It’s been a while since I’ve published anything but I was asked to share this Shabbat’s sermon. So here it is and Happy Fourth of July!

I will grant him My pact of friendship—a covenant of shalom.  

Today’s Torah portion has much to say about counting and legacy. Here we have a census after the plague. Almost all of the Israelites who left Egypt have died. Just Caleb and Joshua and Moses are left. The intuitional memory of being a slave is gone. This is a new generation. And there they are…on the steppes of Moab, ready to go into the land of Israel, the land promised to their ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as part of the covenant, a land flowing with milk and honey–arrayed under their tribal flags to be counted. All the men, just the men, 20 years up, those of capable of military service. 

“Among these shall the land be apportioned as shares, according to the listed names.” This is about inheritance. Each tribe according to its size. But the women? Not so much. Until the daughters of Zelophehad: Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah, who had no brothers, argued that their father’s name should not die out, that they too should inherit. They went to Moses, who went to G-d. And G-d agreed with the daughters. They inherited. And we stand on their shoulders. 

Perhaps it should say, I give THEM My pact of friendship—brit shalom, a covenant of peace. For all of us. Even now.  

I stand here this morning, Rabbi Margaret Joy Frisch Klein. I stand on the shoulders of the daughters of Zelophehad and the daughters of the American Revolution.  

It is no secret that the 4th of July is amongst my favorite holidays—and the time where we made a command performance back in Grand Rapids. After all my stepdaughter’s birthday is the 5th, my parents’ birthdays were the 6th and 7th. Those fireworks were for them, right?  It was one big weeklong celebration. A pilgrimage festival with its own traditional rhythm. Flag up at dawn. Blueberry raspberry lemon loaf in the oven. Decorating bikes for the parade.  I spent years decorating bikes for that parade,  Lots of cooking and eating. Menu etched in history. Deviled eggs, guacamole, that festive lemon cake, hot dogs, hamburgers, and something the neighbor always made: ham balls. (They work with ground turkey, too!) One big backyard barbecue. And then, of course, the fireworks. 

I am an American Studies major. I love reading history. But one of the things I the things learned at Tufts and we all need to do is to think critically about history.  

What do we do with our place as Jews in American History? As a student I thrilled to learn of William Bradford’s Hebrew manuscripts. He wrote his marginalia in Hebrew. This country was founded on the idea that a new light would shine over Israel—this was the new Israel and that all men were created equal.And yet, these same Puritans kicked Roger Williams out of Massachusetts because of his religious views.He wasn’t the right kind of Christian.  And yet, the first professor of Hebrew at Harvard College, Judah Monis, we know his name too,  from 1722 to 1760, had to convert to Christianity to keep his professorship. Hayyim Solomon helped bankroll the American Revolution. Jews fought and funded  both sides of the Civil War.  

And yet, In December 1862 Major General Ulysses S. Grant, angry at the illegal trade in smuggled cotton, issued General Order No. 11 expelling Jews from areas under his control in western Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky. Jews appealed to President Abraham Lincoln, who immediately ordered General Grant to rescind the order. What do we do with this history? What do we do with current events where after unprecedented acceptance of Jews at all strata of American life, there is an unprecedented rise in anti-semitism, on the left and the right. Or that a rabbi in Boston, was stabbed 9 times getting into his vehicle on Thursday.  

I go back to one of the treasures of American history and American Jewish history in particular. The letter that George Washington wrote to the Hebrew congregation of Newport, RI in August of 1790. 

I read the whole thing here:
Gentlemen: 

While I received with much satisfaction your address replete with expressions of esteem, I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you that I shall always retain grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced on my visit to Newport from all classes of citizens. 

The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security. 

If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good government, to become a great and happy people. 

The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. 

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support. 

It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my administration and fervent wishes for my felicity. 

May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants—while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid. 

May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy. G. Washington

https://www.tourosynagogue.org/history-learning/gw-letter  

To bigotry no sanction—to persecution no assistance. The words that adorn the entrance to the US Holocaust Museum in Washington. The vision of Isaiah that we often sing here, everyone should sit under their vine and fig tree and none shall make them afraid. The words inscribed on the Liberty Bell—Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land. Freedom throughout the land. From the Book of Leviticus. These are the legacies we give to this great nation. 

Jews rose to be accepted, slowly over time, in every sector of American society.  There are still people who remember no swimming signs at the quarry, no membership at Elgin Country Club, quotas at major universities and bans on Jews in prestigious hospitals and law firms. Thankfully those battles to be won.  

So I ask again, what is our role in this great nation? 

I want to call to mind several verses: 

Put not your trust in the great, in mortal man who cannot save. Psalm 146:3 

Shemaiah and Abtallion received [the oral tradition] from them. Shemaiah used to say: love work, hate acting the superior, and do not attempt to draw near to the ruling authority.–Pirke Avot 1:10 

Be careful [in your dealings] with the ruling authorities for they do not befriend a person except for their own needs; they seem like friends when it is to their own interest, but they do not stand by a man in the hour of his distress. Pirke Avot 2:3 

Perhaps then, our job as Jews in this society is to hold America to a higher version of itself. To be constant reminders of Jewish values, to welcome the stranger, to love our neighbors as ourselves, to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with G-d. To be prophets in our own community. To work for peace everywhere. Even Hillel and Shammai seemed to agree on this: 

Hillel and Shammai received [the oral tradition] from them. Hillel used to say: be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and drawing them close to the Torah. Pirke Avot 1:12 

I cherish the 4th of July. My flag is already raised. It is one of the many legacies I pass to my daughter and one day to her daughters. But I do it with my eyes wide open. With an eye toward critical history and a responsibility to work for a better world, a vision I share from Isaiah and George Washington—a world where everyone—and all means all—can sit under their vine and fig tree and none—none shall make them afraid. Then we will all enjoy that covenant of peace promised in today’s portion. In Song of Songs it says, “The banner of love is spread over me.” That’s the flag I want. Love. Olam Chesed Yibeneh. We will build this world with love. And yet…one last quote from Pirke Avot—Ours is not to finish the task, neither are we free to ignore it.