Sermon for Yom Kippur morning 5781
September 28, 2020
Whenever we gather for worship – whether in person or online – much of our focus is on our personal joys and woes and concerns. But we also know that we are part of a larger web of society, a larger web of existence. Indeed, there is much classic commentary about how when our ancestors built the mishkan, the desert tabernacle described in the second half of the Book of Exodus, they were symbolically building a miniature version of the entire universe.
And as for our literary heritage, our tradition teaches in Pirke Avot that when considering Torah --- הֲפֹךְ בָּהּ וַהֲפֹךְ בָּהּ, דְּכֹלָּא בָהּ Turn it, and turn it, for everything is in it![1]
The bottom line being – our tradition encourages us to consider the larger implications of what we do, and what we say, and what we reflect upon in the smaller circles of our households and our congregations.
In that vein, I’d like to remind us of the passage from Talmud that we read near the start of our Kol Nidre service last night, just before we plunged into Kol Nidre itself. It’s a quote from the Talmud, which itself is a quotation from the earlier corpus of Jewish law known as the Mishnah:
עֲבֵרוֹת שֶׁבֵּין אָדָם לַמָּקוֹם, יוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים מְכַפֵּר. עֲבֵרוֹת שֶׁבֵּין אָדָם לַחֲבֵרוֹ, אֵין יוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים מְכַפֵּר, עַד שֶׁיְּרַצֶּה אֶת חֲבֵרוֹ.
Only for transgressions against the Everpresent can Yom Kippur bring atonement. For transgressions between one person and another, Yom Kippur does not bring atonement until one’s fellow has been reconciled.
Our nation (and indeed many nations, but let’s focus on the United States for now) --- our nation is now engaged in an impassioned effort to address the colossal, centuries-long transgression of racism – truly an AVERAH SHEBEYN ADAM LACHAVERO – a transgression between one person and another --- but a transgression that is writ large over the whole society.
And so, the slogan of our day, which has become the name of a huge movement for social change is BLACK LIVES MATTER.
Now, of course, Black people are not the only people in our society who have experienced or who do experience invidious discrimination. American history is littered with numerous examples of violence, bias and hatred against Indigenous Native peoples, against Chinese people, against Japanese people, against Jews, against LGBT people, against Muslims, against Catholics, against Arabs, against Sikhs – the list can go on and on. Make no mistake --- ALL OF THESE LIVES MATTER.
As we learn in another classic teaching from the Mishnah:
Tractate Sanhedrin 4:5 –
לְפִיכָךְ נִבְרָא אָדָם יְחִידִי, לְלַמֶּדְךָ, שֶׁכָּל הַמְאַבֵּד נֶפֶשׁ אַחַת מִבני אדם, מַעֲלֶה עָלָיו הַכָּתוּב כְּאִלּוּ אִבֵּד עוֹלָם מָלֵא. וְכָל הַמְקַיֵּם נֶפֶשׁ אַחַת מִבני אדם, מַעֲלֶה עָלָיו הַכָּתוּב כְּאִלּוּ קִיֵּם עוֹלָם מָלֵא
Therefore, humanity was created from a single individual, to teach you that anyone who destroys one human soul, it as if they had destroyed an entire world, and anyone who sustains one human soul, it is as if they have sustained an entire world. […] And (this serves) to tell of the greatness of the Blessed Holy One, in that (when) a person stamps several coins with one seal, they are all similar to each other. But the supreme Sovereign of Sovereigns, the Blessed Holy One, stamped all people with the seal of the first human, yet not one of them is similar to another. Therefore, each and every person is obligated to say: The world was created for my sake.
In other words, not only do ALL LIVES MATTER – but ALL LIVES ARE OF INFINTE WORTH.
And so, when we say BLACK LIVES MATTER, that is not to say that non-Black lives don’t matter as well. Rather, it is to say that, Black lives right now need to be at the top of the societal agenda because of the . עֲבֵרוֹת שֶׁבֵּין אָדָם לַחֲבֵרוֹ --- the interpersonal transgressions – which have reached crisis proportions.
This afternoon, we’ll be doing the Yom Kippur martyrology service. That liturgy originated in the Middle Ages and might perhaps alternatively be titled “JEWISH LIVES MATTER.”
