Category: morality

A Statement of Jewish Beliefs

Reform Rabbis and Cantors are signing this statement of Jewish Beliefs.  I am proud to be among them.

In this time of swirling events and governmental chaos, it is important to remind ourselves of our core beliefs as American Jews.  These are some of the values we hold dear and which guide our lives and our actions.

  1. We believe that all people are the children of God, endowed with holiness, all equal in value. (Gen. 1:27)
  2. We believe in welcoming the stranger, the alien in our midst, the one who lives with us. (Lev. 19:33) We are commanded to love the stranger as ourselves.  We are a people of repeated migrations, descended from strangers in Egypt.
  3. We believe in honesty, commanded not to bear false witness (Ex. 20:13, Lev. 19:11)
  4. We believe in listening respectfully, valuing the ideas of those who disagree, and seeking peace. (Avot 1:12, 1:18)
  5. We believe in fairness in business and all transactions: not engaging in fraud, paying workers promptly, honestly representing what is offered. (Lev.19:13; 19:35-6)
  6. We believe in respect for others, especially for the strangers among us, for elders and those less fortunate, and all who struggle. We are commanded not to take advantage of the weakness of others, not to place a stumbling block before the blind. (Lev. 19:32; 19:14)  We feel it is important to engage in acts of kindness and believe that we are in relationship with all people and should behave with compassion and empathy. (Avot 1:2)
  7. We call what we give to others tzedakah, giving based on justice. We believe in the importance of compassion, but what we give to others in need is based on seeking justice in society.
  8. We believe in knowledge and the exchange of ideas, including minority viewpoints. We value learning and the advancement of knowledge, in science, in literature, sacred and secular. (Avot 1:16)
  9. We believe in respecting and caring for our world, for tending the land and acting as dedicated stewards. (Gen 1:29-30 and Lev. 19:23 ff.)
  • We cherish the religious freedom in the United States and celebrate the diversity of beliefs and practices in our country. We deeply value the American Constitutional guarantees separating religion and state that have made possible the flourishing of all religions in our country.

 

How do you deal with an enemy that won’t capitulate?

The end of World War 2 came at a significant human cost.  Eisenhower continued to bomb cities in Germany so that the Germans knew with certainty they had lost.  Not one, but two atomic bombs were dropped on Japanese cities, unleashing their death and destruction.  And yet many did not put down their arms.  5,000 Japanese soldiers refused to surrender at the war’s conclusion, remaining loyal to their oath to the Emperor, the deeply ingrained values of Bushido, emphasis on honor, and self-sacrifice at their core.

Shouichi Yokoi courtesy of Wikipedia

The most famous among them was Shoichi Yokoi, who returned to Japan from Guam in 1972, 27 years after the war’s end.  He is quoted as saying, “It is with much embarrassment that I return.” (Smithsonian Magazine; https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-japanese-wwii-soldier-who-refused-to-surrender-for-27-years-180979431/)

There may be invaluable lessons from the Japanese fighters who held out even after the war ended when dealing with Hamas.

To understand the fighters loyal to Hamas, we must understand the profound philosophical, existential commitment to the idea of fighting to regain the land perceived as stolen.  Leaders with bona fides that these Hamas fighters will respect must arise and offer a different path forward.  This can initiate a process where, eventually, those committed to Israel’s obliteration will be overcome by those committed to a peace wherein both sides live in safety and security, side by side.

The sheer brutality of the current war in Gaza would, under normal circumstances, make any leader want to stop the suffering of the people and compromise in the name of peace.  However, Hamas is not normal circumstances.  The human suffering they use in the service of their ideology is perfectly acceptable to them and is, in point of fact, one of the weapons they have employed in dealing with the Palestinians and the hostages.

Similarly, the hatred on the Israeli side of the equation is equally brutal.  The invasion of October 7 was viscerally felt as an existential moment.  Hatred and the desire for revenge only build with the cynical bargaining chip that is the hostages.  As those lives hang in the balance, Israelis must also find courageous leaders to lead their people to peace.

