The Jewish Observer

You know of my family background, that I am a first American in my family who were all from Germany, getting to the USA as refugees, Mom in 1936, Dad in 1939.  The story I will use to start is not about them, but about a Jew from Vienna, Austria in 1939.  I told it in 2001, so some of you might remember it.  

         The Jew goes to a travel agent’s office and says he wants to buy a steamship ticket.

         “Where to?” the clerk asks.

         “Let me look at your globe, please.”

         The Jew starts to examine the globe.  Every time he suggests, a country the clerk raises an objection.  This included the United States, as they were only allowing few Jews to immigrate to here, as there were many people very against Jews.  There was basically no place for him to go, so he finally said, “Pardon me, do you have another globe?”

         Jewish history seems to bear out the pathos of this story.  The places that some Jews had gone to or had living, there were often times of prosperity and relative peace, but ultimately things turn out badly for the Jews.  There is no question that while I was growing up a lot was going well for us in this country.  A number of years ago I saw things were starting to change.  The biggest bad piece that shows how things have been changing happened in my last fall with this congregation, fall of 2018, the killing of 11 in the Tree of Life in Pittsburgh.  Over the past 4 years I have seen that there are more folks coming out with antisemitism.  Many of the parashahs in the Torah, including last week’s of Shemot and this week’s of Va’eira show history connected to antisemitism.  

         The Israelites had moved to Egypt when things got bad in their area while Joseph wasthe vizier.  But we read in the beginning of Exodus, that after Joseph and his brothers all passed, the Israelites did well.  They were free, fertile, and over the years grew to a large group.  A new Pharaoh, who did not know anything about Joseph, converted the Israelites to slaves.  This is an early example of how not only Jews, but many different folks (such as African Americans) were mistreated by a place they were living as the bulk of people decided they did not like or truly want them.  In our history we saw this happen in Germany – emancipation for Jews in 1812, yet at times still persecuted, at other times they grew and did very well until the Nazis took power in 1933.  

The key for us to learn from the Torah we should be paying attention to.  Yes, we are supposed to see how our difficult history is similar to so many other folk’s later history, but there is something even more we are supposed focus on.  The focus is what the real kind of action we should learn to do as Jews.  According to the Torah, God takes a particular position, and attitude. The importance of God for us is not a particular belief, but an inspiration to act a certain way.  Yes, there are commands from God in the Torah, but there are actions and attitudes we should be inspired to make part of our life.

Starting in Shemot, when Moses meets God for the first time as God wants him to be the human who would go to the Pharaoh to ask for the Israelites freedom to leave Egypt and return to their original home, the area that would become Judea and Israel. God had not been worshipped so much by the Israelites, yet they were asking God to get them out of slavery.  God cared deeply about getting them out of slavery, away from Egypt, and back to their homeland; far more than caring about being worshipped.  God knew there would need to be hard actions done to Egypt, because the Pharaoh would likely not be willing to let the Israelites have a more normal life and/or go back to their home.  This continues in this week’s parashah while Moses and Aaron meet a lot with the Pharaoh. 

God is really trying to teach us that there are sublimes we must have in our brains, not just for the benefit of our lives, but also that we can help benefit others who are suffering or struggling in their life.  The Torah shows us that God has the sublimes that we are supposed to work as best as we can as humans to have them as well.  These include humility, patience, gratitude, honor, and compassion.

Humility has us keep away from being arrogant.  We should not be overly proud, rude, or misbehaving to increase our stature.  This is not about being a nobody, but being the kind of person we should be.  If we are not only thinking about ourselves, we can start to understand other folks as well.  Humility should push us to help the people who truly need help.

When we want things in the world to improve it will likely not happen as quickly we would like.  We need patience.  Our upsetting with other individuals who do things we do not agree with, pushes us to become impatient.  As long as their activity is not illegal or not truly hurting other folks, we need to have patience on the way we approach and talk to them.  Perhaps most important is the patience for our own situation so we can give help to other people having agony.

Whether it is ourself who is suffering or another person who is suffering, we should feel gratitude for the goodness for the work that would push to remove the suffering.  Comparing ourselves to those who are different than us in opinions, or wealth, or health, or religion can often create bitterness in our minds.  Cultivating gratitude for most people would help to counter bitterness when we are overreacting.  Gratitude for our own lives would help us be willing to help those folks who are suffering.