Rabbi David Greenspoon describes it as follows. He writes:
“[The Martyrology] section of the service combines the Talmudic accounts of ten ancient rabbis martyred by the Romans. Later, these accounts were retold as medieval Jewish stories, and even later, reframed into the liturgical expression we have today. Undoubtedly the Ashkenazi Jews who introduced this new liturgy in their day were motivated by the historical memory of the Crusades. For them, it was their ancestors who were executed by “the new Rome”, the Church, which was recalled by this dirge. The idea of a minyan of Torah scholars executed by Rome was understood as an attack against the Torah and the entire Jewish people. The survival of both despite the genocidal efforts of Rome was redolent with meaning for the survivors of the Crusades.[2]
We will actually be using a contemporary version of the Martyrology this afternoon, but, nevertheless, it still focuses primarily on the Jewish experience.
And, of course, let us not forget that that the categories of “Jew and “Black” are by no means mutually exclusive – not in the United States nor in Israel nor anywhere in the world. I hope we are all well aware of that.
But, nevertheless, since we will be centering the experience of Jewish martyrs later today, let us take this moment, right now, to center the experience of Black Martyrs of our day.
Here are the names of some Black Americans who were gunned down just in the past several years by police officers or by vigilantes purporting to act as such:
Trayvon Martin
Michael Brown
Eric Garner
Ezell Ford
Michelle Cusseaux
Tanisha Anderson
Tamir Rice
Natasha McKenna
Walter Scott
Bettie Jones
Philando Castile
Botham Jean
Atatiana Jefferson
Eric Reason
Dominique Clayton
Ahmaud Aubrey
Daniel Prude
Breonna Taylor
George Floyd
Rayshard Brooks.
Borrowing the words of the Yom Kippur martyrology liturgy ---
Eyleh ezkerah v’nafshi alay eshpechah./ These I remember and pour out my soul within me.
Those are the first words of the traditional Yom Kippur martyrology liturgy.
Eyleh ezkerah v’nafshi alay eshpechah./ These I remember and pour out my soul within me.
And I don’t think any of us can argue with that sentiment with respect to those Black Americans whose names I have just recalled.
But if we read the full opening line of the Yom Kippur martyrology liturgy and try to apply it to the American context, it gets more divisive:
אֵֽלֶּה אֶזְכְּרָה וְנַפְשִׁי עָלַי אֶשְׁפְּכָה. כִּי בְלָעֽוּנוּ זֵדִים כְּעֻגָה בְּלִי הֲפוּכָה[3]
“These I remember and pour out my soul within me – for evil ones have devoured us and eagerly consumed us.”
But is that the case? Are all of the killers of all of these contemporary martyrs evil? In some cases, we cannot deny it. Nonchalantly keeping your foot on a human being’s neck for more than seven minutes while that person calls out for his mother with his dying breath? What kind of monster does such a thing?
Travesties such as this have prompted widespread calls for defunding the police or even for abolishing the police.
But at the same time, other voices say what we need to do is just to reform the police. To stamp our racism in its ranks. To lessen the power of police unions that shield officers from responsibility for their actions. To ban chokeholds and no-knock search warrants.
Would that it were so simple.
Some of these tragic occurrences, perhaps most of them, were the result of police officers acting too recklessly out of fear for their own lives. And some of those instances of subjective fears, perhaps most of them, were the result of those officers being triggered by implicit racist biases.
And yet, we need the police. Even in Minneapolis, the site of the killing of George Floyd, a poll taken last month by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that among Black residents in Minneapolis, opposition to cutting police officers reached 50%, while only 35% said they agreed with defunding the police as had been demanded by some activists and by the Minneapolis City Council.[4] Just yesterday there was a front page story in the New York Times entitled (in its print edition) “A Quiet Retreat From ‘Defund’ In Minneapolis” and entitled (in its online version) “How a Pledge to Dismantle the Minneapolis Police Collapsed.”
Here’s a particularly striking excerpt from that article, which was written by New York Times reporter Astead W. Herndon, who is himself Black.
Herndon writes:
Hanging over the debate was a surge in gun violence in Minneapolis this summer, with some community groups in Black neighborhoods worried that urgent needs for change had been crowded out by the big-picture focus on police funding and oversight. Cathy Spann, a community activist who works in North Minneapolis, which is home to many of the city’s Black residents, said those paying the price for the city’s political paralysis were the exact communities that leaders had pledged to help. She is in favor of more police officers.
“They didn’t engage Black and brown people,” Ms. Spann said, referring to the City Council members. “And something about that does not sit right with me. Something about saying to the community, ‘We need to make change together,’ but instead you leave this community and me unsafe.”[5]
It is a shame that the transgressions of some police officers have stained the whole institution in the eyes of some.
