After perusing my Facebook newsfeed since Sunday night and Monday morning, I know that I wasn’t the only local rabbi or regional clergy person following the lunar eclipse on Sunday night. I quickly realized that my iPhone 13’s camera wouldn’t capture a sharp image that would fully reflect the wonder of the moment. Nevertheless, the blood moon, with its orange-red hue, from the illumination of light reflected off of our planet, was fully visible, even in my own photos.
Watching the eclipse was peaceful, and, with so many people simultaneously focusing on the show in the sky, it may have been an unwitting and welcome moment of peace between people. I did tell Rhonda that I wasn’t going sleep until I saw a sliver of light from the sun shining on the moon again - and I didn’t. I guess I wanted the visual reassurance that we were going back “to normal,” The eclipse offered two-to-three hours of time-out-of-time at a time when we needed it.
And we needed it because of what had happened the previous night at the Tops Friendly Market store in Buffalo, New York, when an 18 year old male chose to violently act upon the hatred in his heart. He was driven by white supremacist, racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories with which we have, sadly, had to familiarize ourselves. The motivation was similar to other attacks in recent years that have taken too many innocent lives. We deserve a break from people expressing their twisted, bigoted views in this way. We have no certain answer for how to train and retrain our fellow citizens of all ages to use their words instead of their weapons so that we might have even an outside chance to turn their hearts in a different direction. Yet, we know that we always have to try.
This past Tuesday was the 68th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court Brown v. Board school desegregation decision, a milestone which I marked for a number of years in Topeka with the local community and members of the Brown family. That landmark judgment by the highest court in the land began a process that echoed aspects of the Jubilee year noted in the beginning of this week’s Parashah, BEHAR. The restitution and restoration represented by the D’ROR - whether that word means RELEASE or, as it reads on a certain ringing icon enshrined in Philadelphia, LIBERTY- that was to be proclaimed in the Jubilee year was intended as a reset that would reestablish a measure of socioeconomic balance to society. Just the mention and suggestion that land should be given back to its original owners every 50 years, whether or not the practice persisted over time, offers us a foundation for equalization that our society sorely needs on so many levels.
I recently attended, via Zoom, a study group at Temple Beth-El in Las Cruces with my successor, now a newly-ordained Reform rabbi and her husband, who was ordained as a Conservative rabbi last year. To mark the approach of Lag Ba-omer, which we observe today, they shared the story of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son, Rabbi Elazar, hiding in a cave for twelve years so that the Roman authorities could not carry out the death sentence against them. The Talmud related that they survived while being nourished by a carob tree and a spring of water that had miraculously appeared in the cave. When Elijah the prophet appeared to tell them that it was safe for them to leave, their first reaction, upon seeing people plowing and sowing, was to assume that Torah study had ceased. Everywhere the two of them set their gaze, the place was immediately burned. Consequently, a Divine voice instructed them to return to the cave, where they sat for another twelve months. When they emerged again, at the command of the Divine voice, the eyes of Rabbi Elazar would still strike as before, but the eyes of Rabbi Shimon would restore and heal. Rabbi Shimon tried to calm and reassure his son that their dedication to study would suffice for the world and, perhaps, bring others along for a renewed commitment to learning.
We know that we are living in a time of change where many desire only to tear down and assume control, while others still seek diverse partners to build up. We also know, that, even with the challenges we face, it is always within our power to bring release and healing to our communities. May our teaching and our contributions at this time to our neighborhoods, our nation and to this world, cast a colorful tapestry of insight and mutual understanding. And may the unity that so many experience separately and together while witnessing the wonders of nature serve as the basis of our ongoing work with people across the ideological spectrum in preserving a secure and promising future for our planet and for the human family.
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