We Need to Understand Each Other Better - A Message for the New Year 5774

When I was a sophomore in high school, I was in biology class taking a test and in the middle of the test I needed a Kleenex.

I walked up to the front of the class to get one when I heard my teacher ask, “Are your eyes wandering a bit, Mr. Stecker?”  Implying that I was looking at someone else’s test paper on my way to get the Kleenex.  

Now I was not looking at anyone else’s paper and I was mortified.  Had she said, are you a bit neurotic about your academic success, Mr. Stecker?  Are you dreamy and unfocused, Mr. Stecker?   Even, do you feel nerdy and unworthy from time to time, Mr. Stecker?  I would have been put off, but ultimately not as offended.  There was some truth to all of those things, certainly when I was a teenager.

But to ask if I was cheating?  That hurt.  I was not, and am not, a cheater.

Her snarky question sliced right through me not just because I was wrongly accused, but because I felt fundamentally misunderstood.  If she implied that about me, then she didn’t understand me at all.  At 16 you tend to feel that sort of thing powerfully.

But it’s not just something you feel as a teenager.

Generations Yet Unborn Are Watching

I want you to imagine the scene.  Moses looks out and sees thousands of people. He says to the people, atem nitzavim hayom kulchem:  you’re all standing here together, the leaders, the men, the women, the children, the stranger, the people who cut the trees and the people who draw water from the wells.  You’re all standing here to enter a covenant.  And furthermore, the covenant between you and God is not just with you.  It’s also with those who are not here today.  ואת אשר איננו פה עמנו היום V’et asher einenu po imanu hayom. (Deut. 29:13)

Rashi, ibn Ezra, Ramban – all interpret this the same way.  Who are the people Moses was referring to who were not there, but who were nevertheless bound by the covenant?  Gam im hadorot ha’atidim lih’yot.  The covenant also includes the generations yet to come.

Poor Moses – by his own admission he is not suited for public speaking.  And he has to consider, when he speaks, not only those standing there, but subsequent generations.

My son went down to DC with a few friends to see the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington.

I watched it on computer, hardly the same effect, but impressive nonetheless.

I want us to rewind 50 years, to think back on the crowds that descended on Washington, DC, united by a commitment to the equal rights of all American citizens, regardless of color.

The Sound of the Circle - A Musical Offering for 5774

As the New Year approaches, enjoy this video of Israeli singer Avraham Tal singing Kol Galgal, a song which invites contemplation of the connection between our voices, the sound of the Shofar, and the continuity of life.  

"The sound of a circle rolls upwards from below, hidden chariots revolving. The sound of melodies rises and falls; it goes wandering in the world. The voice of a Shofar extends through the depths and the circle spins around. That's the sound, the sound of a circle rising and falling."