The vast majority of people deserve to be honored, or the synonym – respected.  It is hard for us to feel we should honor most people.  Instead, we more generally criticize or harshly judge them.  This has grown so much in the last number of years.  To honor each other, even if we have some different opinions, would enable us to work together to improve the community, country, or the world.  And we must push ourselves and others to honor instead of persecuting certain people.

Perhaps the most important feeling is compassion.  There are so many folks who suffer.  It could be from health, poorness, but also so awful from persecution, racism, and hatred.  God’s compassion for our people as slaves in Egypt should inspire us to have compassion for other people who are being mistreated.  Compassion is needed for those people with power to help those who are suffering in so many of the ways individuals or groups have experienced.  

This week’s parashah shows an example of someone who does not have compassion for other people – the Pharaoh – whose refuses to let the Israelites go, creates a pile of suffering that happens to the Egyptians.  Exodus overall shows the difficulty the Israelites have, how they escape from Egypt, and what they must learn.  It also shows how the uncaring of the Egyptians ends up with suffering for them.

Look at the comparable to the US Civil War.  So much of the south did not care about the suffering of the African American slaves, and so many of the African Americans were deeply mistreated.  The Civil War ended with a lot of suffering for white southerners as well.  So sadly, a lot of them believed they should find another way to mistreat the African Americans and never learned the appropriate lesson on how to have humility, patience, gratitude, honor, and compassion. 

What is the real purpose of the Torah?  Yes, it talks a lot about God.  Yes, it teaches us the history of the Israelites that will eventually lead to the existence of the Jews in the rest of the Tanach.  Yes, it tells us Jews about a lot of religious traditions that many Jews feel to observe.  However, the most important purpose of the Torah is how all people should perform to and with other people.  An important part of our ethic is not to hate people who are different than ourselves, whether that is a physical difference, a belief difference or opinion difference.  Of course, this is not referring deep criminals, but to most other people who are different than ourself.  There are many rules and suggestions throughout the whole Torah.

The ways we should act are way beyond the 10 commandments.  Great examples are in Leviticus chapter 19 and Deuteronomy chapter 15.  Being a true Jew is not just by doing religious actions such as holidays, but how to act with and too other folks.  I am saying that we are in a time in which so many people focus mostly on themselves and ignore others.  I close with this blessing for all people.

Yevarech’chah Adonai v’yishm’rechah

Ya’er Adonai panav alecha v’yechunekah

Yesa Adonai panav alecha v’yashem lecha shalom.

May the Eternal bless you and protect you.

May the Eternal deal kindly and graciously with you.

May the Eternal bestow favor upon you and grant you peace!

And may we do exactly what we pray the Eternal will do for us!   

Today’s nasty politics bring up the question of what is an actual conservative.  Is conservatism Trumpism?  That question also forces us to think about liberalism.  Is liberalism a path to socialism and/or Communism?  We sadly live in an era in which those who call themselves conservatives or liberals use the opposite term to insult people with a different perspective.  Too many ignore the basic definitions of each term.

Being conservative is a synonym for being traditional, holding back from innovation in order to preserve traditional values.  Put into a long-established political perspective, conservatism was centered on free enterprise, private business ownership, and individual rights.  American traditionalism is preservation of our republic’s democratic characteristics, such as people’s rights to vote.  In addition, American conservatism focused on state’s rights, pushing that many policies should be overseen on the state level, and in numerous cases a very local level, mostly not the federal level.  Further, conservatives have consistently argued that the government’s budget should be balanced.  

Being liberal is respect for other people’s thoughts/opinions, openness to new ideas – general broadmindedness.  Politically oriented liberalism pushes for civil rights, democracy, and free enterprise.  Liberals are much more open for issues being decided on the federal level.  An important example was the passing of the civil rights legislations in 1964 and 1965.  Despite the  differences between conservatism and liberalism, there are aspects both might share.  The basic rights of individuals plus the importance of free enterprise are values held by conservatives and liberals.  The best scenario is a balance between both, preserving the right traditional values and innovating what is necessary.

An appropriate debate between liberals and conservatives would not be over individual’s civil rights, but whether their rights should be overseen at the federal or state level.  An example was the approach of Senator Barry Goldwater to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  He opposed segregation and suppression of African Americans but opposed this particular act because of two segments he felt needed to be determined at the state, not federal level.  He believed federalism would result as negative for African Americans.  It turned out that over two thirds of the senate thought he was wrong when they passed the Act.

