so much suffering everywhere you look
וְלֹ֤א תוֹנוּ֙ אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־עֲמִית֔וֹ וְיָרֵ֖אתָ מֵֽאֱלֹהֶ֑-ךָ כִּ֛י אֲנִ֥י ה’ אֱלֹהֵ-כֶֽם
Do not wrong one another, but fear Eternity. (Lev. 25.17)
Do not read עמיתו but אמיתו , not “your neighbor” but “your truth”. Do not wrong your truth. – D’vash HaSadeh
Friends, this is hard. Every week brings fresh horror. This week the malignity that occupies the Federal government advanced its assault on the most vulnerable among us – literally, widows and orphans – as well as our trans family members. We watch helplessly as the equally malign far-right ministers of the Israeli government speaks of their aim to “destroy, ethnically cleanse, starve and expel the inhabitants of Gaza”, and the prime minister allows it because his political survival depends upon their support. And we, U.S. Jews caught in a particulary difficult cross-fire, find ourselves in danger not only from the hostile right, but also from the left.
Perhaps most difficult of all is the way in which competing narratives of what happened and who and what to blame assault the simple truth of it. The tragedy of the murder of two young people leaving an event hosted by an American Jewish organization at an American Jewish museum is no more or less insupportable than any other death associated with the Israel-Palestine conflict; so many innocent young Gazans and Israelis have similarly been murdered. The two who were killed by a person yelling “for Gaza” were employed by the Israel Embassy (which may have been coincidental). Nothing about it is logical: she was Jewish, he was Christian; she was American, he was Israeli; the gathering they had just attended was to focus on ways to help Gaza. The person who killed them knew nothing about them; this is the result, rather, a particularly toxic meeting of antisemism (people coming out of a Jewish museum were targeted) and leftist U.S. ignorance.
By any measure of good and evil, this is madness. This frees no one and does no good. This is what it has been for some time on all sides: indiscriminate killing. It should be no suprise that such horrors are not contained by national borders, nor by policies, nor by security apparatus. Nor should any of it be a surprise for any of us who studies Torah and takes it to heart. This week’s parashah is one more reminder of how far we are from where we need to be as human beings who are Jews (and those who love them).
Our parashah is, if anything, a refreshing reminder of the goodness we are, also, capable of as a species: the economic justice mitzvot conveyed in parashat BeHar are so essential to what it means to be a Jew that these were the first laws that a potential convert to Judaism had to know. To share what we have, to care for the dignity of those who have less, and to remember to be humble if we are in the privileged position of having enough to share; these are the characteristics that are meant to mark the practice of Jewish economic justice.
It’s terribly painful to be reminded of how far we are from where we should be. But it’s the truth, and we are the people who understands the difficult necessity of facing truth, if we would grow toward integrity. Simply: it’s not going to be pretty – but there will be moments of great beauty. The Jewish path toward that integrity, that sense of wholeness that will hold us even when all around us is chaos, is summed up in Torah study:
1. Don’t try this alone We study Torah, looking for light and inspiration and some hint of truth, in community. We are incapable of understanding it without being in conversation with the past, present, and future of our people.
2. There are no easy answers Torah study is not about finding an answer that can be applied, like a band-aid, to every problem we’re ever going to have. It’s about learning an approach and how to apply it in every situation.
3. It will not make it “all right” but it will make it bearable.
4. This takes time The quest to understand one’s life and to find meaning in it is a life-long effort. But don’t worry, you’ll develop rich friendships along the way.
Let go of the idea of the individual self who can go it alone. Not only is it egocentric, it’s also impossible to carry the weight of the world in one’s heart. Bring it all with you, into the midst of your community, and we’ll face it together, in love and support, no matter what happens next, as long as we live.
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 