For
the most part, being American and living in Toronto is an exercise in
reflecting upon some of the cuter cultural differences between American and
Canadians, American Jewry and Canadian Jewry, and even cute cultural
eccentricities. However there are those moments when I roll my eyes as an
American citizen embarrassed at certain “American” behavior. There are also
moments when I roll my eyes as a Jew embarrassed by certain “Jewish” behavior.
I can’t remember the last time I hit the daily double, embarrassed or better
yet, repulsed by Jewish American behavior. Not all American Jews think like, or
behave like Donald Sterling, the owner for National Basketball Association
(NBA) Los Angeles Clippers. Donald Sterling was born in Chicago as Donald
Tokowitz to Jewish immigrants in the early 1930s. His family moved to Los
Angeles when he was a small boy. He
added the last name Sterling when he was an adult. I don’t know how and when
Donald Sterling became a racist. Being a
child of immigrant parents, one would think that he might have empathy in terms
of what is to be different, to be discriminated against, to avoid being too
Jewish in order to gain social acceptance in the late 1950’s and 1960’s
America. It wasn’t so long ago that being Jewish did not possess a great amount
of cache or “cool”. Yet this billionaire, who has been accused of
discrimination before, seemingly has forgotten the vitally important lessons of
Judaism and American history. As an
American, with immigrant parents, he better than anybody should know the evils
of discrimination and the importance of living in a society in which the rule
of law, the content of character, and
one abilities and gifts, must be the standard by which one is judged. As a Jew,
with parents who came over from Eastern Europe, who just barely escaped the Holocaust,
Mr. Tokowitz –Sterling, ought to keep in mind not only Jewish history of the
past several centuries, centuries marked by anti-Semitism and slaughter, but
even some of the more basic ideas of the Judaism, ideas that have made the
Jewish people the greatest advocates of civil rights, anti-discrimination and
defender of the downtrodden.
This
week we read from Parsha Emor. The four chapters that comprise Parsha Emor
focus on the various aspects of Perfection. First the Torah focuses upon the
importance of the physical and spiritual perfection and purity of the Kohen. He
must remain in a perpetual state of purity. He is restricted in terms of whom
he can marry. He is restricted in regards for whom he can mourn. He cannot go
to a cemetery. He cannot make sacrificial offerings if he has physical
abnormalities. The second of the four chapters reminds B’nai Yisroel that when
approaching God with an offering, the individual must be spiritually pure and perfect
and so must the offering. These offerings must come directly from the
individual making them and not from “the hand of a stranger” (Lev.22:25). The
third chapter of the Parsha deals with the perfection and the purity of time.
Time is define as perfect in the season follow an order, the holidays such as
Shabbat, Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot, Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur are designated
to come in a particular order. That order is both pure and perfect since time
and the designation of “Sacred” time comes from God. The fourth chapter speaks
about maintaining purity and the perfection of physical space in this case the
Mishkan, and all that is in the Mishkan. The Torah even deals with perfection
and purity of human relationships and the punishments meted out when that
perfection, purity and holiness is violated. In a sense, this last chapter
reminds us of God’s charge to B’nai Yisroel.
Everything
we do is designed to sanctify God’s name through deed. Whether attending to the
Mishkan, the treatment of animals or of our fellow man, it all boils down to
the sanctification of God. It is quite evident that the Parsha deals with both
the “big picture” of human behavior. V’Lo T’Challelu et Sheim Kodshi V’Nikdashti
B’Toch B’Nai Yisroel Ani M’Kadishchem
– You shall not desecrate my Holy Name,
rather I should be sanctified among the Children of Israel; I am Hashem who
sanctified you. HaMotzi Etchem
Me’Eretz Mitzrayim Liheyot Lachem Leilohim, Ani Adoshem – Who took you out of the land of Egypt to be
a God unto you, I am Hashem. (Lev.22:32-33). We are being reminded of our
rather humble national origin, slavery. We are being reminded that because
Hashem took us out from slavery, Hashem can make demands upon us. (RaMBaN).
Among
those demands is that we are a nation of priests and a light to the nations. Throughout
Parsha Emor, we have learned that besides the offering needing to be pure in
order to be accepted by Hashem, the
Priest, the conduit, needs to be pure as well. So when the conduit between the people and
God, the Kohen Gadol, is impure, then the offering cannot be pure and therefore
unacceptable. Mr. Sterling sadly forgot that very important fact. We are all
examples to our families, our communities and the outside world. As a people,
we are supposed to be a “light unto the nations”. We are supposed to be role
models for the rest of the world. When individual Jewish behavior fails to
sanctify the self, the other, and the relationship with Hashem, then the individual forgets the raison d’etre for being brought
out of slavery. When Donald Sterling and those like him are allowed to continue
their behavior, then it becomes the responsibility of the Jewish community to
shine an even bright light and to drown out that darkness of ignorance.
Thankfully, Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, seems to recognize this.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
No comments:
Post a Comment