Thankfulness this Thanksgiving

Nov. 25, 2015

It's time for giving thanks.
The first intermediate weekday blessing of the Tefilah (Amidah) is Atah honen l'adam da'at ... "You give humans understanding." God gave us the ability to discern. In Genesis we find the ability to distinguish between good and evil. Myriad places in Jewish law require distinctions: between light and darkness, between holy and profane, between kosher and non-kosher, between friends and non-friends. 
I give thanks this Thanksgiving for the ability to discern. Many decisions in life require discernment between what we consider good and evil. We require clear standards and the ability to stand up for our values. That requires both courage and open mindedness, because sometimes we may be wrong. Sometimes it requires the courage to do what we consider right when the rest of the world judges it differently, and hopefully eventually we will be found to be correct. Sometimes it requires the ability to discern that we, I, have made an error, and to correct that error despite having been as clear as possible at the time that I was correct in my, our, assessment.
To discern is perhaps the greatest ability given to us, and the most difficult. It requires clear distinctions, and the determination to decide when clarity is not absolute but movement is necessary regardless.
This year I thank God that among all the animals, we have been challenged to discern and choose a path for ourselves, and ultimately to affect the world with our choices. It's an awesome responsibility, and hopefully one made with God in mind at every turn, because then the discernment is l'shem shamayim, for the sake of heaven. Ken y'hi ratzon.

Remembering Paris
November 15, 2015

The sermon I would have given at an interfaith service remembering Paris:

Psalm 34:11-14

Come O children, listen to me;

I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

What man is there who desires life

and loves many days, that he may see good?

Keep your tongue from evil

and your lips from speaking deceit.

Turn away from evil and do good;

seek peace and pursue it.

In the Jewish community we sing these words. The melody uplifts, spiritually inspiring. But who lives this way?

Many Americans say they "fear the Lord." I am not certain precisely their meaning. For some recently it's been about gay and lesbian rights. For some it's been about Christmas. For some it's about welcoming the stranger and for others it's been about labeling the stranger as "other," and making sure they don't come to live next door.

The psalm links "fear of the Lord," with doing "good." Both laudable goals for the public. and yet, the psalmist does not start with the public. The psalmist starts inside, with the self.

"Keep your tongue from eil

and your lips from speaking deceit.

Turn away from evil and do good;

seek peace and pursue it."

These words, we have seen in the last few days, require courage. They require the kind of courage that enables men and women to risk their lives for the right thing. It's the kind of courage that enables soldiers to rush the beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944. It's the kind of courage that enables a soldier to throw him/herself on a hand grenade and to save his/her buddies. It's the kind of courage that enables a teacher to approach a student who holds a handgun and risk his life to save that student's life and talking to him about his fears.

"Keep your tongue from evil." The Torah teaches taht all human beings are created in a single image, and that is the image of God. Despite appearances, the messiah may be sitting next to you, waiting for a kindly word as her/his cur to announce God's plan of redemption. In other words: accepting every person as God's image requires the courage to live among the poor and the rich, among every color, among the sick and the well, among the young and the old, among Christians and Jews and Muslims and Sikhs and Hindus and Buddhists and Jains and atheists and Satanists and and and ... and to listen equally to all. Never to blaspheme by speaking ill of any person, but to treat each and every image of God as equals who have rights bestowed by God.

Keeping your tongue from evil requires enormous introspection and self-understanding, because prejudices run deep. Keeping your tongue from evil demands dialogue with your neighbor so that you do not fear his/her differences. Keeping your tongue from evil demands justice where you witness injustice, regardless of the immediate price yo may pay, for we never know the pernicious consequences of our silence.

"Keep your lips from deceit." The poetic parallel to keeping you tongues from evil, but with an added admonition: Not only may you not speak falsely; but you may not deceive with half-truths. Do not claim you are in favor of immigration and proclaim this is not the time; too dangerous. Do not proclaim racial equality is a goal but not right now. Those words unhook you form the inconvenient immediate consequences of the truths you proclaim. They make truth claims into falsehoods. The only time is now. You shall neither lie nor deceive with partial truths that hide your fears and make you posture courage.

Turn from evil and do good/Seek peace and pursue it. Two parts of a poetic parallel: equivalent meanings. To turn from evil and do good must mean to seek peace in every moment, not only to seek but to pursue actively. It's inconvenient to welcome new immigrants, to get to know them, to provide jobs and acclimate them to their new surroundings; but you must "Seek peace and pursue it." The problem in France is not immigrants. The problems is that they were never accepted as French and integrated. It's inconvenient to settle land disputes and accommodate the claims of the "other." But God says, "Seek peace and pursue it," or accept the consequences. You say, "I believe that this is my land, and that you can have rights, but it's my land." And God contradicts, "Seek peace and pursue it."

