Rabbi Charles P. Sherman
Social Justice Shabbat
April 9, 2004
Exercises for the Heart
When I say "angioplasty" or "bypass" or "blood thinner" - most of the people here know to what I am referring. Many of us have reached the age when we are especially conscious of our hearts. Words to which we formerly paid scant heed, we now take seriously. We pay attention to our hearts, we worry about them and hopefully care for them, because we know that the heart is the life of the individual. We understand that the heart needs to be taken care of, or else.
The thesis of this evening's sermon is that just as the heart is the life of the body, so the Jewish heart is the life of the Jewish person. Therefore, just as we care about, protect and nurture our physical heart if we want to live, in the same way we need to care about, protect and nurture our Jewish heart if we want to survive as Jews.
Now, not everybody understands this basic truth. There are some people who think that the stomach is what really counts in Judaism. Gastronomic and gustatory Jews think we can make it as Jews on gefilte fish or luchenkukgel or even matzabrie. But they are wrong. Jewish food is nice but, by itself, it is not sufficient to keep the blood moving. (In fact, some Jewish foods even clog the arteries.)
There are other people I know who think that the brain is what really counts in Judaism. If you know enough books, these people assert, then you are a healthy Jew. Now God knows, the mind is very important in Judaism, but the mind itself is not enough. Furthermore, if you use your mind to boast or to brag or to shame those who know less than you do, then actually you cut off the circulation and weaken the Jewish body politic.
Our parents and grandparents were actually wiser cardiologists than we are. They knew what really counted and what really didn't count in a healthy Jewish life. When they wanted to praise someone, what was the highest compliment they could give? They would say of someone whom they really admired - he's got a yiddishahartz - he's got a "Jewish heart."
If this is true, then the challenge today is how can we preserve our Jewish hearts? How can we make sure that our Jewish hearts stay sound and strong? I believe that the very same things we do in order to make sure that our physical heart stays healthy are what we need to do in order to make sure that our Jewish heart stays fit. Let me show you what I mean.
1) Jews take a stress test every year; it is called Yom Kippur. Once a year, Jews fast for 24 hours so that our hearts may be softened, so that we can feel what it is like to be hungry all year. On that day we read a Haftorah from the Book of Isaiah which instructs us: respond to the hungry, care about the homeless, feel the distress of those who are in pain. You do that every single year, for 3000 years, and it is like a stress test. The stress of those who are hungry gets through to you and keeps the quality of compassion pumping strong within you. You do that conscientiously once a year, and it keeps the heart from getting hard.
2) Every week, on the seventh day, the serious Jew rests, refreshes, recharges. Not only you, but your workers and animals as well. Jews did not drive to synagogue in a horse and wagon the way they did to church in Puritan New England and leave the driver and the horses outside while they went in to pray. Instead, on Shabbat, you teach your heart that you and your servant and your animals are entitled to and required to rest. You do that for 3000 years in a row and it is like angioplasty; it keeps the arteries open and clean so that values can get through.
3) You watch your mother or grandmother put salt on a piece of meat in order to soak the blood out of it; you ask her why, and she tells you it is because we Jews are not supposed to be blood-thirsty. We watch our mothers do that for 3000 years in a row, and it is like blood thinner; it keeps the blood flowing strong to the Jewish heart.
4) Before you sit down to your Shabbat Eve table or your festival table, you put some coins into a pushka or, when you come to Religious School, you give tsedakah or, each month you write a check for your Federation pledge payment and your Temple dues payment. Those acts are like aerobics to keep the Jewish heart pumping strong.
5) How did we begin the seder last Monday and Tuesday night? The Aramaic words "kol dichfin yeytsey - whoever is hungry, let them come and join us; whoever is in need, let him come in and eat." That is how we began the seder in every single Jewish home. You say those words for 3000 years in a row, and it is like adrenaline pumping into the Jewish heart saying, Hey! Pay attention! To be a Jew means to care.
And every Jewish kid who goes to a seder, by the time he or she is eight years old knows the reason why you spill ten drops of wine. They know that it is out of empathy for the Egyptians who suffered through the ten plagues and that we are rejoicing over our liberation, not over their tsuras.
And if you are taught these lessons and practice these mitzvot for 3000 years in a row, it is excellent exercise for the heart. That is the key to understanding the way in which we Jews have lived down through the centuries, yea millennia. We did not depend on government welfare or charity; we built our own network of free loan societies, old age homes, chevra kadishas, and we saw to it that no poor person ever went without a meal, no orphan was ever abandoned.
Now let me say something which will surprise you.. You and I sometimes have a lot of criticism and a lot of complaints about Orthodox Jews, especially the ultra-Orthodox. We may believe that they are too parochial or too narrow or too insular, or whatever else we label them. But there is one thing we cannot deny - within Orthodoxy, more than within our own groupings, there exists an endless amount of volunteering on behalf of the sick and the needy and the abandoned and the forgotten in our midst. There are dozens of volunteer groups within Orthodox Jewish communities for visiting the sick, dowering the bride, caring for the dead, comforting the mourning. They are doing the job, walking the walk. They see to it that poor people get food every Shabbas. They see to it that sick people get visited every week. There are homeless Jews and battered Jews who get shelter. There are dead bodies that are washed and dressed and guarded. And that is to their credit.
We non-Orthodox Jews create all kinds of institutions and organizations and agencies. We have staff and budgets and long-range plans. We hire people to make studies of who is in need. The Orthodox do it, and for this they deserve credit and respect.
Now let me speak from personal experience, one which I am willing to bet every person here who has had a scare or a warning will testify is true. Once you have had a warning, from then on you are never quite the same. Once you have had a mild heart attack - although I am not sure if a mild heart attack is an oxymoron or not - once you have had a warning, then from then on you pay attention to your heart. You give it whatever medicine it requires; you do what the cardiologist and sometimes even what the dietician says to do. You are more prone to exercise and to take your heart seriously.
I want to say tonight, very simply, that we Jews have gotten a lot more than a scare, a lot more than a warning. We know that the Jewish heart is in trouble. We do not need any more surveys or any more statistics or any more demographic reports. We know it from our own families. Is there any family sitting here this evening which cannot testify that it had at least one member, one relative, who was not at a seder this week?
Let me tell you a secret which every macher in every synagogue, and every person who works and volunteers for Federation knows very well - every time a Jewish philanthropist dies, the Jewish community shivers. In most cases the money is still there. The estate is still there. But the children and grandchildren have different priorities than the parent or grandparent had. Their heart is not the same as grandma's or dad's was - it is a weaker Jewish heart. Father and mother, grandfather and grandmother cared about Israel and about Soviet Jewry and about Jewish education very much. Son and daughter, grandson and granddaughter are more interested in donating to their alma mater, an art museum, hospital, opera or United Way. It is a weaker Jewish heart, a heart that needs care and exercise and nutrition if it is going to make it.
And let me not be misunderstood. Those Orthodox Jews whom I spoke respectfully of tonight are supposed to dower a bride - be they Jewish brides or non-Jewish brides; and they are supposed to bury the dead - be they Jewish dead or the non-Jewish dead; and help the poor - whether they be Jewish poor or non-Jewish poor. The Jewish heart is a finely-honed instrument, sensitive to the pain of others, not just self-centered. It can hear the suffering of the hungry here in this land, and it can hear the pain of people overseas. It is an organ that pumps caring and compassion through the body and out into society. That is what is so desperately needed in the world in which we live. For we live in a society in which rachmones and compassion are in short supply.
Let me tell you one simple story which will illustrate why I believe Jewish hearts are so needed in our time. I told you this true story once before on Yom Kippur a number of years ago.
A teacher in Minnesota asked his class at the beginning of one school day: "How many of you had breakfast this morning?" As he expected, only a few of them raised their hands, so he continued. "How many of you skipped breakfast this morning because you do not like breakfast?" Lots of hands went up. "And how many of you skipped breakfast because you did not have time for it?" Other hands went up.
He was pretty sure by then why the remaining children had not eaten - but he did not want to ask them about poverty. So he asked them: "How many of you skipped breakfast because your family just does not usually eat breakfast?" A few more hands were raised.
The teacher noticed a small boy in the middle of the classroom whose hand had not gone up. Thinking the boy just had not understood the question, he asked him: "Why didn't you eat breakfast this morning?" And the boy replied, his face very serious: "It was not my turn."
So I have two proposals for you this evening - but first a warning. Maybe when you are 20 or 30 or 40 years old, you can afford to be callous. Young people are often cruel because they think that they are immortal. But once you get to be 40 years old or more, you can no longer afford to be insensitive because, if you do, it has an affect on your heart. It clogs the arteries and weakens your ability to be compassionate. How do I know? Look at Pharaoh and the story we recall this week. Pharaoh was a brutal, cruel, wicked man. He enslaved a whole People; he had infant children murdered. What was the result? The Torah says: "His heart became hardened." His heart became hardened to the point where, when he wanted to quit, even when he wanted to relent, he was not able to do so.
And that is what happens to our heart. If you abuse it long enough, if you are insensitive, uncaring, unfeeling, uninvolved, apathetic long enough, you become addicted and you can not quit.
So if you are 40 years of age or more, you cannot afford the damage that a lack of concern for justice does to your heart. Therefore, here is my proposal for this Social Justice Shabbat. I am going to make it very simple. First, figure out how much it would have cost you in dollars and cents if you had invited one poor person or one homeless person to your seder last Monday night. Forget about the bother, the stress and strain - how much would it have cost you to have invited one poor, hungry person to your seder on Monday night? If you do not know the exact figure, take a guess. Go home tonight and make out a check to MAZON for that amount. You can send it to the Temple, and we will forward it.
Secondly, I want you to go into the Miller Auditorium at the end of this service and see what cause you want to devote a few hours to this month and next month and the month after. Do not tell yourself that you are too busy. Your fellow congregants are going to be staffing those tables. They can all tell you how busy they are, yet they find time to do it.
AARP membership eligibility begins at age 50 so, fellow senior citizens, let me read you a paragraph from Tulsa's The Vintage Newsmagazine.
"You're retired, a senior, with all the time in the world on your hands. Right? Not hardly. Like anyone, you have responsibilities and demands on your time. Buy volunteering is good for your health, both physical and mental. Study after study prove that seniors who volunteer for community service are happier and enjoy a greater quality of life than those who do not take on volunteer activities. And so many of the people who need an advocate, a friend, a helping hand are seniors themselves. Nursing home residents who would never have a visitor were it not for seniors who drop in for a visit - and to make sure things are running smoothly. Children who don't know or don't have grandparents but who have foster grandparents who love and mentor them, helping them learn to make healthy life decisions." (Susan Lively)
Those are not altruistic projects being publicized in the next room, they are exercises for your Jewish heart. At this stage in our lives, friends, all of us need to do whatever we can to keep our Jewish hearts in shape.
America needs Jews who have Jewish hearts. Should we, need we, care for those who are hurting, those who are hungry, those who are lonely? Isn't their concern our concern? Our answer depends on whether we have a healthy Jewish heart or not.
Inspiration for this message came from the writings of Rabbis Jack Riemer and Mitchell Wohlberg.
