From Our Hearts - Rabbi and Ruby: “Todah Rabbah -Thank you”

From Our Hearts - Rabbi and Ruby: “Todah Rabbah -Thank you”

While I Ruby and I tried to greet everyone at the Gala on March 1^st, it was simply impossible to thank everyone individually for being there that Shabbat and evening. I have begun writing to those who took leadership in executing all the significant components of the celebration, but I fear that Passover will arrive before I have completed my mission. Yet to all who attended, to all who took ads and wrote beautiful messages in the Tribute Journal, to all who wrote notes especially if they couldn’t be there, and to those who have spoken with us since and expressed their regret being unable to attend, Ruby and I have the simplest yet most heartfelt words to say – todah rabbah – thank you.

As we walked around the social hall and looked out from the bemah of the Sanctuary, my mind recalled shared episodes in life with almost everyone present. It has been a very rich and rewarding journey for us, knowing that in some small way we were permitted to enter your lives and assist in either times of joy or times of sorrow, with yourselves and with your children. I thank you for the privilege. With some of the children I stood on the bemah with them for their b’nai mitzvah and later stood with them under the chuppah for their marriage. While Menachem was in college when we moved here, he came to consider Richmond and Temple Beth-El his home, which was especially true for Yonina who spent her high school years at Governor’s School and particularly for Tzeira who grew up here and graduated from VCU. Their lives intertwined with their friends’ lives and so entered ours as well. Ruby made sure to say, repeating it twice, that we are staying here in Richmond for the immediate future and Temple Beth-El is our synagogue. We are blessed with many, many dear friends. Upon the completion of this year I will receive the title of Rabbi Emeritus and wear it most proudly for the rest of my life.

We particularly thank you for the gift which is the representation of the window of the Burning Bush that is over the Sanctuary door towards Roseneath Road and of the two windows that are in the balcony facing Grove Avenue. Ruby found a most beautiful location in our home where it catches the sunlight and brilliantly shines its color throughout the living room, almost replicating the Sanctuary. And we thank you for the Tribute Journal with so many beautiful words and pictures. I have leafed through it quickly as my attention returned to my congregational duties. It will provide me many hours of joy in the future. We thank you for these gifts that will accompany us through life.

I also use this opportunity to thank our children for taking my breath away when Menachem announced and presented us with the volume they published of my sermons which they annotated. This, too, I have read only a little, yet it has reached into the depth of my soul to see how the labor of love of my life has so profoundly impacted and shaped them. Some of these pieces were written before they could be shared on the listserv and website. Through the link in the bulletin and Good Shabbos I hope that you will enjoy them and the messages that I have been propounding will continue to make an impact on lives. Our children have indicated to me that I need to get working on selecting sermons for volume 2!

As I included in my remarks, the Gala weekend fulfilled many functions, certainly towards Ruby and me. As it was a celebration of my Rabbinate, it also served as a moment of closure of my tenure and as a moment of opening for my successor, Rabbi Michael Knoph. It is our wish that you show him and Adira and their family the warmth and love that you have shown to us. Ruby and I look forward to personally welcoming them to Richmond and Temple Beth-El.

There is no way to sum up all our feelings of love and gratitude towards you and to the members of the synagogues that I have served during the forty years of my career. I have saved so many notes and letters, every bulletin from every synagogue and various mementos that adorned my office now will find a place at home.

From our hearts Ruby and I simply and with most heartfelt feelings say:  “we love you, thank you, todah rabbah.”

A Sermon on Handgun Control and Violence and the Megillah

Would You Let Your Children Read the Megillah of Esther?

Shabbat Dedicated to Reflecting on Handgun Violence

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor

March 14^th, 2014

I wonder: if we really stopped to read the Megillah of Esther carefully and critically,

                If we paid attention to Haman’s designs upon the Jews,

                If we analyzed the details of the Jewish self-defense,

Would we let children read this book?

Would we merrily dance around in costumes?

