Our Brokenness is A Pathway to Holiness: Reflections on Violence and Sedition in Our Nation’s Capital

 

Remarks Delivered at an Interfaith Service For Peace

January 7, 2021

Dear Friends,

Tonight, we are in a collective state of shock. We have come looking for hope and peace in a world where everything we know has been turned upside down.

Tonight, we are isolated physically because of this insidious pandemic. But we are also isolated spiritually as we relive the experience of watching in horror as our sacred Governmental institutions and rituals have been desecrated.

We come to this service tonight looking for two distinct things:  Community and Perspective.

We need community when we feel alone and afraid. Certainly, the images of violent hooligans – with racist and hateful messages - running through the halls of congress can easily bring on despair.

But we also need perspective.  We cannot allow these events to color our vision of hope for what our nation and our world should and must be.

In Jewish tradition, each week we read a different portion of scripture – of Torah – that takes us through the entire 5 books of Moses during a calendar year.  This week, we begin a new chapter – the Book of Exodus – that tells the story of the enslavement and liberation of the Israelites.

There is a Midrash – a Rabbinic exegesis - of Exodus 1:13 that speaks of how Pharaoh enslaved the Israelites with ruthlessness. The Hebrew word for ruthlessness that is found in our text is “Farech.” Commenting on Farech, the ancient rabbis used a play on words to teach an important lesson.

They split Farech into two separate words: “Feh” and “Rach”. “Feh” (or Peh) means “mouth,” and “Rach” means “gentle.”  In other words, Pharaoh used “Gentle speech” to oppress the Israelites.

The Rabbis, in the Midrash, wrote of how Pharaoh was deceptive in his plan for enslavement.  They said that he initially worked alongside of the Israelites making bricks. He partnered with them as if to show that this was a glorious and patriotic project for all of Egypt.

Eventually, Pharaoh stopped working with the Israelites and appointed Taskmasters in his place.  Then he established increasingly high quotas that were impossible to fulfill – punishing those who could not keep up. Gradually, the language of partnership devolved into that of enslavement. By then, it was too late.

You see, an atmosphere of oppression does not happen overnight.

It begins slowly - with soft words that focus on patriotism and glorification.

And then, things begin to change. Those who wish to do harm grow bolder and more aggressive.  They “test the waters” to see who will stop them – when no one speaks up, they add more and more pressure to accomplish their goals.

The insidiousness of this technique is that in the beginning, the perpetrators of this deception can say – if confronted - “It was only words. I can’t control what people will do with them!”

What happened yesterday in our nation’s capital began with words from our President and his enablers such as:

o   Patriotism

o   Standing up for American Values

o   Protecting our Democracy

But the meaning and intent of those words were very clear: To inspire and provoke the most radical elements and to give a green light to criminals bent on disrupting one of the most sacred ceremonies in our nation – the smooth and peaceful transition of power from one administration to the next.

The violence that erupted yesterday afternoon did not take place in a vacuum or overnight. It was not the result of one political party – rather, it was a logical culmination of 4 years of deliberate provocation and manipulation at the hands of those whose main concern was consolidating and controlling power.

My friends, tonight we come together to pray for peace. But peace is not easy. It also is not stable. It needs to be nurtured, protected, and constantly monitored. We also need to call out those who will disrupt peace – we must stop them in their tracks as they use whatever means they have to impose their will upon us.

We know that there have always been and always will be those who will look for cracks in the foundation of our sacred democratic principles - and who will find ways to manipulate those cracks to isolate and denigrate the foundations of decency that must be in place if we are to claim to be an ethical society.   

One of the images that has stuck with me as I reflect on the violence that we witnessed in real time yesterday afternoon was the broken glass in our Capital. The thugs who invaded our Capitol broke windows and created havoc as they invaded our sacred space.

As a Jew, as the son of a mother who fled Nazi Germany in December of 1938, the images of broken glass littering the floors of our State Capitol is especially jarring. The night of November 9^th, 1938, Hitler’s thugs went on a planned rampage – a Pogrom -throughout Germany. They burned synagogues and ransacked Jewish-owned businesses.  That event became known as Kristallnacht – ­the “Night of Broken Glass” because of the image of all of the glass that littered the streets of Germany. In addition to being the beginning of the end of European Jewry, Krystallnacht also was a way for Hitler to “test the waters” of world opinion. He wanted to see how other nations would react to an act of violence and provocation.  The silence that flowed from the Capitals of the civilized world served as a green light for Hitler’s plan of genocide that we now call the Shoah, or the Holocaust.

Thankfully, we have learned from history. The broken glass that desecrated the halls of Congress has not been ignored. Our presence here tonight is a testimony to the fact that we will not allow this evil to stand unchecked. 

Tonight we condemn the cracks in the system.  We call out:

• The cracks in the windows - worn down by violence and persistence;
• The cracks in the systems of policing that allowed this to happen;
• The cracks in the narrative of the power of our constitution to prevent something like this from happening;
• The cracks in communication that has allowed lies and conspiracy theories to serve as motivators for hatred and violence.

There always will be cracks – but as the late great, songwriter, Leonard Cohen wrote in his powerful ballad, Anthem:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

 

My friends, tonight we come looking for peace. But we also know that the path to peace lies in picking up the pieces of our brokenness and using them to rebuild a better tomorrow.

We believe in a God who is good.

We believe that we were created for the purpose of shining the light of God in the world.

And when darkness occurs – our task – as people of faith – as citizens of a great nation – is to shine that light through the cracks and illuminate the brokenness around us – and rebuild so that we might be stronger

May we succeed in all our sacred endeavors.

AMEN