Cantor Vera's Corner
Cantor's Message
March/April 2020
Dear friends,
At the end of January, I flew down to Guatemala as part of the Global Justice Fellowship of American Jewish World Service (AJWS). The thirteen other Jewish clergy and I in the Fellowship were privileged to learn from AJWS’ grantee partners: nonprofit organizations in Guatemala who are fighting fiercely to defend human rights. We’ve begun, as a community, to talk about the stories I heard there, and I trust that we will be talking about them and responding to them for a long time. As Purim and Pesach approach, I invite you to look with me through the lens of Torah’s response when our own people were threatened with genocide. There is wisdom there for us.
On the trip, we learned about two genocides. The internal armed conflict in Guatemala, carried out by a military junta ruthlessly protecting Boston-based United Fruit Company’s landholdings against Indigenous (Mayan) Guatemalan demands for land reform and redistribution, killed more than 200,000 people and disappeared 40,000 more before its end in 1996. And the Burmese military has been visiting genocide since August 2017 on the Muslim Rohingya people, an ethnic minority in Burma. Twenty-four thousand had been killed by January 2018, many more beaten and raped, and more than one million Rohingya have been displaced into refugee camps in Bangladesh, in appalling conditions.
Our two spring holidays both tell of narrow Jewish escapes from genocide. Each offers its own toolkit for achieving truth and reconciliation. On Purim, our people rise up to defend themselves against those who try to destroy them. With the backing of the most powerful politician around—King Achashveirosh—they defeat all aggressors. The method of the swift and complete justice (hanging) visited on Haman and his sons may turn our stomachs, but the fullest punishment the law allows finds Haman mere days after his guilt was revealed.
On Pesach, once the immediate threat of pursuit is gone, God gives the B’nei Yisra’eil a new social, legal framework to guard against ethnic discrimination (at least, within their community), our Torah that commands: Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not covet, or slander your neighbor. And a little later on, but no less important: treat the ger, that person who’s not quite like you, just the same as you treat everyone else. Love them instead. Because you were slaves in Egypt. These responses—seeking solutions from the population most affected, dealing timely justice, preventing further persecution, dismantling the social discrimination that can lead to atrocities, and finally, self-consciously cultivating empathy—are Jewish responses that we can emulate when one people dismisses the humanity of another. They are also responses in which AJWS excels.
So when we consider Guatemala and the plight of the Rohingya, what can we do? In the face of monumental pain and suffering and death, we look for the concrete action at hand: that cut to stitch up, that empty belly to fill, that cold person to cover with a blanket, that homeless person to find an apartment for. It’s important to do those things. Immediate needs are real and urgent. Our work to fill them makes a difference that we can see.
I believe that it is also important to look for, and then try to heal, what caused that suffering in the first place. In the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa (who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa at the end of apartheid), “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
Sometimes each one of us may feel more drawn to one kind of social action than another. That’s wonderful! That builds our skillset and focus. I want to hear what social action means to you, and what kinds of activities are most exciting to you as you consider the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, repairing hurts in the world. Our Temple’s Social Action committee is eager to give scope to each member’s strengths and interests, and I encourage you to consider joining it.
I value the way our community already enthusiastic engages with both, equally necessary, parts of this difficult work of safeguarding the human dignity our Torah tells us is due to all. We practice the kavod hab’riot of protesting unjust laws, registering others to vote, participating in Jericho Walks and calling our representatives, witnessing and reporting on cruelty in our immigration system. And we practice the kavod hab’riot, honoring living beings, of cooking and serving meals to the homeless, collecting coats and socks and canned goods, volunteering at animal shelters, and supporting Marius and other immigrants here the Merrimack Valley. These two kinds of action work together.
All of us are needed in this work of tikkun olam, at this table. All are welcome. May we strive together to make all the spaces in which we come together a similarly open table—one at which both satisfaction and justice are served.
L’shalom,
Cantor Vera
March/April 2020
Dear friends,
At the end of January, I flew down to Guatemala as part of the Global Justice Fellowship of American Jewish World Service (AJWS). The thirteen other Jewish clergy and I in the Fellowship were privileged to learn from AJWS’ grantee partners: nonprofit organizations in Guatemala who are fighting fiercely to defend human rights. We’ve begun, as a community, to talk about the stories I heard there, and I trust that we will be talking about them and responding to them for a long time. As Purim and Pesach approach, I invite you to look with me through the lens of Torah’s response when our own people were threatened with genocide. There is wisdom there for us.
