By now we’ve all heard about the owner of the LA
clippers, Donald Sterling. whose unacceptable comments to his girlfriend have engendered the maximum fine the NBA imposes as well as consideration of a lifetime ban
from NBA involvement.
You may also know that he’s Jewish. And whether we think it’s fair or not,
his Jewishness has been mentioned in some accounts of what transpired.
I don’t want to spend much time this morning talking
about the unfortunate comments of an NBA team owner.
What I do want to do is reflect for a bit on how ideally
being Jewish needs to lead us to a better ethical place. Otherwise we’re missing the point.
We can’t control what every Jew says or does, but I believe
we can say that when a Jew is dismissive or pejorative toward a racial or
ethnic group or socioeconomic group, when a Jew cuts corners in business, when
a Jew behaves in ways that are base and undignified, it represents a measure of
failure for all of us.
Not because it’s important for us to look good, but because
it’s important for us to actually be
good. And while I hope that my
colleagues of other religions are delivering similar messages to their
communities, I can only start by worrying about my own.
This morning we are celebrating decades of commitment to
Temple Israel of Great Neck by long-time members, those who joined this community in the late
40’s, 50’s and 60’s.
Temple Israel since its inception, and for over half a
century under Rabbi Waxman’s leadership, has been dedicated to fostering a
community that models the highest ethical ideals. Rabbi Waxman spoke and wrote forthrightly about the
importance of examining one’s own ethical behavior and he was not afraid to
criticize when individuals, or the community, came up short.
The rituals and prayers we offer on a regular basis were
never, nor are they today, intended as a substitute for honest reflection and
self-criticism. To the contrary, a
person who says all the words in the book and continues to treat others in a
less than exemplary way has missed an important aspect of prayer, which is
self-reflection and self-refinement.
Ideally, Jewish learning and living should make us more
refined ethically and morally.
Last week, Rabbi Adelson had a session with students who
will soon be celebrating bar and bat mitzvah together with their parents.
On the walls of the room, he hung up signs with various
categories having to do with Judaism and asked people to decide which was the
most important. The categories
included community, lifelong Jewish learning, Israel and proper moral and
ethical behavior.
I was there and I participated in the exercise. People went to different parts of the
room. Some said community was most
important because it keeps us together, or learning is most important because
it gives us the insight and background to live as Jews.
I saw the merit of those arguments and others, but I
personally didn’t hesitate regarding my own opinion and walked over to the sign
that said, “proper moral and ethical behavior.”
In my opinion, what we do ritually is meant to have an
impact on us ethically. Community,
learning and prayer should lead to proper moral and ethical behavior.
It doesn’t always work out that way, but I always urge us to
consider the rabbinic statement that the mitzvoth were given לצרף בהן את הבריות l’tzaref bahen et
habriyot. To refine human beings.
We need to trace an arc from the time Abraham and Sarah were
told to be a blessing to all of the families of the earth, to the lessons the
children of Jacob learned about accountability and responsibility, to the laws
of Deuteronomy that require the community to take care of its most vulnerable
to rabbinic traditions urging that everyone regardless of economic status be
able to participate in communal rituals to the present day where Jews are at
the forefront in protesting against discrimination based on race, ethnicity,
gender and sexual orientation.
God knows, there are passages in Biblical and rabbinic
tradition that are hugely problematic from an ethical perspective and when I
read them, I remember the advice Hillel gave to the would-be convert – what is
hateful to you, don’t do to someone else.
The rest is commentary. Go
learn it. Meaning, view the
tradition through the lens of how it will impact others.
When we are at our best, Temple Israel continues to be a
place where Judaism is a source of ethical and moral refinement.
Here are a few examples of how I’ve seen this at work.
A recent adult bar/bat mitzvah class spent over two years
learning about Jewish tradition and preparing to read Torah and haftarah. The participants in the class benefit
enormously from getting to know people they hadn’t known before. In keeping with previous cohorts, they
wanted to make some contribution to Temple Israel to mark the milestone in
their lives.
They decided to form a group called the Chesed Connection,
which would focus on helping people in the larger community, much like Yad
b’Yad helps people within the Temple Israel community.
As the Chesed Connection grew, they have collaborated with
the Tikun Alliance of the North Shore to help out locally with clothing and
food relief in communities including Glen Cove and Hempstead.
That effort grew out of a group of people learning together
and celebrating a milestone together.
Last week we commemorated Yom HaShoah in this sanctuary and
in our youth house. In both
ceremonies, we emphasized that our awareness of the Shoah needs to inform how
we approach the threat of genocide in our time, whether the victims are Jews or
anyone else.
Later that week, we heard a presentation from Dr. Ari
Babaknia, an Iranian Jewish physician in LA, who has devoted himself to the
support of Holocaust education.
Specifically, he has undertaken two major projects. One is a book reflecting on the
emotional, personal aspects of the Shoah.
The other is a four-volume history of the Shoah in Farsi. His goal in creating the four-volume
history was to begin to circulate an authentic analysis of the Shoah within
Iran, hopefully to counteract the Holocaust denial of former President
Ahmadinejad and others.
Dr. Babaknia emphasized that the lessons of the Shoah need
to be applied today and to all people.
Toward the end of his presentation, I acknowledged that his efforts will
help create unity among Jews, and between Jews and the rest of humanity.
At our best, we use our history, rituals and our communal
time together to take us to a place of heightened ethical, moral awareness and
commitment.
A group of adults learning together pledge to address the
economic distress of others.
Adults and children commemorating the darkest period in our history
consider the implications for others.
Our moral and ethical responsibilities are sometimes more
routine than providing hunger relief or using the lessons of the Shoah to
combat bigotry.
How we welcome each other to this congregation, if and how
we say hello to each other, whether we make a point of offering condolences
even to people we don’t know, how we reach out to people who are visiting who
come from different backgrounds, all of that is an important part of our moral
and ethical mission.
People remember for a LONG time whether they were welcomed
and acknowledged graciously or not, if someone said something demeaning or
supportive, if they were made to feel ashamed or comfortable.
I know that because I hear from people, long after things
were said both positive and negative, that the comments and the attitude are
still remembered.
So even when we are not bringing food and clothing to the
needy or speaking out about the dangers of genocide across the globe, our
actions have consequences.
So, to be sure, some people have pointed out that Donald
Sterling is Jewish. But some have
always pointed out that Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, is also Jewish. Adam Silver who advocated that the
maximum fine by imposed on Sterling and will do his best to influence a vote
denying Sterling his ownership of the team altogether.
I don’t know anything about Silver’s Jewish background, but
I imagine that somewhere there is a trace of influence.
The Torah this morning introduces the description of the
yearly holidays with the instruction that the children of Israel not profane
God’s holy name – ולא תחללו את שם קדשי v’lo t’chalelu et shem kodshi, and that God be sanctified in
the midst of the people – ונקדשתי בתוך בני ישראל v’nikdashti b’toch b’nei yisrael.
I choose to believe that everything that follows –
descriptions of Shabbat and the holidays – should be understood in that
context. Whatever we do together,
we need to ask ourselves - does it bring God’s holiness into the world?
As I’ve written in my blog profile description, I believe that Judaism has the
power to transform our lives and our world.
I pray that in this congregation, for many years to come,
the traditions we perform together will refine us, that the ritual will infuse
the ethical.
That every gathering we enjoy, every prayer we recite, will
elevate our words and our actions so that we are a source of integrity and
inspiration to the world.
Originally delivered at Temple Israel of Great Neck on May 3, 2014 as we celebrated long-standing members at our synagogue.
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