We choose whether or not to take an optimistic view of the world.
I had a professor in college who was lecturing about the novel Ulysses by James Joyce. He said, you can read the novel as highly optimistic and affirming - the world is making progress. Or you can read it as pessimistic and cynical. The world continues to repeat its mistakes and might even be getting worse.
On the holiday of Shavuot we celebrate God’s revelation to our people. A classic view is that it happened on Mt. Sinai at a specific time - there was thunder and lighting, it was very very frightening, and then the revelation was basically complete.
One of the implications of this view is that the further we get from Sinai, the more generations elapse, the less insight we have into what God wants. This concept is sometimes expressed in the phrase מיעוט הדורות miyut hadorot - the diminishment of the generations.
I find this view depressingly pessimistic. The notion that as time goes on we have less and less insight, we are further away from understanding the truth. To paraphrase Paul Simon, we are dumber than we once were and smarter than we’ll be.
This is not the only view of God's revelation to us, however. There is also a view which says that God reveals the divine will to us קמעא קמעא kim’ah, kim’ah - a little bit at a time. The revelation didn’t all occur at once, it occurs over time, like a cosmic time-release capsule.
I find this view considerably more affirming, more optimistic. It suggests that the world is improving, that there is progress being made.
I’ve spoken to number of people about what is happening in Israel lately and depending on who I talk to, it leans optimistic or pessimistic in terms of what people emphasize and what overall narratives they proffer.
Optimistic - with the US moving of its embassy, Israel’s great ally formally recognized Jerusalem as its capital with the moving of the embassy and that will likely lead to more recognition - how wonderful. Pessimistic - look at who spoke at the ceremony - two evangelical preachers who have made derogatory comments about Jews and other faiths. How embarrassing and possibly damaging to Israel’s ultimately interests. Optimistic - Israel is successfully defending her borders from invasion by Palestinians. Pessimistic - Israel killed over 50 people and wounded thousands more, possibly using more violence than necessary.
I said at the time, and I still believe, that moving the embassy corrects an historic injustice. No other country I’m aware of declares its capital to be one place and the rest of the world says, no thanks, we’ll put our embassies somewhere else.
Yet I personally believe, and in this I am supported by statements from the ADL, the Jewish Theological Seminary and several experts from the Israel Policy Forum, that this is not a substitute for the need for negotiations toward two states, the only way to ensure that Israel will remain a Jewish state and a democracy.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the situation at Israel’s border with Gaza has not been a protest a la Martin Luther King, that the intentions of many of the Gazans involved are to infiltrate and inflict violence. Israel’s legitimate defense of her borders prevented an infiltration that would likely have led to considerably more deaths. At the same time, the military response does not substitute for the overarching need for conversation and negotiation.
The author Yossi Klein Halevi, whom I have quoted numerous times, has written that he is not sanguine about the prospect of a two-state agreement being achieved any time soon, in part because of the failure of many Palestinians to recognize Israel’s legitimacy altogether. However, he recently wrote about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general that the key is “beginning a new conversation on peace between Palestinians and Israelis—not only about the technical details of an agreement, but about the intangible issues of legitimacy and rootedness of two indigenous peoples fated to share the same tortured land.” ("The Real Dispute Driving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," Atlantic, May 13, 2018)
I harbor optimism about Israel in large measure because there are people like Yossi Klein Halevi and Donniel Hartman in leadership roles, along with Israeli Jewish and Arab parents who send their children to the Open Schools that educate Jewish and Arab children together, who are prepared to recognize two narratives, two peoples, and ultimately two states.
I see their efforts as a manifestation of God’s revelation, kim’ah kim’ah, a little bit at a time. God who transcends religion and ethnicity and calls upon us to weave multiple narratives together.
I want to reflect on a second issue that is ongoing and complex, and that’s the issue of gender and how it plays out in the Jewish community. You may recall that several years ago, we hosted a panel featuring me and two of my colleagues, Rabbi David Ingber and Rabba Sara Hurwitz.
Rabba Hurwitz is the Dean of Yeshivat Maharat, an orthodox institution that trains and ordains women to serve the Orthodox community.
The Orthodox Union has affirmed its opposition to ordaining women to serve in Orthodox synagogues in a clergy capacity.
Nevertheless, Yeshiva Maharat continues to ordain women. This past week, a woman with whom I went to college was ordained, along with a woman that was also part of my Hartman cohort. The leadership of both of these people will be an unqualified gift to the Jewish community.
The resistance in many parts of the Jewish community to female rabbinic leadership and to other forms of participation on the part of women gives me pause, and saddens me, and sometimes makes me feel pessimistic.
And yet. I am heartened that Yeshiva Maharat continues to ordain women. And I am heartened that our congregation, unabashedly, gives opportunity for voices across the gender spectrum to lead us in prayer. All of this gives me cause for optimism.
