Devarim

August 9, 2019
8 Av 5779

Parashat Devarim
Deuteronomy 1:1 - 3:22

Tisha B’Av is the day that we remember the destruction of both the first and second Temples in Jerusalem. We also use it as a day to remember all the tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people across the centuries. The rabbis worked hard to align the dates to the 9th of Av.

My mother and I always had a hard time with Tisha B’Av, while every year my father would go to hear Eicha (Lamentations) and sit on the floor in the dark - that is, if we weren’t on vacation.

My mother was a very forward thinking individual.  While I was growing up, she reflected upon the past.  The frame she created for her experiences of escaping Hitler’s Germany and spending ten years in Shanghai was always positive. She would always say, “I was young, and when you are young, you can create your own fun." The hardships were minimized.

Meanwhile, my father had also escaped to Shanghai from Europe, but he barely talked of his time there. Unlike my mother, he had left the majority of his family behind, and they had not survived. My father did look back, but he looked back to a time before Hitler, before the destruction - the Shoah. 

Last week, as I reflected on the way America has been represented as a nation of immigrants, I was made acutely aware that the catchall phrase is simply inadequate. There are many immigrants in our population. However, this country has a history that includes:

• Taking away the rights of its native inhabitants;
• Bringing people here against their wishes to be slaves;
• Being a place of refuge for those fleeing oppression and deprivation;
• Being a new home for those seeking a better life.

Not all these situations are the same. The stories we tell about our personal histories are all different. Do we have the courage to hear those stories different from our own?

This Saturday night, after Shabbat, we will gather and read words of displacement, loss, destruction, and our capacity for inhumanity.  These words were written long ago, responding to a particular set of circumstances.

Given the world in which we find ourselves today, where are some of our worst tendencies as human beings seem to be exposed with greater frequency than ever, sitting on the floor together and remembering those days long ago is a stark reminder of what we need to do right now. We are taught that the Temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred. We live in a time where the flames created by “othering” anyone who is not us threatens to consume each and every one of us. We are all here together. Our job is to find a way forward that encompasses each and every one of us, however we got here, whatever our story.

Maybe the purpose of Tisha B’Av is to remember the depths of destruction that we can inflict upon one another and to do everything in our power to see that it does not happen again.

Now, all these many years later, I know why my father embraced Tisha B’Av.  He was a man who was the epitome of love and kindness, but even he needed to be reminded how important it was to remember beyond his own particular story.

This week we begin the fifth book of the Torah, Devarim, which means words or things. The words referred to are the words that Moses shares with the people as he prepares to say farewell. In large part, the Devarim is about retelling our story and warning us about what will happen when we stray from the path of righteousness, lovingkindness, and service.

We humans need to be warned, and after we are warned, we must act. That time is now.  Even through our tears and deep pain, we must find ways of joining together.  Hate is simply unacceptable. As we read the words of Eicha together and remember those who are currently being oppressed, may we find the strength to support those who need our support and ask for that support when we need it.

May the lives lost in El Paso and Dayton be for a blessing and may their memory spur us to action.