My Words At the Rally Celebrating Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom Petition "Turn In Day"

Today was a vitally important day in the struggle to ensure Abortion Care for all in Colorado. Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom is a coalition of faith leaders, community activists and concerned citizens who have been working to ensure that Reproductive Health Care will be affordable and available to all citizens of our State.  I was asked to speak last January at the kickoff rally for the initiative to gather signatures to enshrine this right in our State Constitution and place it on the ballot in November,  Today, I spoke at the rally celebrating the successful completion of this initiative.  These are my words:

My name is Rabbi Joseph Black.  I serve as Senior Rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Denver. I stand here today to celebrate the fact that we have gathered enough signatures to ensure that the voters of our state will be able to enshrine abortion access in the Colorado State Constitution this coming November. I have come to speak because, in addition to strongly supporting the right for all to have access to health care, this is also personal.  When my wife and I decided to get married 35 years ago, we looked forward to raising our children in a home filled with love and Jewish tradition.   As a rabbi, I had worked with many couples in preparation for marriage and I knew that since both of us were Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews, there was a slight possibility that one or both of us might carry the gene for Tay-Sachs – a rare, incurable genetic disorder that results in a painful and gruesome death - usually within five years of birth.  Both my wife, Sue, and I discovered that we were carriers of Tay-Sachs. Thankfully, 33 years ago, in 1991, we were blessed by the birth of our healthy daughter. 

Our luck changed with our second pregnancy, however. To hear from our doctor that the embryo that we so desperately wanted to bring to term had a fatal disease was devastating.  Thankfully, at that time, abortion was legal and safe.  As difficult as it was to say goodbye to the hopes and dreams of a second baby, the thought of having to care for and eventually bury a suffering child was unpalatable.  Termination of the pregnancy was the obvious choice. I thank God and modern medicine that we have two healthy children and a beautiful 9-month old grandchild.

I stand here today in support of this initiative because I believe strongly that government should never put itself in a position to legislate how people can care for their own bodies. Abortion care is health care.

In the book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 30, verse 19, we find the following text that is often used against abortion rights. It reads as follows:

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life, that you and your descendants may live! 

The words, “choose life” are quite powerful.  But they also can be spun and defined in a variety of ways. They can used to motivate us to live to our highest potential – choosing God’s loftiest ideals for our daily living and the choices we make, or they can be used as a weapon to narrowly define an agenda of intolerance.

There are too many individuals and organizations who want to impose their own fundamentalist and draconian definition of when life begins – For those who oppose Abortion Care, this means that the government has both the ability and responsibility to legislate individual’s bodies without regard to personal freedom, physical or mental health, abuse, rape, or economic hardship.

For me – the words, “Choose Life” mean that as humans blessed with the precious gift of life, we have a responsibility to live our lives in ways that affirm the highest aspirations of humanity.  It does not mean imposing our narrow understandings of life’s questions, traumas, and values on others – nor does it disavow us from disagreeing on the many complex paradoxes with which we are confronted on a daily basis.

The passions that inflame anti-Abortion advocates cross the line of healthy disagreement and enter dangerous authoritarian oppression of some of the most vulnerable in our midst. My wife and I, due to our outspoken support of Abortion rights have been targeted by activists with vile threats and condemnation of our personal choices.

To choose to terminate a pregnancy is not easy – but there are times when it is absolutely the correct thing to do. It is essential that such a decision should be made by individual people – who may or may not choose to consult with family (whenever possible), or clergy, or counselors or even God. But we have no right to legislate their personal and painful choices. WE also must ensure that the current ban on State funds covering the costs of abortion care is eliminated. Everyone should have access to health care.  Proposition 89will ensure that abortion will be safe, legal, accessible and affordable to all. Enshrining Abortion care in the Colorado State Constitution will help to ensure that every citizen of our state will have the right to make medical decisions free from government interference into the most intimate aspects of our lives. Anything else is antithetical to the foundation of the separation of religion and state upon which our nation was founded and for which too many have died.

Thank you.

6 Months After October 7th: Two Different Kinds of Fire

In the Torah portion that we read last shabbat, Parashat Shemini, we come across a strange and previously unknown concept – that of אש זרה (Eysh Zara) – a “strange fire”  offered up by Aaron’s sons. According to our text, Nadav and Abihu brought their firepans to the altar after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was dedicated and proffered an offering to God that had not been commanded.

As a result of this action, a fire from the heavens descended and they died at the hand of God.

This story is unsettling for many reasons.  It is brutal, sudden and unexpected.  It doesn’t seem to be fair. It’s also incomplete .  We don’t truly understand what the fire was and why Nadav and Abihu deserved such a horrific punishment.

Over the centuries, commentators have debated the meaning of the fire and the circumstances that brought such a horrific punishment. Responses range from portraying Aaron’s sons as hungry for power, to being religious zealots – so overcome by their exposure to God that they acted impulsively.

The basic idea behind every explanation is that there had to be a compelling reason for their punishment.  After all, God doesn’t act impulsively, right?

But what if there isn’t?  What if the deaths of Aaron’s sons were just a series of tragic events that led to catastrophe that had no real rationale or reason?

Or even worse – what if this story is a parable about the inevitability of violence, death and destruction in our world?

