"O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."
The flag: To fly or not to fly, that is the question!
June 24, 2011
Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
Perhaps the most evocative symbol of any group is the flag. When I fly into Israel and see the Magen David on the white background with the blue stripes, my heart flutters. The three thousand five hundred year Jewish journey is captured in that flag. And when I fly back into the United States and see 'Old Glory,' in a millisecond my mind embraces Washington crossing the Delaware, Fort McHenry, D-Day, Iwo Jima, Korea, Viet Nam and more. When I see the Stars and Stripes paraded in at the Diamond, my eyes tear. The flags summon up memory, emotion, and devotion. Flags lead us in parades. Flags lead us in battle. Flags capture the expanse of history. Flying at the Pentagon, in the Pennsylvania field, at ground zero, the flag spoke and said: "We will survive. We will triumph." And we have. To honor those who serve our country, their casket is draped in our flag. The President of the United States and the whole country escorts them to their final resting place. There is no higher honor.
While we don't know the designs, earlier in the Book of BaMidbar the Torah indicates that the tribes aligned themselves behind their flags, a different one for each tribe, in the encampment and when they marched through the wilderness. I wonder what they looked like. We learn that flags give us our orientation and direction. They pointing to the path ahead. Flags enable our organization that leads to implementing our vision of ourselves and our purpose on earth.
While Israel is a political entity, the flag of the State of Israel summons up the full gamut of religious emotions. So, too, does the flag of the United States summon a response from the deep well-springs of our emotion.
It should be no surprise that when the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond flew the Rainbow flag below the American flag that it evoked strong vocal support and opposition. It was a major piece in the Commentary section of the Times-Dispatch: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/jun/12/tdcomm01-the-feds-flag-let-it-fly-ar-1100630/ and http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/jun/12/tdcomm01-the-feds-flag-dont-fly-it-ar-1100618/
These articles leave me in a conundrum to accurately understand the Federal Reserve Bank whether it is a truly independent business or an official branch of the government. I have tried to better understand this from the Federal Reserve website, to no avail. They don't clearly address the issue. Yet I deduce that there is some amount of autonomy at each of the twelve Reserve Banks in the system.
If that is the case, I am proud of our bank.
I want to offer a few thoughts from Judaism.
1. Despite all other preachers from all faiths, I have no idea what God wants when it comes to specific questions. For those who believe in direct verbal revelation, then God has spoken through the words of Torah, the quotations and citations of the prophets. The Rabbis declared that for Jewish purposes, that ended with Malachi the last of the prophets. After that we have to figure it out for ourselves by examining those texts. I cannot accept someone citing a scriptural verse and telling me that God wants this or that. What does God want us to do to that part of society to whom we respectfully identify as LBGTQ? Does God want us to stone them or hug them? To kill them or respect them? Did God ever imagine those initials, and in English to boot?!
2. The sacred texts did not anticipate some, even many of our modern dilemmas. We have new realities and the Rabbis handled our texts with care to evince and deduce answers and responses to unanticipated questions. How do you define "commitment?" What is a "household?" If you can't give birth, for whatever reason, how do you define "your children?" These are core terms in the religious vocabulary, but no faith community ever considered the high rate of divorce, the low rate of marriage, and that existential, financial, political and philosophical realties would have certain human beings living together under one roof.
Judaism has sacred values – sacred because they reflect a conception of the Divine that we consider ultimate – about human beings. These include, but are not limited to fidelity, honor, trust, love, confidence.
We intersect and interface these values with our current realities to respond those self-identified as LBGTQ about respect and acceptance within our community. I don't know how many of whomever ever existed in the past. I don't have any idea if closets were full or bare. Today, no one should have to live there. No body needs to deny who they are.
We as Jews understand that very well. We had to change our names, alter our noses, empty our souls and forsake our identity in order to secure our physical existence in America. Sometimes I think that we gave up too much.
3. The Rainbow flag flying from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond speaks about us as a society at large. It enunciates the vision that God has made us all different. We are different in beliefs, in height and weight, in language, in color, in accent, in gender and in sexuality. If any of us are "God's children," then we are all people "God's children." If any of us are made "in God's image," Then we are all made "in God's image." The flag says: we are God given because of our differences. Our differences are not the result of random selection, the quirks of an evolving planet. They are the result of a creative God, who made us such majestic creatures.
The end of our anthem is appropriate in this condition too. May the Rainbow flag at the Federal Reserve Bank fly "O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." For I am of perfect faith, that in our freedom, in our bravery and in our love, God blesses America.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
Temple Beth-El
3330 Grove Avenue
Richmond, VA 23221
Phone 804-355-3564
Fax 804-257-7152
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