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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH RENEWAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL:LOVE GOD, LOVE MAN
If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar.
Dear S-----------------In reference to your below game in which your friends send you emails describing you in 'one word,'It is not so important what our friends think of us, but if we are rigorously honest with ourselves and are devoted to trying to do what is right and good in G!d's Holy Eyes, it is what G!d thinks of us.Both the Rabbis of the Talmud, which precedes the so- called New Testament by 500 years, and John state:'' 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John. 4:20-21).''Hence since all of us fail at the above, we are all liars and hypocrites. This is what G!D thinks of us. What our friends say doesn't matter.
It easy to love a friend. Where G!D calls on us to be our best, is to love those equally, who are not part of our inner circle. This is why the command of ''love your neighbor as yourself '' is followed with 'I am G!D."
This is an oft overlooked phrase of the passage: I am God: "Let your love for Me overcome your hatred for him, and keep you from taking revenge; in this way love vanquishes hatred, and peace will come between you. This is the way of Torah, "whose ways are pleasant, and all of whose paths are peace (Proverbs 3:17)".(Rabbi Yosef Bechor Shor)We have a way out however. Paul tells us this, as do the rabbis in the Talmud, and its making amends. It is not just a matter, Paul and the Rabbinic sages before him explain, of asking G!d for forgiveness, but we must amend to the person we have snubbed, hurt, left out of our clique, not responded to his/her emails or calls of greetings, etc, especially when we are taught to ''greet each person cheerfully.''There's a story in the Talmud, Masechet Derech Eretz (Chapter 4), which relates that once Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar was coming from his teacher's house, and he was riding leisurely on his horse by the seaside. A certain man chanced to meet him, and the man was exceedingly ugly. Rabbi Shimon said to him, "Raka (simpleton), how ugly are the children of Abraham our father." The other man replied, "What can I do for you? Speak to the Craftsman Who made me." Rabbi Shimon immediately dismounted from his horse and bowed before the man and said, "I apologize to you, forgive me." He replied to him, "I will not forgive you until you go to the Craftsman Who made me and say, "How ugly is the vessel which You have made."
Rabbi Shimon walked behind him for three miles. When the people in town heard of the arrival of Rabbi Shimon, they came out to meet him and greeted him with the words, "Peace be unto you, rabbi." The other man said to them, "Who are you calling rabbi?" They answered, "The man who is walking behind you." Thereupon he exclaimed, "If this man is a rabbi, may there not be any more like him in Israel!" He told the people the whole story, and they begged him to forgive the rabbi, and he agreed, only on the condition that he never act in this manner again.
The Holy One created all kinds of people. We have to accept, welcome, and love that diversity God created, or else take those issues up with the Creator, not with the person who was created. Diversity is what makes each of us special. Inclusiveness, welcoming, and involvement with the diverse people who share this earth with us make us a holy community. Uniformity is destruction; diversity is our strength and our greatest hope.
It is not up to us to judge people based on the color of their skin, religion, or their gender, or their sexual orientation. If you have a problem with the fact that a person is a Jew, a woman, gay, or of a different skin color, discuss your problem with the One Who created people to be different, if you're so inclined. But remember that your problem is not with the created but with the Creator.I have a friend, with a friend, whom he loves like a sister. For years he was there for her. In between husbands, thru bad marriages, problems with kids, sibling, her parents, etc. And he, as a G!d loving Jew, believing in the Mishna's command of being a ''rodef shalom'', a pursuer of peace, spoke to her mom, to heal the rift. And he cried tears of joy for her when she finally remarried, this time looking like its blessed. And he loves her husband as if he is his brother.And poof, never being told why, even an email of Happy New Year, or a telephone call, goes unanswered. It is hurtful to him. He could say, but he will not : "If this woman is a Christian, may there not be any more like her in Christendom!," but instead he prays each day for her. Jesus, as did the Rabbis of the Talmud, as well as Moses, taught that ''standing idly by'' while a person is suffering is immoral.
He knows that in G!D's eyes, he is right with Him. The problem lies with in her heart. Hence his prayers for her, and not any anger. Confusion, a bit. But in G!d's time, answers will come. He knows she is involved with a fundamentalist church now, and he knows their stance on Jews.
It is quite the opposite of the Jewish stance on others. Our Talmud in Tractate Sanhedrin tells us that the righteous of all nations have a equal share in the world to come. We do not tell non-Jews that they are going to hell if they do not believe. We do not even tell non observant Jews that they are going to hell. We are concerned about our behaviors towards one another in 'this' life.
Allow me to end, by mentioning the Talmudic parable of the chassida, or stork. Twice in the Torah we are given lists of birds, which according to the dietary laws, are not to be eaten—the chassida is mentioned as an unkosher bird in Leviticus 11:19 and Deuteronomy 14:18.
The great medieval Biblical commentator Rashi, following an earlier Talmudic source, asks, "Why was this bird called chassida? Because it does acts of chessed (loving-kindness), in sharing its food with other storks."
A 19th century rabbi asked, "Well, then, why isn't it Kosher? Because it does acts of loving-kindness with other storks, only with other storks and not with any other birds."
I would like to suggest that the stork here may be a symbol for religious communities—their great strength, but also their problematic nature. The strength of closely-knit religious (or, for that matter, ethnic or other) communities is the mutual help and support they give to members of the in-group.
Unfortunately, they do not always behave in such humane ways towards outsiders or members of other communities. The challenge for our religious communities is to behave towards each other like human beings, not like storks.This is the lesson of Jesus, the Rabbinic sages before him, and what G!D wants for us.We are better than storks. We were created in G!D's holy image. We are to love our fellow. What is hateful unto us we are not to do to another, Rabbi Hillel teaches in our Talmud.Let us no longer be liars and hypocrites in G!D's eyes, and indeed be the Christians and Jews we purport to be.With shalom, and may G!D make 5769 full of peace for you and yours surpassing all understanding.Love and many blessings,ArthurRabbi Arthur Segal
JEWISH RENEWAL
JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC
BLUFFTON, SC
SAVANNAH, GA
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