A Shabbat Note: May 5th

Turn on the news today, or go to any news website, and up pops Osama Bin Laden.  What were the true circumstances of his death?  Was he still planning attacks?  Red alert!  Red alert!

Yet as those of us in the Jewish Community prepare to spend Shabbat taking a break from the work week, celebrating the miracle of creation, we are reminded of the difficulties such an idea can pose.  This is the same confrontation that many of us experienced after the attacks on that fateful Tuesday morning almost ten years ago.  How can we relax, rest, and take a break from the worries of our lives when everything else in the world commands us to remain constantly on-guard and in some fear of an attack?

This seems to draw reminders of those things which we have had to learn over the past ten years, about how to cope with these significant changes while still living our lives.  After all, this is the purpose and meaning of Shabbat: to take a day and remember the joys of our lives and to focus on how we might make our lives more meaningful, our connection to God more substantial, and our love for our neighbor more resilient.  

Since the attacks, we have been encouraged by news media and politicians to be vigilant and to trust no one, which has had some positive and some negative results.  We are preventing attacks.  This is good.  Those who sit idly by certainly are not showing love for their neighbors.  Yet, these same ideas have also taught and perpetuated the ideas that your neighbor is only that person who looks like you and thinks like you.  This is not an American premise, this is a goal of terrorism.  I'll explain...

...there have been two significant terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in my lifetime.  The first was in Oklahoma City, by men who belonged to a group that was unhappy about the diversity and acceptance taking place in the United States.  168 people died that day.  The second occurred in New York, Washington, DC, and rural Pennsylvania, planned and executed by men who also belonged to a group unhappy about diversity and acceptance in the United States.  Nearly 3,000 of our fellow Americans of all races and nationalities died because of their actions.  As we decide whether to celebrate or simply breathe a sign of relief regarding the death of the murder of thousands upon thousands throughout the world, remember those who perished in his inhuman action and celebrate the continued existence of a nation which prides itself on equality and opportunity.  Please also remember that as long as hatred exists in the world, our jobs are not yet complete. 

As Shabbat is nearly upon us, let us never forget that strength exists when discrimination is overcome by egalitarianism, hate and mistrust is ousted by understanding, and when we look for reasons to beat our swords into plowshares, rather than our plowshares into swords.

In the famous words of Hillel:  "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the commentary; go and learn it."

Shabbat Shalom