A Prayer in the Shadow of Violence: Invocation for the CO State House 3/21/13

A Prayer in the Shadow of Violence:

Invocation for the CO State House

March 21, 2013

Rabbi Joseph R. Black

Our God and God of all people,

We are weeping here in Colorado- can You hear us?

Once again, our State is reeling from a senseless act of brutality.  We mourn the loss of Tom Clements, director of the Colorado Department of Corrections – who was shot and killed this past Tuesday night at his home.

Whatever the circumstances surrounding this tragedy may come to be, we feel powerless and angry as, once again we confront the reality of a seemingly endless spiral of violence that plagues our communities: from Columbine, to Aurora and now, to Monument.

Here – in this chamber, the debates over gun control and violence prevention have  raged.  New laws have been enacted and signed replete with controversy. 

On our streets - tempers have flared.  Accusations have been bandied about.

But nothing has changed – if anything, the increasingly hostile rhetoric - within these walls, in the press and in public - has served to fan the flames of passion on all sides.

And so we pray:  Help us to channel our grief O God.

Give us the strength to feel shocked, angered, and resolute in our determination to forge partnerships and paths that might lead to hope and healing.

We know that there is no simple solution – and yet we also cannot rest while murder and bloodshed become commonplace on our streets, in our schools, our public places and our homes.

Let these legislators serve as role models - as beacons of balance as they labor to bring about a new era of tolerance and tenacity.   

Let them see the good in one another and put an end to the demonization of both person and party that leaches into the hearts and minds of our citizens.

At this sad and somber time we pray that any conflicts that arise during the course of deliberation might serve to elevate the sacred in our souls. 

May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to You O God – our Rock and our Redeemer[i].

Amen

---

[i] Psalm 19:14

Testimony Against the Death Penalty in Colorado

This afternoon, I will be testifying before the Colorado House Judiciary Committee about my support of House Bill --  HB 1264, Repeal of the Death Penalty.  Below is the text of my remarks:

 

Statement on Capital Punishment

Rabbi Joseph R. Black

Colorado House Judiciary Committee

March 19, 2013

 

As a Rabbi, as a Jew, as a person of faith, I am taught to see the holy in every human being.  I believe, with all my heart and soul that God has placed all of us here for a reason – and that reason is to make the world a better place. 

There is evil in this world.  We have seen it – many of us here today have experienced it first hand.  There are bad people in this world.  They commit horrible crimes.  For me, the central issue is surrounding the death penalty revolves not around how we see the most evil elements of society - but how we perceive ourselves. Are we going to allow our fear of crime, our desire for vengeance, our bottom line mentality to govern how we conduct ourselves?  Capital punishment is a quick fix - it may be popular with voters – it may make some people feel that “something is being done” - but ultimately, I believe that it lessens our own humanity when we take the life of another person.

Today you will hear about moral, economic, psychological and legal reasons why the death penalty should be abolished.  These are all valid and important.  But my reasons for opposing it are based on my understanding of myself and all of us as spiritual beings.

Those who have committed atrocities need to be punished.  There are some men and women who, as a result of their crimes, cannot be a part of a civilized society.  But, I firmly believe, one of the prices of being “civilized” is taking on a responsibility to act in a way that is consistent with our own internal holiness.

All religious traditions teach that one day humanity will be judged.  I believe that our judgment will not merely revolve around how we treated the best elements of our society – but how we treated the worst elements of our society.  The price we pay for living in a civilized, moral community is living with the fact that we cannot totally eliminate evil.  But we can assert that we will not allow ourselves to stoop to the level of those who wreak havoc, fear and despair in our lives.  We should not allow ourselves to become like them.

While the Bible certainly makes provisions for Capital punishment, over the centuries, the ancient and modern Rabbis of my tradition have nullified these laws and made it virtually impossible to implement the Death Penalty. 

The only time that the Israeli court system ever instituted the death penalty was in 1962 – when Adolph Eichman  – the architect of the Nazi Final solution – was put to death - and even his execution was highly controversial and is being debated to this day.

In the book of Genesis we learn that we are all created in the Image of God.  There is a spark of holiness inside every human being. All life is holy - even that of the most damaged and evil members of our society. When we take a life - whether that life has committed murder or not - we are diminishing the image of God.  Yes, the murderer has done the same - but the fact that we claim to be a moral society calls us to rise above our desire for vengeance and understand that one act of murder does not make up for another.

Killing human beings can never be justified as a just punishment for who are we to act in God’s stead?

Thank you for your consideration.

Opening Prayer for the CO State House - 3/14/13

Opening Prayer for the State House of Colorado

March 14, 2013

Rabbi Joseph R. Black – Temple Emanuel - Denver

Our God and God of all people:

We come to you this morning from many different traditions and cultures. You reveal many truths – it is our task to hear and heed them.

Merciful Creator, guide these Legislators as they go about their sacred work. May any conflicts that arise in the course of deliberation be seen as a reflection of diversity and not a cause for demonization.

Holy One of Blessing – help our leaders to see the good in one other – and let that goodness triumph over partisanship.

Help them to give faces to the faceless and hope to the hopeless.

May this day bring out the best in these men and women who have been sent here to bring about change.

Our God – though your presence is often illusive, we can see you in the longings of our hearts.  Some of us seek prosperity – others simply want a place to lay their heads in warmth and safety.

Some can find you in the hope for a better tomorrow.

 

Others – in the ability to feed their family today.

We have heard you in moments of wonder – when men, women and children have rejoiced in newfound freedom and acceptance.

We have sought your presence in the midst of debate and in the messy process of legislation.

On this day of deliberation, let us pray that our leaders and officials might find You within themselves. 

·         May they find You in their ability to hear one other – to respect one other – to do the sacred work of governing our State of Colorado.

