Stuck home this past snowy Monday morning, I began making plans.
In between scheduled Zoom meetings and rescheduling in-person meetings to Zoom, I bundled up in layers upon layers, placing thermal-lined mittens over thinner, fleece gloves, and went outside to clear a path from the front porch—down the side of the driveway—to the sidewalk.
I was motivated by the need to leave my house Tuesday morning.
I was determined to help Henry (pictured above, indoors) walk safely down the street.
I made slow, intermittent progress.
After my first clearing attempt, having exposed a narrow strip of cement driveway along one side of my car, I returned to my computer and cleared a few dozen emails from my inbox.
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Ignoring the steady flow of weather alerts about the extreme cold, I focus my attention on three types of messages flooding my three Gmail accounts:
- It is the day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Twenty one years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution establishing January 27th—the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau—as a day for the rest of the world to commemorate “Nazi Germany’s killing of millions of people.” Sixty seven years ago, the State of Israel established Yom HaShoah on the 27th of Nisan—the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising—as a day for us to mourn the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany and its allies, and to commemorate the Jewish resistance to the Nazi’s genocide of the Jewish People.
Monday, just before noon, I receive an email from my friend and teacher, Professor Edward Queen, Director of the D. Abbott Turner Program in Ethics and Servant Leadership at the Center for Ethics at Emory University. His weekly emails are my main source of important news, and this week he shares an essay from The Telegraph without additional comment. The essay, written by his colleague Deborah Lipstadt, is titled: “This isn’t 1930s Germany, but anti-Semitism must be crushed before it’s too late.” I read it immediately, and it leaves me breathless.
- Two years, three months, and nineteen days since he was murdered and his body abducted to Gaza, the last Israeli hostage is finally home.” The People of Israel, ‘Am echad b’lev echad~one people with one heart, pour out their love to the parents and siblings of Ran Gvili, now returned to his final resting place, may his memory be a blessing. I wonder if the timing is somehow significant.
Throughout the day, I receive emails from various organizations I’ve supported before and since October 7th, 2023. One line jumps out at me from the screen: “We could not have reached this point without the activists who took to the streets, led by The Hostage Families Forum….When the government failed us, these Israelis showed immense dedication, strength, and moral clarity.” Knowing that it will appear in my queue on Thursday, I look forward to listening to the next episode of For Heaven’s Sake, a podcast from the Shalom Hartman Institute. I’ve been faithfully following Yossi Klein Halevi and Donniel Hartman’s conversations since before October 7th and I can’t imagine how I’ll feel when these two old friends decide to retire from their recording studio.
- There are many messages from and about Minnesota—these began arriving after January 7th and continue to arrive daily—and the one I wish to share with you is from a friend who lives a few miles away, here in Marlton, NJ. She is someone I met only a year and a half ago, and I’ve grown to appreciate her thoughtful and insightful comments about a whole variety of issues.
In this message, she asks me if I’ve seen the message from Evesham Township’s Mayor Jackie Veasy and includes excerpts that she correctly assumed would resonate with me:
“My commitment to you is to maintain the vital balance between protecting individual rights and ensuring public safety….The goal of any leader should be to provide a community where every resident feels protected, heard, and free to live without fear.
What we are seeing on the national stage regarding immigration enforcement and the use of unchecked force strikes me to my core. When enforcement tactics bypass transparency or infringe upon civil liberties, the essential bond of trust between the public and the government begins to erode. This is not just a policy issue–it is a matter of human dignity.”
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What stays with me from this email, more than the words of Mayor Veasy, are this friend’s own words about a text we studied in an online session of Tea & Torah. I need to ask her permission to share her words from the pulpit this shabbat, since I haven’t yet prepared a sermon of my own:
“It occurs to me that ‘redemption’ is not to be taken for granted. Kind of like hunger–we may be satiated after a feast, but the next morning we still eat breakfast. Essentially we ‘assume’ there will be food tomorrow. Not everyone has that luxury.
It’s the same with redemption…redemption is fluid. We shouldn’t, but do, become complacent and comfortable, rather than seeking ways to maintain and strengthen our redemption, not only spiritually, but physically…not just for ourselves, but for others.”
As we celebrate Shabbat Shira this week, singing this song before singing the “Song at the Sea” from the Torah, I’ll be savoring these words:
We must not take redemption for granted.
We must seek paths to redemption for ourselves and for others.
We must celebrate together when we find them.