One of the few things made clear is the current situation is a meat grinder consuming human victims with impunity.  This is morally and ethically reprehensible.  Moderating voices must arise to quell this war machine and find a better path forward.

There will be those who see victory only as the destruction and capitulation of the enemy. It is an unrealistic goal.  The price is astronomically high in lives lost and is ultimately unachievable.  These ideologues and zealots must be marginalized.  It may take generations for this view of the world to fade away, and only with perseverance and strength can we support those seeking a way forward that can permit a peaceful coexistence to form.

 

Shabbat Shalom

The traveler’s prayer is shared as we embark on a journey hoping:

May it be Your will that You should lead us in peace and direct our steps in peace, and guide us in peace, and support us in peace, and cause us to reach our destination in life, joy, and peace.

This Shabbat lets pray that our journey might be so and that our destination itself is Peace.

Shabbat Shalom

Thanks to the gifted Marni Loffman.

 

Shabbat Shalom

Playing for Change brings musicians from around the world together to perform songs of unity, peace, and love. Amazing Grace is not usually on the Kabbalat Shabbat Playlist for most of us, but if you watch and listen, the singers in Jerusalem and the lyrics convey hope and faith, which is what we need as we enter Shabbat.

Shabbat Shalom

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor

Emma Lazarus’ famous words, inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty, beckon the forgotten and desperate to look towards America. Our economy is based on everyone’s contribution.

Elon Musk recognizes the need for highly skilled workers, the ‘Gifted-Minds,’ to advance productivity in our economy. He advocates for the immigration of such workers, including expanding H1B visas. However, the United States also requires physically capable workers, the “Abled-Bodies.” As much as we need engineers and scientists, we need skilled and unskilled labor for the fields, factories, and construction. Without these workers, the supply of goods and products will decrease, pushing higher prices. Even in Musk’s vision of a new technological age, we need both kinds of workers.

The unskilled view us as a land of opportunity. A functioning immigration system managing the process benefits our economy and promotes their well-being. The current system exploits workers in the worst of ways while giving us cheap food.  A comprehensive system, regulations, and unionization are ways to ensure they are not exploited in the dark meaning of the word.

Arguably, the shift toward a fair living wage benefits all of us. The increased costs of a legitimate worker are offset by the reduced support people need from public assistance and the reduced burdens of immigration and the legal system, which creates taxpayers. However, a comprehensive immigration policy that promotes lawful access to our country’s opportunities is not enough; we need to go further.

The undocumented immigrants are fleeing their desperate homelands in search of economic opportunities. This is a familiar narrative. The same prospects drove many of our families to take the enormous risks of coming here. It is in our national interest to foster stable societies in these otherwise despairing and hopeless regions. By doing so, we can reduce the need to flee and alleviate the pressures on our borders.

We can and must do better than a broken system that functions as a battleground for political parties. We can strengthen our borders, build better relationships with our neighbors, and, just as importantly, create a more dynamic economy right here at home. The promise of Emma Lazarus’s words continues to inspire a new vision for America and hope for the future.

 

 

 

 

And He Lived- Thoughts on Parsha Vayechi

And He lived…

Vayechi is a misnomer.  The chapter that opens with And He Lived is actually the final moments of Jacob’s life.  Jacob is on his deathbed, surrounded by his sons.  He offers frank assessments of them and blessings of a kind as he prepares to die. Indeed, our tradition looks to this chapter as the essence of the Jewish Ethical Will.  It is a centerpiece for me when teaching the Ethical Legacy Will.  What we bequeath as our legacy is genuinely profound; what we offer as our final thoughts, spoken and unspoken, will resonate in the hearts and minds of those we leave behind, framing their understandings of their place in the world and how they forge relationships of their own.  One of the most striking examples lies outside the text. Nowhere is Jacob’s daughter Dinah to be found.

