Psalm for Wednesday and the Book of Esther

The Psalm for Wednesday is not the easiest psalm to recite.  Filled with calls for Divine Retribution and violent justice against those who oppress, it does not seem to trust human rulers to do their jobs. Crying out to the Holy One, in recent days and weeks, we have seen violence done in the name of God, hatred and malice among and between faithful of many traditions.  We have seen genocide against Christians and Jews in the Middle East and some of the last remaining Jews of Yemen (whose community has been there for 2000 years) fleeing to Israel.  Brussels, the seat of European government, has seen its supposedly multicultural and multiethnic city bombed and broken by terror and regular terror attacks in Israel have impacted tourism and everyday life.  Tonight we read the Megillah-the Book of Esther-where God’s name is never mentioned yet whose presence fills the book.  Mordechai and Esther play their holy roles and bring God and goodness amidst the chaos and the evil.  Haman is the most evil character of the story, bringing hatred and violence, yet Achashveros, is not exactly a good guy either.  Concerned only with his own pleasure, firing his first wife for being a proto-feminist (she didn’t want to dance naked on command), he signs on to the massacre of the Jews, and only allows them to defend themselves after realizing it might affect HIS life (with the death of his beloved wife).

We can easily cry out to God:

“1 O LORD, Thou God to whom vengeance belongeth, Thou God to whom vengeance belongeth, shine forth.

2 Lift up Thyself, Thou Judge of the earth; render to the proud their recompense.”

(1917 JPS translation from: http://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/et/et2694.htm)

Yet, one of the lessons of the Book of Esther, is that we have to act, too.  We depend on God, yet do God’s holy work HERE, NOW.

“16 Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?”

The answer to the question is God--but the answer is ALSO us.  For we have God within us.  In my first interfaith chaplaincy class, students spoke about “being Jesus in the room.”  At first it sounded absolutely absurd to me, the theology did not speak to me.  Yet over time, I found so many moments when my timing was impeccable.  I found so many times when I thought my words failed me and they hit just the right note.  We all have within us Godliness.  We all have within us the possibility of a better world.  What are we doing to activate that?  How do we bring not just God’s retribution, but God’s love?

From the Jewish perspective, it’s much easier to NOT be Jewish!  Non-Jews only have 7 Noahide Laws, while we have 613 Mitzvot/Commandments.  The last of those Noahide laws demands a court system, a justice system.  It must be functional.  It must be equitable.  It cannot treat the rich and the poor differently.  It cannot treat people differently based on color or faith.  We were strangers in Egypt, so we MUST remember the stranger.

Our system of justice has major flaws.  Different drugs result in harshly different sentences.  Money allows some to face far easier terms than others.  The bail/bond system allows some to return to their normal lives while facing trial and others to remain imprisoned--losing their jobs, their lives, and even their children.  Worldwide, we do not know how to resolve terrorism.  Are we in a clash of cultures or do we ALL need better education?  How do we balance the need to remember that every soul was created in God’s image--even if that soul wants to kill us--AND remember that no one’s blood is redder than ours--that we have a right to self-defense AND should not kill innocents.

Wednesdays, we end Psalm 94 with the opening of Psalm 95, reminding us that Shabbat is coming (as it is a psalm of Kabbalat Shabbat) AND that we should sing before God, offering our Thanksgiving.

How do we offer our thanks in an imperfect world?

How do we fix the justice system?

How do we find justice for terror’s victims?

How we stop terrorism?

Do we use an iron fist or fill our quiver with love?

None of these questions have satisfactory answers.  Yet each Wednesday we ask them.  We sing the Psalm, cry out to God, and hopefully continue to improve our answers.  Justice should be swift, but mercy must also be in our arsenal.  In the interim; let us find love in all of our hearts; let us share God’s presence with all those around us; let us find hope in the words of the prophet Micah.

ח  הִגִּיד לְךָ אָדָם, מַה-טּוֹב; וּמָה-ה' דּוֹרֵשׁ מִמְּךָ, כִּי אִם-עֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט וְאַהֲבַת חֶסֶד, וְהַצְנֵעַ לֶכֶת, עִם-אֱלֹהֶיךָ.

8 It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, and what the LORD doth require of thee: only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt1806.htm

Amidst the violence, the hatred, the misery in this world; there is also much love, justice and peace.  Let us build up the latter so the former does not even triumph.

Who hardened whose heart? And how do we soften our own?

Rabbi Philip Weintraub
Congregation Agudas Israel

1/17/2015

Exodus Chapter 7 (NJPS via jtsa.edu)

1 The Lord replied to Moses, "See, I place you in the role of God to Pharaoh, with your brother Aaron as your prophet. 2 You shall repeat all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh to let the Israelites depart from his land. 3 But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that I may multiply My signs and marvels in the land of Egypt. 4 When Pharaoh does not heed you, I will lay My hand upon Egypt and deliver My ranks, My people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with extraordinary chastisements. 5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand over Egypt and bring out the Israelites from their midst." 6 This Moses and Aaron did; as the Lord commanded them, so they did. 7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three, when they made their demand on Pharaoh.

