Dear TBZ community:
“Without love, there is no reason to know anyone, for love will in the end connect us to our neighbors, our children and our hearts.”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
These words were the opening kavanah, intention, that Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker shared in a healing service his community hosted last Monday at the White’s Chapel United Methodist Church just two days after the traumatic events last Shabbat when he and four other people were taken hostage during shabbat services. Through the whole service I was moved to hear the message from Rabbi Charlie and his community – a message of love. Everyone wore pins with the word LOVE and repeatedly shared that the journey of healing and the response to this act of hate requires love.
Last Shabbat morning a man, seemingly in need of housing and shelter, knocked on the doors of Rabbi Charlie’s shul. Rabbi Charlie welcomed him in and served him tea, never imagining that this act of love and kindness, this act of hesed, would be returned with an act of hatred. Still, I knew, even before reading and listening to interviews that Rabbi Charlie gave this week, that if put in the same situation he would open the door again. His door would open for a person in need, giving them shelter and serving them tea. In Rabbi Charlie’s words:
Yes, I'm going to do the same kind of visual scan that I did. And I'm going to assume that even if they do not look like the stereotypical person who's going to come into a Jewish synagogue, I want them there. Whether they're somebody who's Jewish, who's coming in from another community or from our community, or whether they're not Jewish, and maybe they're exploring Judaism for the first time, or they just want to see what a Jewish service is all about because they're curious and they're asking, am I going to belong? And I want them to know that they are going to belong. Hospitality means the world. (NPR, All things Considered).
And I too would have done the same.
But the question remains and is real, how do we respond to acts of hatred? Acts of antisemitism, acts of dehumanization? How do we respond when we are fearful for our safety?
כָּל הָעוֹלָם כֻּלּוֹ גֶּשֶׁר צָר מְאדֹ
וְהָעִיקָר וְהָעִיקָר לֹא לְפַחַד לֹא לְפַחַד כְּלָל
Kol ha'olam kulo Gesher tzar me'od
Veha'ikar lo lefached k'lal
The whole world is a very narrow bridge
and the main thing is to have no fear at all
You may be familiar with this song, often sung at Jewish summer camps and other gatherings, with passion and strength reminding us to cross a bridge without fear. But truthfully this message feels hard to follow. Fear is real and it is part of the human experience; it is a response we naturally have in times of danger.
The original text that this song is based on is slightly different. Reb Nachman of Breslav wrote:
וְדַע, שֶׁהָאָדָם צָרִיךְ לַעֲבֹר עַל גֶּשֶׁר צַר מְאֹד מְאֹד
וְהַכְּלָל וְהָעִקָּר – שֶׁלֹּא יִתְפַּחֵד כְּלָל
Know that a person needs to cross a very very narrow bridge,
and what is essential is not to be overcome by fear.
Likutei Moharan, Part II 48:2
The word לְפַחַד lefached, to be afraid, in the original text, is יִתְפַּחֵד itpached, in the reflective form of the verb, hard to translate to English but perhaps it is best translated above meaning not letting fear guide you or overtake you.
When we let fear guide us and take over our actions, we build walls that separate us rather than the bridges that bring us together. In fear we close the doors of our houses of worship instead of opening them. In fear we contribute to the desumahinzation of “the other.” In fear we stop seeing the humanity in our neighbor.
When we let fear guide us, we ultimately let hatred and anger take over our actions and we close our doors; we close our hearts as well. Having our doors open to the community, to the stranger, to the one that doesn't look like us contains risk, and yet living in the world means taking risks again and again. Ultimately, we risk much more when we lock our doors, we risk losing the very essence of our humanity.
