D'Var Torah, Erev Rosh Hashana, 5766

By Rabbi Yitzhak Husbands-Hankin
October 3, 2005

"In a free society, some are guilty, all are responsible."

The howling winds of hurricane Katrina blew destruction over a vast area of our nation. Its floodwaters washed away lives and dreams and perhaps most stunningly, washed away a facade. That facade had concealed from view the depth of poverty, racism, and negligence that frames the lives of so many Americans.

Last year, Shonna and I went to New Orleans to visit a friend living on the edge of the famous French Quarter. We heard wonderful vibrant music every evening and enjoyed the rich and colorful ambience of the city. We also glimpsed the dangerous underside of the metropolis, reading daily front-page exposes on the inability of the city government to control the highest homicide rate in the nation. The level of violence and lawlessness was indicative of deep social problems that plagued "The Big Easy."

Being for the first time in the deep south of our country, we felt drawn to look into the history of the region. Among our explorations was a trip to visit a nearby plantation to learn about the enslavement of Africans in the surrounding area of New Orleans. This had been the largest slave market in America. We saw metal collars and leg irons worn by slaves, we saw their cramped living quarters, we saw bills of sale - for our fellow human beings. It was heartbreaking to glimpse these horrible realities which made more vivid the brutality that characterized slavery in our country. Many of the descendants of those slaves now populate the region and their lives continue to be afflicted by their inherited experience of suffering and inhumanity.

On Rosh Hashana, we are given to reflection on the changes we must make as individuals. What might Katrina, this enormous disaster, mean for us during these days of reflection? What insights might be of value that could provide the impetus to change our collective reality by considering our individual share in its make-up? Who will be held accountable for the enormous failures in the response and preparation for Katrina? The great Rabbi Avraham Joshua Heschel, a close friend of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, taught, "in a free society, some are guilty, all are responsible."

Our society has a great deal of Teshuva to do, not only to heal what can be healed in the aftermath of Katrina, but also to avoid repetition of the negligence that left so many people vulnerable to avoidable injury and loss of life.

As a faith community we are confronted by the question, "Where was G-d in these events?" What does Jewish tradition provide as answers to the puzzling question of G-d’s role in such a catastrophe? What of the human role?

During a time of disaster Judaism encourages us to pay more attention to what we can do to respond rather than to dwell on theological questions. Sadly, there was an immediate chorus of voices from fundamentalist corners of Christianity, Islam and Judaism that saw the flood and hurricane as the wrathful punishment by G-d for sinfulness. While Christian fundamentalists focused on gambling casinos and the upcoming gay pride parade, an influential rabbi in Israel added to the dismaying clamor by chiming in that this was G-d's punishment for President Bush's support for the Gaza withdrawal. The rabbi’s statement brought on a storm of its own, as rabbis from around the world condemned his proclamation.

I found these fundamentalist perspectives grossly lacking, resulting in a perverted and slanderous portrayal of Divine Will. The chutzpa of religious leaders to interpret G-d's Will as an affirmation of their own narrow views of personal morality and politics, brings disgrace and additional burden to the already struggling reputation of religion.

We will find a more worthwhile approach to understanding this catastrophe if we look at natural consequences – inevitable outcomes resulting from human behavior. Rabbi David Teutsch, in his commentary on the Shema in the Reconstructionist prayerbook, describes the meaning of natural consequences. He asks, "What human action could result in the destruction of the rains, the onset of crop failure and famine? Abuse of the eco-system upon which our very lives depend…today…we recognize that often this reward and punishment rest in our own hands."

While it is not precisely clear what impact the destruction of coastal wetlands played in the flooding of New Orleans, a good deal is quite clear. The manipulation of the Mississippi River: its channeling, damming, and diversion have prevented it from performing its natural function, which for thousands of years has been to deposit countless tons of sediment at its mouth, and cultivate the huge delta upon which New Orleans sits. These wetlands served as a buffer and protection against Gulf storms and flooding. These wetlands have diminished rapidly in recent years, and are projected to be all but destroyed in the next couple of decades.

The extent to which global warming contributed to Katrina's catastrophic intensity is not yet known. However there is an overwhelming consensus in the scientific community that human activity - especially the consumption of fossil fuels is causing the Earth's temperature to measurably raise. The elevated sea levels and the inundation of coastlines, result from this rise in temperature, as the polar ice cap melts away. It is widely understood that warming waters cause an increase in the severity of hurricanes. While we can not be certain about the measure of global warming's contribution to our recent disasters, we can predict that the continued rise in the Earth’s temperature will feed the intensity of future hurricanes.