I see this as another manifestation of God’s revelation - kim’ah, kim’ah - a little bit at a time. God who transcends gender and calls upon us to weave multiple voices together.
Finally I want to reflect on the personal. It is understandable that we may sometimes regard our lives as downward trajectories, descending spirals characterized by mounting losses and disappointments. From time to time I personally reflect on the tangible and intangible losses I have felt and continue to feel in my adult life.
But I want to share with you an experience that I had which encouraged me to push back against that perspective. It was not an epic experience. It was pretty mundane.
When I was a child, my family had a lilac bush in the backyard. It was a very nice, healthy bush except that it didn’t actually produce flowers. I was disappointed in this as a child and expressed that to my parents.
It so happens we have a lilac bush in the front of our house on Polo Road. We moved into the house in December and I wasn’t sure if it would produce flowers. Turns out, it produced, and continues to produce, very nice flowers. Years ago, the first time I viewed the flowers, I decided to look at it symbolically - why not? We can’t necessarily control the text, though we tend to have some control over the interpretation...
Last week I was looking at the flowers, shortly after my father’s yahrtzeit, and since I talk to him from time to time, I decided to share with him the following:
That I am grateful for the the secure, loving childhood that he helped to give me AND that I am grateful for the many things that have blossomed since my childhood.
To regard political life and societal norms through the lens of potential progress - despite setbacks and downright tragedies that can be enormous - is a choice. To look at the arc of our own lives overall as representing progress - despite losses and disappointments - is a choice.
I choose to see progress - sometimes realized, sometimes yet to be realized - and in so doing, I am choosing to align myself with a Jewish approach that understands that God’s revelation to us continues every day. Every day we understand more. Every day we see more. Every day we can choose to make this ongoing revelation an impetus toward progress for us and others.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, renown rabbinic leader and Kabbalist, believed that all living things were innately charged toward progress. Everything is rising, he wrote. On this festival of Shavuot, when we contemplate Torah revealed and not yet revealed, I conclude with words from a poem he created as a charge to humanity:
בן אדם עלה למעלה עלה Ben adam. Alei lema’alah alei. ”Rise up, human being, rise up.../You have wings of mighty eagles/ Don't deny them, lest they deny you/Seek your wings and your will instantly find them.”
To Israelis and Palestinians who deserve to live peacefully. To women and men who deserve to have their voices fully heard. To each one of us, as old blossoms fall away and new ones replace them.
Alei lema’alah alei. Rise up. Rise up.
Originally shared with the Temple Israel of Great Neck community on Shavuot 5778
I had a professor in college who was lecturing about the novel Ulysses by James Joyce. He said, you can read the novel as highly optimistic and affirming - the world is making progress. Or you can read it as pessimistic and cynical. The world continues to repeat its mistakes and might even be getting worse.
On the holiday of Shavuot we celebrate God’s revelation to our people. A classic view is that it happened on Mt. Sinai at a specific time - there was thunder and lighting, it was very very frightening, and then the revelation was basically complete.
One of the implications of this view is that the further we get from Sinai, the more generations elapse, the less insight we have into what God wants. This concept is sometimes expressed in the phrase מיעוט הדורות miyut hadorot - the diminishment of the generations.
I find this view depressingly pessimistic. The notion that as time goes on we have less and less insight, we are further away from understanding the truth. To paraphrase Paul Simon, we are dumber than we once were and smarter than we’ll be.
This is not the only view of God's revelation to us, however. There is also a view which says that God reveals the divine will to us קמעא קמעא kim’ah, kim’ah - a little bit at a time. The revelation didn’t all occur at once, it occurs over time, like a cosmic time-release capsule.
I find this view considerably more affirming, more optimistic. It suggests that the world is improving, that there is progress being made.
I’ve spoken to number of people about what is happening in Israel lately and depending on who I talk to, it leans optimistic or pessimistic in terms of what people emphasize and what overall narratives they proffer.
Optimistic - with the US moving of its embassy, Israel’s great ally formally recognized Jerusalem as its capital with the moving of the embassy and that will likely lead to more recognition - how wonderful. Pessimistic - look at who spoke at the ceremony - two evangelical preachers who have made derogatory comments about Jews and other faiths. How embarrassing and possibly damaging to Israel’s ultimately interests. Optimistic - Israel is successfully defending her borders from invasion by Palestinians. Pessimistic - Israel killed over 50 people and wounded thousands more, possibly using more violence than necessary.
I said at the time, and I still believe, that moving the embassy corrects an historic injustice. No other country I’m aware of declares its capital to be one place and the rest of the world says, no thanks, we’ll put our embassies somewhere else.
Yet I personally believe, and in this I am supported by statements from the ADL, the Jewish Theological Seminary and several experts from the Israel Policy Forum, that this is not a substitute for the need for negotiations toward two states, the only way to ensure that Israel will remain a Jewish state and a democracy.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the situation at Israel’s border with Gaza has not been a protest a la Martin Luther King, that the intentions of many of the Gazans involved are to infiltrate and inflict violence. Israel’s legitimate defense of her borders prevented an infiltration that would likely have led to considerably more deaths. At the same time, the military response does not substitute for the overarching need for conversation and negotiation.