·         May they find You in satisfaction that comes from hard work and due deliberation.

·         May they come to know You as they come to know each other – and respect the skills that each brings to the floor of debate.

·         May their discussions give way to a higher sense of purpose and understanding – and along the way, may it elucidate and elevate the decisions that are to be made.

We thank you for these men and women who serve our great state of Colorado.  Guide their deliberations with purpose and an awareness of the sacred.

And let us say,

AMEN

 

Poem: Akiva

Akiva*

Perched atop a darkened snowy roof
Night after night
He maintains his tenuous grip.
Shivering, steadying himself with thoughts of Eternity
He listens intently, envying the discourse
Unfolding beneath his whitened knuckles.

Below,
Warmed by the hearth-light,
The bearded ones busy themselves
In endless argument.
Encircled by rhetorical flourish,
Oblivious to the desperate balancing act
Occurring above their heads.

Truth-seeking all too often requires climbing.

Teachers must be ladders -
Bridging the gap between
The seekers and the sought
The tangled and the knot
Things remembered and forgot.

With each precious rung:
Words, laughter, praise, rebuke
They raise us up to loftier vistas.

Akiva, as the story goes, was discovered and embraced.
He descended from his precarious post and joined the ranks of the initiated.
Nonetheless, every night he dreamt of stars.

We, who follow in his footsteps
Must first overcome
Our fear of heights.
-----------------------------
*Rabbi Akiva was one of the greatest Jewish scholars of all time. Legend teaches that he began his studies late if life - perched on the roof of the great academies of learning- trying to glean understanding of the teaching that was happening below him.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akiva_ben_Joseph

Parashat Yitro: Fear and Flight. Idolatry and Guns

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;

1^st 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 1^st 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 1^st 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 7^th day of Chanukah – December 14^th, 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 3^rd 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.

 

Praying at the State House Redux.

Once again, I have been asked to deliver an invocation every Thursday during the legislative sessions at the Colorado State House of Representatives.  My first prayer is the day after tomorrow. When I was approached last year, I wasn't sure that I wanted to do it. I was uncomfortable with the concept of prayer in the political realm. I firmly believed then (and I still do now) that Church/Synagogue and State need to be separate entities. I felt that the act of offering up a prayer in Governmental chambers was inappropriate.  Nonetheless, with all of my misgivings, I decided to give it a try.

After a few weeks of writing and delivering these blessings, I began to feel differently about my prayers.  I found that many of the people in the House – representatives, clerks, visitors and staff – truly appreciated my words.  On several occasions people asked me for copies of my remarks.  They told me that those few moments of reflection and contemplation were an important part of their spiritual life and that they helped them to begin their day by centering themselves.  My words reminded them of the sacred tasks for which they had been sent to the House in the first place.  From a practical perspective, I also knew that my voice could be a counter-balance to other, more fundamentalist types who wanted nothing more than to tear down the sacred barrier between religion and government.

But what truly surprised me was when I discovered that the weekly process of writing a prayer became a powerful tool for my own spiritual practice.  The act of writing a prayer that was to be delivered to men and women who had the power to create and enact legislation that could change our society for the better forced me to focus on what was important in my life.  Each week I challenged myself to focus on those areas in my life that I felt needed to be strengthened.  In my addresses, as I urged the legislators to see the men, women and children whose lives could be impacted by their actions, I too found myself looking harder at every aspect of our society who needed help - whose lives were hanging by a thread and who could be served by creative, bold, thoughtful and decisive legislation.

And so, I ask all of you who might be reading this blog to let me know if there are any topics or themes that you would like me to address in my weekly invocation.  I don’t want to be political – that is not my role – but if there are words or thoughts that you would like your elected representatives to hear, let me know.  I can’t promise that I will use them – but I certainly will take them to heart.

L’Shalom,

Rabbi Joe Black

What An Amazing Shabbat Morning!!!

This past Shabbat morning, I was in heaven.  When I arrived at the Temple building, there was commotion and chaos everywhere I looked.  Poor Francisco – one of our our hard-working custodians - was working overtime – and doing a great job!. It seemed like every room in the building was occupied.  They were.  You see, we were hosting the NFTY (North American Federation of Temple Youth) Winter Chavurah.  Over 200 teenagers from Missouri, Kansas, Southern Illinois, Colorado and Nebraska had come to Temple Emanuel to learn, pray, sing, socialize make new friends and rekindle old relationships and have fun.  And boy were they having fun!

But it wasn’t only the fact that the NFTY kids were in the building that made me so happy.  On that morning we also had Torah Study, Adult B’nai Mitzvah class, Young family (Tot) Shabbat, a bar mitzvah and our community Shabbat service.  The building was filled to the brim and humming with Jewish energy. And that’s the way it should always be.

When I came to Temple Emanuel two and a half years ago, I was tasked by the Board of Trustees with creating a new vision for Jewish life in our congregation that built upon the tremendous legacy of Rabbi Foster.  Janet Bronitsky and I worked with a marketing firm to come up with the phrase:  “Celebrate Being Jewish!”  But to me, this is more than a marketing campaign – it’s a mission – a way of life.  As I said on Rosh HaShanah this past year, if we are truly to succeed in uniting our large and diverse congregation, we will need to ensure that there are multiple portals of entry into Jewish life – so that everybody will feel welcome and have a place. 

The energy that filled our building last Shabbat was exactly what we want to sustain every week at Temple Emanuel.  We are constantly striving to create opportunities for every member of our sacred community to find their place.  We will soon be announcing a major Shabbat initiative that will take place this Spring – watch your bulletins, mailboxes and email for more information.  I can’t wait to see what next Shabbat will look like…..

L'Shalom,

Rabbi Joe Black