Thanksgiving is 2 weeks away; Hanukkah 3; Christmas is a month after that; Kwanza follows immediately. We will discuss peace, and retire to our land allotments, our portions of the world; our homes, our domiciles; and we will live in comfort. The prophet says, "Let every man live under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make him afraid." But we are afraid. We are afraid someone will take away our vine and fig tree. W are afraid someone will take away our family and our happiness. We are afraid we will lose what we have worked so hard to build. But we don't ask is someone took away the vine and fig tree, or the family, of the "other."

Because the Psalmist says, "If you desire life, you will pursue peace, without deceit," peace requires honest reflection, how we did not seek peace and pursue, and the consequences of our actions.

We are suffering the results of exclusion, of a world of haves and have nots, where we seek to protect what we have, and to determine what you can have of the remainder. Whether it's Syrian refugees, or Palestinians and Israelis, or Americans: blacks and whites and Native Americans. We want ours, and will share what's left with you, maybe.

Keep your tongues from evil, and your lips from deceitful speech.

Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.

The Psalmist knew it takes every ounce of courage we can muster, becasue it's the battle God set us up to fight, just to see how we'd do.

How are yo doing? What makes you afraid? And will you share, and invite the "other" in, not only seek peace, but pursue it without deceit. Then you will fear the Lord and the Lord alone.

Greed and A Reason to Live
11/14/15

A member of our shabbat morning class, who lost dozens of family in the Holocaust, offered a wise assessment this morning: other nations, the French particularly, are dealing with what it means to be hunted for no reason, to be targets for murder simply because they exist. We Jews have always lived with that. 
Thank you, Estelle.
It's a cogent thought.
Many of us have added random death to our list of anxieties. This is very personal, as we see people murdered without reason not only in poorer areas of the country as once seemed the case, but in middle class and wealthier neighborhoods as well. We feel increasingly vulnerable and uncomprehending: how could this be happening?
In 2002 at the height of Israel's Second Intifada I wrote to a friend in Jerusalem about whether I should attend a convention in Jerusalem. Would I be safe? He wrote back, "Mark, we're only asking you to do what we ask of my 6 year old everyday."
In other words, 2 things: some cultures find a means to acclimate to the higher risk of non-sensical death; and second, some cultures develop a higher reason for living as they do, and therefore feel they live with the risk to serve a higher purpose.
Rabbi Daniel Gordis writes about this regularly, the significance he feels by living in the Jewish State. Just living there validates his existence, and he is willing to bear the risk, both for himself and his children.
But we, in our hedonistic culture, often lack a higher purpose to our existence. This is the failure of American culture to explain to us why we should protect human freedom, invest in democracy (vote for instance), risk our lives for our neighbors, be willing to sacrifice for the greater good, rely upon one another, educate our neighbors' children, care about the "other;" and so much else.
At the onset of our current culture of greed in the early 1980s I attempted to discuss the problem of greed, and what it would do to us and our culture. I could not figure it out. Now we see it clearly: GREED UNDERMINES ALL OTHER VALUES. So many among us have sacrificed our devotion to family, to community, to mutual responsibility, and even to understanding why we are alive on the altar of greed. It's the almighty dollar that has robbed us of a higher sense of purpose in our lives.
And so, now that our lives are threatened, we want to know how to save ourselves, and those we care about. And for the time being we even care about the martyrs in France. But the internal anxiety remains: how do I heal from the threat to my life if I don't even know why I must endure this or what my responsibilities are? I want someone to figure it out for me, someone to make it go away.
In World War II my father went off to war, with all of the men of his generation. They knew why they served: to defeat tyranny, defend democracy and to have a purpose to living. They developed the personality trait of courage, and lived that way for the rest of their lives. They sacrificed for country and the people they loved. 
Perhaps, as we Westerners all begin to share this sense of being the hunted for no reason, that we are somehow all in this together for the first time since World War II, we too will find the courage to understand that we live to promote values more important than life itself, and that inevitably some will die preserving those values: Democracy, freedom to believe in God, and accountability to our neighbors on whom we rely for our existence. 
May there be a new burst of freedom from these threats, in which we build on the common value of interdependence for all who struggle to live as free men and women, and are willing to die to pass that freedom to the next generation. May we reject the greed that has overtaken our goals and destroyed our communal values. We see now that we live for higher qualities that give a purpose to living each day, and without those life itself may not be worth living.

France and Terror
11/13/15

I have just heard that the catastrophe in Paris involved 8 assailants. I feel certain it will be followed by some clamoring to take vengeance on Muslims. Please think before reacting. Surely there is a terrorist cell behind the planning, and an organization like ISIS behind that. But this is not Islam. This is not Muslims, no matter who takes credit eventually. This is a sick and distorted political movement attempting to control the world without regard for human life. It is people addicted to the control that comes from causing terror in others. Please, please -- after 9/11 the U.S. jumped to conclusions with horrifying consequences, perhaps even this very terror attack 14 years later. Refrain from knee-jerk judgments that condemn a class of people and ignore the real criminals who planned and executed these murders. We are at war not with a religion, but with a small group of ideologically driven sociopaths who seek, like Hitler and Stalin, to control the world. Let us not take innocent lives and increase the carnage and suffering, driving others to seek even more revenge. Let us strive for peace, and punish the the real evil behind this terror, not some imagined enemy that punishes the innocent with the guilty.