This week we read of blood, of frogs, of insects, but to me the most fascinating part of the parsha is not the miracles, but the inner struggle.

וַאֲנִי אַקְשֶׁה, אֶת-לֵב פַּרְעֹה And I will harden Pharaoh's heart      ,

What is the psychological challenge of Pharaoh?  Did Gd harden Pharaoh’s heart or did Gd reinforce the decision that Pharaoh had already made?  Several times in the book of Exodus, it says that Moses or Gd hardened Pharaoh’s heart, yet in the book of Samuel, we read:

וְלָמָּה תְכַבְּדוּ אֶת-לְבַבְכֶם, כַּאֲשֶׁר כִּבְּדוּ מִצְרַיִם וּפַרְעֹה אֶת-לִבָּם:  הֲלוֹא כַּאֲשֶׁר הִתְעַלֵּל בָּהֶם, וַיְשַׁלְּחוּם וַיֵּלֵכוּ.

6 Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when He had wrought among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?

Which is it?  Can it be both?  Can Gd have simply reinforced the decision of Pharaoh?  On a light-hearted note, I think of the kid’s song, “Little bunny foo foo”, who the fairy gave three chances to improve himself, yet he continued to make the same poor decisions!  Perhaps Gd worked in the same way, giving Pharaoh TEN opportunities to change his ways, yet each time, he did let our people go!

Pharaoh’s sin was not simply refusing GD or Moses.  His sin was in thinking that his hold on power was permanent.  His sin was in imaginging that there was no other way but the choices he had already made.  He could not imagine changing his mind.  The end of the Purim story has always surprised me.  The King does not rescind his order to kill the Jews.  Instead he orders the Jews be armed, that they may protect themselves from the evil onslaught.  His failure to rescind his order causes the needless suffering of many of his people.  And this sin remains today.

Many of us are unwilling to admit we are wrong.  We are unwilling to accept that we can change.  We have hardened our hearts with the wrong idea that the way it is today is the way it will be tomorrow.

As this week celebrates the achievements of Martin Luther King, Jr, I think about the ways that people in this country had hardened hearts.  For those of us who grew up in the South, we were sometimes taught that the Civil War was the end of racism, yet it does not take much to show that it did not end there. Nor did it end with MLK and the passage of the Civil Rights Act or Voting Rights Act.  Rather racism changed form and went underground.  While it is not socially acceptable to openly speak racist thoughts, Avenue Q taught us that “we’re all a little bit racist”, that many people harbor prejudice.  Recently books have come out talking about the “new Jim Crow”, how our justice and prison systems unfairly target those of color.  The “drug war” criminalizes “black” and “white” drugs in different ways, so that if I were to smoke something I shouldn’t (which I wouldn’t since I’m allergic to everything!), I would likely not be arrested or my charges would be dropped, yet if someone of color made the same choice, he or she might find him/herself locked in the prison system.  

Our country has hardened its heart against those that look different.  Yet the demographics of our country are changing.  It is less white than it has ever been.  And somewhere along the way, we Jews became white!  On a side note, as our brothers and sisters in France have discovered, that is not a universal statement!  There is closeted (and not so closeted) anti-semitism even here!  

One lesson of the plagues is that if we get uncomfortable enough, even the most hardened hearts can change.  Even Pharaoh, when the stakes were high enough let our people go.  What does it take for change in this country?  What would it look like to have a just society?

We do not understand the dangers that police navigate every single day.  Every day is another opportunity to protect and serve, but is another opportunity to be placed in a dangerous situation that is not always survivable.  When I can walk to and from synagogue to my home, I am appreciative of those who protect this community and make that walk safe.  Unfortunately, the laws that are enforced are not always just.  We must continue to work with our legislators, with our Congress, to ensure that ALL have opportunity in this country, that laws that unfairly target some are written out of the law books.  That is one way we soften our hearts.

We soften our hearts through suffering, through empathy, through seeing the challenges in our lives and those in our neighbors.  We soften our hearts through respect of those who protect us.  We soften our hearts through demanding equal rights for all.  Did you know that the Equal Rights Amendment has been brought to every  single Congress since 1982 and yet still has not become a constitutional amendment?!

Many times I have heard that if we could all unload our burdens, our challenges and place them on this bimah, given the opportunity to trade them, we would all take back our own challenges.  Our challenges are familiar, yet hopefully we use them to soften our hearts and not harden them.  I pray that we use our challenges to look around the room, to look around the world and find it in our hearts to simply be kind.  I pray that we find it in our hearts to be kind AND to do something.  Let us continue to work for a just world.  It does not happen overnight, but if we imagine the world as immutable, we make the same mistake that Pharaoh did.  We all have the capability to improve this world.  What are we doing?  Shabbat Shalom.