Rabbi Natan of Breslav (R’ Nachman’s disciple) explained his teachers words:
הָעִקַּר בַּעֲבוֹדַת ה' שֶׁלֹּא יִתְפַּחֵד הָאָדָם כְּלָל, וּכְמוֹ שֶׁאָמַר רַבֵּנוּ, זִכְרוֹנוֹ לִבְרָכָה, שֶׁבָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה הָאָדָם צָרִיךְ לַעֲבֹר עַל גֶּשֶׁר צַר מְאֹד, וְהָעִקָּר הוּא שֶׁלֹּא יִתְפַּחֵד הָאָדָם כְּלָל, וְעִקַּר הַהִתְחַזְּקוּת
לַעֲבֹר עַל הַגֶּשֶׁר צַר בְּשָׁלוֹם בְּלִי פַּחַד הוּא הָאֱמוּנָה הַקְּדוֹשָׁה כַּנַּ"ל
The core idea in the service of God is that a person should have no fear, as our rabbi (z.l) taught us that in this world a person needs to walk on a very narrow bridge, and the most important thing is that this person should have no fear.
The most important thing as a person is strengthening herself to walk across this narrow bridge in peace and without fear is the holy faith.
Likutei Halakhot, Yoreh Deah, Laws of Shaving 3:9:1
R’ Natan adds to R’ Nachmans’ teaching that the holy faith is what helps us walk across the narrow bridges of our lives.
In this week's parasha, parshat Yitro, we receive the Aseret Hadibrot, the Ten Commandments. The first one:
אָנֹכִי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִיךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מִבֵּית עֲבָדִ͏ים
I Adonai, am your God
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage
always invites the question, what are we commanded here? What is being asked from us?
זו מצות הלב
ואינו ספור כי אם מצות עשה שיודה אדם ויאמין בלבו אמונה שלמה
כי יש בורא נמצא אחד קדמון ואין עוד מלבדו
Zo Mitzvat Halev
This is a commandment of the heart OR This (statement) is an internal practice,
not a historical story.
The practice is to acknowledge,
and to wholeheartedly trust the existence of a creator
Who existed before everything
The one and only.
Rabbeinu Bahya tells us that the first commandment is not an historical introduction but an invitation to an internal practice to be in a relationship with the creator. To believe, to have faith, to have emunah.
We might have different notions of what faith and belief mean, but what comes first, is finding what is within our hearts and connecting to our own image of God. What comes first is to believe that we can overcome moments of doubt and fear, and that we can trust, even when it seems hard and difficult, that we can keep walking. What comes first is to have emunah that God holds us.
Several people reached out to me this week to ask if I was afraid, if I was afraid that something like what happened to Rabbi Charlie could happen to me, to us. I am not. I am not afraid of coming to shul or my office. Perhaps my own life experience, the fact that my mother was killed in an act of terrorism and antisemitsm, or the many years that I lived in Jerusalem, during the second Intifada, taught me to do my best not to be paralyzed and to keep walking, to keep believing, to keep trusting, to keep responding with love.
The antidote to fear is strengthening ourselves and finding emunah - yes, we are all afraid at times, and that is part of our humanity. Having God and emunah in our lives means not letting fear paralyze us. For me, to have emunah is to keep believing in the power of love.
“Without love, there is no reason to know anyone, for love will in the end connect us to our neighbors, our children and our hearts.”
So this Shabbat, we as a community continue to come together, in prayer, in tears, in joy and in hope with our doors and hearts open. We can walk the narrow bridges that life puts in front of us, not letting fear stop us or paralyze us. We can find emunah together.
If you didn’t see the email that the TBZ Board and I sent on Sunday responding to this antisemtic attack, please read it here. It shares my response to the events of last Shabbat and updates you on our current safety protocols.
I can’t wait to be in shul this Shabbat in community: Celebrating the Bar Mitzvah of Mookie, practicing gratitude together and joyfully lifting our hearts in hope, in prayer, and together building a world with love and from love.
May this Shabbat bring renewal and blessings to all of you and your loved ones.
May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity.
May all those who are ill find healing.
May we have a joyful and restful Shabbat!
Shabbat Shalom,
