Everything in our world feels so contentious, so fraught with anger and sadness and misunderstanding. And as bifurcated as this country feels, our Jewish community is facing a split equally as defining.

According to JTA, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency,

“Nowhere did this emerge more clearly than at an Anti-Defamation League conference and subsequent Zionist Organization of America dinner. They were held days apart from each other, on the same floor of the same posh hotel in Manhattan. Both organizations claimed to fight for the same things … But their rhetoric could hardly have been more different”

The article on how different parts of the community are responding to our modern political realities might have highlighted these two specific organizations and the differences bubbling up to the surface this past week - but there have been schisms in Jewish opinion for some time - as there should be. A quick glance at Talmud and it’s easy to see – Jews have never been all of the same mind. Even before that, we can go back to the moment of revelation at Mt Sinai and remember the teaching that every single soul present heard something different and unique. This reminds us that even with the same facts in front of us, we all may draw different conclusions.

So how do we move forward as a community? If we watch the same interaction, hear the same words, and some of us walk away filled with joy and excitement while others feel anxiety and grief - how do we find common ground?

In this week’s Torah portion, Chayai Sarah, we are told about the end of Abraham’s life and read a few quick, yet incredibly meaningful versus. We learn that Ishmael and Isaac come together to bury their father Abraham.

These two boys had unimaginable struggles and differences. Want to talk about different narratives? Imagine the difference in how Hagar and Sarah explained to each of their sons why they were separated from the other growing up.

And it’s not simply different narratives, or possible anger toward the other they each had to set aside in order to be there –

But there was probably a lot of pain towards their father himself.

He sent Ishmael away, he nearly sacrificed Isaac,

He was not a model father for either of them.

And yet, they come together to lay him to rest.

One might say –

But they’re family; you have to forgive family, right?

Well as I stand here today, the day after Thanksgiving, I share with you, what I’m sure is shocking news,

That fighting with family can be some of the worst arguments we encounter in our world.

Proverbs 18:19 teaches us that “A sibling sinned against is harder to be won over than a fortified city, and such quarrels (are) like the bars of a castle.”

And yet – Ishmael and Isaac came together. They somehow looked past the pain, the anger, the diverging narratives and beliefs from their past, and they stood side by side with a common purpose – to bury and honor their father.

What can we learn from this story? Is it simply that Ishmael and Isaac were both better, more forgiving people then most of us are today? No.

We learn that when you have a common purpose to unite behind,

All people can put differences aside and work together.

This is important –

Because now is the time for us to come together and work towards the common goals

Of ensuring our safety,

Our freedom of religious expression,

And our age old promise that never again will we let hate or fear win a society over

And allow minorities to suffer at their hands.

Why do I say this? It’s not because of an election or political rhetoric.

This past Monday the news was flooded with quotes and footage from a convention of the Alt Right, which we can now safely claim is basically just a new brand name for neo-Nazis. In this coverage we saw them evoking Nazi language and customs, quoting Nazi thinkers and claiming Jews are not really people.

This is happening. This is real.

There is no argument over the fact that this happened on Monday, in 2016, in a Federal building a few blocks from The White House. There is no argument that this is how the leaders of the Alt Right movement, and participants in their national conference, identify themselves and their beliefs.

One reporter noted the following about a speech from their leading ideologue. He wrote:

“He railed against Jews and, with a smile, quoted Nazi propaganda in the original German. America, he said, belonged to white people, whom he called the “children of the sun,” a race of conquerors and creators who had been marginalized but now … were “awakening to their own identity.” As he finished, he and several audience members had their arms outstretched in a Nazi salute.”

This - Is - Scary.

This transcends political parties, candidates, and votes.

And right now - It doesn’t matter how we got here.

We are here.

This is happening.

So it’s time for us to put our political differences aside and work together toward a common good.

Yes, we want freedom of religion and acceptance of all people everywhere – but for one moment let’s just focus on our own community. Let us come together to denounce anti-Semitism, and to do what we can to diminish hate and further our religious freedoms.

Like Ishmael and Isaac before us - we must stand together if we want to change the world.

And this work can not only focus on the world around us, it must also focus on the world within us.

We all speak often about Tikkun Olam, about the need to repair the world, to be God’s partner’s in purging this earth of the shards of brokenness embedded within it. That remains as true today as it ever was.

There is a second piece though that is also required in order to have success with the first.

Though spoken of a little less often, it is by no means less important.

That is the practice of Tikkun Middot, the cultivation of our own individual moral traits.

Through focusing on ourselves and the way we each engage with the world around us,

We cannot only improve the value of our own lives,

But also of the community.

We begin with ourselves, in order to make this world a better place.

I wish I had more to say –

More answers to offer you,

But unfortunately, I do not know a magical way to remove an ideology of hate from our society.

All I can advise is that we look upon it, and each other, with open and fresh eyes.

That we recognize and accept this is happening.

That we, like Isaac and Ishmael, stand side by side.

That together we declare that hate speech is not okay.

And that we endeavor not only to repair the world, but also to better ourselves.

I pray that together, these things will be enough,

To guide us toward a brighter tomorrow.

_{*Please note: This is the sermon I delivered a couple weeks ago on Chayei Sarah. It is also available under the Sermon Videos section. I don’t usually post in both places, but I have received requests for this text – so I made an exception. I hope you enjoy both reading and watching it.}

Coming Together

Rabbi Samantha Kahn

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