Prejudice, MU, and the Moral Challenge
November 12, 2015
Mark H. Levin

I am watching prejudice explode, around the examinations of racism and anti-semitism at various universities, most notably MU.
The moral reaction to a claim of prejudice is for the individual being accused to examine the principles involved so that s/he understands what prejudice is and how it operates. And then the individual should examine his/her own behavior with regard to those principles, but also with regard to his/her sociological position, his/her psychological issues and predilections, and the anthropology of the culture in which the individual lives. So, for instance, I would have to say of myself:
1)Psychologically I was raised in a neighborhood and family that did not expose me to blacks except as lower class laborers, and although my family never spoke prejudicially, I received an sense of the inherent underclass status of blacks. This is something I have to fight against daily in order to treat everyone as equals and an image of God.
2) Sociologically I grew up in a neighborhood that emphasized the in-groupness of the Jewish community, with a sense that other communities were the "other." This involved both fear of those communities for possible anti-semitism, and a concomitant sense of superiority that went along with the fear, shortly after the Holocaust.
3)Anthropologically I grew up in a border state, Maryland, in which blacks were not entirely free even in the 1950s and 1960s. Our schools were segregated by neighborhoods and this had been the way the entire region was founded. Blacks were to be viewed with suspicion and awkwardness, and that's the way they viewed us as well.

Such an analysis, as instantaneous as this one has been, would have to be applied to my present situation as well, to understand my reaction to charges of prejudice, were they leveled against me.

In other words: I would have to examine the charges from various perspectives to determine if they were justified from my background, let alone the facts on the ground. Was it likely that I would be acting prejudicially without even intending to? What were the victims seeing or sensing in my actions that brought up the charges? That would be my concern.

Then an analysis of the facts on the ground would have to be pursued. What actually had occurred?

This is not what I am hearing from some people, or seeing on FB. Instead, I see people making charges of fraud against the victims who had to work for approximately 18 months to get anyone at the university to pay attention to their pleas, and the same with the press. They don't want to deal with the realities, and make that clear by striking out. It took stopping the car of the President of the University, and then he did not get out nor contact those who were forced to surround his car in order to get his attention, after many months of trying less challenging and more channeled means. It took feeling threatened both psychologically and physically in their own environment.
Rather than an examination, I see and hear people challenging the methods of the end game. Did he really fast the 8 days? Is it moral to force a man out of his job? Did the football coach do his job correctly when he sided with his players?

All of these are means of defending and furthering racism: blame the victim, and if that fails, challenge the methods of confrontation as immoral.
We saw this constantly in the sixties with Malcolm X and with Martin Luther King, Jr. People who don't want to actually deal with the claims of prejudice will find other means to deflect the real issue, until society turns to violence.

The non-violence of this past week is astounding, given the history of social strife in the U.S. And the level of intolerance, fraudulent challenges and in-group self-promoting is sickening. I lived through the sixties and witnessed the results. I thought we were done with this. Remember Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Bobby Kennedy were all assassinated over these issues.

I pray that both sides keep their eyes on the prize: a society in which inherent human prejudice is examined and dealt with consistently and with a vision of justice and compassion. Then "justice shall roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream."

On the Glory of Sport
11 2 15

There's a certain elegance to sport. It demonstrates physical artistry under the most trying somatic challenges: difficult plays like diving outfield catches and throws from third base, throwing to the right while charging to the left, sustaining great pain and moving through it while hardly missing a step, rising to the pressure of competition. This artistry appeals to the eye, and also to our moral sensibilities. We rejoice at harmony, the synchrony of men who actually like and esteem one another moving independently and yet coordinated as if they were a machine when our minds know they are each making decisions separately, yet acting in unison.

Bad sportsmanship destroys all of this, and that's the reason we despise it so. True heroism is so very rare. We constantly witness public figures we'd love to esteem as idols of our desire for perfection who fall under the pressures of winning as the ultimate goal. When we witness truly strong, seemingly perfect physical specimens working for the common good without thought of self, when any one of them could attempt to stand out and gain recognition above the crowd, we feel the fulfillment of striving for mutual benefit at what feels like the highest level. We experience a kind of redemption in the crescendo to self-negating teamwork where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The Royals achieved the wondrous not just for their athletic calibre; even more important, they have given us the gift of again believing that goodness might prevail where selfishness could be such a seduction. God bless them for restoring our faith in the possibility of not just physical, but symbolic moral perfection as well.