Would we make this holiday such happy holiday?

You all know that I will be dressed up in costume tomorrow night and we will be as raucous as possible. At the Purim dinner we will sing some traditional yet silly songs.  This is our normal modes operendai for Purim.

But perhaps it is the reflection that age allows, or because of issues about our society today, as I have been reading and rereading the Megillah that I hear episode after episode of extreme violence. It is a loud subtext of the Megillah. There is violence towards bodies, violence towards women, violence against children, violence towards Jews and violence towards Persians.

This is the story about a very bad, violent and malevolent society.

The Megillah of Esther, far from being a silly children’s tale, is a very adult book, a clarion warning about violence and what it does to society. The Jewish observances that stem from, that are included at the end of the Megillah for no real rhyme or reason shows the radically different Jewish view.

On this Shabbat, Saturday and Sunday, synagogues and churches around the country are dedicating themselves to reflect on the issue of handgun violence and the need to control the sale of arms and lessen the violence in our society. It is an epidemic that must be addressed. Though other issues come to the fore, if we forget about and ignore the issue of handgun violence, we really do it at the peril of lives. Reading Megilat Esther is most appropriate on this Shabbat.

Violence Against Bodies:

The Megillah says that in the third year of Ahashverosh’s reign he made a party and they drank for 180 days. After Esther was chosen as queen, he made another party. When Esther evolves her plot to save the Jews she throws two parties for Ahashverosh and Haman. Now they were certainly not drinking sarsaparilla! Regardless of historical inaccuracies, the Megillah reports a society that abused their bodies through alcohol. And we know that intoxication goes hand in hand with other forms of violence, whether it be physical, sexual or with guns.

Violence Against Women:

We usually make light about Vashti and her role in the plot. But when we read the Megillah  it is clear that it portrays the subjugation of women in the Persian world. After all, if you can do this to the queen, you can do this to any woman. Vashti was not invited to a grand ball. She was commanded to appear naked in a scene that superseded the Roman debaucheries. Though it allowed Esther to enter the story, it is important to listen to her voice too, that she is also subjugated to a drunken tyrant. Esther was also subject to death for appearing without proper summons and authorization. It is absolutely clear that the women were opportune for violence and abuse.

Violence Against Children:

Haman’s degree to exterminate the Jews was all inclusive, “from young men to old, babies and women.” We can look at this from both sides. We do not have to imagine the impact of genocidal violence upon children for there is sufficient literature from the Holocaust. But in Persia this was to be hand-to-hand combat and slaughter. Can you imagine what Haman had planned? The violence against children destroys the last shred of humanity. Several times the Megillah alerts us to this degradation of the society of perpetrators, not only of the victims.

Violence Against the Jews:

Violence Against the Persians:

The climax of the Megillah is the actual battles between the Jews and Persians. The latter thought that they were going to murder defenseless prey and instead confronted a seriously armed camp. How many Jews died? We don’t know. There had to be some amount of casualties. How many Persians died? Ignore the hyperbole and the questionable historicity. On the first day in Shushan there were 500 dead plus Haman’s ten sons. On the second day in Shushan they killed 300 more. In the rest of the country they killed 75,000. And then they publicly hang Haman’s ten sons. And we sing and dance and make sounds with groggers while we recount all of these deaths, no matter how righteous in self defense it was.

Shouldn’t we read it in subdued voices?

Shouldn’t we discuss how to tell this to children?

Do we really want to advocate for a violent society?

I can present the Megillah in many different ways. Surely I wish the Jews of Europe could have defended themselves, like the Jews of the Megillah, before, during and after the Holocaust.

My point of reference in this sermon is singularly focused on us, the readers of the Megillah, the revelers in the story and its projection of violence. This text is filled with violence against bodies, against women, against children, against Jews against the Persians, and by extension, against us too. We become desensitized to violence when we read this over and over and take the violence for granted, don’t even bat an eyelash at the numbers of the dead, don’t flinch at the threat to men and women, babies and children.