The author Yossi Klein Halevi, whom I have quoted numerous times, has written that he is not sanguine about the prospect of a two-state agreement being achieved any time soon, in part because of the failure of many Palestinians to recognize Israel’s legitimacy altogether. However, he recently wrote about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general that the key is “beginning a new conversation on peace between Palestinians and Israelis—not only about the technical details of an agreement, but about the intangible issues of legitimacy and rootedness of two indigenous peoples fated to share the same tortured land.” ("The Real Dispute Driving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," Atlantic, May 13, 2018)
I harbor optimism about Israel in large measure because there are people like Yossi Klein Halevi and Donniel Hartman in leadership roles, along with Israeli Jewish and Arab parents who send their children to the Open Schools that educate Jewish and Arab children together, who are prepared to recognize two narratives, two peoples, and ultimately two states.
I see their efforts as a manifestation of God’s revelation, kim’ah kim’ah, a little bit at a time. God who transcends religion and ethnicity and calls upon us to weave multiple narratives together.
I want to reflect on a second issue that is ongoing and complex, and that’s the issue of gender and how it plays out in the Jewish community. You may recall that several years ago, we hosted a panel featuring me and two of my colleagues, Rabbi David Ingber and Rabba Sara Hurwitz.
Rabba Hurwitz is the Dean of Yeshivat Maharat, an orthodox institution that trains and ordains women to serve the Orthodox community.
The Orthodox Union has affirmed its opposition to ordaining women to serve in Orthodox synagogues in a clergy capacity.
Nevertheless, Yeshiva Maharat continues to ordain women. This past week, a woman with whom I went to college was ordained, along with a woman that was also part of my Hartman cohort. The leadership of both of these people will be an unqualified gift to the Jewish community.
The resistance in many parts of the Jewish community to female rabbinic leadership and to other forms of participation on the part of women gives me pause, and saddens me, and sometimes makes me feel pessimistic.
And yet. I am heartened that Yeshiva Maharat continues to ordain women. And I am heartened that our congregation, unabashedly, gives opportunity for voices across the gender spectrum to lead us in prayer. All of this gives me cause for optimism.
I see this as another manifestation of God’s revelation - kim’ah, kim’ah - a little bit at a time. God who transcends gender and calls upon us to weave multiple voices together.
Finally I want to reflect on the personal. It is understandable that we may sometimes regard our lives as downward trajectories, descending spirals characterized by mounting losses and disappointments. From time to time I personally reflect on the tangible and intangible losses I have felt and continue to feel in my adult life.
But I want to share with you an experience that I had which encouraged me to push back against that perspective. It was not an epic experience. It was pretty mundane.
When I was a child, my family had a lilac bush in the backyard. It was a very nice, healthy bush except that it didn’t actually produce flowers. I was disappointed in this as a child and expressed that to my parents.
It so happens we have a lilac bush in the front of our house on Polo Road. We moved into the house in December and I wasn’t sure if it would produce flowers. Turns out, it produced, and continues to produce, very nice flowers. Years ago, the first time I viewed the flowers, I decided to look at it symbolically - why not? We can’t necessarily control the text, though we tend to have some control over the interpretation...
Last week I was looking at the flowers, shortly after my father’s yahrtzeit, and since I talk to him from time to time, I decided to share with him the following:
That I am grateful for the the secure, loving childhood that he helped to give me AND that I am grateful for the many things that have blossomed since my childhood.
To regard political life and societal norms through the lens of potential progress - despite setbacks and downright tragedies that can be enormous - is a choice. To look at the arc of our own lives overall as representing progress - despite losses and disappointments - is a choice.
I choose to see progress - sometimes realized, sometimes yet to be realized - and in so doing, I am choosing to align myself with a Jewish approach that understands that God’s revelation to us continues every day. Every day we understand more. Every day we see more. Every day we can choose to make this ongoing revelation an impetus toward progress for us and others.
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, renown rabbinic leader and Kabbalist, believed that all living things were innately charged toward progress. Everything is rising, he wrote. On this festival of Shavuot, when we contemplate Torah revealed and not yet revealed, I conclude with words from a poem he created as a charge to humanity:
בן אדם עלה למעלה עלה Ben adam. Alei lema’alah alei. ”Rise up, human being, rise up.../You have wings of mighty eagles/ Don't deny them, lest they deny you/Seek your wings and your will instantly find them.”
To Israelis and Palestinians who deserve to live peacefully. To women and men who deserve to have their voices fully heard. To each one of us, as old blossoms fall away and new ones replace them.
Alei lema’alah alei. Rise up. Rise up.
Originally shared with the Temple Israel of Great Neck community on Shavuot 5778
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