The prophet Zepheniah warns us that neither silver nor their gold will be able to save us on the day of the Lord’s wrath. That if God was angry enough, he would make an end to all the inhabitants of the earth. Zephaniah 1:18 This is a sober warning indeed, which makes us think of our personal and communal vulnerability and mortality.
This past Wednesday Jerry and I attended a webinar put on by the Shalom Hartman Institute to teach us an insider perspective of how Jewish people are feeling after the October 7 attack. Rabbi Tamar Elud Applebaum a black Moroccan Jewish woman who lives in Israel said that it feels like interfaith partners are “not seeing,” and that there is “moral loneliness.”
Rabbi Tamar Elud Applebaum told us a story of something that happened on October 7. A family went into their safe room. A Jewish first responder knocked on the door of their safe room to help them, but those inside were afraid and didn’t believe or know who this person was. So the person outside sang or chanted to them the Shema, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is One.” What does the Shema mean? It means two things.
- It means that the Lord is God. That all religions, all nations, all races, all belong to the same God. The Lord is God.
- It means that the Lord is One. It means that the one person who suffers, who is alone, who is a victim; should be seen as God. In Christian parlance this means that the one person who suffers is Jesus, who deserves our total faithfulness.
To be faithful to the One means to do them no harm. It means to create peace for the One.
It made me think about 9/11/2001. Do you remember what it felt like then? How all of a sudden the United States felt much more vulnerable? Proportionally October 7 was arguably way worse given the population of Israel and Palestine. But that is not the point.
Think back to how the world responded after 9/11. It seemed as if for a moment, it might not have lasted a long time, but there was at least a moment, when the whole world sympathized with the United States of America. There were gestures of solidarity and love, and collective mourning for that attack. There was a clear message that people cared for us and wanted our well being, safety, and security.
What I heard this past Wednesday morning from Rabbi Justus Baird, Rabbi Applebaum, and Dr. Mijal Bitton, was that after the October 7 attack, the world was silent. Interfaith partners were silent. Rabbis literally sat in their offices and they received no phone calls of support. Dr. Bitton called it a double trauma: the attack, and then the indifference.
Elie Wiesel, author of “Night,” and survivor of Shoa, formerly referred to as the Holocaust, said that the opposite of love is not hate, it is…indifference. Indifference means not really caring one way or the other, it means being numb and callous. I suspect indifference is the root of anti-semitism.
“So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.” Psalm 90:12
We must make the most out of the time we have been given. When we have concern and care for our neighbor, we recognize that every day is a gift of God. Every day counts. Every place is sacred. Each human being is made in the divine image and worthy of our faith. We must make the most out of the time we have together, because we will never get this time back.
“For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” Matthew 25:28
To be completely honest with you I have long struggled with the meaning of the parable of the talents. Why would Jesus teach about the super rich getting richer, while the poor get poorer. The servants entrusted with 5 talents and 2 talents both double their money, but the one entrusted with just one talent, buries it out of fear, and then the talent is stripped away from him. What does this mean, and why would Jesus condone such behavior?
When we demonstrate trust, and invest deeply in people; they will reciprocate. Rather than seeing ourselves as one of the servants, why not see ourselves as the rich person with 8 talents to lend? Where we invest our resources is a sign of who we love and trust. Where we deprive resources is a sign of where we do not trust. Maybe the solution to this parable is that the third servant should have been entrusted with more, and not less, to build trust. We might want to take some risk in trusting others, because if we don’t there is no chance of success.
This reminds me of a documentary I saw about David Geffen. He’s very successful. Some years ago he wanted to create a film studio, they called it DreamWorks. It kind of failed at first. Geffen had to decide whether to abandon the project or continue on. He decided to plow not just a little, but a lot of money into the project as a sign of his faith. Then, finally, it began to grow, because he genuinely encouraged it growth.
“Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11
My dear friends and siblings, my fellow human beings. Please do not give up. You are doing a phenomenal job! I am so humbled and honored that you take time out of your lives to work for peace. The days and years you have invested to living out your beliefs are not wasted. They are precious gifts. What is a talent worth? A talent in the time of Jesus was only for the super rich. So let us say that one talent is worth 1 billion dollars. You have more than 8 talents to invest. You are worth much more than 8 billion dollars. You are precious and priceless and of inestimable worth. Your life matters. We need you. You are awesome! Amen.
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