The Underside Must Be Understood

Last week, Deanna and I went to see the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero. 

For those who haven’t seen it, it consists of two enormous square structures that contain the names of everyone who died during the attacks engraved in bronze – one in the place where the north tower stood, the other in the place where the south tower stood.  The memorial structures are also fountains, which empty down toward the center.

We looked specifically for the names of two people that we have some connection to through our personal and professional lives.

The attacks took place over 12 years ago.  That means that the children who are becoming bar and bat mitzvah now don’t remember them at all.

Sometimes, I fear, we have a tendency to minimize the dark underside that threatens us as human beings.  We are devastated when that dark underside comes to the surface and wreaks destruction, but then we settle into our routines.  And we grow complacent in the trappings of civilization that give us the illusion that the dark underside has somehow disappeared.

Judaism doesn’t ignore the underside.  It never did.  From our earliest Biblical tradition, violence, anger and lust (which can be dark or have dark implications) have been acknowledged.

Every Soul in Praise of God: Reflections on a Week in Jerusalem

I spent the past week in Israel with a cohort of rabbis as part of the rabbinic leadership initiative at the Hartman Institute.  We learned, prayed, joked, sang, hiked and jogged together.  I made the mistake of going jogging with a few colleagues who jog every day outdoors.  The first two miles along the old train tracks through the neighborhoods of Baka and Katamon were very pleasant and at one point I realized that we were jogging downhill.  I was happily schmoozing about life and the universe when we turned around and, as I should have intuited, the two miles seemed a lot longer .

The learning was very unique.  The Hartman scholars are chosen from a variety of areas – Bible, Rabbinics, Jewish Mysticism – and the overarching theme that was studied was תקון עולם tikkun olam, often translated as the “repair of the world," though it has a variety of meanings connected with actual creation.

A related theme emerged for me that underscored the formal learning as well as the informal experiences I had with my colleagues in different parts of Jerusalem, a theme that is crucial to my vision of my rabbinate and our community.  Without it, actually, tikkun olam in any of its variations isn't possible.

The theme emerged during a special a special Rosh Hodesh service I attended.

Fortunately, we were in Israel during Rosh Hodesh Adar I, the beginning of the Jewish month of Adar I.  For services that morning, I went with some of my colleagues to join the Women of the Wall, a group of women who for decades have been getting together at the beginning of each Jewish month at the Kotel to pray.

Gathering on the Kotel plaza before the Women of the Wall service began to usher in the month of Adar I.