We can surmise that Dinah’s relationship with her father, Jacob, was not close. In the story of her rape, she is identified as the daughter of Leah.               We never hear her voice telling the story, and Jacob’s concern for his sons’ vengeance focuses on how it will complicate things with other clans.  He seems unconcerned about whether she was harmed.  It is disappointing that Dinah is not at her father’s bed to say goodbye. Every son was there, and even sons not held in particular esteem were present to at least hear their father’s final words.

What is said and what is unspoken, who is in the room, and who is excluded.  We learn so much by being aware of these things.  We hold an extraordinary power as parents.  We are exemplars of behavior and also models of misconduct.  Both have a profound impact.  We need to exercise caution.  For what we say and to whom will last far beyond our mortality.

Did Dinah grieve for Jacob?  Did she feel excluded from the intimate space, witness to his passing? Did she harbor resentment about being treated so differently from her brothers?  These are only some of the questions the text begs but leaves unanswered.  Some may chalk this up to Jacob’s milieu and the age in which he lived. It is unfair to judge a character from the past by current acceptability standards, particularly one with such eminence in our grounding myths.

I am disappointed, however.  Jacob’s life trajectory has been extraordinary. At the start, he is a stealthy, guileful, and conniving person who grows and evolves to become rightfully someone worthy of the title Patriarch.  His encounters with the Angel at Beth El and his brother Esau exhibit his remarkable growth.  His reunion with his son Joseph and his treatment of Manasseh and Ephriam show that he is loving and caring.  So, the time here at his bed seems a bit off.  I would have thought his compassion and empathy could have extended to all his family.  I expected that his harsh words for Reuven, Shimon, and Levi would have been tempered by the knowledge they already knew the consequences of their actions, and leaving them instead with something positive to remember him would serve these sons better.  And, of course, there is Dinah, or more precisely, there is not.

This was a final moment to offer some reconciliation.  To offer her heartfelt words that might heal wounds that likely could not do so.  Some Midrashim suggested that perhaps she was not even around, but she remained in Shechem.  The rabbis struggled with her story, offering several alternative ideas about what became of her.  There is so much we do not know, and it makes the heart ache to wonder about the pain of being excluded or without a voice.

What we leave behind endures—both the good and the bad. Our legacy is taught in our lives and the examples we set. The Ethical Will offers a chance to leave final words behind, maybe to explain poorly understood behavior, and indeed to provide enduring words of connection.  What we say and to whom will be lasting.  We need to exercise care for our own sake and on behalf of the hearts of others.

And he lived…

 

Rabbi Info:

Rabbi David Levin is dedicated to creating a meaningful life journey with Jewish wisdom. He teaches on these subjects, including the Ethical Legacy Will, and can be found at RabbiDavidLevin.com and EthicalLegacyWill.com.

Light One Candle

Peter Yarrow’s death has us saying goodbye, but his legacy is complicated. We’ve been engaged in the conversation regarding him and his song, Light One Candle, which is the Hanukkah song embraced by many Jews as a profoundly emotional iconic expression of our tradition. At about the same time that Yarrow entered hospice, many learned that he was accused of sexual misconduct. This reignited a debate about how we might separate the artist from his creation. Can his extraordinary music and activism be decoupled from his egregious behavior, or must we sacrifice his beautiful music because of his actions?

We’ve had this difficult conversation before, and many people have weighed the pros and cons of Yarrow, Carlebach, and others who have disappointed us as human beings yet created extraordinary artistic works.

I do not have an answer to the question. Do we stop singing Yarrow’s music? It’s more than just the songs he’s written, but also the songs he’s performed, most notably as part of the famous trio Peter, Paul, and Mary. It’s a thorny question that must be addressed, but I don’t think a blanket statement suffices; that is the easy way out. Instead, each of us needs to take responsibility for considering whether or not we are comfortable and where we may draw lines that we are unwilling to cross. Perhaps it’s with some footnote when we sing a song, or maybe it’s part of a community decision about whether the music is acceptable. But the conversation needs to occur. We must confront the ugliness and beauty and figure out how to weave them in a way that might work for us and the people we serve.

