Rosh Hashana
Day
This year
when I read the story of the Binding of Isaac I am drawn to the moment when
Abraham is standing over his son Isaac bound by rope onto a wooden altar
holding the knife in his hand and is about to stab or, god forbid, decapitate his
beloved son. Still I am incredulous at the thought that any man would commit
such an act especially out of duty to God. After all these years of
interpreting this story, I still cannot fathom the depth of faith it took for
Abraham to summon up inside himself the courage to slay his son.
At the same
time what is bothering me is an optic of the videos of the two American
journalists and the one British aid worker who were, in fact, decapitated by
the crazed and cruel representative of ISIL. I can’t get out of my mind that
knife used to end their lives before the entire world. It was a despicable act beyond
words to capture the depth of revulsion that I hope most of the world felt when
they either watched the video or heard about it
I do not
want us to think that I see them as equal with the binding of Isaac story. What
I am looking at, however, is the emotion and the moral conviction to a belief
system and not necessarily a religion that inspires a person to do things
entirely contrary to the basic norms of society. Does it not make us question whether
human beings are basically good at heart? Does it also not cause us to think
about the dangers of religion and validate what atheists are saying, namely
that religion is the cause of more suffering than any other form of belief?
The High
Holy Days are all about questioning humankind’s merit. Are human beings in
general programmed to fail morally and spiritually? Are we worth God’s time and
anguish when we think about what we do to ourselves, to others and to this
world? The Psalmist said, “What is man that you are mindful of him and the son
of man that you take note of him.” Yet no matter what we do we find out that there
are times when humans are capable of unspeakable acts of cruelty, as there are
others who demonstrate saintly behavior.
Main Points:
Judaism teaches us even though God may have had doubts and faced as much
pressure to create as to not create humankind, God went with his gut intuition
to create us anyway. Despite our being structured to fail morally and
spiritually, God saw that the potential for good outweighed our inclination to
do wrong. Second, the success of terrorism does not teach that God gave up on
man, rather, it was humankind who gave up on themselves. Finally, God created
repentance to give us all a second chance to make a positive difference in the
world today. My experience has taught me that people can change for the better.
Most terrorists, however, will not change for the better and hardened criminals
are the same. Yet, there are moments when someone sees the light and makes a
turn for the better. Too often I hear people always blaming others for their
problems and rarely looking into themselves. This is the tension for practicing
Judaism and living life. We need God and the strength to have a second chance
to make a positive difference in the world. The frustration is that most
people, let alone terrorists or hardened criminals) do not want to do it.
Yes in
Judaism there are stories which make it clear that at the dawn of creation the
jury was out about whether or not human beings should be created. The sages of
Judaism knew full well that human beings were a mixed blessing back then as they are today. In fact
in the Midrash one sage Rabbi Simon told
a story that just as God was about
to create the first human being, the ministering angels on high were completely
divided; some were supportive and others totally opposed to God creating human
beings.
One of the
angels called Love said, “Let him be created, because he will perform deeds of
loving kindness.”
Truth said,
“Let him not be created, because he will be full of lies.”
Righteousness
said, “Let him be created, because he will act in righteousness.”
Peace said,
“Let him not be created, because he will be full of strife.”
What did God
do?
He took
Truth and cast her down to earth. All the ministering angels challenged God by
saying, “How could you do this? Truth is your seal. How could you put her to
shame? Let Truth ascend again from the
earth!”
At that
point Rabbi Huna the Elder of Sepphoris, added: while the ministering angels
were still arguing about it, God said to them, Stop this jabbering. Man has
already been made!” I love this story because God essentially knew just how
flawed we are and despite that ignored the best advice of his ministering
angels and pushed truth aside and created human beings.
Some would
say that human beings are simply structured to fail by our very nature which is
to do things that are nasty and sometimes downright evil. Yet God appears to be able to [overlook] that side of our character.
Was it because God saw the potential goodness of human beings and that we are
good at heart despite our darker side? God made the decision and the world has
had to live with the volatility and blessings of humankind every day since
creation.
God teaches
us through the Torah how to behave and makes promises when we follow the
commandments. Then, inexplicably bad things happen to us and we end up
protesting to God who we accuse of abandoning us. Who failed whom? We need to
be able to yell at God even when what is happening to us is not God’s fault.
There is just nowhere else to go with [our]
anger. But let’s think about it. Aren’t there times when God is unfairly
accused of having abandoned human beings when human beings, in fact, have
abandoned each other? That is why God stayed the hand of Abraham because the unspoken
message was; “ I will not abandon you and ask you to do anything contrary to my
laws that sanctify life. Yes I want to see your loyalty but faith is about testing
oneself as well as me.” God and Abraham passed the test. In real life, admittedly, it is not usually that
clear.
