Dear Friends,
“Get yourself going!” Such were God’s words opening this week’s Torah portion, Lech L’cha.” God instructed Abraham to leave his homeland of idolatry and journey forth to the Land of Canaan, which would become our Jewish homeland of Israel.
For us, we have just come through another momentous election in America. It is time for us, as well, to “Get ourselves going!”
Some are elated; some are crestfallen. Some are relieved; some are fearful. But God’s words to Abraham are telling: feel your emotions, and then get up and journey forth.
By me – I was shocked, and then I had a great laugh with the phlebotomist who took my blood Wednesday morning for my routine check-up. Chuckling, we both decided that it was time to “Get ourselves going!” There is much to be done—in our communities, in our states and nation, and in ourselves.
Not to belittle the import of this week’s election—it quite possibly could impact the direction of international relations, environmental policy, judicial composition, individual rights, and more for decades to come—but let’s be perspicacious. As Jews, we have ridden the ups and downs of participating in American life since her founding.
In 1790’s first census of the United States, there were about 1500 Jews in the new country, with six synagogues. We had befriended George Washington. We felt optimistic. But the populism of Andrew Jackson and the divides over slavery made the early 19th century tenuous; Jewish immigration to America dribbled until the failed German revolution of 1848, following which tens of thousands of German Jews came to America and established banking and trading firms and did well. Yet waves of anti-Semitism followed the new immigration of Eastern European Jews from 1881 to 1924, and the Republican administrations of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover made Jewish life uncomfortable. Roosevelt’s democratic administration also tarried and balked regarding Jews, notably its belated start protecting Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust. We were uncertain again as Jews in America. But the postwar building boom, new society, and counterculture of the ’50s and ’60s into the ’70s and ’80s, with pendular shifts from Republican to Democratic presidents—Truman/Eisenhower/Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon/Carter—allowed us to learn to get along with everyone. We felt secure, and we grew with America through further seesawing administrations: Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama. Only in the last ten years have we witnessed this new, mushrooming doubt and resurgent anti-Semitism reminiscent of darker yesteryears.
But any student of history reminds us that with every decade, the pendulum keeps swinging. The only constant is our reading Torah and reading again. “Lech L’cha,” Get yourself going!
So, let’s do it. Feel our feelings—and then get on with doing what we must do!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
“Get yourself going!” Such were God’s words opening this week’s Torah portion, Lech L’cha.” God instructed Abraham to leave his homeland of idolatry and journey forth to the Land of Canaan, which would become our Jewish homeland of Israel.
For us, we have just come through another momentous election in America. It is time for us, as well, to “Get ourselves going!”
Some are elated; some are crestfallen. Some are relieved; some are fearful. But God’s words to Abraham are telling: feel your emotions, and then get up and journey forth.
By me – I was shocked, and then I had a great laugh with the phlebotomist who took my blood Wednesday morning for my routine check-up. Chuckling, we both decided that it was time to “Get ourselves going!” There is much to be done—in our communities, in our states and nation, and in ourselves.
Not to belittle the import of this week’s election—it quite possibly could impact the direction of international relations, environmental policy, judicial composition, individual rights, and more for decades to come—but let’s be perspicacious. As Jews, we have ridden the ups and downs of participating in American life since her founding.
In 1790’s first census of the United States, there were about 1500 Jews in the new country, with six synagogues. We had befriended George Washington. We felt optimistic. But the populism of Andrew Jackson and the divides over slavery made the early 19th century tenuous; Jewish immigration to America dribbled until the failed German revolution of 1848, following which tens of thousands of German Jews came to America and established banking and trading firms and did well. Yet waves of anti-Semitism followed the new immigration of Eastern European Jews from 1881 to 1924, and the Republican administrations of Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover made Jewish life uncomfortable. Roosevelt’s democratic administration also tarried and balked regarding Jews, notably its belated start protecting Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust. We were uncertain again as Jews in America. But the postwar building boom, new society, and counterculture of the ’50s and ’60s into the ’70s and ’80s, with pendular shifts from Republican to Democratic presidents—Truman/Eisenhower/Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon/Carter—allowed us to learn to get along with everyone. We felt secure, and we grew with America through further seesawing administrations: Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama. Only in the last ten years have we witnessed this new, mushrooming doubt and resurgent anti-Semitism reminiscent of darker yesteryears.
But any student of history reminds us that with every decade, the pendulum keeps swinging. The only constant is our reading Torah and reading again. “Lech L’cha,” Get yourself going!
So, let’s do it. Feel our feelings—and then get on with doing what we must do!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