And if this is true about the Megillah, then it is certainly true about violent video games and the plethora of violent images on television and cable networks, in music and in art. The campaign to diminish gun violence is not just about guns, it is about all forms of violence, it is about our vision of society and of the world. They need to shape a different image where people are respected, where each human being is considered sacred, where life is holy and thus cherished and not threatened nor destroyed.

Whatever laws need to be enacted, do so.

Whatever curriculums need to be written, write them.

Whatever reforms of social exposition need to be implemented, change them too.

Somehow we need to create a kinder, gentler, more respectful society.

The end of the Megillah gives us a clue. There are two mitzvot created in the ninth chapter, mishloach manot and matanot l’evyonim, gifts to each other and gifts to the poor. There is no hint to why these behaviors are instituted. They don’t connect to the plot. But maybe, just maybe they are created to be the antidote to violence. We give food gifts “each person to his neighbor” and other gifts to the poor. We break down the walls that separate us. We behave with mercy and kindness, even love to each other, and those we don’t know. That is how to diminish violence in the world – change how we think about each other. That is what Isaiah was dreaming when he spoke about breaking weapons into plowshares, instruments to feed the world instead of killing. Just maybe….

“Once in the days of King Ahashverosh..”

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Purim Sameach.

Matters That Stand At The Top of the World

Matters That Stand At The Top of the World

From the Heart

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor

As the Bulletin deadline requires me to write this before the Gala weekend, I will leave reflections and other comments to my April and May columns. I have long contemplated the last column for June. A colleague much my senior many years ago gave me good inspiration for it.

***************

In Hebrew there is a phrase to say that something is important: “D’varim ha-om-dim b’rumo ha-olam” – “Matters that stand at the top of the world.” Certainly each age can nominate their own. In these months my attention and involvement have been absorbed by immigration, marriage-rights, health coverage, women’s rights and gun control. The last of which I have extensively written and preached upon. It seems that every day guns are used in violent crime even when no one is killed. I am not swayed by the purported statistics that say gun violence is diminished. I have electronically badgered our representatives in every party, in the Legislature and the Congress about all these issues. The electronic forms automatically fill in my name and relevant details. Several years ago I was a member of the Board of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy. It became a springboard for my involvement with an organization called Common Ground which let to participation with Virginia Organizing.  The common denominator of these organizations is that they deal with “Matters That Stand At The Top of the World.” As a Jew I – we – have a vest interest in all of these issues, besides others.

What in Judaism demands our attention to these matters?

The answer is found in the Jewish vision of humanity. While contained in the Torah, Adam and Eve and Noah are not Jewish but rather representative of the Torah’s vision of humanity. When the prophets spoke, they enunciated the vision of justice, mercy and love that transcended Jewish interests and were universal.  They include the following:

1. Every human being is God’s child. Adam and Eve are the common progenitors of every human being. On that basis, everyone in the human race is family. The differences of language, color, gender, theology and ethnicity do not alter that fundamental belief. This in reinforced by two verses in the Torah.

2. “Love thy “ray-ah” as yourself.” The Hebrew word in quotes is usually translated “neighbor” but that is not accurate. It really means: “the one standing opposite you.” It doesn’t mean other Jews, it means anyone and everyone. We are commanded to love other people with the same level of self-concern with which we love ourselves.

3. “These are the generation of [Adam] [of humanity.” The Rabbis debated the two most important verses in the Torah and these chose the one above and this one, when you translate Adam not as Adam but as humanity. It re-emphasizes that the God of creation createdall human being, that there is a common thread that interweaves all human beings. This leads to the fundamental belief that no one is greater and no one less than the other. All are equal. All deserve equally. And those that have are obligated/commanded/ required to elevate those who do not.

4. Lastly: “Be holy.” It is hard to define the word ‘holy’ without using synonyms that just go around in circles. I try to explain it by saying that it links us to or reflects in us the divine image. It is not judged by the rituals I/we observe but rather by morals that sustain and undergird my/our being.

