Love is in the air. “What the world needs now is Love” Sung by Dione Warwick and penned by Burt Bachrach, it was a song I sang in choir at Temple Emanuel in Grand Rapids as part of Jewish Music Month, which happens to be February. 

“What the World Needs Now is Love”   Dionne Warwick HD –  with Lyrics 

  This is the weekend we celebrate Valentine’s Day in the United States. Some would argue that it is not a very Jewish holiday, named after all for Saint Valentine. But maybe there are elements that are very Jewish. Valentine was apparently a matchmaker. He made sure that women could be married and that there was enough dowry for each girl to marry. That’s very similar to our text from the Talmud:
“These are the obligations without measure, whose reward, too, is without measure: To honor father and mother; to perform acts of love and kindness; to attend the house of study daily; to welcome the stranger; to visit the sick; to rejoice with bride and groom; to console the bereaved; to pray with sincerity; to make peace where there is strife…and the study of Torah is equal to them all, because it leads to them all.”  

We are told to perform deeds of lovingkindness, gemilut chasadim. What are these deeds? Certainly the list I just read. And also from Sukkah 49b, a text I quote often, we should walk in the ways of the Holy One. As G-d clothed the naked, Adam and Eve, we should clothe the naked. As G-d visited the sick, Abraham after the circumcision, we should visit the sick. As G-d buried the dead, Moses, we should bury the dead. Those are all deeds of lovingkindness. And we should provide for the needy bride. 

There are two words for love in the Torah. Chesed, often translated as lovingkindness as we’ve just talked about and ahavah. The first mention of Ahavah is with Isaac and Rebecca. It reads, as I have said before like a Hollywood script. It was love at first sight. Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for Isaac. The servant finds Rebecca, who in an act of chesed watered not only the servant but also all the camels.  And only after she consents brings her back on a camel. She wonders who the man is wandering or meditating in the field. The camel bends its knee. She alights. Isaac raises his eyes and inquires who he is seeing. Then the text says: “Isaac then brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he took Rebekah as his wife. Isaac loved her, and thus found comfort after his mother’s death” (Gen 24). 

In Judaism we are commanded to love. We are told to love G-d. We are told to love our neighbor and to love the stranger. While it is difficult to command an emotion, I think the actions that we display is how we show love. It’s about walking the walk and talking the talk. 

The rabbis of the Talmud set out much of the order of service we have today. They blanketed the Sh’ma, the watchword of our faith, the proclamation that G-d is One, with love. Before the Sh’ma we get a prayer that reminds us that G-d loves us. How do we know this, because G-d gave us Torah. Like a loving parent, G-d sets limits for us. Then we witness that G-d is One when we proclaim the Sh’ma. Then we remind ourselves that we should love G-d with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our being.  How do we show that love? Again with our actions. By putting these very words on our doorposts in a mezusah and before our eyes in tefilin. By talking about these words when we lie down and when we rise up. By teaching our children diligently. 

We’ve come full circle. We know G-d loves us because of Torah. Our children know we love them because we set limits for them and teach them diligently. 

And we show our love to G-d, our neighbors and the stranger by doing deeds of lovingkindness. Now I am off to find some chocolate and maybe a tulip. I like them better than roses. But Bette Midler’s the Rose captures love so beautifully:
Bette Midler – the Rose 

I watched some of the Olympic opening ceremony Friday morning. I always thrill to watch the Olympics. Perhaps the first time I watched the Olympics was the winter of 1972 from the old Pheasant Run in Saint Charles. It was my birthday weekend and it was too cold to do all those outdoor winter sports they advertised. So we huddled in our hotel room watched the Olympics all day in color! When the Olympic flag went up this morning, I knew what my opening to this message would be. Those Olympic rings on that flag are to represent the five continents. I had been taught they represented the five races. For me, there has always been such optimism watching the Olympics, such hope for the future. And they used the Beatles “Imagine” as part of the ceremony.  

But the modern Olympics have been fraught with controversy. I loved the movie Chariots of Fire—a real story about anti-semitism in the 1924 games in Paris. I can tell you as a runner, you can sing the Sh’ma to the theme song from the movie. And the last hymn, Jerusalem, is one that was always used at High Holy Days in the congregation that Simon and I met in, even though it is a “Christian” hymn. 

The 1936 Berlin games were particularly difficult. Hitler was in power and these games were going to prove Hitler’s racial theory. That the Aryan race, blond and blue eyed was the best. Then came Jesse Owens smashing the myth. 1972 Summer Olympics with the tragic massacre of the Israeli athletes remains unfathomable to me. Still. Even after watching it live. And even after the movie Munich. Boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Russa left US athletes who had trained out of competition. It goes on and on and this year seems to be no exception as I watched Putin watching the Ukrainian team enter the stadium. 

And yet those rings on the flag. So let’s talk about race. Race is a western civilization construct. In truth there is only one race. The human race. At the very beginning of Maus, on the title page, Hitler is quoted as saying, “The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.” This was part of Hitler’s campaign to dehumanize Jews. Race is not just black and white. Filling out my own census form, I found the race question difficult. Simon and I even talked about it. Not really white, but not any of the other choices provided. So, Whoopi Goldberg, who I have long admired got this part wrong. And then apologized. And is still learning. I am not sure she should have been removed for two weeks from ABC. And yet. And still. This is complicated. 