As we look at the world today and see how tragedies occur all around us - all the time, it becomes increasingly compelling to view the Eysh Zara as a horrific, mysterious event without explanation.  To try and rationalize tragedy places us in murky moral waters. The truth is, we can see potential alien fires all around us.

It has been six months since the tragedy of October 7^th. During this time, we have born witness to the destructive and devastating fire of the Hamas Terrorists who burned, beat, raped, kidnapped and murdered innocent Israelis: at a music festival, in their homes, on the battlefield and, in the process, ripped  hole into the soul of the State of Israel and the Jewish people around the world.

The fires that raged at Kibbutz Beiri, Kfar Aza, the Nova music festival and the entire Gaza envelope continue their destructive path to this very day.

Everywhere we look, we can see Eysh Zarah – “Strange Fire”:  

• The fires of war and the need to respond to the horrors of October 7^th – to rescue the hostages and ensure that Hamas’ infrastructure will be destroyed.
• The fires of hatred – the anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism that had been laying dormant and now have been re-ignited by a coordinated campaign: on the streets of our cities, on the internet, in college campuses and high school classrooms, in legislative halls and public events, activists are using the horrors of this war to justify their hateful rhetoric and simplistic canards that draw ignorant followers to repeat chants and enact legislation calling for the destruction of the State of Israel. So many innocents and ignorant young people are playing into the hands of the most radical regime in the world – Iran – and it’s proxies: Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
• The fires of fear and mistrust that many of those who were born in the past 50 years do not know first-hand – but are built into the inter-generational trauma that has been a part of our people from generation to  generation.

One thing about fire that we all know – especially here in the west where wildfires are a constant menace – is that once it is started, it tends to rage, grow and become increasingly difficult to extinguish.

Fire can and often does burn uncontrollably – and innocent lives are lost in the midst of the blaze.

War rages like fire. It cannot be controlled.  The loss of life on both sides of this horrific conflict increases exponentially:  from soldiers killed in the line of duty, to innocent civilians caught up in the crossfire; From terrorists who hide in the midst of the civilian population and who gain power with every death of a non-combatant; to aid workers who are killed as the result of horrific, inexcusable mistakes by the IDF – as we saw this past week with the tragic deaths of the World Food Kitchen volunteers.

This week marks six months of war in Gaza. What began as a clear and just counterattack against a vicious enemy who committed horrific acts of terror, murder, rape and violence has morphed into something else – an Eysh Zarah – a strange fire that has taken on a life of its own – destroying everything in its path:

Yes – much of Hamas’ infrastructure has been dismantled, but this has taken place at a cost of tens of thousands of lives. It also has bred more terror:  each family that has lost a loved one has also gained additional searing hatred for Israel as a result of their tragedy.  This in turn, is fertile ground for new recruits for Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

With each death of innocents, with every building that is destroyed, the ideology of Hamas – flamed by Iran and its proxies - grows stronger

The hunger that has engulfed the Palestinian people rages like wildfire

The grief of Israelis: those who have lost loved ones; those who wait in agony for news of their captive family members; those whose children fight in the streets of Gaza – also burns and destroys

The voices of hundreds of thousands of citizens protesting in the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and almost every major city in Israel – demanding new elections and a reckoning from both the Government and the IDF for the mistakes that have been made and an end to racist, authoritarian and self-serving governance burns stronger every day as well

Maybe this is the lesson of the Eysh Zarah – the strange and destructive fires that we- as human beings ignite in order to show our strength, hatred and desire to control that which is uncontrollable…

There is another example of a burning fire in the Torah that appears to be a counterbalance to the blaze that consumed Aaron’s sons – that of the Burning bush encountered by Moses on Mt. Sinai. When Moses received his call from the midst of the flames, he understood that the fire that was burning was not destructive – but rather, it was a divine call for service and hope.

At this sober 6 month anniversary, may we find the strength to look into the fire – and not see hatred, but, perhaps, like Moses Mt. Sinai – see a bush that burns and is not consumed – sending a message of peace and hope.

Ken Yehi Ratzon – May this be God’s Will.

AMEN

 

Opening Prayer for the CO State House During a Holy Season - April 4, 2023

 

Our God and the God of all people:

God of the Left and God of the Right

God of the Judged and God of the Jurist

God of the Doubter and God of the Driven

God of those who have no God:

We are living in troubled times. We are part of a nation divided and a legislative body that finds it difficult to come together in spite of our differences. Divisions and distrust permeate everything that happens in this sacred space.

And yet - buried beneath the layers of legislation and protocol that consume every elected official, advisor, clerk, officer and servant of this chamber is a seed of hope – waiting to germinate and blossom into legislation that lifts up the Springtime possibility of promise.

We stand together at a sacred time for the Jewish, Christian and Muslim Communities.  The messages of rebirth and renewal that are central to the festivals of Passover and Easter compel us to find hope in times of trauma. The blessings of inner devotion and dedication to renewed moral and spiritual understanding underpin Ramadan’s fasts and celebrations.

How can we channel the values, spiritual depth and promise of this sacred time for three of the world’s great religions?

Perhaps, those who have been charged with leading our State and creating and protecting its laws - and all who labor to support them – should see how blessed they are with the potential to make a difference.

And so - may any arguments that arise be for the sake of Heaven.

Bless this house, O God. May enmity provoke aspiration.

May conflict dissolve into communion.

And may we all find Your presence in our lives as we witness the rebirth and renewal of this sacred season.

AMEN