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Rabbi's Corner

Walk with each other in new year

BY RABBI ARIEL STONE “I try not to hate anyone. To be sure, I
I admit it, I’m afraid of the
dark. The dark I’m afraid of fight them (Nazis) any way I can, and I
is the kind that our ancestors
used to associate with the pri- fight their evil. But hate only hurts me.”
meval forests of Europe. They ~ Les Aigner, z”l
were deep and pathless, thick
and disorienting. The darkness
within which we mark the In the morning you shall say, quiet garden full of light and
New Year of 5782 is caused “If only it were evening!” and warmth and hope.
by a vast, fearful and growing in the evening you shall say, “If Rosh Hashanah, curiously, is a
expanse of human cruelty, in- only it were morning!” – be- holy day of darkness. In Psalm
competence and stupidity. It is cause of what your heart shall 81.4, we read tik’u bahodesh Rabbi Ariel Stone, the longest
a darkness caused by human dread and your eyes shall see. shofar bakeseh l’yom hageynu, serving congregational rabbi
greed, arrogance and fear. (Devarim 28.67-68) “sound the shofar at the cov- in Portland, is privileged to
As I write this, we have en- “Lo ta’amin b’khayekha” – ering of our holy day.” This support the emergence of
dured 542 days of pandemic. you will not have faith in your “covering” is of the light of the 21st century Judaism with
White supremacist reactions life. For 200 years, the West- moon, invisible to us at the new Shir Tikvah in the Commons,
to portents of social change ern world has encouraged us month. TischPDX and the Clergy
exacerbate endemic racism; to believe that we should “go What, then, brings us light Leadership Incubator.
national and local governments it alone” and be “individuals” during this dark time?
seem hardly up to the challenge who make our own way in the Just a few weeks ago, I was for the wandering of Abraham:
of deferred moral maintenance; world. Yet as social psycholo- privileged to accompany to To what may Abraham be
the recent Supreme Court sup- gy teaches, the self is not de- the grave Les Aigner, z”l, compared? To a king’s friend
port of Texas’ criminalization signed to carry its own weight. the last living Auschwitz who saw the king walking in
of abortion after six weeks of How are we to have faith in the survivor residing in Oregon. a dark alleyway. The friend
pregnancy deliberately tears individual, as unpredictably Les survived a darkness that began to show the king a light
down protections for all of us and unfathomably callous as swallowed the light of mil- through the window. The king
who have a uterus and use it; some are? lions. Les used to speak about looked up and saw the friend
wildfires, hurricanes, flooding Our Jewish tradition is decid- his survival of the Holocaust and said, “come, and light the
and extreme heat and cold all edly not individualistic. The in schools, and once he was way for me.” (Bereshit Rabbah
mock the “once in a hundred common wisdom of our people asked if he hated Nazis. “I 30.10)
years” description. is that we are and must be in re- try not to hate anyone,” he No great power will gift us
Like the wildfire smoke that lationship with others. The only answered. “To be sure, I fight from on high with the relief of
appears in the distance and question left is how we are in them any way I can, and I light we need so badly. That
turns the sky into a hellscape, that relationship? How will we fight their evil. But hate only power comes from us ourselves,
everywhere we look we see treat the other? Jewish tradition hurts me.” and our way forward will be lit
the encroaching darkness of urges us to see we must stand The Zohar tells us that what by us, sharing the little light we
fear and uncertainty. We find together and relieve each oth- illuminates the darkness of this have with one another.
ourselves living in a time of er’s fearful isolation. holy time is the act of turning, We don’t know where we
Biblical plagues – and Bib- If life is a journey, then it is in each of us to each other, and in are going or whether we will
lical curses. The Torah de- the very nature of life that we so doing, to HaShem. Turning be OK. The lesson we need
scribed the anxiety we suffer must make our way through toward others, as Les showed to learn, the lesson that Les
in ancient terms that are too the darkness of an untracked us by his gentle, courteous, Aigner taught by the way he
terribly relevant: wilderness. But this is no joyful beautiful life, is the only way lived every day of his life, is
The life you face shall be pre- voyage of discovery; the fear is to dispel the darkness of human this: shine the light you have;
carious; you shall be in terror, paralyzing, and the darkness is hatred and callousness. share it at every opportunity.
night and day, with no assur- deep. We have no guarantees In this turning toward what With kindness be profligate; be
ance of survival. that we will emerge into some ultimately matters, we see that superfluous; be the biggest of
light is a quality of the heart. spenders. Whatever joy we will
Kindness is the light we need. find in life, taught Rabbi Abra-
Rabbi's Corner In the great insight of the Jew- ham Joshua Heschel, is the joy
The Jewish Review offers space for a Rabbi's ish mystics, this light is not we help others to find.
Corner each issue. Our community's rabbis are something that will be gifted Wherever we are going – and
to us out of nowhere. There whether we are going to get
invited to share their thoughts on the week's parsha is within each of us a light of there – does not matter nearly
or current events. For more information or to holiness that the world needs as much as whether we will
schedule a column, email editor@jewishportland.org. desperately. It’s the reason giv- kindly, gently and thoughtfully
en by the rabbis of the Talmud walk with each other.
Jewish Review Sept. 15, 2021 11