that we owe God’s mercy. 

This becomes even clearer in a story from the Talmud (Shabbat 89b).  It begins with a situation when the Jewish people sins.  God goes to Abraham and tells him that his children have sinned.  To this Abraham says:  “Master of the Universe, let them be obliterated for the sanctity of your name.”  Unsatisfied with Abraham’s response, God goes to Jacob, thinking that since Jacob experienced pain in raising his own children he might ask for mercy.  Instead when Jacob hears that the people have sinned, he says, “Master of the Universe, let them be obliterated for the sake of your name.”  Even more dissatisfied, and now with no options left, God then goes to Isaac. He says:  “Your children have sinned against Me.”  Isaac then responds: “Master of the Universe, MY children and not YOUR children?!” [When at Mt. Sinai they said we will do and hear,] “You called them My son, My firstborn.  Now, you tell me that they are my children and not Your children?!  Furthermore, how much,….could they have sinned?  How many are a man’s years?  Seventy years.  Take away the first twenty, since You do not punish a person for them.  There are fifty years left.  Take away twenty-five, which are the nights (when they are sleeping & can’t sin).  Take away twelve and a half, which are spent praying, eating, or in the bathroom.  There are only twelve and a half years of potential sin left.  If you will shoulder them all, fine.  And if not, then half should be on me and half on You.  And if You wish to say that all of them should be on me, behold!  I have already sacrificed myself before You!”  God then relents and the Jewish people repent.

My friends, in this story our patriarch Isaac argues with God on our behalf.  He extended himself for his fellow Jews. He took pride in his children and wouldn’t let anyone – not even God – belittle them or hurt them.  So must we.  We must take pride in ourselves, a pride that comes from truly understanding our great tradition, what it stands for, what it contributes to the world, how it can help us with our own lives.  I am proud of the Jewish effort at tikkun olam, improving the lives of others, and fighting on their behalf.  But we must also stand up and defend ourselves against the onslaughts – the microagressions and macroagressions - of a sometimes hostile world.  As we are taught [Hillel says], "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?" [Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14]  My friends the time is now.  G’mar hatimah Tovah.