On the trip, we learned about two genocides. The internal armed conflict in Guatemala, carried out by a military junta ruthlessly protecting Boston-based United Fruit Company’s landholdings against Indigenous (Mayan) Guatemalan demands for land reform and redistribution, killed more than 200,000 people and disappeared 40,000 more before its end in 1996. And the Burmese military has been visiting genocide since August 2017 on the Muslim Rohingya people, an ethnic minority in Burma. Twenty-four thousand had been killed by January 2018, many more beaten and raped, and more than one million Rohingya have been displaced into refugee camps in Bangladesh, in appalling conditions.
Our two spring holidays both tell of narrow Jewish escapes from genocide. Each offers its own toolkit for achieving truth and reconciliation. On Purim, our people rise up to defend themselves against those who try to destroy them. With the backing of the most powerful politician around—King Achashveirosh—they defeat all aggressors. The method of the swift and complete justice (hanging) visited on Haman and his sons may turn our stomachs, but the fullest punishment the law allows finds Haman mere days after his guilt was revealed.
On Pesach, once the immediate threat of pursuit is gone, God gives the B’nei Yisra’eil a new social, legal framework to guard against ethnic discrimination (at least, within their community), our Torah that commands: Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not covet, or slander your neighbor. And a little later on, but no less important: treat the ger, that person who’s not quite like you, just the same as you treat everyone else. Love them instead. Because you were slaves in Egypt. These responses—seeking solutions from the population most affected, dealing timely justice, preventing further persecution, dismantling the social discrimination that can lead to atrocities, and finally, self-consciously cultivating empathy—are Jewish responses that we can emulate when one people dismisses the humanity of another. They are also responses in which AJWS excels.
So when we consider Guatemala and the plight of the Rohingya, what can we do? In the face of monumental pain and suffering and death, we look for the concrete action at hand: that cut to stitch up, that empty belly to fill, that cold person to cover with a blanket, that homeless person to find an apartment for. It’s important to do those things. Immediate needs are real and urgent. Our work to fill them makes a difference that we can see.
I believe that it is also important to look for, and then try to heal, what caused that suffering in the first place. In the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa (who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa at the end of apartheid), “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
Sometimes each one of us may feel more drawn to one kind of social action than another. That’s wonderful! That builds our skillset and focus. I want to hear what social action means to you, and what kinds of activities are most exciting to you as you consider the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, repairing hurts in the world. Our Temple’s Social Action committee is eager to give scope to each member’s strengths and interests, and I encourage you to consider joining it.
I value the way our community already enthusiastic engages with both, equally necessary, parts of this difficult work of safeguarding the human dignity our Torah tells us is due to all. We practice the kavod hab’riot of protesting unjust laws, registering others to vote, participating in Jericho Walks and calling our representatives, witnessing and reporting on cruelty in our immigration system. And we practice the kavod hab’riot, honoring living beings, of cooking and serving meals to the homeless, collecting coats and socks and canned goods, volunteering at animal shelters, and supporting Marius and other immigrants here the Merrimack Valley. These two kinds of action work together.
All of us are needed in this work of tikkun olam, at this table. All are welcome. May we strive together to make all the spaces in which we come together a similarly open table—one at which both satisfaction and justice are served.
L’shalom,
Cantor Vera
Cantor Vera's Writings
"Practicing Failure, Cultivating Resilience," d'var for Yom Kippur 5780/2019
D'var for Kol Nidrei 5780/2019
"Israeli and American Jewish Identity," d'var for 1st Day of Rosh Hashanah 5780/2019
"The Geir Without and Within," d'var for 1st Day of Rosh Hashanah 5779/2018
"Ki Hinei Kachomeir: Desiring our Yeitzer," for Kol Nidrei 5779/2018
Cantor Vera's Report on Trip to San Diego and Tijuana with T'ruah in July 2018
D'var for Kol Nidrei 5780/2019
"Israeli and American Jewish Identity," d'var for 1st Day of Rosh Hashanah 5780/2019
"The Geir Without and Within," d'var for 1st Day of Rosh Hashanah 5779/2018
"Ki Hinei Kachomeir: Desiring our Yeitzer," for Kol Nidrei 5779/2018
Cantor Vera's Report on Trip to San Diego and Tijuana with T'ruah in July 2018