True, I am white, and like most white people I have always been taught that the police are here to help keep us safe. Yet I still believe that the majority of individuals who undertake such a profession do so out of a desire to be of service to society.
In the wake of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, many have noted that she had a poster in her office that said “Tzedek, Tzedek tirdof” – Justice, justice you shall pursue. A phrase found in Deuteronomy 16:20.
But we also need to remember that in that same section of Torah, just two verses earlier at Deuteronomy 16:18 -- the Torah stresses the need for – to use a phrase that has become increasingly politicized in our fragmented society -- “law and order”
As it says in Deuteronomy 16:18:
שֹׁפְטִ֣ים וְשֹֽׁטְרִ֗ים תִּֽתֶּן־לְךָ֙ בְּכָל־שְׁעָרֶ֔יךָ אֲשֶׁ֨ר יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ נֹתֵ֥ן לְךָ֖ לִשְׁבָטֶ֑יךָ וְשָׁפְט֥וּ אֶת־הָעָ֖ם מִשְׁפַּט־צֶֽדֶק׃
You shall appoint judges and officers for your tribes, in all the settlements that the Eternal your God is giving you, and they shall govern the people with due justice.
(And, lest there is any doubt, that Hebrew word “shotrim” –translated here as “officers” is the modern Hebrew word for police officers.)
These are life and death matters.
And Black lives matter – the lives of Black people who have been killed by police as well as the lives of those police officers, police chiefs and mayors who are themselves Black -- and there are many – including one of the officers charged in the death of George Floyd.
Writers such as Robin D’Angelo assert that implicit racism is simply built into the fabric of our whole society and that none of us can avoid it. That we need to take affirmative steps to combat it. We’ll be having a book discussion group on D’Angelo’s book “White Fragility” starting late next month and facilitated by Temple member and UMD sociology professor Sheryl Grana. I hope some of you will consider joining us for it.
And this afternoon at 1:30 p.m., our annual Yom Kippur community discussion will be on the theme: “Teshuvah for healing within and between communities.” Panelists will be addressing how issues of systemic racism affect approaches to criminal justice, immigration, environment and education.
Finally, I commend to your attention an initiative of the Union for Reform Judaism’s Religious Action Center.
They are encouraging us to write our elected officials in support of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, , which has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives but which still awaits a vote in the U.S. Senate. As summarized on the Religious Action Center website:
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is a first step in meaningful police reform legislation. This bill:
Prohibits racial, religious, and discriminatory profiling by federal, state, and local law enforcement.
Establishes a national use of force standard that requires law enforcement officers to employ de-escalation techniques and only use deadly force as a last resort.
Deems maneuvers that restrict the flow of blood or oxygen to the brain by law enforcement to be federal civil rights violations.
[And] Requires state and local law enforcement agencies to report use of force data, disaggregated by race, sex, disability, religion, age.
Enacting these reforms will not only make our communities safer, but also begin the process of confronting racism in policing. During this time of mourning, Congress can take meaningful action to ensure that all people are protected equally under the law and protect communities of Color.
The summary on the RAC website concludes by saying: Join us in calling on the Senate to address systemic racial injustice and reform police practices. [6]
There is a long way to go given how ingrained systemic racism is in our society.
But, to conclude with another well-known teaching from our tradition:
לֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה
Lo alecha hamlacha ligmor v’lo atah ben chorin l’hivatel mimena- “you are not obligated to finish the work, but nor are you free to desist from it.”[7]
Indeed, may we not desist.
Gmar Chatimah Tovah.
© Rabbi David Steinberg (September 2020/ Tishri5781)
[1] Pirke Avot 5:22
[2] https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/eleh-ezkerah-these-i-remember/
[3] Note, some machzorim have the text saying זרים rather than זדים translating it variously as “evil” or “arrogant” or “wicked.” The version I’m basing this sermon is uses זדים (See, https://www.sefaria.org/Machzor_Yom_Kippur_Ashkenaz%2C_Musaf_for_Yom_Kippur%2C_The_Ten_Martyrs?lang=bi )
[4] https://www.startribune.com/poll-cuts-to-minneapolis-police-ranks-lack-majority-support/572119932/
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/26/us/politics/minneapolis-defund-police.html?searchResultPosition=1
[6] https://cqrcengage.com/reformjudaism/app/write-a-letter?0&engagementId=508241
[7] Pirke Avot 2:16
