As we wrapped up our time at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Cincinnati Campus in 1995, Laura and I and all our classmates received coaching on the kinds of questions we should expect to hear during the interview process for prospective rabbinic positions.
What is your favorite Torah portion and why?
Hmmm…
Part of me wanted to respond… it’s like children… how can you choose your favorite? …but knowing that it was really meant to be an opening for us to teach some Torah, I was going to need to hone in on a particular passage.
It didn’t take too long for me to settle on Nitzavim, toward the end of Deuteronomy and also the one from which we take excerpts for our Yom Kippur morning reading.
אַתֶּ֨ם נִצָּבִ֤ים הַיּוֹם֙ כֻּלְּכֶ֔ם לִפְנֵ֖י יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֑ם
You stand this day, all of you, before Adonai your God…
One of the important clues in traditional Torah interpretation is to observe the effect of a seemingly unnecessary word. “You are standing here today, all of you…”
The ‘You’ at the beginning of the sentence is plural, ‘Y’all.’ Everyone is being addressed, so the added ‘all of you’ does not seem necessary…
but in societies in which certain people, certain classes of people are left out as a given, we might need to confirm… ‘really?! all of us?’
כֻּלְּכֶ֔ם … ’Yes, all of you.’
You are standing here today, all of you before God, tribal heads, elders and officers, all the men of Israel… small children, women, foreigners in your midst, wood choppers and water drawers.
Nitzavim remembers the normally forgotten and purposefully spells them out.
Everyone is here to receive Torah.
Everyone is worthy.
Everyone has a voice.
Everyone deserves to be heard.
All of you
This year in the sermonic cycle, I’ve been exploring how we lift up our voices. We begin with a recognition that we need to lift up our voice. Sh’ma koleinu… hear our voice! Like the boy in Harry Chapin’s song, we cannot sit silent or we will be mired in endless fields of red flowers all the same size, all the same shape.
Not only is it important to realize that we must speak out, we must also identify our particular way of speaking out whether it’s literally through our voice or whether it’s through other talents such as visual arts, music, educating, organizing…
Another important step is to identify the purpose of speaking out.
In the world of community organizing that I’ve seemed to find myself involved in, I’ve found that those of us with privilege, those of us who enjoy relatively comfortable lives, have the opportunity to speak for those whose voices don’t often enough get to be heard, to use our privilege to bring to the table those who don’t normally get the opportunity and to help them lift up their own voices.
There’s a new verb… to be ‘othered’
Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines ‘othered’ and ‘othering’ as:
“to treat or consider (a person or a group of people) as alien to oneself or one’s group (because of different racial, sexual, or cultural characteristics)
To be made into the other
‘Othered’
The word is new but the action is not
It’s not new for Jews
It’s happened to us for centuries
It’s not new for people of color
It’s not new for the poor
It’s not new for women
Or those too young to vote
Even with privilege, there are times when we need to lift our voice for our own needs. As I spoke about on Rosh Hashanah morning, those of us who so value the need for the existence of the modern State of Israel are often forced into speaking up for it.
Just a reminder…
Anti-semitism is rampant today.
Let’s turn back to that passage in Nitzavim for a moment…
וְגֵ֣רְךָ֔ אֲשֶׁ֖ר בְּקֶ֣רֶב מַחֲנֶ֑יךָ
‘The foreigner in the midst of your camp’
‘The other’
Anti-semitism makes us into the other.
And as ‘others,’ we benefit from standing together as a community and together with the other ‘others.’
There are so many voices of hate out there right now yet everywhere I look I see voices of love and community. We just have to lift those voices up above the tumult.
I made a big decision this past year. For years, I’ve wanted to participate in the Fresno Rainbow Pride Parade. The LGBTQ community continues to face horrible discrimination throughout the world… even in America… even in California.
Targeted for hate crimes and violence. Continually made into the ‘other.’
I am proud of Reform Judaism’s history at the forefront of LGBTQ inclusion. I am proud that this congregation has absolutely supported this value. I am saddened that out of hundreds of churches in Fresno, we were one of maybe half a dozen religious organizations marching in Fresno’s Rainbow Pride Parade. Less than one percent of Fresno’s religious organizations were willing to stand up and say you are welcome in our community.
Flowers are not only red… there are so many colors in the rainbow…
Fresno’s Pride Parade is relatively small but no less important than its much larger cousins throughout the country. Walking down Olive Ave. with our banner emblazoned with Rainbow Israeli flags, our name, Temple Beth Israel and our tag line: Creating Pathways to Jewish Living in the Central Valley, we were making a clear statement… these pathways are open to you who have too often been told you are not welcome.
Several people along the route thanked us for being there. Thanked us for affirming their existence.
I’ve heard the stories here. I’ve heard the stories everywhere I’ve been of the communities and clubs that were not open to Jews, country clubs, housing developments. When I got involved in AZA, part of the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, I learned about the high school fraternities of the first half of the twentieth century. Jews weren’t allowed in those clubs and AZA and BBG were our answer.
Today in Fresno, the Jewish community generally feels welcome so it is our turn to welcome those who still feel excluded.
When I see the rainbow flags, I see the boy who wished to paint in all the colors of the rainbow.
When I see the rainbow flags, I see the ethnic and religious diversity that should be celebrated.
אַתֶּ֨ם נִצָּבִ֤ים הַיּוֹם֙ כֻּלְּכֶ֔ם
You are standing here today, all of you…
Finding our voices and lifting them up
אַתֶּ֨ם נִצָּבִ֤ים הַיּוֹם֙
You are standing here today
And marching with us in June
אַתֶּ֨ם נִצָּבִ֤ים הַיּוֹם֙
You are standing here today
And speaking out… today and everyday
For voices not often heard
For the children painting in all the colors of the rainbow…
For our brothers and sisters in Israel, striving to live in peace…
For the women, the children, the choppers of wood and the drawers of water
For the strangers in our midst
For all those who have been made to feel ‘other’
We are standing here today…
…working to live in peaceful coexistence…
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