Monday, January 23, 2017

Faith and Action


Faith and Action

Rabbi David Novak
20 January 2017

One day an old Jewish man from Tiberias went out of his home and began to dig a hole.  

Next to him was a seedling for a fig tree, a tree that is known to give shade and fruit when it matures, a time well into the future.  

The Roman king was passing through Tiberias and noticed the old man.  

Seeing him digging, the king stopped his horse and said:   

“Old man.”

Startled, the old man looked up and saw the king.

“Why are you planting this tree?” the king asked.  “Surely you won’t be around when it gives its shade and its fruit.”

The old man took a moment and replied:  

“My ancestors planted for me and I reaped the benefit of their foresight.  Now I am planting for the future generations that I will never see who will benefit from me.”

Satisfied with the answer, the king continued on his way.

A new seed was planted at 12:01 this afternoon as our country
inaugurated our 45th president.  

Like past inaugurations, our incumbent president peacefully passed the highest office in our land to the new president.  

The pride of American democracy is that power transfers from one person to the next with an oath, not by overthrowing the government, not by dictatorial takeover.

The presidential inauguration is our country at its best.  

In times of trial and tribulation, after wars and assassinations, our country shines in how power transitions.  This is how our country works,  even in the aftermath of a brutal campaign, even when the outlook of a new president is vastly different from his predecessor.  

Like the old man in the story, all of us hope that our new president will plant wisely for our future, to use the powers that he now possesses for the good of everyone in our country.  Many hold this aspiration knowing that our new president has never held elected or appointed office before.  We do not know what seeds will be planted and what the offspring will look like.   

Still we all share the hope that our new president will reject the worst aspects of last year’s campaigning that gave raise to public expressions of anti-Semitic behavior in our country.  These behaviors reflect what happens in other places in the world, not the United States.  

The United States is historically the most stable democracy and among the safest places in the world for Jews.   Our American Jewish community has prospered in the United States since the first Jews arrived in New York City from Brazil in 1654 even in the face of individual and institutional anti-Semitism.  The seeds that our predecessors planted reflect their names, the institutions they created set the foundation for our extraordinary Jewish experience.

As a small minority, we Jews have greatly benefited by this freedom.  We hope that our new president will act as his predecessor George Washington did in 1790 when he wrote these words to the Touro Synagogue in neighboring Rhode Island:

For happily the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.

Our question now is where do we grow from here.

Rabbi Leo Baeck said:

Religion embraces both faith and action.  The primary quality is action, for it lays the foundation for faith; the more we do good, the more readily do we grasp the meaning of duty and life, and the more readily do we believe in the Divine from which stems the good.

Faith and action.

For the majority of Jewish existence Jews have lived in the Diaspora, outside of Jewish sovereignty.  The early sages condoned this by ordaining that Jewish life and Jewish prayer could be done anywhere Jews found themselves.

Wherever Jews found themselves, they always prayed for the welfare of the leaders of the civil government: kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers.   

We do this to express our aspirations for the success of the leaders of the countries in which we reside.  These prayers are often done when the Sefer Torah is out of the ark, a time thought to be especially propitious.

On this day of the inauguration, with the Torahs in the ark behind me, let us take a moment to uphold this noble tradition and offer this prayer together:

God of holiness, we hear Your message:
Justice, justice you shall pursue. (Deut. 16:20)
God of freedom, we hear Your charge:
Proclaim liberty throughout the land. (Lev. 25:10)
Inspire us through Your teachings and commandments
To love and uphold our precious democracy.

Let every citizen take responsibility
For the rights and freedoms we cherish.

Let each of us be an advocate for justice, an activist for liberty, a defender of dignity.
And let us champion the values
That make our nation a haven for the persecuted,
A beacon of hope among the nations.

We pray for courage and conscience
As we aim to support our country’s highest values and aspirations:
The hard-won rights that define us as a people,
The responsibilities that they entail.

We pray for all who serve our country with selfless devotion --
In peace and in war,
From fields of battle to clinics and classrooms,
From government to the grassroots:
All those whose noble deeds and sacrifice
Benefit our nation and our world.

We are grateful for the rights
Of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness
That our founders attributed to you,
Our Creator.
We pray for their wisdom and moral strength,
That we may be guardians of these rights for ourselves,
And for the sake of all people,
Now and forever.

Amen.
(CCAR Rabbi’s Manual)

“Pray as if everything depended on God.  Act as if everything depended on you.”

“Pray as if everything depended on God.  Act as if everything depended on you.”

A wonderful sentiment found before the Amidah in the new Reform prayerbook.

We have prayed:  Now we turn to action:

What seeds we will plant.  Remembering our old man:  In digging the hole and in planting the seed, the man is acting in a way where he knows that the benefits will be derived down the road.  He is performing an act of lovingkindness for those who follow him.

All of us have the opportunity to take inspiration from this man’s sagacity.  

Ask yourself:  

What are the seeds that you are able to plant, right here, right now?  

What are you willing to plant in the days and weeks to come?  

What will be your commitment to ensuring that people’s basic needs for food, heat and shelter are met?

As you leave Beth Elohim this evening and in the days and weeks to come, please think about these words and consider what your action will be.

Recommit to making the social safety net as strong as possible for the most vulnerable.

Know that even if you do not personally see the benefit of what your seed turns into, one seed many blessings may grow:

shade, food, wood, sustenance, even support to the other trees around them.

Let us use our humanity to seed a future where we pray that those who come after us will derive great benefit.




1 comment:

  1. Thanks you for taking the time to publish this information very useful!

    Best Sim Only Deals

    ReplyDelete