While our nation’'s leadership has moved at a snail's pace, when moving at all, to curb our dependence on fossil fuels, we see business interests even in our own state forcefully lobbying against progress in this crucial matter. The natural consequences flowing from this continued resistance to developing appropriate technologies that are not dependant on a petroleum based economy, may well be leading to devastating changes in weather patterns throughout the world, often impacting the poorest and most vulnerable. These patterns of harm to the environment put countless lives at stake. Their danger is humanly created and not simply the decree of heaven.

As responsible members of a democratic society we must not accept leadership that is willing to put at risk so many lives through a lack of urgency with this frightening prospect. We must demand that our government become seriously and fully engaged in minimizing environmental hazards. Our government must not continue to show up late to the think tank for solutions to such massive and grave concerns.

If there is any immoral gambling going on in this nation, it is our leadership's willingness to gamble with the lives of so many, while ferociously protecting the financial interests of the oil and related industries, to which they are personally wed. In a democratic society however, it is not enough simply to blame leadership, we must work to change its direction and priorities.

Natural consequences teach that G-d has established laws of nature governing the physical dimension of our world. As we learn these laws of nature and respect them, we become increasingly capable of living in harmony with creation. The great gift of science and our G-d given gift of reason continue to enlighten us about the workings of nature and make it possible for us to more fully respect those laws.

We cannot, however, intellectually grasp the vastness of the Creative Mystery we call G-d. Science and reason have their limits. We must also consult our other G-d given gifts of discernment. Those capacities include intuition, spiritual attunement and emotional sensitivity. We not only comprehend with our heads but also with our hearts. While laws that govern the physical domain can be comprehended for their ability to be measured and monitored and expressed through formulaic statements, the sphere of justice and social order seem more abstract. Human behavior is less clear and accessible to our capacity for comprehension.

What were the social realities at work in the recent devastation? Why was our government not prepared for such a predictable disaster? Why did political cronyism put the safety of hundreds of thousands of Americans in the hands of unqualified leadership? How widespread is this hazardous approach to political appointments? What will be the political consequences for such criminal negligence and abuse of power?

This all raises haunting questions about how a mass evacuation could be ordered while only preparing a means of evacuation for those of the middle class and up. The poor of New Orleans did not seem to come to mind, as disaster planners ignored the multiple factors that would prevent the poorer, mostly African American members of the society from fleeing to safety. The inadequacy of the response was simply outrageous and inexcusable. It must never happen again. This negligence has revealed deep and persistent social realities that we must at last fully confront.

The descendants of African slaves continue to suffer from the bitter and debilitating power of racism. Not only did emancipated African Americans not receive compensation for their years of enslavement, unpaid work, and horrific treatment, but they were denied even the promised – "forty acres and a mule" – that would have promoted self-sufficiency. After emancipation, white supremacist regimes imposed laws that denied blacks political as well as economic rights, and racist laws were reinforced by lynching and official terror. Property-less, exploited, and denied education and other basic human rights, it’s no wonder that the descendants of slaves continued for so long to materially lag behind, as they carried an immeasurable burden no one should have to bear.

When our ancestors, the Hebrew slaves, finally prepared to leave bondage, the Torah says they went to their Egyptian neighbors and asked for silver, gold and garments. This they received and that wealth should be understood as an essential act of reparations – an essential component of Teshuva.

No such hint of justice has ever been granted our black brothers and sisters in this nation. No act of reparations, such as the Egyptian payment for our servitude, ever restored the financial condition or affirmed and validated the cost in human dignity, that was owed to former slaves and their descendants. Not even a national apology, another essential component off Teshuva, has ever been offered.

We as Jews know how important it has been within recent years to have Europe pay reparations for Jewish slave labor used during the period of the Shoah. Why has no equal concern arisen for justice for African American slave labor? This injustice hangs in our air like an unresolved dissonant chord stirred up by the wind and water of Katrina.

The national response to Hurricane Katrina provides an opportunity to rectify persistent injustices and attitudes, that created the framework for our lack of preparation and response.

If the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast region provides the opportunity for employment, dignified employment that earns a living wage for those who have suffered the weight of discrimination; if contracts and positions are granted based on merit and fair pricing, rather than like those being revealed by a Senate investigation, exposing massive fraud and corruption in dealings with Halliburton in Iraq. If the rebuilding is done in a way that provides safety and shelter from future natural disasters and is done with care and sensitivity to our environment, if the rebuilding provides schools that are adequately staffed and funded for well nourished children who live in decent affordable homes, if the rebuilding provides hospitals that provide equal care for all residents of the region, if the justice system provides restorative possibilities to those sad souls whose deprivations have led them to criminal behavior, if the rebuilding is not merely a physical replacement of the tired old institutions that continue to diminish human dignity, but rather reflect the high ideals we hope to live by --- then the rebuilding will be worthwhile.