Throughout his career, Goldwater pushed a conservative approach to issues within the Republican Party, yet many of today’s conservatives would condemn him as a phony conservative, accusing him of being a liberal.  Here are some examples why.  Goldwater defended the rights of gay Americans stating, “The big thing is to make this country – quit discriminating against people just because they’re gay.  You don’t have to agree with it, but they have a constitutional right to be gay.  They’re American citizens.”  A lot of his quotes in favor of gays were expressed when their presence in the military came up as a controversy.  In 1992, he also expressed his support for women choosing to get an abortion.  All of this was part of an opposition he began expressing in 1981 to what he called the “new right,” which was essentially the New Majority, a religious group led by Rev. Jerry Falwell.  Here is one of his thoughts about the effect of this religious group.  “Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy.  They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives.”  Almost 30 years ago, Goldwater, an historical conservative, predicted how conservatism could terribly decline.

Today, Christian Nationalists are controlling a lot of conservative perspective. They see their views as the only alternatives.  They claim that liberals are trying to eliminate Christianity, not accepting the version of Christianity followed by anyone who is liberal.  Included in Christian Nationalists are people connected to Proud Boys, Boogaloo, believers in the falsehoods of QAnon and many people connected to many white supremacist groups.  Some participants are even members of neo-Nazi groups. The most awful event done by these groups was the riot which led to the invasion of the capital in D.C. on January 6, 2021, while congress was meeting to approve the presidential electoral votes.  There were participants wearing shirts with anti-Semitic content.  Some carried Confederate flags.  This article by Dr. Michael Pasek gives an insight into the motives of the Christian Nationalists for this riot.  https://beyondconflictint.org/news/why-white-supremacists-and-christian-nationalists-tried-to-subvert-american-democracy/?fbclid=IwAR03mubHnpEpS9OjIjBYPhn3ABEjP-thz_zJ6_ZANDuWXfO3sHBR7hUNXQs

The Christian Nationalism of today’s conservatism is so intolerable of other viewpoints, that they accept falsehoods instead of proven facts, to justify their actions protecting their positions.  The most recent and obvious is President Trump’s constant claim of his losing the election because of voter fraud.  That was the cause of the riot.  A following lie was a claim that disguised Antifa people were the ones who caused the violence.  Further, Christian Nationalists accept the nasty, false words that Trump and other key leaders use to degrade their opponents, because Trump expresses support for their positions.  A typical example is the claim that the Democrats and/or liberals are becoming Socialist, even Communist.  While some leftwing Democrats favor certain policies that are called “socialist,” these are policies practiced by Great Britain and many European countries, even when conservative parties are leading their governments.  A typically criticized policy is universal health care, which exists to help people in need.

The priority of Christian Nationalism is to convert people to their beliefs, and to strongly oppose those who do not have their beliefs.  They believe their religious position must direct our country’s policies, not tolerating the input of Judaism, Islam, or even segments of Christianity they see as too liberal.  The worst segments of Christian Nationalism are racist, anti-Semitic, plus they are open to violence.  Their goal is to attain ruling power over the country, even if it means destroying our democratic traditions.  That makes Christian Nationalism parallel to the German conservative movements of the 1920s that destroyed the Weimar Republic by caving into following the Nazi party in 1933.  This version of conservatism mis-defines liberalism in order to condemn their opposition.

Yes, there are those on the left who are also radical.  Yes, there are those on the left who refuse to have an open mind to different viewpoints, commonly on university campuses.  Yes, there are some leftist groups that have caused problems.  But the reason a segment of the left limits their perspective is because they are opposing racism and favoring political policies that will benefit the lives of people in need.  Their increase in the refusal to tolerate other viewpoints over the last 30 years is in response to the unreasonable rise of narrowminded religious factions in conservatism and the Republican Party, just as Goldwater predicted and opposed.  

Trump’s rise is linked to the success of Christian Nationalism controlling a greater segment of the Republican Party thus changing how many people judge what is conservatism.  Many more approve of the nasty condemnation of people with different points of view.  If we are going to save our country, we need a large group of very diverse people, including true conservatives, to be “liberal,” i.e. willing to have open minds, accept actual facts, and work with each other.