Even as I bring my pulpit Rabbinate to a close, these issues and our Jewish vision of humanity will sustain my involvement with these organizations as I continue to campaign for that which I feel is right and just as God and Torah teaches me. I urge your involvement on behalf of these issues and with these organizations. Perhaps we can make heaven a little bit here on earth. On the issue of ‘gay marriage’ we see a beginning. On the others, we have a long way to go.

Rabbi Creditor's comment advocating for equal marriage Start at 24:20 (Public Square, Feb 4, 2014)

Rabbi Creditor's comment advocating for equal marriage

Start at 24:20 (Public Square, Feb 4, 2014)

Coming to America: Stories of Immigration from Richmond's Jewish Community

One Virginia Rabbi's Commitments to Equal Marriage

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor's writings on Equal Marriage:

Our Vision of Society Requires 

A "No" Vote on the Marriage Amendment 

or 

"Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself" 

November 3rd, 2006

http://rabbigarycreditor.blogspot.com/2010/03/our-vision-of-society-requires-no-vote.html

We Are All God's Children

June 15, 2012

http://rabbigarycreditor.blogspot.com/2012/06/we-are-all-gods-children.html

I Don’t Want to Share the Ten Commandments

I Don’t Want to Share the Ten Commandments

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor

January 18^th, 2014

I would like to make a controversial statement.

“I really don’t want to share the Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Commandments, with anybody. They are Jewish. They are ours. Exclusively ours.”

I am sure that you are wondering what has happened to me in these waning months that I should make should a seemingly harsh statement, but I assure you that there is deep and ample foundation and corresponding clear explanation for it. It has far reaching consequences.

I grew up with the small plaque of the Ten Commandments on the short wall in the hallway of our home. While I couldn’t recite all ten, never mind in the correct order, I knew, just by seeing it every day that this text was uniquely mine, ours. I change the language from uniquely to exclusively. It is not the details of each statement, not whether there are more or less ten commandments, or whether the first statement is even a commandment at all. It has nothing to do with sharing a moral code with the rest of the world. The essence is in the purpose of the totality of the text.

This text, embedded in the Book of Exodus, is like a ketubah. It is the marriage document of God – YHVH - and Israel, from the moment of Sinai until the end of time. If Israel would accept these terms of marriage, then God would take Israel to be His forever.

No other people can stand in that relationship.

While all people will be His children, Israel and only Israel can be His “First born.” If Israel had rejected the Ten Commandments, it would have meant more than “rejecting God.” It would have meant that Israel refused to stand in the marriage bond. When the bride walks around the groom either three or seven times, she is declaring by those circles that the bond between he and she is exclusive. Sinai, with its thunder and lightning encompassing Israel at its foot created the same imagery of exclusivity between God and Israel. Just like under chuppah, this is a two way street: YHVH is Israel’s only God; Israel is YHVH’s only people. The Aseret HaDibrot, far from being “just a text” is the instrumentality of this relationship. Just as when a couple “love each other” creating a romantic bond, it isn’t legal without the license. The Aseret HaDibrot is the license that creates the exclusive bond of Israel and YHVH. That is why I don’t want to share the Ten Commandments. I can’t, unless I want to dissolve the bond, the marriage, the covenant with YHVH. And should I do that, I forfeit the right to be Israel, relinquish the terms of the covenant, and surrender my essence and thus my existence. Israel would be over.

Several pieces needed further amplification. I don’t use the generic term “God” but rather the unpronounced but exclusive Hebrew name referred to by its four Hebrew letters YHVH. Sometimes I wish that we could pronounce it because it would enable our distinctiveness to stand out clearly. Islam uses Allah. Christianity says Jesus. Jews say YHVH. And while behind the veil there is a mystery that we cannot know about the divine thus counterbalancing these words with a sense of humility, on this side there are specific differences between that give meaning and purpose to each individual faith. We are purposefully different.