I believe
that there are too many people who call themselves religious and, yet, who
abandon Godlike behavior in the name of God. The fanatics and thugs who belong
to ISIL and decapitate American journalists, a British aid worker, butcher
Iraqi prisoners of war and innocent civilians to inspire fear in their new
conquest have abandoned their religion and God. We ourselves are not immune to
those charges, for some in Israel have taken the lives of innocents. The
assassination of Yitzchak Rabin by a religious Jew in Tel Aviv or the recent murder
of a Muslim teenager outside of Jerusalem are examples of people on our side who abandon
their faith and the teachings of Judaism. Thankfully they are few and far
between as compared to the heinous myriads of terrorists in the Middle East.
In our
country when we have seen extremist Christian sects who claim to be holding the
mantle of their faith burn churches and synagogues and federal office buildings
leading to the deaths of innocents then they too have abandoned their faith and
humankind too. Frankly it is these kinds of people not only of these faiths who
not only tarnish themselves and their respective religions but also lead many
to the belief that religion is not something we need anymore and reject all
faith systems altogether. This is not God abandoning humanity but it is
humanity abandoning God. This is where fundamentalism fails God and the beauty
of the religious systems that have served humanity well over the centuries.
Repentance
is a tricky thing. Saying I am sorry and meaning it can be two different things
and worlds apart from each other. For a person to really understand how they
have harmed another and demonstrate a commitment to not repeat the action which
hurt another requires great strength. Repentance is the ultimate opportunity to
give humanity a second chance and the individuals who commit transgressions an
opportunity to right the wrongs.
The Rabbis
said that Great is repentance which preceded the creation of the world. (yalkut shimoni) Obviously God knew this so
that he would create humankind despite the protests of the ministering angels.
There is a wonderful story in the Talmud about the wife Beruriah of Rabbi Meir.
In their neighborhood there were a group of thugs who were causing distress and
annoying him daily so that he started to pray for them to die. Beruriah said to
him, “why would God listen to your prayer?” Remember what the psalmist said,
“Let the sinners be consumed and let the wicked be no more.” (Psalms 104:35).
The word sinners should be read as sins. In other words “my dear husband please pray for them and beseech mercy for
them that they may turn from their ways so that that their sins will be gone
and they will not be wicked anymore.” Rabbi Meir listened to his wife and
prayed for the hooligans to stop their wicked behavior and they eventually
turned in penitence.
Will the
slayers of the Journalists in Iraq ever repent? Should we pray that they do?
When we read and watch stories on cable news of men, especially professional athletes,
beating their wives without any regard to human decency should we pray for
these men to change their ways? Will there be someone praying for the fanatics
across the world that enslave young girls in human trafficking rings that they
change their ways? Would these prayers be empty or foolhardy? Is this the price
humanity must pay for the blessing of all the saintly and wonderful people who
inhabit this planet? My view is that if we take the moral high ground then no
prayer is empty or worthless if it is a prayer for someone to repent whether it
happens or not. Yet, I confess I cannot
pray for those of such an evil character but I will pray that someone they know
who is close to them will pray for them. That I would do. Yes I will pray for
the innocent mothers and fathers, spouses and children, brothers and sisters of
these criminals that they will pray and do what they can to move their loved
ones from evil to goodness.
Conclusion
I believe
that Abraham struggled in his heart praying to God for himself and Isaac for
direction to be faithful to God even though he could not fathom this divine command
to bring Isaac up for a burnt offering. He didn’t want to do it and had faith
that somehow, even at the last minute, God would find a way out of this
situation. The story is still no less harrowing but commentaries abound about
how Abraham reeled from the thought of sacrificing his beloved son.
Obviously we
know that ISIL fanatics who would bring a knife and sacrifice Americans on
their altar of death and give homage to a theology of murder have no problem in
their conscience with performing heinous acts. This is the difference between
the context of the act when it is fueled with hatred, arrogance and delusion
versus when in Abraham’s case the potential slaughter of his son Isaac was a
torture in the heart and soul of Abraham.
We are not
terrorists or Patriarchs like Abraham or Sarah. Repentance is the basis of why
we are here on these days and it is part of the pathway of alleviating the
unsettled feelings that many of us live with year after year when the slate of
our spiritual books continues to carry deficits of the spirit from year to year.
Is it true that part of being human means that we are inherently structured to
fail? Even if the answer is yes, God gave us the ability to change and to make
ourselves better and wiser when we really examine and struggle within and then
on the outside with those around us. Only then can we [rise] up to the standards that God set when he created us and love
said, “Let him be created because he will perform deeds of loving-kindness,”
and that love will override his flaws, even with the heavy price humanity pays
for God’s choices.
No comments:
Post a Comment