Temple Ahavat Shalom Yom Kippur, 5770
[God] upholds the cause of the orphan and the widow, and befriends the stranger, providing him/her with food and clothing. -- You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. [JPS translation, edited for gender-neutrality]
Suggested Discussion Questions
1. In what ways does this text suggest that we mimic G-d?
2. What is G-d's responsibility to us and what is our responsibility to others? What are the different sources of these responsibilities?
3. This text reminds the reader of Israelite slavery. In what ways is a history of slavery connected to doing justice and loving the stranger?
Learn to do good. Devote yourselves to justice; aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; defend the cause of the widow. [JPS translation]
Suggested Discussion Questions
1. Who are the players in this text – seen and unseen?
2. What power dynamics are at play?
3. What does it mean to "do good"?
Open the gates of justice for me that I may enter them and praise God. This is the gateway to God -- the just shall enter through it. [AJWS translation]
Suggested Discussion Questions
1. Who are the players in this text – seen and unseen?
2. What power dynamics are at play?
3. What social justice themes emerge from this text?
He who oppresses the poor, blasphemes his Maker. He who is gracious to the needy honors God. [JPS translation]
Suggested Discussion Questions
1. Who are the players in this text – seen and unseen?
2. What power dynamics are at play?
3. What social justice themes emerge from this text?
רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר, יְהִי כְבוֹד חֲבֵרְךָ חָבִיב עָלֶיךָ כְּשֶׁלָּךְ.
Rabbi Eliezer said, "Other people’s dignity should be as precious to you as your own." [AJWS translation]
Suggested Discussion Questions
1. Who are the players in this text – seen and unseen?
2. In what ways can we, as individuals, follow this more in our daily lives?
3. In what ways can we, as a society, follow this more in our policies - both foreign and domestic?
ר' יהושע בן לוי סליק לרומי וראה שם עמודים של שייש מכורכים בקיטיות בשרב שלא יפקעו ובצינה שלא יקרשו וראה שם עני אחד מחצלת קנים מתחתיו ומחצלת של קנים מעל גביו.
When R. Joshua ben Levi went to Rome, he saw marble pillars there which had been carefully covered with wrappings to keep them from cracking during the heat and freezing in the cold. At the same time, he saw a poor man who had no more than a reed mat under him and a reed mat over him to protect him from the elements. [AJWS translation]
Suggested Discussion Questions
1. Who are the players in this text – seen and unseen?
2. What is the criticism of Rome here?
3. In what ways could the same criticism be made of our society? Of our global community?
ואחר שאמר לא תענון לשון רבים אמר אם... תענה, כי כל רואה אדם שהוא מענה יתום ואלמנה ולא יעזרם, גם הוא יחשב מענה
Ibn Ezra, Exodus 22:23
After it says, "Do not oppress" in the plural the language changes to be singular..., for anyone who sees a person oppressing an orphan or a widow and does not come to their aid, they will also be considered oppressors. [AJWS translation]
Suggested Discussion Questions
1. Who are the players in this text – seen and unseen?
2. What power dynamics are at play?
3. Ibn Ezra extends the responsibility of the witness. To what extent is this true in today's world? By your own measure, how are we faring?
Dr. Maurice N. Eisendrath, from "The Price of Brotherhood", The Empire Club of Canada Speeches 1955-1956 (Toronto, Canada: The Empire Club Foundation, 1956) PP. 219-235
If we do but mouth our protestations of brotherly love; if we do but worship God on a single day in the week; if we profess in our confessions of faith or mechanically mumble our noble prayers that the “time may not be distant” when “swords will be beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks,” we become smugly satisfied that we have expended our full complement of effort for brotherhood and peace.
Suggested Discussion Questions
1. What is Eisendrath's criticism?
2. What is Eisendrath asking of us? How do we do it?
O Lord, we confess our sins, we are ashamed of the inadequacy of our anguish, of how faint and slight is our mercy. We are a generation that has lost its capacity for outrage. We must continue to remind ourselves that in a free society all are involved in what some are doing. Some are guilty, all are responsible.
Suggested Discussion Questions
1. In what ways have we lost our capacity for outrage?
2. How are we responsible, as Heschel asserts?
3. What kind of mercy would Heschel like to see?