Here is the sermon that I delivered last Friday Night at Shabbat services about the link between Idolatry and Guns.
Parashat Yitro: Fear and Flight
Rabbi Joseph R. Black
Temple Emanuel, Denver, CO
February 1, 2013
My Dear Friends,
On this Shabbat we stand
together at Mt. Sinai.
Our tradition teaches that
Sinai was a moment of absolute clarity.
At Sinai there were no doubts.
God’s presence was absolute.
God appeared.
God’s voice was heard.
The people SAW and HEARD.
At that moment – all was
complete – the true meaning of Shalom -
Wholeness – was brought into the world.
In Exodus 20:15, we find the
following verse:
V’chol ha-am Ro-im et ha kolot v’et ha-la-pi-dim.
And all the people “Ro-im” the thunder and
the lightning.
I didn’t translate the word Ro-im because grammatically it seems out
of place. It comes from the Hebrew root,
resh, aleph, heh which means “to
see.” But the the text is full of
contradictions;
1st of all – it is
written in the present tense – it is described, not as an historical event –
but as an Eternal Now – revelation is happening all around us – all the time. In this sense, the translation is: “And all the people are seeing the thunder
and the lightning. In this context, what
happened at Sinai was not in the past, but occurs all the time. Just as the
Israelites saw the events then – we – their descendants – still witness them
today.
Secondly – how do we See
Thunder?
Some commentators state that this
means that the awareness was so complete that it transcended physicality – the
ability to see and to hear became intertwined.
There was total understanding – total acceptance.
But then… the text
continues…the people fell back and stood at at distance. “you speak to us!” They said to Moses “and we
will obey, but let not God speak to us- lest we die!”
The people were too overcome
by the experience to allow it to last longer than a brief moment. They couldn’t take it all in…
There are many midrashim on
the ten commandments – one says that this moment of supreme awareness occurred only during the 1st commandment – Anochi H’ Elohecha’ - I am Adonai Your
God – which truly is not a commandment – but a statement of fact.
Others say that the only word
that the Israelites heard was Anochi –
“I”.
Others say that all that was
heard was the first letter of the first word, “Anochi” – the letter Aleph
which, as most of you know – has no sound at all – it is the beginning of sound
- the sound of taking a breath…. Even that was too much.
Have there ever been moments
in your life when everything was absolutely clear – when you knew what you were
seeing, hearing, experiencing? When you
knew what your task was to be in life?
When you were overwhelmed with joy:
·
Under the
chuppah?
·
At a Bar/Bat
Mitzvah
·
A Conversion
ceremony?
·
A Graduation?
·
At the birth of a
child?
But there are other times
when our sense are overloaded – times of tragedy and fear:
·
At the funeral of
a loved one?
·
Perhaps on an
airplane- in the midst of turbulence
·
Or on a cart as
you are being wheeled into surgery?
·
Or after the
airbags deploy in your car…..
These moments of joy, of
fear, of passion…bring a clarity of purpose to our lives. Ideally, they can move us to find ways to
change our actions, our perceptions, our purpose.
Sometimes they do – and
sometimes they don’t.
Sometimes they linger with
for a long time – most of the time, they quickly disappear.
Sometimes we see things a
little bit differently – for a while =- but then slowly, almost imperceptibly,
we revert back to old patterns of behaviors and beliefs.
As a people –we experienced
this type of moment at Sinai.
As Americans – we have experienced
it as well:
·
July 4 1776
·
November 22. 1963
– the day that John Kennedy was shot
·
10 years ago
today – when the Challenger disaster occurred –
·
8 years ago when
our 1st African American president was sworn in and then four years
later, on the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King
·
And just two
months ago – on the 7th day of Chanukah – December 14th,
a deranged gunman shot his way into a Connecticut school room and massacred 20
children and 6 adults after shooting his mother and then killing himself with
high-powered automatic weapons
It has been a little over 6
weeks since the events of Sandy Hook united our nation in grief and
disbelief. For a brief moment – we all
stood together as we cried our pain and sorrow.
It has been a little over 6
months since the Aurora Tragedy.
How long did it take until
the shock and pain of these events brought us back to ‘business as usual?”
Just last week, there were
several incidents of violence involving guns and automatic weapons. They filled our headlines for a day – but
then, things went back to normal….or what we want to FEEL is normal.
I have to say, when I saw the
lead story on the news last night about how Wal Mart stores in Denver are
rationing ammunitions sales, I felt a little sick to my stomach.
When I read that permits for
concealed carrying of handguns in Colorado are at such a high demand that in
some counties, a lottery is being set up to determine who can apply on each
day…
When I read of how the Gun
Lobby is sending out urgent messages to its followers – urging them to buy as
many guns as they can – before the laws change to restrict their “Right to bear
arms….”
I am sad – and, yes, I am angry.
What kind of sick reasoning
uses the tragic deaths of innocent children to promote the purchase of weapons
designed for no other purpose than to kill as quickly and efficiently as
possible – the very weapons that were used to slaughter innocents in Aurora,
Sandy Hook, on the streets of our cities and in schools, houses of worship and
too many other places to mention?
At Sinai – we stood as one –
afraid and united by the prospect of a new Revelation. But it didn’t last. We couldn’t take it. We told Moses to intervene – we were too
frail.
Moses ascended the Mountain
and, 40 days later, we were building a Golden Calf.
The third of the 10 commandments
prohibits the practice of idolatry.
Idolatry, by definition, is
the worship of that which is not Divine.
We commit idolatry when we focus our values, our attention, our passion
on items,
or even ideas that detract and deflect us from the pathway that God has
set out before us.
There is no doubt in my mind that the so-called “Gun
Culture” that the NRA and other groups promote is a nefarious and deadly form
of idolatry.
Simply put: too many men and
women in our nation worship guns. The
gun lobby claims that it is protecting our freedom – our ability to defend
ourselves against an enemy that crouches just around the corner. But the freedom that they claim to protect
comes with a price – the price of the death of innocents so that some can feel
powerful with their hands wrapped around a trigger.
Now I know that guns are not
responsible for all evil.
I know that there are many
people – perhaps even here tonight – who own guns and are responsible, law
abiding citizens.
I know that access to mental
health care and treatment is an important goal that we must pursue – one that
we, a congregation are actively engaged in bringing to the attention of our
community and its leadership.
[I
want to encourage everyone here tonight to attend our community forum on mental
health sponsored by our HESED community organizing effort that will take place
on March 3rd at 5:00 PM]
But when fear and
intimidation are the tools that are used to protect the freedom to possess
machines that are designed to kill; and when the deaths of innocent children
are used as a tool to promote the sale of guns, I believe we have strayed too
far from the purpose of our freedom in the first place.
At Sinai we all stood
together – if only for a moment.
We heard God’s voice and
understood that with freedom comes responsibility and responsibility comes with purpose
and that our purpose is to be a holy people – created in the image of God.
We cannot allow our society
to succumb to the Golden Calf of fear.
We need to remember the
moments when we were united – in our anger and our grief…in our pride and our
passion…in our hope and our hunger for justice, peace and a vision of a better
world without violence.
We need to go back to that
moment – when we are hearing and seeing and feeling God’s presence.
That is our task. We can do no less.
Shabbat Shalom.
