
In Pirke Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers, we are urged to be disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving all people and drawing them close to the Torah. Aaron, in the rabbinic tradition, was seen as a peacemaker. He knew how to speak to people and reconcile enemies, heal rifts between enemies, and bring harmony to the relations between husband and wife. This fits in with the role of High Priest who endeavors to reconcile sinners with God as well.
The late 19th early 20th century essayist, Asher Ginzberg, known by his pseudonym as Achad Ha-Am (One of the People) writes of the difference between the biblical leaders Aaron and Moses, the brothers who together brought Israel out Egypt and led them to the Promised Land. Moses, the prophet, was a primal force, he says, working always for righteousness and not showing jealousy when others began to prophesy as well. “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets,” he tells his disciple Joshua. In our Torah portion this week when we read of the genealogy of these brothers, the Torah speaks both of “Moses and Aaron” and “Aaron and Moses” as if to remind us that leadership requires both a vision of righteousness and justice, the role of the prophet, as well as a willingness to work toward love and peace, mercy and compassion for all people, the job of the priest. Time and again we are reminded that we were strangers in the land of Egypt and therefore, knowing the heart of the stranger, it is our duty to love the stranger, to love our neighbor, and to treat all people with lovingkindness.
When Joshua succeeded Moses, he became the leader of the people of Israel though he could not begin to fill Moses’s shoes. The sages refer to Moses as the sun and Joshua as the moon, for they saw him as a pale reflection of his teacher. Yet as Rabbi Hayyim Angel points out, we do not see the contentiousness of the people exhibited toward Joshua that Moses had to endure throughout his career. Joshua seemed to have a knack for working with the people, sharing the role of leader with others, admitting his shortcomings and learning from others. Moses had been described in the Torah as the most modest of people. Yet God had chosen him for the role of leadership when He saw the care he showed Jethro’s flock of sheep that he tended. The rabbis said that Moses had turned aside to run after one of his straying flock and to take up that lost lamb in his arms and return him to the others. It was then that God appeared to him in the burning bush and commissioned him to be the shepherd of His flock, the people of Israel. Justice and mercy, these two attributes of God, demonstrated time and again by Moses, were the hallmarks of leadership among the people of Israel. Joshua tried to follow in that same tradition.
This week, in accordance with the will of the American people, we witnessed this time the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next. The new president swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution, an oath mandated within that document. After the swearing in, he spoke of his near assassination during the campaign and said, ”I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.” Would that he fulfilled his oath and that he took seriously that mission and actually worked to reassert the fundamental values on which this country was founded. (One might cynically view his failure to place his hand on the Bible for the oath, as the equivalent of crossing his fingers to negate the words he was repeating. However, there is no requirement to swear on a Bible or other religious text.) He called for unity and then as soon as he could he began issuing executive orders to divide the people even more.
So many of us swelled with pride when we heard the words on the following day by the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, the Right Reverend Mariann Budde, spoken directly to the president during an interfaith service in the church across the street from the White House. This is the same location which he used as a backdrop during the George Floyd demonstrations for a photo-op using a borrowed Bible as a prop. Bishop Budde also spoke of unity. She began her teaching by noting, “As a country we have gathered this morning to pray for unity as a people and a nation. Not for agreement, political or otherwise. But for the kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and division. A unity that serves the common good.”
She spoke about people “across our country who dedicate their lives or who volunteer to help others in times of natural disaster, often at great risk to themselves, never asking those they are helping for whom they voted in a past election or what positions they hold on a particular issue. And we are at our best,” she asserted, “when we follow their example.”
When she mentioned Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount to love “not only our neighbors, but to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us,” I recalled the words from the Torah which urge us to help our enemy’s beasts when they struggle under a heavy burden and to return one’s enemy’s lost sheep. The sages saw these as first steps toward reconciliation with our enemy. Both traditions urge us to be merciful, for the Lord our God is merciful. To forgive others as God forgives us.
The bishop noted that we are not naïve and we recognize the realities of politics. “There are strong opinions across a spectrum of possibilities and starkly different understandings of what the right course of action is.” She wonders aloud whether in such an atmosphere unity is even possible. She concludes that “with God’s help, I believe that unity in this country is possible. Not perfectly…but sufficient enough to keep us all believing in and working to realize the ideals of the United States of America.” To achieve unity she points to three fundamental requirements: “honoring the inherent dignity of every human being,” is the first foundation for unity. That means “refusing to mock, or discount or demonize those with whom we differ.” The second foundation she points to is honesty. “It is incumbent upon us to speak the truth even when – especially when – it costs us.” The third pillar, so to speak, is “humility which we all need because we are all fallible human beings. We make mistakes. We say and do things that we later regret.”
The part of the sermon that made the headlines, however, was when she turned directly to the President and said, “Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country. And we’re scared now.
“There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and Independent families – some who fear for their lives.
“And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants, and work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues…and temples.”
She went on to say, “I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.”
Her closing paragraph sounds awfully familiar to us as she recasts the Torah’s reminder that we were strangers ourselves and notes, “for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being; to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God. For the good of all people in this nation and the world.”
One might hope that such a plea might be received graciously whether or not it is fulfilled. However, this president, true to form, responded with insults to the bishop and abusive comments on the service. To my mind and that of many of my colleagues, Bishop Budde leads the way and one should embrace her candor and congratulate her for speaking truth to power. The message may not resonate with all of its targeted audience but it provides a powerful message to us all to continue fighting for respect, truth; and decency for all those those living in this land.
We pray for all the residents of this land that soon they will have no reason to live in fear and that our present-day Pharaoh may soften his heart and accept these words within as he takes halting steps toward their fulfillment. Ken y’hi ratzon, may this be God’s will and may it prevail over the haters.
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