The Shofar, Temple Beth El’s monthly publication, keeps community and temple members up to date on what’s going on. Take a look at this month’s Shofar to see what’s coming up or browse through the archives to see all that we’ve done!
| LETTER FROM |
| THE RABBI |
A Labor Day Message for the Month of September
In 1942, the Union Prayer Book which Reform Jews used in one form or another as their Siddur (Prayer Book) for over 50 years, included the following prayer, the perfect lead for this wonderful month that includes Labor Day:
| O Lord, though we are prone to seek favors for ourselves alone, yet when we come into Thy presence, we are lifted above petty thoughts of self. We become ashamed of our littleness and are made to feel that we can worship Thee in holiness only as we serve our brothers in love. How much we owe to the labors of our brothers! Day by day they dig far away from the sun that we may be warm, enlist in outposts of peril that we may be secure and brave the terrors of the unknown for truths that shed light on our way. Numberless gifts and blessings have been laid in our cradles as our birthright. Let us then, O Lord, be just and great-hearted in our dealings with our fellowmen, sharing with them the fruit of our common labor, acknowledging before Thee that we are but stewards of whatever we possess. Help us to be among those who are willing to sacrifice that others may not hunger, who dare to be bearers of light in the dark loneliness of stricken lives, who struggle and even bleed for the triumph of righteousness among men. So may we be co-workers with Thee in the building of Thy kingdom which has been our vision and goal through the ages. (UPB, Cincinnati, p. 45, bold added for emphasis) |
What a remarkable text! The Jewish community, overwhelmingly guided by leaders in the Northeast and far, far away from mines, identified with the struggles of hardworking coal miners who provided them with energy. What’s truly remarkable about this text is the extremely low likelihood that many of these miners were even Jewish; Reform Jews stood by the principle that all human beings—whether Jewish or not, whether politically aligned or not, whether educated or not, whether wealthy or not—were inherently created B’tzelem E-lohim, in the Divine Image. It has always guided our vision of justice, to invest in all of humanity. I personally believe that the immense success that Jews have had as inventors of many disciplines—psychology, sociology, anthropology, to name a few—stems from the bible’s reminder, “Love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
This month, as we read Deuteronomy and wind down our year of Torah, the year 5784, we will read another sacred text that reminds us of our core purpose on this planet:
צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף לְמַ֤עַן תִּֽחְיֶה֙
Justice, Justice shall you pursue, so that you may live (Dt. 16:20)
Again, the text does not qualify justice as only applying to Jews; justice for non-Jews, too. Dare I say that it is required of us?
It is tricky to be both a universalist and a particularist, especially in this world in which Jews are experiencing antisemitic and antizionist rhetoric at levels unseen in decades, with Israel’s existence hanging in the balance. How do we embrace our Jewishness while celebrating our coexistence with all the other peoples of the planet? This is not really a parochial question; every minority in America must ask themselves a variation of this question, especially when targeted as different, as outsiders.
The American Jewish answer has always been to lean into our uniqueness while we celebrate others’ uniqueness, too. Jews are said to vote against their own self-interest for the sake of others, over and over, more than any other group in America. I consider this remarkable, a blessing, and a gift, that we feel invested in others’ wellbeing without it being a quid pro quo. Today, with a war raging in Gaza, it is harder than ever to remember this principle, that we do what is right whether others like us or not. This is very hard to do, but it is what our people have always done.
So as I celebrate Labor Day this month, I celebrate the blessing of being part of a community that has figured out a balance between self-interest and selflessness, in such a way that we have become an Or L’goyim, a “light unto the nations” (cf. Isaiah 49:6). Hillel said it famously, and I taught it to our students at religious school: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”
| May we continue to celebrate the blessings of every person’s contributions to our planet. | |
| May we measure our love for others not based on their similarity to us, but rather on their inherent worth. | |
| May we Love our Neighbors as Ourselves. | |
| And may we forever pursue justice for all. |
As I have said to my children when I dropped them off at school, I now say to you: I love you. Learn a lot. Be a mensch.
Rabbi Jonathan Klein
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