By Rabbi Kenneth Katz
We greet the New Jewish Year on a note of apprehension. The United States continues to be at war.
We cannot greet the New Year without first thinking of our fellow citizens and neighbors here in Wisconsin, men and women, who have honorably answered obligations they made to serve in our armed forces.
They have all experienced painful and prolonged separation from family and friends. Some experience economic hardship. Too many have been injured or killed, both women and men.
Whether we support the war as it is now being conducted or not, as fellow citizens we are in debt to our fighting men and women for answering the lawful call of our country.
Whether we support the war or not, I ask each of us, each by our own lights, to find a way equally honorably to repay that debt to them. This may be by renewed involvement in our political debate and process, or in the coming election.
It may involve more direct outreach or donation to organizations that aid soldiers and their families. It may involve assisting humanitarian organizations that work in the war zone, in Afghanistan and Iraq.
However this war may have been started and conducted, it is being fought in our name as American citizens. We should not avert our gaze from our fellow citizens who are fighting or from the policies of our government.
The state of Israel also remains at war, with all the same concerns and worries for us. Our lives and fates and those of the Israelis are inseparable.
Work and pray for Israel’s peace and security, and for a just peace for all peoples of the Middle East. Buy Israeli products. Make investment in Israeli businesses or bonds part of your financial holdings or retirement savings.
Make support of Israeli causes and organizations that you believe in a priority in your charitable giving. If possible, visit Israel this year.
And don’t be afraid to be critical or skeptical. You can love Israel and be critical, too. Israelis are justifiably proud of the vigor of their political life and of their free press. Learn more about Israeli life and politics by reading books, periodicals or on-line publications from Israel.
Inspiration from Mishnah
Participate freely and vigorously in the free debate about Israeli politics, culture, and society that is part of the glory of our Jewish community and Jewish state. This can only cause your love for Israel to increase.
We look for inspiration and courage for the coming year in our holy books. Consider these words from Pirke Avot (Sayings of the Sages), a section of the Mishna (200 C.E.) that is printed in many of our prayer books.
“Rabbi Tarfon taught, ‘You are not obliged to finish the task, neither are you free to neglect it’” (2:21). The remedy for apprehension is to always be engaged with the world, to work for its betterment, but never to despair that we cannot finish the task.
“Hillel taught, ‘If I am not for me, who will be? If I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, when?’” (1:14). We need simultaneously a sense of our own interests and those of people who for now may be against us. And we need to be involved now, not later.
“Rabbi Yose taught, ‘The property of others should be as precious to you as your own’” (2:17). What a brilliant statement of the common public good.
And if the property of others should be dear as one’s own, how much more dear should be other people themselves? Our own interests must be balanced always by a sense of the universal needs of the earth and humanity.
And consider the words of Rabban Gamaliel, himself the head of the Jewish community in the Roman Empire in the early 200’s C.E.
“Rabban Gamaliel, son of Yehudah Ha-Nasi, taught, ‘Be wary of the authorities! They do not befriend anyone unless it serves their own needs. They appear as a friend when it is to their advantage, but do not stand by a person in his hour of need’” (2:3).
These words from one of the authorities! We need to not lose our individual independence of thought or action, to balance our common interests and actions as Jews and citizens with knowledge of when to oppose authority.
Apprehensive but active, vigorous, self-aware, hoping for peace and turning enemies into friends, trusting in God and with renewed energy to improve and perfect ourselves and the world, we greet the New Year 5765.
Rabbi Kenneth Katz is spiritual leader of Beth Israel Center in Madison.
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