[Previous sermon: "Superman - October 15, 2004"] [Next sermon: "Parashat Bo, MLK Jr. And 350 Years in America - January 14, 2005"]
There Are Two Nations in Your Womb - November 12, 2004
Rabbi Batsheva Meiri
Va'yitrotzetzu habanim b'kirbah,
and the children struggled inside her ...
Va'telech lidrosh et Adonai,
and she went to inquire of God and God answered her,
Shnai goyim b'vitnech,... two nations are in your womb,
two separate peoples shall issue from your body. (Gen 25:22-23)
More than ever it feels like these words from this week's Torah portion speak out to us American Jews across time and space. Instead of a United States, we find ourselves living in a nation divided and struggling, between right and left, between coast and heartland, Democrat and Republican, Liberal and Conservative, elite and ordinary, between degree holders and those who opt for a GED.
Among my peers, I hear talk, half jokingly, about where to go now, Canada or New Zealand. Among young people, there is worry about being drafted into the armed services and the choices about that they might be faced with in the future. And among elders, there is frustration, bewilderment and resignation.
Now that two weeks have passed, I am beginning to believe there is something about which Reform Jews can be cautiously optimistic: the conversation about how moral values won the 2004 election. We've all heard it now digested in the media in many ways that of all the factors that led people to cast their votes-the war in Iraq, the state of the economy, jobs, health care- a statistically significant number of people reported that they voted on the basis of moral values, however vaguely they defined that. Perhaps it is an efficient coping mechanism, but I am beginning to feel that as a rabbi, I should take this revelation as music to the ears, even though I came out on the losing side of the election.
How refreshing it is to learn that millions of middle income Americans voted against their own economic interests in search of a leader to respond to a deeper set of needs. That more and more people are feeling betrayed by our society which seems to place materialism and selfishness above moral values. Instead, these elections proved that people are yearning for far more than a creed which believes solely and to the exclusion of all else in 'looking out for number one.' There is a whole group of people in this country who need and are pursuing a societal message which looks beyond the self to something which connects them to one another in the bonds of community and to the possibility of connecting with a transcendent purpose.
My only problem, as a left wing, East Coast, liberal, degree-holding Democrat is that this kind of dialogue has only been welcome, present and developed with some sophistication over the last two decades within one side of the political landscape, and it is not mine.
If we are honest with ourselves, what many of us may be uncomfortable with is not talk about God or spirituality, but how the conversation has been undertaken thus far. When religious communities have spoken about preserving family values in America, the debate has not centered around ensuring all our children receive a public education which teaches them the kind of generosity, gratitude, caring for others while inspiring awe and wonder of the world and learning that would mirror the best messages we are giving our children at home. The family values conversation thus far has been about preserving one kind of family, denying gays the right to get married, and limiting access to artistic expression and freedom of speech for the 'sake of our children.'
When religious communities have in the past talked about a transforming this country into one which lives by a culture of life, the conversation has not been about the inconsistent and discriminatory use of the death penalty, or the fact that we deny millions of children in this country health care, policies that hinder the lives of actual human beings. Instead the conversation about life has been intensely centered on protection of fetuses and embryos, lives only in potential, lives which if brought to actuality at present would lack the social services and economic supports necessary to sustain their lives.
And what if religious communities developed a public debate about the destructive environmental policies our country is pursuing with such vigor that are destroying God�s earth upon which we human beings rely, and are at our core called to be responsible stewards. And what if we were to develop a religious conversation about greed, at this time in our country when the gap is widening between the haves and have nots and the living wage is at a forty year low.
As Rabbi Michael Lerner has written, 'Liberals, trapped in a long-standing disdain for religion and tone-deaf to the spiritual needs that underlie the move to the Right, have been unable to engage voters in a serious dialogue. Rightly angry at the way that some religious communities have been mired in authoritarianism, racism, sexism and homophobia, the liberal world has developed such a knee-jerk hostility to religion that it has both marginalized those many people on the Left who actually do have spiritual yearning and simultaneously refused to acknowledge that many who move to the Right have legitimate complaints about the ethos of selfishness in American life.
We have the power to make this election the wake up call made just for Reform Judaism, the brand of Judaism which has always been comfortable hearing and heeding the words of the prophets in our political discourse, the movement which can articulate and mobilize itself to advocate for a public religious discussion which is compelling and inclusive. It cannot be liberal ideology as usual. It must contain the substance of religious mandate and an interest in connecting people with one another and with that with a sacred mission.
This kind of liberal religious political agenda will have an edge over the current religious political debate, in that it will be one and which is welcoming and has as its basis tolerance and building community. This is the time for American Reform Judaism to step to the plate and offer a strong political discourse that echoes the foundational philosophy of this country --allowing every one to have his own belief, as long as he behaves quietly and legally, gives no offense to his neighbor and does not oppose the government. But more than that, as I spoke about on Kol Nidre, we have to reclaim and lift up the spirit that welcomed us here that presence of Jews and others is a critical part of the social and religious character of America.
America is richer and healthier for welcoming other countries 'tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free,' (Emma Lazarus) no matter what their religious identity. In 1790, after the American Revolution, it was the Jews of Newport who articulated for George Washington a vision of America as a place that gives bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. You and I are the inheritors and beneficiaries of that vision of an America built on the twin foundations of diversity and democracy. Our Jewish predecessors in this land understood that something new and great was in the making and that within it they could find their place and build Jewish communities that live those values in the world. We need to be proactive to prevent the powerful forces of one religious community from dividing America, and stripping our country of its pluralistic and religiously tolerant character, using the legislative and judicial processes to impose their particular values on everyone.
And we have to do it from a place of religious conviction, which means we have to start living that kind of community right here. We, Reform Jews, with all our experiences marching for civil rights, women's rights and human rights are the best equipped to be the banner holders for the newest fight in the political discourse, denying exclusivity of values as anti-American by embracing the religious conversation in this synagogue and outside of it, in our lives. If a small band of 23 Jews could play such an important role in the development of pluralism in our country 350 years ago, today we, the most powerful, educated and sophisticated Jewish community must find the strength to protect and extend the boundaries of religious debate and tolerance.
The ending of God's oracle to Rebecca about the two nations struggling within her womb is, 'v'rav ya'avod tza-eer,' which is always translated, 'the older, (meaning Esau,) will serve the younger, (Jacob.)' As Richard Elliot Friedman points out, in Biblical Hebrew, the subject may either precede or follow the verb. What that means is that sometimes it is impossible to tell which word in a Biblical verse is the subject and which is the object, especially if the verse is in poetry. That is the case in this oracle to Rebecca. It can mean: 'the elder will serve the younger.' But it can equally mean, 'the elder the younger will serve.'
Like the Delphic oracles in Greece, this prediction contains two opposite meanings, and thus Rebecca can hear whatever she wants (consciously or subconsciously) to hear. If the election is our oracle, we, too, can hear whatever we want to hear. That moral values are dangerous to us a Jews, or that we need to embrace and refine the conversation about moral values so that we are included in them. We can see our country divided and fractured, or we can begin to envision a country united in spirit, purpose and mission to make our world and country a better, kinder, safer place to live.
Kein yehi razon. Amen.
