Love Can Bring Us Back to Life; After Pittsburgh

Dr. Ruth Calderon. A Bride for One Night.

If Rav Rehumi achieved any fame, it is thanks to his wife, and if he acquired a reputation, it is as a tragic hero. His character seems to be a pun on his unique, extraordinary name: Rehumi in Aramaic means “love” and can be interpreted as either “loving” or “beloved.” Rehumi’s wife loved him. As such it is she who renders his name appropriate for him—she makes him “beloved.” Though nameless, and though described sparingly, she emerges as a character thanks to the skill of an anonymous master storyteller. Her great love enables her to overlook her husband’s failings, though she is not blind to them…I view him as a man who simply did not know what love is. The only area in which he was not mediocre was in his loving wife’s estimation. Only through her eyes was he deserving of his name. She allowed him to trample on her soul and, through this tragic story, to achieve immortality

From Tales of the Hasidim, by Martin Buber, p 223-4

On one eve of the Day of Atonement, the rabbi of Berditchev waited for a while before going to the pulpit to read the prayers and walked back and forth in the House of Prayer. In a corner he found a man crouched on the floor and weeping. When he questioned him, the man replied: “Up to a short time ago I had all good things, and now I am wretched. Rabbi, I lived in a village and no hungry man went from my door unfed. My wife used to bring home poor wayfarers she met on the road, and see to their needs. And then He comes along” – here the man pointed toward the sky – “takes my wife and my house from one day to the next. There I was with six small children, without a wife, without a house! And I had a thick prayerbook, and all the hymns were in it in just the right order; you didn’t have to hunt around, and that burned up along with everything else. Now you tell me Rabbi, can I forgive Him?

The zaddik had them look for a prayerbook like the one the man described. When it was brought, the man began to turn the pages to see if everything was in the correct sequence, and the rabbi of Berdtchev waited the while. Finally he asked: “Do you forgive Him now?”

“Yes,” said the man. Then the rabbi went to the pulpit and intoned the prayer “All Vows.”

From Tales of the Hasidim, by Martin Buber, p 231

When he was asked which was the right way, that of sorrow or that of joy, the rabbi of Berditchev said:

“There are two kinds of sorrow and two kinds of joy. When a man broods over the misfortunes that have come upon him, when he cowers in a corner and despairs of help – that is a bad kind of sorrow, concerning which it is said: ‘The Divine Presence does not dwell in a place of dejection.’ The other kind is the honest grief of a man who knows what he lacks. The same is true of joy. He who is devoid of inner substance and, in the midst of his empty pleasures, does not feel it, nor tries to fill his lack, is a fool. But he who is truly joyful is like a man whose house has burned down, who feels his need deep in his soul and begins to build anew. Over every stone that is laid, his heart rejoices.”

Will Herberg - Judaism and Modern Man

The ultimate criterion of justice, as of everything else in human life, is the divine imperative—the law of love .... Justice is the institutionalization of love in society .... This law of love requires that every individual be treated as a Thou, a person, an end in themselves, never merely as a thing or a means to another's end. When this demand is translated into laws and institutions under the conditions of human life in history, justice arises.

Naomi Shihab Nye, "Kindness"

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak to it till your voice catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,

only kindness that ties your shoes and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,

only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say It is I you have been looking for,

and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.

.... Abraham Joshua Heschel, Telegram to President John F. Kennedy, June 16, 1963 Original I look forward to privilege of being present at meeting tomorrow. Likelihood exists that Negro problem will be like the weather. Everybody talks about it but nobody does anything about it. Please demand of religious leaders personal involvement not just solemn declaration. We forfeit the right to worship God as long as we continue to humiliate Negroes. Church synagogue have failed. They must repent. Ask of religious leaders to call for national repentance and personal sacrifice. Let religious leaders donate one month's salary toward fund for Negro housing and education. I propose that you Mr. President declare state of moral emergency. A Marshall plan for aid to Negroes is becoming a necessity. The hour calls for moral grandeur and spiritual audacity. ....