So, I’m not prepared to cancel him, but I must talk about him entirely. I am unwilling to discard all of the music he brought into our lives, yet that music cannot be heard without the more discomforting voice of his actions and the ethical dilemmas they present.

It’s messy and complicated, but we must consider, deliberate, and decide for ourselves and our respective communities how best to proceed.

THE TRAGEDY OF THE HOSTAGES

One of the horrors of the current war is the holding of the hostages.  Their predicament is hopeless because their freedom depends on some level of trust, and there is no trust.

Israel and Hamas are avowed enemies.  Each is dedicated to the destruction of the other.  There is no middle ground, no reconciliation, no peace.  With this at each core, trust cannot exist.

Hamas has fully embraced the “civilian as a weapon” idea.  To give up the hostages means giving up one of its most potent weapons.  The hostages have been used as shields, and many believed as a bargaining chip.  But without trust, there is no incentive to use this bargaining chip, and once it is used, nothing is left. Hamas does not trust that Israel will live by an agreement; they believe Israel sees an agreement as only the means to obtaining the release of the hostages, nothing more.  Once the hostages are returned, Israel will continue to prosecute the war.

Israel has displayed its commitment to destroying Hamas.  As Hamas cannot be appeased, it must be eliminated.  Israel has a long memory and believes in retribution.  It does not trust Hamas.  Israel thought it could permit Hamas to exist as it did not pose an existential threat and accepted a tenuous ceasefire. Then, October 7 happened, and whatever trust existed was shattered.

A ceasefire is a lull until it ends, and the warring begins again. This is part of the cynical lack of trust, but it is one of the few things both sides can agree upon.

War is usually fought to capitulation.  One side is defeated unequivocally.  The victor then dictates the terms of surrender and peace over the vanquished.  This may not be possible. But until these two warring parties have more to gain by ceasing hostilities and learning to co-exist, the death and destruction will continue.

I pray that the current negotiations might prove me wrong and that the hostages will be returned. And perhaps peace might be seen as an alternative to hatred and carnage.

 

 

 

Juneteenth

JUNE 14, 2024

JUNETEENTH STATEMENT FROM PASTOR CARL DAY AND RABBI DAVID LEVIN OF THE NEW GOLDEN AGE

We acknowledge and mark Juneteenth, the 19th of June, to celebrate the day the United States fully recognized the Emancipation Proclamation.

This significant day, Juneteenth, was not the day of the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the end of Slavery in the United States. Instead, it was the day when news of Lincoln’s historic decree reached the enslaved people of Galveston, Texas. Carried by 2,000 Union Troops, this news brought the long-awaited freedom to these individuals. Juneteenth stands as a pivotal moment in the journey towards realizing the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, that “All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.“ The journey towards freedom began on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln proclaimed that all enslaved people within the rebellious states were to be free. However, this news took two more years to reach Galveston, Texas, in 1865. The word of freedom has since spread across the nation, but the task of turning the dream encapsulated in those words into a reality is an ongoing one.

The New Golden Age, the convening of a Black-Jewish alliance sponsored by Culture Changing Christians and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia is a testament to the enduring significance of Juneteenth. This occasion, which celebrates the date and renews our commitment to the American vision of freedom and equality for all, underscores the ongoing relevance of Juneteenth. It serves as a reminder that the work towards realizing this vision is not yet complete, but together, we strive to fulfill that dream.

This statement was drafted by Pastor Carl Day and Rabbi David Levin of the New Golden Age.

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The New Golden Age is a joint partnership between the Jewish and Black communities in Philadelphia focused on combating hate, enhancing security, and strengthening the local community’s social safety net. This initiative was started by The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and the Culture Changing Christians.