The views expressed in this opinion piece do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.) 18) at Adas Israel, his synagogue in Washington, D.C. (Rabbi Aaron Alexander gave this sermon on Friday (Aug. But to know it is to realize that thick walls of hatred must collapse, with its graven images discarded or relegated to the halls where history is taught, not continually perpetrated. To experience and know that potent connectivity is simply elegant. The thing about monotheism, perhaps our greatest gift to the world, is that it is built upon oneness, unity, each of us emanating from the same divine stuff while fully able to maintain distinctions. We Jews have a name for the tearing down of images that amplify and idolize racist hatred, anti-Semitism or bigotry of any kind the tearing down, literally and figuratively, of the symbols of degradation and oppression, especially when those ideas are still so pervasive. For them, it is a rowdy call to violence and revisionist history.īut idolatry is counter to any religious idea worth its weight in salt. That symbol, in public, outside of a museum, flattens hearts and opens deep wounds. Even if the intention of reclaiming the symbol comes from a place of goodwill, it is beyond naive. Recently a clothing company, KA Design, tried to “recapture the swastika,” the symbol associated with the brutal murder of 6 million Jews in World War II, by dressing it up with some rainbows and messages of peace. To galvanize around such symbols, symbols that represent not a moment in history but an ideology still alive - no longer disguised, fully revealed - births those stones to life and further re-traumatizes all those still under the hateful rhetoric and policy they symbolize. Symbols represent values, values animate obligations, and obligations influence actions. They were designed purposefully Jim Crow-era carvings to celebrate not only the men they depict, but the ideologies they espoused. These idols - they were created to be more than pedagogical tools. Many of us are hoping to be inundated with more opportunities to recite this benediction, and soon. And of course, they are littered throughout the Deep South. They can be found in our hearts, in our customs and even in our laws. Idols - images, ideas and physical representations that venerate human diminishment - are ubiquitous these days. The Jewish animosity toward graven images is so pervasive that almost every Jewish child learns an ancient disquisition which describes why Abraham was worthy of becoming the first Jew: He dismantled his father’s idols. The prohibition against idolatry is so fundamental to Judaism that when idols are destroyed, and one stands in that physical space, the only appropriate response is: Praise God. And just as you have uprooted it from this place, so too may you uproot it from all places and turn the hearts of those who serve them, to serve You.” “Blessed are You, God, Master of the world, who has uprooted idolatry from this place. But none as timely, and prescient, as this one, below, discussed in the Babylonian Talmud and codified in medieval Jewish codes of law and practice. (RNS) - Judaism has a blessing for pretty much every possible moment.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |