Rabbi Charles P. Sherman
Paula Kramer Bat Mitzvah
Shabbat Pikude
March 12, 2005
Use and Misuse – Sunrise and Sunset
A critic once wrote of a book under review: "the cruelest thing you could do to this book is to read it a second time." One of the hallmarks of our Bible, that which makes it a classic, is its capacity to yield new meanings and fresh insights every time we study it.
This Shabbat we Jews complete the second of the Five Books of Moses. For weeks now, we have been studying the materials which went into the construction of our Peoples' first sanctuary, the Tabernacle in the wilderness. We've studied the dimensions of each of its important furnishings. Now those of us who lack architectural and engineering skills often skim over most of these chapters in a hurry. But a rabbinic comment calls attention to a truth worth pondering.
Our sages point out that in one chapter our ancestors used their jewelry to fashion a golden calf around which they danced as they chanted that idolatrous heresy – "this is Your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 32:4). And yet in other chapters in this same area of the Torah, we read that our ancestors used their jewelry to build a Tabernacle to the glory of the one God. This use of the exact same material for such vastly different purposes prompted our sages to comment: "with earrings they sinned, and with earrings they were restored to God's favor."
In this brief comment, the rabbis emphasized the ambivalent nature of our possessions. Possessions can be used for the meanest or the noblest of purposes. In and of themselves, our possessions are morally neutral. Whether they are good or bad depends upon us, on how we use them.
I believe that this simple truth has wider ramifications, and I am grateful to Rabbi Sidney Greenberg, of blessed memory, for applying this rabbinic lesson to other areas of life. For example, science has done and continues to do so much to prolong human life and improve the quality of human life. Yet science was used by the Nazis to build more efficient gas chambers and to conduct, without anesthesia, the most brutal experiments on men and women. The automobile, which rushes a physician on a mission of mercy, carries a drunken driver on a mission of murder.
Next to the computer, lasers were one of the most versatile inventions of the twentieth century. Lasers already cut concrete and steel and are used to perform delicate eye surgery; they may also turn out to be able to generate a new and inexhaustible source of energy. Or they may further imperil our fragile planet by leading to ever more destructive and devastating weaponry.
That which is true of our possessions, of science and, indeed, of all the instruments we use, is also true of many of our human endowments and emotions. A Chassid once asked his rebbe why the Almighty created atheism. After all, the disciple said, everything which the Holy One, blessed be God, made was fashioned for some good purpose. What possible benefit can atheism bring? It only leads people to doubt or even deny the existence of God.
To which the rebbe replied: "My son, even atheism on occasion serves a very noble purpose. When a poor person comes to you for help, do not send him away with the faith, the assurance that somehow God will help him. No, no. At that time, you must doubt, or even deny, that God will help him. You must help him yourself."
Is anger good or bad? It depends. Anger is only one letter removed from danger. Anger wrecks homes, destroys friendships, frequently leads to impulsive violence. Yet, as Tevya would say, on the other hand, the prophets were God's angry men. Oppression made the prophets angry. Injustice made them angry. Human cruelty and dishonesty made them angry. If the prophets are revered and their words still studied today, it is in no small measure due to their marvelous capacity to get angry at the right time to the right degree for the right reasons.
What is true of our instruments and our human endowments is also true of our circumstances. Circumstances are neutral. Whether they bless us or break us depends on how we confront them, how we use them. An author advises "drink champaign for defeats as well as victories. It tastes the same, and you need it more." I'll drink to that – but for a different reason. We should drink champaign to defeats, because no defeat is final and no defeat cannot be used to teach us an important lesson.
William Bolitho has illustrated this truth for us. He wrote: "The most important thing in life is not to capitalize on your gains – any fool can do that. The important thing is to profit from your losses. That requires intelligence and it marks the difference between a person of sense and a fool."
In 1849 Nathaniel Hawthorne was dismissed from his government job in the Custom House. He came home a beaten man. His wife listened to him as Hawthorne poured out his heart. Then she threw a few logs on the fire, set pen, ink and paper on the table, put her arms around him and said: "Now you will be able to write your novel." He did, and that is how "The Scarlet Letter" came to be written.
In 1845 Heinrich Graetz, a newly ordained rabbi, applied for an important synagogue pulpit in Upper Silesia. During his trial sermon, Graetz developed palpitations, lost his train of thought and stammered through an incoherent sermon. He did not get the pulpit. His disappointment was crushing. Happily for us, Graetz went on to discover his great literary and scholarly powers, and he became THE eminent historian whose six volumes of Jewish history remain classics in their field.
Even death can be viewed differently, even the death of the young. Celebrated American newspaper editor William Allen White expressed gratitude amidst his grief. In reply to a friend who wrote him a condolence letter upon the death of his daughter, Mary, White wrote a moving, poignant letter of appreciation which he concluded with these words: "Mrs. White and I are standing on our feet, realizing that the loss is heavy and the blow is hard, but not beating our heads against the bars and asking why. On our books, Mary is a net gain. She was worth so much more than she cost, and she left so much more behind than she took away that we are flooded with joyous memories and cannot question either the goodness of God or the general decency of man."
A traveler was showing some slides of his trip to Israel. As he projected one picture, it kind of baffled him. He paused a while, then confessed: "I'm not sure whether this is a picture of a sunrise or a sunset."
Unwittingly that man made a profound statement about many of life's experiences. So often we think we are going through a "sunset" and that night is approaching and the outlook is black. But we later discover to our surprise and delight, that it wasn't a "sunset" after all. It was really a "sunrise" ushering in a new day with new beginnings, new possibilities, and new hope.
For our ancestors in the desert, with earrings they sinned and with earrings they were restored to God's favor. It wasn't the earrings then, and it is not our possessions, instruments, technology, endowments, or circumstances now. It is what we choose to make of them. Sunset or sunrise is not only in the eye of the beholder but also in our hands. Amen.
I am deeply indebted to the work of Rabbi Sidney Greenberg,
which is the basis of this message.
