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WALK THIS WAY
OUR TEENAGERS, WASHINGTON AND MAKING A DIFFERENCE
MARCH 2007
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Photo by
Chris Gaines |
These are Rabbi Ettmann's words to the confirmation class following their recent visit
to Washington D.C.
This past week I went for a walk which actually got me thinking about how important
and interesting this idea of walking actually is. This is the weekend where
we as a collective community celebrate our walking from the oppression in Egypt
towards our Freedom in the Promised Land. We are beginning to prepare ourselves
to go on that journey, as a family, as a community, and as ourselves in our celebration of Passover.
We walk this way, as we learn in the Mishnah and then later in the Haggadah
itself, that we are supposed to celebrate Passover AS IF we ourselves are the
ones who left Egypt - garnering feeling and emotion and inspiration of the
ancient past and looking towards the future.
But this idea of walking also relates this week for another reason.
A reason steeped in a similar metaphor of the Israelites, but a bit more personal and
certainly quite profound. And for me, quite inspirational. It is that very walk that I took this week.
If we try to imagine the actual Exodus from Egypt and the Israelite's journey, it is an impressive event, but
one that we can only imagine and pretend to be on.
Now picture this. A similar journey. And a walk.
But this one not something purely living in our imagination.
Picture a group of fifteen teenagers from San Diego. Fifteen of the ones who
are sitting here right now. Dressed to impress in their business attire. Walking
up a hill which leads not out of Egypt,
But rather right past the Capital Building in Washington as the sun arises
over a new Monday morning. They walk to the offices of our California Senators
and Representatives. This walk was not a march towards freedom and away from
oppression. But a march celebrating our Freedom and our gift.
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An opportunity to speak up and to be heard. A journey quite similar to what we are celebrating this up coming week, but personalized, contemporized and realized. One which I believe can bring some new meaning to our personal festivals of Freedom.
So let me tell you a bit about how this story begins. This past week, I had the privilege (along with our Youth Director Michelle Berkowitz and Board Member Gladie Jaffe) of taking 15 members of our 10th grade Confirmation class to Washington D.C. to participate in the Religious Action Center's L'Takein Program. The Religious Action Center is the Reform Movement's Washington office and serves as a place committed to social justice and political action based on the Reform movement's Jewish ideals and teachings. The L'Takein seminar is a weekend-long program designed to teach about Judaism's ethical imperative to be socially conscious and work towards social justice. We learn, we discuss, we laugh and we get to be Jewish.
And that is exactly what happened. But the effect was far reaching. We became life alteringly aware of our imperative.
And I observed something truly wonderful, which really had nothing to do with the bonding or camaraderie which resulted of this trip, because that was certainly there. Rather it is what these young men and women became while they were there. They became true leaders.
Each of them came to realize something deep within themselves.
A passion. A fire. And desire and a knowledge that they mattered and could be heard. Each one becoming charged like Moses did when he heard his calling to help the people. These young adults also came to embody a profound teaching from the Pirke
Avot which explains: "It is not the thinking that counts, rather it is the action!"
It was not just talking about the issues in Washington, it is doing and acting – intertwining Judaism and social justice.
To not just talk about what we CAN do, but talk about what we SHOULD and WILL do.
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Each issue was framed by the words of our tradition
And each issue challenged our modern perspective
Uniting us together and promoting social change and social justice.
We were taking these issues we read about in the newspaper and looking at them through Jewish lenses. And then acting on them.
We as a group learned and discussed the Jewish response to affordable health care and how our tradition elevates both the doctor as a healer and reminds us that we are responsible for one another. We discussed education relating it to our traditions deep importance on teaching. We also focused on immigration being reminded that we were once strangers in a strange land.
And we talked about the Jewish response to reproductive rights.
Learning, Kol Yisrael Aravim Zeh ba Zeh – that we are all responsible for one another.
And then came that great moment of mobilization and action.
Each one of these incredible young men and women spoke up about what they learned and shared their opinions and ideas with our own California representatives.
All of this came together on Sunday night. Amidst coffee and computers. Surrounded by books and quotes. Camaraderie and learning. Laughing and making a difference. I heard mature discussions and ideas far beyond their years. All of which culminated in the creation of an action plan – an actual lobby script where the freedom that Jefferson crafted for each one of us in this country became a reality and which reflects the great message of our Passover holiday celebration. The celebration of freedom and a realization of who we are as a people. Arming me, for one, with a new perspective of this approaching holiday. Passover is not just a time where we remember what our ancestors did in history, but it is also our time to remember what our children can do by making history.
Standing in the Senate Office building in Washington and rather than us listening to a member of the Senatorial staff talking to us,
she was listening to us as we talked about the Jewish response to what is going on in our history.
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This coming Monday and Tuesday night we will all sit down and share the words of the Haggadah. The Hebrew word means "to relate, to tell or to expound". But it can also be derived from the Hebrew root that means "to bind, to join and to connect". Meaning that by reciting the Haggadah every year we are connecting ourselves and our children to the history of our people; joining them with the past and preparing them with the stories for the future.
But look at this year where there is a reversal of the holiday's reality! How amazing is it if our children teach us? When our children relate, expound and connect us to the real meaning of the holiday through their actions. And their realization of the same freedom we as a people felt so many years ago - Living AS IF they too left Egypt.
A group of our own children. Sitting among us right now. Made a difference. Made a change. And realized a dream.
And this does not just relate to the macro-cosmic notion of what we are doing in the Passover Seder by telling the stories. What is truly interesting is how in fact Passover is an intensely political festival. It is about standing up against an oppressor and celebrating freedom and rights. And in a way, creating a new social contract between each other and with God.
It is the one time where Jews all over the world celebrate in the same way. It is the reality that we are here and we are still here.
And we are free.
Passover is our great holiday of hope. It is our holiday where we create. It is our time to remember - To remember not only our Exodus from Egypt, but also our ability to overcome and our imperative to celebrate.
This year, when I sit down to my two Seders, I will remember not only the story of our collective history, but will now always remember how a group of our teenagers - our young adults, these future leaders - reminded me of the power of the holiday and the power to create history.
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The Talmud teaches us that "Great is the Generation where the big listen to the small." And that surely happened. But I proffer to take this a step further. Great is the generation where the big are taught, influenced and inspired by the small. This certainly happened this past weekend for me and I hope, through the continued actions of these teenagers and our support of their pursuits, will happen for each one of us.
To hear our children talking passionately about issues. To hear then talking about visiting Washington again and again, knowing full well that their voice matters and that they can make a difference. This is inspirational. And this is a passion which we must help to keep burning.
The great leader, Moses, from whom we learn many things about leading, shared these words which ring true to each of you at this time and becomes our prayer for you, our intrepid and future great leaders of the world. Moses says: "It is not up in heaven, nor is it beyond the sea. The word is very close to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, waiting to be done"
You all have done. And you all will continue to do. A fire of passion has been ignited and we will help keep it burning.
Just like Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said after he marched on Washington: "To some, Judaism is about praying with your heart but Judaism is also about praying with your feet."
May you all continue to boldly march forward praying both with your hearts filled with passion and with your feet filled with pride.
May you continue to be a blessing and an inspiration to us all. And may we all walk humbly with God as our partner, together realizing the potential we all have…
Cain yehi ratzon – May this be God's will.
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