There needs to be a new spirit in this country, a spirit that draws out the best in all of us. A spirit that is determined to melt away the barriers of prejudice and neglect that separate the haves and have-nots on distant sides of a rapidly growing chasm. We need to renew and restore our spirit and pass a test that was articulated many years ago by Franklin Roosevelt when he said,

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

Whites in Eugene must listen to the voices of neighbors in African American, and other communities of color and learn from them about their experiences of discrimination and white privilege. We have good reason to believe that our city is far from free of racism. The reflection given by many leading members of the African American community here is worthy of serious attention. Having grown up with racism deeply embedded in our culture, we each must search within ourselves to free ourselves from discriminatory attitudes and actions no matter how subtle they may be. We are after all responsible for the whole of our society. This is an opportunity to do deeply meaningful and important teshuva.

We must be willing to rise above the temptation to paralyzing cynicism that can leave us ineffective in the face of the enormous challenges, both physical and spiritual, we are called to address. We must be willing to believe in the human capacity for decency even as so many patterns of abuse of power and reckless negligence permeate our society. We must be willing not only to see our religious responsibilities as exercises in attaining personal purity and fulfillment, but rather as powerful forces of transformation in a world and at a time that requires extraordinary transformation.

We must work for a paradigm shift that recognizes that all fundamentalisms are the same. They are all one religion, worshipping a terrifying deity that brutally punishes innocent people and grants to adherents permission to use even terror as a means for accomplishing ideological goals. Whether it is a Christian televangelist suggesting the assassination of the Venezuelan leader, a fanatic Jewish yeshiva student who assassinates Prime Minister Rabin, or a Moslem terrorist in the ranks of Al Quieda, they are all of the same religion. They believe in a horrific and vengeful Divinity. This is not the G-d that I will worship nor is it the G-d that our tradition describes as a G-d of mercy and compassion - a source of love and justice.

We must also recognize the vast numbers of allies and partners from many faith communities who share our commitments to justice and decency and other ideals that Judaism envisions. We must free ourselves from any ethnocentric limitations that keep us from fully joining in partnerships to accomplish the transformative work demanded by a religiously progressive world view. Our values are sacred. We must live by them.

Where was G-d in the storm? G-d was in the hands of a young man who built a raft out of wood scraps salvaged from rising waters to float his family to safety. G-d was in the waves of compassion that rose up in hearts throughout this land, including our own community at TBI, that sought ways of touching those who suffered so terribly. G-d was in the trembling embrace of family members re-united after not knowing if their beloved had survived. G-d was shedding tears and crying alongside those who cried out in agony as they watched a loved one washed away in the overpowering torrent.

The Torah gives us an image of Elijah the prophet encountering the Divine Will. The angel of G-d says, "Go forth, and stand upon the mountain before G-d. And behold, G-d passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before G-d; but G-d was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but G-d was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but G-d was not in the fire, and after the fire, a still small voice."(1 Kings 19: 11-12)

G-d has always been in the still small voice of conscience whispering persistently from generation to generation that justice and goodness must rule this world. The raging storm and the outrage of its aftermath have demanded that the still small voice of conscience grow into a loud and persistent and penetrating call for justice.

Rosh Hashana is traditionally understood as the coronation of the Creator as ruler over this world. We let G-d rule this world whenever we choose life over death, whenever we choose compassion over meanness, whenever we choose kindness over callousness and generosity over greed.

As Jews, we are here to transform the world. Crowning G-d as Sovereign is our recognition that G-d is the ultimate power, and still we see so much that is yet unG-dly in this world. We are here on this Erev Rosh Hashanah to affirm our commitment to the ongoing work of inviting goodness into the world. We are here to invite the G-dly qualities of justice and compassion, kindness and generosity into our hearts and into our world so that the forces of these G-dly attributes become the dominant qualities, the prevailing qualities in our world. Then we will experience them both in our day to day relationships and also we will see them reflected through our national agenda and policies.

There is a well known story about a Hassidic master who asked his students,”Where is G-d?” They were baffled by this seemingly simple question for they already were sure of the omnipresence of G-d. The Rabbi, however, told his students, "G-d only exists wherever we let G-d in." That is our task. That is our vision. To let G-d into this world. To let this world fill with awesome and G-dly goodness and to be caretakers and advocates for that goodness. Then we will see the fulfillment of the prophetic promise that Dr. Martin Luther King drew such inspiration from.” Justice shall roll down like the waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of G-d, as the waters fill the seas.”

May G-d Bless us with the strength of character as individuals and as a community to live our values, to find energy in our lives when we thought we were depleted, to restore us to the fullness of our faith in all that is good, to have the strength of character to search and cleanse our own hearts, to let ignorance and uncaring yield to learning and loving.

Shana Tova Tikateivu V’teichateimu,
May you all be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life for a new year of abundant blessings.