Apathy, protests, Heschel, and more

Moadim L'simchah--I hope Passover has been (and will continue to be) a holiday of personal and communal liberation.

It has been a complicated few days. As part of the Beyond Genocide series, a Smith student led a play reading of Robert Skloot's, If the Whole Body Dies--Rafael Lemkin and the Treaty Against Genocide. In general, I have been disappointed in the student turnout to the BG events. No students attended the play reading who weren't involved in it or the BG program. I would have thought students would have been interested in these topics. The apathy was disappointing but was redeemed by what follows.

It was great to see a number of familiar Amherst faces at the Human Rights Coffee House held last night near Smith.

Here are the texts I taught:

Rabbi Hillel Said:

If I am not for myself, who will be for me?

If I am only for myself, what am I?

If not now, when?

-Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Ancestors)

I also taught a short quote from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel that I had just read:
“Acts are a challenge to the soul … How else can one learn the joy of loving-kindness if not by enacting it? .... We do not have faith in deeds; we attain faith through deeds …”

Today, I joined anti-war demonstrations at Smith. At the demonstration and at the coffee house, there was discussion about not using violent language (ie., 'fight the war'). To this end, I just saw this passage from a speech Heschel gave in 1938 entitled "Meaning of this Hour:"

We have failed to fight for right, for justice, for goodness as a result we must fight against wrong, against injustice, against evil. WE have failed to offer sacrifices on the altar of peace; thus we offered sacrifices on the altar of war. A tale is told of a band of mountain climbers. Without guides, they struck recklessly into the wilderness. Suddenly a rocky ledge gave way beneath their feet and they tumbled headlong into a dismal pit. In the darkness of the pit they recovered from their shock only to find themselves set up by a nest of angry snakes. For each snake the desperate ones slew, ten more seemed to lash out in its place. Strangely enough, one man stood aside from the fight. When the indignant voices of his struggling companions reproached him for not fighting, he called back: "If we remain here, we shall be dead before the snakes. I am searching for a way of escape from this pit, for all of us."

You can read the entire essay/speech at http://www.bj.org/selected_readings/meaning_of_this_hour.html.

The source showed up on a blog on the Barack Obama website!

There was one difficulty for me at the demonstration. As I was playing drums and chanting on the Smith green, the chant switched to one that started: "From Iraq to Palestine. . ." With barely a hesitation, I quickly walked off the green and away from the protest. I am never in favor of human suffering but you can't compare our war in Iraq and movements for Palestinian nationalism/liberation. If any of the readers were there, I would love to talk about this.
With peace,
Rabbi Bruce

Check out this movie being developed about Heschel. I hope to bring it to our campuses next year as part of the Jewish Film Festival.

Jews Against the War

I recently signed this petition against the continued war in Iraq.
While my readers have many political viewpoints, few that I know are in favor of the war.
Still, how to stop it is a serious issue that perplexes leaders and citizens alike.
I would hate to be the father of the last American or British soldier to die in Iraq, or one of the last ten, or hundred.

I support the Democratic attempt to support the troops in the best way possible--to get them out of an ongoing civil war in a fractured country.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Bruce

Hanukah & Hesed (previously emailed to Smith students)

With snow now falling on campus and the temperature consistently low, I realize the high prices of oil and gas may leave homes cold for the first time.
With our economy in shambles and the country divided into read and blue state, I realize that little is being done to alleve suffering.
With crises in Darfur and Iraq never seeming to go away, I realize that we can stand up and help save others.

These are just a few examples of the darkness that surrounds us.

At this time of darkness in the calendar, our tradition teaches us to dispel the darkness one candle at a time.
Now for a bit of text [note: you can skip the next two paragraphs and the email will still make sense].

The Talmud on Shabbat 21b brings the following disagreement on lighting nerot hanukah (Hanukah candles): "Our Rabbis taught: "The mitzvah of Hunukah--a light for each person and his/her household. Those who are particular--a light for each and every person. Those who are extremely particular--Beit Shammai says: 'On the first day light eight; from then on, continue to decrease.' Beit Hillel says: 'On the first day light one, front then on continue to
add.'" Ulla said: 'Two Amoraim in the West, Rabbi Yose bar Avin and Rabbi Yose bar Zavida disagreed. One said: the reasons of Beit Shammai is that it corresponds to the days that are left, and the reason of Beit Hillel is that it corresponds to the days that are past.' The other said: 'The reason of Beit Shammai is that it corresponds to the bulls [offered] on the festival of Sukkot (when the original Temple was dedicated), and the reason of Beit Hillel is that we raise up in manners of holiness not go down.'

Even though I want to focus on the last line (the second reason for Beit Hillel's statement), I thought it was worthy of looking at the entire passage.
There are four opinions on how Hanukah candles are lit. A. 1 light for each head of household. B. One light for each person. Presumably, each of these holds true for each night, so you would light a total of 8 candles in A and 8 X # of people in B. In C. and D., there is an understanding that the number of candles bears a relationship to either the number of days the oil lasted in the miracle of Hanukah or the number of days in the original dedication of the Temple (eight). C. Light 8 candles the first night, 7 the next, etc. (this would tell you how many days remained of the miracle) D. Light 1 candle the first night, 2 the second, etc. (This tells you what night you are on). In each of C and D, 36 candles are lit if lighting one per household and 36 X # of people if lighting per person. None of these opinions includes the shamash (or helper) candle--which is used to prevent us from deriving benefit from the Hanukah candles themselves (so if you want to do the math on the total candles used, add 8 candles to any method).

Hanukah candles are supposed to be displayed in a window (or better yet be outside). In the darkness of the winter, we start with one light and keep adding to it, slowing increasing the amount of light in the world. Each night, we increase the amount of light, dispeling darkness and dispair. So too, when we each help someone or better the world, our one action added to those of everyone else. Since we will already be dispeling the physical darkness in our surroundings, I think it is a great time to discuss doing it throughout the year through acts of loving-kindness.
This Hanukah, join me in discussing how the Jewish community at Smith can work together to better dispel the darkness. Together, we can make the world a better place--one light at a time.

As we light the remaining candles, I encourage you to think of how we can channel our spiritual energy to help others.
As always, I appreciate your email, phone or private responses.

With wishes of a hag urim sameach (a joyous festival of lights),
Rabbi Bruce