Secondly, a belief that I have often repeated, if I don’t have a purpose to my identity, if there is no motivation for me to be different, if there is no understanding to my difference, then I can easily relinquish it. Growing up I knew that I was different. Others had Christmas trees; I had a simple menorah. I went to Religious School and they went to learn their catechism. They went to CYO dances on Friday night and I went to shul. Those differences were enforced by my parents and by the society I lived in. They didn’t want me there as much as my parents wouldn’t let me. But upon leaving home, embracing the autonomy of adulthood, and as society changed, I needed core, motivating reasons to remain a Jew. There comes a moment of decision for everyone. Being a member of the faith community of Israel is to choose to embrace the covenant and to stand in relationship to YHVH. We choose to link ourselves in this bond.

Thirdly, every faith community makes its own claim of exclusive relationship with God. They must. Each faith needs to validate its existence. This is normal and natural and necessary. I respect all faiths to make such claims. As a Jew, I do too. I don’t seek to supersede any other faith. Yet I won’t be superseded either. To exist, I must stand firm and upright in believing in the correctness of my faith. Otherwise, why not give it up?

Fourth and lastly, in the essence of the marriage bond, our fidelity to YHVH was rewarded with His protection and the promise of a small sliver of land called Canaan, Eretz Yisrael, Palestine and Medinat Yisrael. From our birth, our home was, is and forever will be in Eretz Yisrael. It is hard to write this piece without sounding like a hawk, but I am neither a hawk nor a dove, even as I have alternatively embraced both sides of the political spectrum.

One of the consequences of standing in the exclusive bond with YHVH, one of the results of being Israel the people, is to have Israel the land, is to have Israel the State. Israel is a Jewish state because throughout our long history, Israel the people have remained faithful to the covenant with YHVH and this was the place promised and given to us. It is the only homeland.

Scratch the earth and you will find testimony to our residence for thousands of years. Forcibly removed by the Romans and later conquerors, it was and is our right to have returned under international law, and to defend our lives, our faith, and our people.

The nascent state pledged to respect the rights of the Arabs. If they had not invaded in 1948 they would have had their state. They sought to annihilate us. They failed. They suffer the consequences and are not rewarded.

In 1967, unprovoked except by our very existence, they again sought to annihilate the state of Israel. This one I remember. They failed. They don’t get rewarded.

If Arafat had agreed Barak’s offer they would have already had a state with nearly all the West Bank, part of Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Instead he unleashed the intifadas that murdered hundreds upon hundreds of civilians. They failed. They don’t get rewarded.

To this very day, despite every reason to do otherwise, Israel offers to negotiate a respectful peace. This week was perhaps a turning point in that history. Abbas stridently rejected recognizing Israel as a Jewish state and Arab foreign ministers joined in supporting him. They again insisted on the right of return, a Trojan Horse to destroy the State of Israel. They continue to refuse to understand us and our history back to Sinai. After the Six Day War the Arab world at Khartoum issued their three “no’s” of recognition and peace. Nothing has changed except the tactics. Vice President Kerry should not be duped.

As a Jew I cannot divorce myself, we can eliminate our bond to the land and State of Israel and specifically as a Jewish state any more than I, we can divorce or separate myself, ourselves from the bond to YHVH and remain Jewish. Through Israel’s acceptance of the Ten Commandments as recorded in this week’s sedra our faith and our land are indelibly and eternally are woven together. Long ago the Rabbis declared: The Land; The People; and Torah are one.

These words are not intended to be strident, only firm. The world is too dangerous a place for weakness and self-doubt. While far from perfect, I am immensely proud that Israel is Jewish and democratic, where a person of any faith, from any place can live. I am immensely proud that separately our daughter Tzeira and her fiancée Arsen chose Israel to be their home. My family, our families, separated from the Land for two thousand years but keeping faith with YHVH has returned home. They will firmly reestablish our roots in its soil.

And this Jewish state, in Helen’s words will live forever and ever.