In 8th grade my Hebrew School class had a year long debate. Are we Jewish Americans or American Jews. Which word modifies which? Are we a religion, a faith, a race, an ethnic group? I’ve settled on a people. We can’t just be a religion or a faith alone because we have Jews who do not believe in any god. We have cultural Jews. Lox and bagel Jews. Hidden Jews. We are not a race because, even in our own congregation we have multi-racial Jews, Black Jews, Hispanic Jews, Asian Jews. We have Jews that converted in. And even if you tell me you did your DNA test and that you are 98% Ashkanazi Jew that does not mean Judaism is a race. We are not just an ethnic group. Jews in Israel and Morocco eat different foods for holidays than those of eastern Europe. Synagogues in China look like pagodas; in Spain they have Moorish architecture. Language, one measure of culture and ethnic groups vary. We have Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino and the language you speak (here mostly English), wherever you grew up. 

So, we are all of that—and more. So, people: Jews are a people. 

Banning Maus is problematic for a number of reasons. It whitewashes history. As one editorial wrote if we only read The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas or Anne Frank, it pajamacizes history. The good gentiles stepped up to the plate and saved Jews. It’s not messy. It’s not dirty and it doesn’t allow us to hear from Jewish survivors. It assumes that kids can’t handle anything difficult. Banning books is not new. My family has been involved with National Banned Book week for decades. https://bannedbooksweek.org/ The list of banned books is LONG, not just Maus and not just Holocaust literature. Take a look at it.  

Maus is important this week for another reason. Part of the story actually focuses on Parsha Teruma which we read this weekend. Artie’s father has a dream that he will be released on the Shabbat we read Parsha Teruma. Spoiler alert. He is. And later he marries his wife this weekend. And later his son, the author is born this week. And later the author has his Bar Mitzvah this week. Hidden in the pages of this graphic novel are the seeds of hope.  

Anti-semitism has been around for a very long time. Some refer to it as the canary in the coal mine. Attacks on Jews are rising according to both ADL statistics and FBI hate crime statistics. ADL cites a statistic that 84% of Jews have experienced anti-semitism but many fail to report it. The ADL has good resources around anti-semitism education: https://www.adl.org/education/antisemitism  

Jonathan Greenblatt’s new book, It Could Happen Here talks about the Pyramid of Hate. We have a need to interrupt it. Hate is a learned behavior. You don’t start out telling anti-Jewish jokes. You don’t start out painting swastikas or breaking windows. It escalates. Sadly, we saw our own anti-Jewish behavior in Chicagoland this week. Luckily not here in Elgin. But I am not so naïve to think it cannot happen. The incidents I am aware of are low on the pyramid of hate model. We at CKI take all of this very seriously.  

Things that we do around this topic at CKI: 

• All of our students have some Holocaust education 
• We recently hosted the ADL for a presentation on the State of Hate. 
• We are an ADL Signature Synagogue 
• We actively attend various trainings on safety and security led by JUF, ADL, SCN, Homeland Security, the FBI and FEMA 
• We write and receive and administer Homeland Security grants. We’ve had three years in a row of upgrading facilities. And I learned recently that 1/3 of applicants don’t get any. (Thank you, Robin!) Some of those enhancements are visible and some are deliberately not visible.  
• We provide training to our members on some of these topics. 
• We are writing to all 11 superintendents about this growing problem and asking also about Holocaust education. 
• We have built really good relationships with our neighbors, area congregations and the Elgin Police Department. 

That last one brings me hope. The number of people who have reached out to CKI, some of which we captured in HaKol, brings me hope. The Elgin Police Department’s willingness to provide extra coverage brings me hope.  

What can you do to fight anti-semitism? 

• If you see something, say something.  
• Interrupt a joke. Explain it isn’t funny.  
• Call me.  
• Call the police department in your town. 
• Report it to the ADL. 

• Talk to your children about what to do if they are bullied at school or just made to feel uncomfortable. Tell them to tell you. Find a responsible and trusted adult at school. Call me. 
• Read a book: Greenblatt’s It Could Happen Here or Bari Weiss’s How to Fight Anti-Semitism. Try the 1619 Project or Caste.  
• Call your elected official and ask to have Deborah Lipstadt confirmed as the Anti-Semisitm envoy. 
• Have fun watching the Olympics. 
• Remember that there is always hope. 

This Shabbat we read Parsha Teruma, about how to build the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary in which we placed the Tablets of the 10 Commandments in the ark. Both the shards of the first set and the whole set. They represent our dreams, both broken and whole. Psalms teaches us to build a world on love. Olam Chesed Yibeneh.Two of my good friends, Rabbi Menachem Creditor (the composer) and Rabbi David Paskin, recorded this version: https://rabbidavid.bandcamp.com/track/olam-chesed-yibaneh    That is what we will continue to do. We will continue to be a light to the nations and build this world on love.