On a stage, or in a film, divergent opinions, and the friction they cause, can be funny. In real life, however, they are often devastating, debilitating, destructive, and exhausting.
No one can deny our desire and right to be a safe country and the need to protect those we love. On the other hand, of at least equal import, is the fact that we are, and have always been, a nation of immigrants, with longstanding values of religious and personal freedom. How are we to react when we are concerned for ourselves and yet we have desire and an obligation to care for others. Are the two positions mutually exclusive?
The Torah clearly permits us to protect ourselves. Moses sends an army out to fight Amalek. The Talmud even provides , at Sanhedrin 72a, that
"If someone comes to kill you, arise [preempt him] and kill him first".
However, at the same time, Jewish tradition requires us to care for the stranger. In fact, the Torah warns against wronging the stranger no less than 36 times. (Talmud Bava Metsia 59b). At the same time, the Torah reminds us that we need to take care of the stranger because we were strangers in Egypt. At the same time, the Prophets told us that we need to
feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and free the oppressed. We do this because at too many points in our history we have been "those" people.
Hillel understood the pull of self-preservation against the need to help others when he famously said:
If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? (PIrkei Avot 1:14).
There have been many interpretations of Hillel's aphorism. But on its face, it recognizes the need to have balance. And it exhorts us to find that balance immediately.
We are a wonderfully diverse community and I know that each of us believes in the core Jewish value of Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. We may not agree on how the repair should be effected but, whatever side of the political canyon we find ourselves on, now is the time to step into our Jewish Values wardrobe and work to make the world a better place. Do it with energy. Do it with purpose. Do it with respect. Do it with love.
Even if we recognize our need to protect ourselves, our Jewish values become distressed whenever governmental policy has the effect, whether intended or not, of placing the most vulnerable of people into uncertainty and danger.
On Friday evening I will speak about the, often insurmountable, obstacles encountered by Jewish refugees seeking to leave Europe to save their lives in the 30's and 40's.
The Torah tells us that every human is created in God's image. Once we have taken steps to connect that piece of God within each of us, with the piece of the Holy One that exists in others, the world will, indeed, be a better place.
Shabbat Shalom - Rabbi Michael S. Jay
The Jewish Community Center of LBI 
