Speak up, speak out, take a stand
In the past couple of weeks I have been reminded of the obligation to we all have to be actively involved as agents for change. As I have been working on a number of different projects to do with Holocaust Memorial Day, I have been looking again and again at the theme Speak up, Speak Out. We know all too tragically from history what failure to do so can result in. Our tradition teaches us that we have an obligation to listen to the “still, small voice” to take a stand when necessary.
In last week’s Torah portion we read of Shifrah and Puah’s act of civil disobedience. These midwives defied the edict to kill all the male children of the Israelites at birth. They were willing to take a stand for what is morally correct.
Recently, on YouTube, I viewed a flash mob of Israeli women of all ages taking back a section of their city—the women of Beit Shemesh decided they had a right to be seen and heard on the street. They acted against the growing push to make women invisible in Jerusalem and in response to the attack on a young girl who was spat upon and called names for supposed immodest dress.
Taking a stand and confronting what is wrong in society is necessary not only at times of life and death. It is a continuing obligation. There are so many fronts these days it seems where one must be vigilant. And it is easy to overlook some which can have serious consequences
Today revealed yet another one—I opened the JC to read the headline “JFS pupils taught how to cure gays”. What followed was an article about an American group called JONAH, which is an organisation offering reparative or conversion therapy, being mentioned as an option meant to give students “food for thought”. This procedure can cause severe psychological harm to those receiving it. The Royal College of Psychiatry states that attempts to change a client’s sexual orientation can be “deeply damaging.”
Seeing sexual orientation as something to be “cured” also fosters an environment in which prejudice can flourish and homophobic bullying becomes acceptable. For young people struggling with their own sexuality in what still remains a fairly heteronormative world, the consequences can be a matter of life or death. Suicide among gay teenagers is a very real concern. Nothing should be allowed to take place in a state-funded school and certainly not in a Jewish school whose ethics should be first and foremost about the sanctity of human life, which has the potential for such terrible consequences.
Save the Congo
“Do not stand idly by while your neighbour’s blood is being spilled” Leviticus 19:16
Last Wednesday I joined with rabbinic colleagues Rabbi Colin Eimer, Rabbi David Mitchell, Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers and Rabbi Janet Burden and members of the Save the Congo team at the Foreign Office. We delivered a letter signed by 61 rabbis from the progressive movements in the UK to urge world leaders to put pressure on countries to not allow themselves to be used as trading grounds for conflict minerals. Illicit mining and trading helps fuel the violence in Congo. Though not picked up very often by the press the violence continues. Any actions, even small ones, are important when the risk to human life and security is as great as it is to those who live in the midst of violence in the Congo.
Chanukkah
What is Chanukkah all about? A question often asked this time of year—or perhaps a bit later as there sometimes seems to be a perception of this holiday as the “Jewish Christmas”. Those who ask the question “What is Chanukkah?” are in good company as it was also one asked in Talmud. It is one holiday we have a date for, as it is linked to a military victory of a small group of Jews over their Seleucid rulers.
So besides giving children something to celebrate when all their friends and neighbours are celebrating, why should we celebrate Chanukkah? There are two ideas I always come back to at this time of year.
The first is the importance of “light”. There is an older “Festival of Light” pre-dating Chanukkah which seems to have been amalgamated into it. No surprise here. I know I am not the only one who dreads the shortened days! In Avodah Zara, 8a we read that Adam, exiled from the Garden of Eden and noticing the days growing shorter cries out in dismay: “Woe to me, perhaps because I have sinned, the world around me is being darkened and returning to its state of chaos and confusion; this then is the kind of death to which I have been sentenced from Heaven.” But as the days begin to grow longer Adam begins to understand that this is the way of creation.
Like Adam we also learn as we grow older that our lives are lived amid light and darkness. And so for us, our lighting of Chanukkah candles can remind us that light will return, and that even a small light can illuminate a vast area of darkness and that within each of us is a spark of divine light which we can and do need to share with each other.
The second is related to the first and is what I think of as the real miracle of Chanukkah. The Seleucid dynasty tried to wipe out the religious practices of Judaism. Later the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, and we moved off carrying our religious beliefs and ideals with us, encountering at times peace and prosperity and at times degradation and destruction. But wherever we were, we celebrated and in the winter we lit, sometimes quite defiantly, small, rather insignificant candles. And we still do. And that is what I call a real miracle!
