Return to D'var Torah Index
Fifth Day of Passover
Given by Irv Cohen on April 3, 2010 (19 Nissan 5770
Hol Hamoed Pesach
(Omer 4)
)
Shabbat shalom. Chag sameach.
This season of our calendar brings into sharp focus the Jewish historical memory. We bring together at the seder table a fusion of our people and our history that is stored not only in our collective memories, but also in our individual recollections.
But who owns a community’s “history”? And why should we even care about who owns our community’s history?
In today’s modern society, with its political forces and tensions, I see that victors are not the only ones to write history. I see that “historians,” far removed from the action by time, and perhaps by distance as well, are also writing it.
If a people’s existence as a cultural or political force depends on their collective view of the important elements of their history, is not the answer to our question of ownership important to their long term survivorship?
So, when and how do interpretations and understandings change the perception of “established” history? Is it the big lie constantly repeated? Or is it the small and seemingly inconsequential changes made over the decades? Changes which are uncontested or poorly contested that become the “new” history? Or perhaps it is the judgments we as a society make when looking at events long past, but through the prism of current mores, all without regard to, or a sensitivity to the mores of those distant times.
Two examples about how many ways spin machines may make “history”:
On January 31 The Washington Post’s Sunday magazine had a lead article “Saving the Torah.” The front cover displayed a representation of a Torah portion. It would certainly catch the eye of any person picking up the magazine.
The piece was a frontal attack on Rabbi Menachem Youlus. In so many words, it seems to allege without any documentary proof that he is a fraud, a charlatan and is taking advantage of a public trust. It goes on to describe in some detail transactions between the rabbi and several Jews with respect to Torahs allegedly rescued from the ashes of the Second World War.
Why does The Post give such exposure to a private transaction? Why in the Sunday magazine section, with a cover clearly designed to call attention to the Jewishness of the piece? Why such an “investigative report” when there are clearly other more important issues on the public agenda? Issues that affect millions of Americans, as the debate about the nature of our country’s future rages all about us. Did The Post and the “reporter” have another agenda? With such a broad unsubstantiated brush, what lasting damage was done to the reputation of rabbis in general and to our community in particular?
A broad brush has been used to tarnish our history and to support the seeds of doubt that radical interests have already planted in the public garden.
Another example, perhaps less personal in nature: At the time of the Civil War, the population of this county was about 20,000 slaves and 2,000 free whites. Today, outside the Courthouse just several miles from where you sit, there is a statue honoring Confederate soldiers, just like you might see in any county in the deep South.
Is there any real difference between such a statue honoring Confederate war dead, and the flying of the stars and bars in front of a courthouse? One honors the soldier who perhaps made the ultimate sacrifice -- and the other is a symbol of the beliefs that solder fought for. And if there is no significant difference between these symbols, what does this say about the history of this county? And more importantly, what does it say about the citizens who now live here and continue to give a place of honor to such a statue?
Furthermore, consider how would you feel about this if you were a descendant of free slaves living just about a mile from here on Muncaster Mill Road. Their great grandfathers lived here as free men long before most of our ancestors ever got on the boat to the new world.
Yes, history can have some strange and perhaps unintended consequences and right next store.
For a moment, I turn back to Jewish history
We are a historical people and we have a long and hard-earned oral and written tradition. And our oral tradition, like that of so many other people, is held in tenuous memories. The first haggadah was not produced until sometime in the Middle Ages and now is available in some 2,000 different forms. Of course, the reading helps transmit the written history of the Exodus, and this is a key element of our seder.
It is said that most Jews attend a seder of some type. Certainly, the haggadah reading experience must be an important tie that binds our people together. But is it reading together as a community that draws a large majority of practicing and secular Jews to a seder? Or is there something else, just as important at work here?
Is it the reading, or is it the celebration of the event in its many forms during the seder that is the force at work? Is it not true that in great part to sustain a people’s common foundation one needs oral as well as other traditions to build a sense of community? And through these processes one enriches and sustains the community’s collective history?
As Jews we are fortunate to have a well-known and documented sense of the history of our faith. The documentation goes back thousands of years, and the discourse for study covers the centuries.
On a broader scale I, for one, am concerned whether or not you can have an effective, working social or political system in a complex, diverse society where there is conflict because of moral and political belief systems that do not have a common foundation. I suggest that if different peoples are to be held together, it is important that they share common bonds of core beliefs, culture and perhaps language. For this, along with an understanding of the important elements of their common history, will give meaning to a shared sense of community. The stronger these factors are, I suggest, the more likely they will prosper together and not be vulnerable to other belief systems that will eat away at their very foundations.
And if there is little or no generally accepted understanding of these common foundations, do they not become balkanized and, as such, how can they long survive together? Today, I fear that we see this balkanization happening all over Western Europe. Distinct elements of communities are becoming tribal in outlook and radical in their dealings with not only their neighbors, but also with the established political and social orders.
The traditional “Western” construct of a belief system with respect for the individual and acknowledgment of moral obligations to and by an individual and his society are not being adequately defended. A political correctness seems to be the driving force and thereby facilitates radical belief systems taking hold, and in many places to become a key player in setting the agenda.
I fear we too are now beginning to see the pieces of such influences taking place in our country. What ties us together as a people -- our language, our vision of a future, our understanding of our country’s history, and a common moral code -- seems to be under attack by radical influences.
As a Jew committed to the survival of our people into the 22nd century, I am concerned. For our history strongly suggests that when the established order sinks into chaos, or when radical ideas are held by the governing group, the Jews will pay a terrible price.
We see now that Texas is already at the brink of making “history” with respect to our country. Today’s news brings us the following agenda being considered by the Texas school authorities for the content of new books:
The Jamestown settlers? They were socialists
Franklin Roosevelt? He created the Great Depression.
Joe McCarthy? Liberals lied about him. He was a hero.
This is a serious matter of more than local concern because Texas as a major unitary purchaser of textbooks may effectively control what schoolbook publishers accept for publication for other locales. And once a generation of students and their parents have accepted this new “history,” where do we go from there? Perhaps one targets Justice Brandeis or Jonas Salk or Albert Einstein. Maybe the Holocaust or the perceived economic power of certain groups to control the media or financial institutions.
I suggest that the ownership of our history is being fought here and now. Representing some 2% of the population, as a political force in this controversy, we Jews may not have much power, but as a people we must be certain that our next generation will have a strong foundation to appreciate the beauty of our faith, the blessings of our country and their continuing importance together in the world.
They also must have the tools to be able to defend against those who would rewrite all of this to further their own agenda. The tools to ensure that our history is not for sale and will not be expunged or diluted to a weak, unrecognizable dribble of trivia.
Indeed, I suggest they need to hear, over the years, the history of how their family came to be here, the sorrows and the successes their ancestors experienced. And most of all, they need to hear from you -- their parents and grandparents -- that in this land of opportunity and abundance we all stand on the shoulders of earlier generations. Generations who for the most part came here in steerage class -- carrying with them only the clothes on their backs and one small suitcase, but also carrying a rich personal history of their own exodus to relative freedom. A history which for the most part they did not share with us, for it was painful, and many tried to leave it all behind “on the other side.”
Like the words of our haggadah, this Exodus journey needs to be repeated and repeated, and shared and documented from generation to generation. So our country and our people may go from strength to strength.
Shabbat shalom.
Return to D'var Torah Index
| 
