The Blessing of Interesting Times (Rosh Hashanah 5785/2024)

Posted on October 5, 2024

(A video of the sermon with subtitles is available here)

In June of 1966, then Senator Bobby Kennedy delivered what is considered by many to be his most famous speech. The Day of Affirmation Address, also known as the “Ripple of Hope” speech was delivered at the University of Cape Town and provided him with an opportunity to reflect on the situation of apartheid over there and the civil rights movement over here. His words and visit shook up the political situation in South Africa as he spoke out for human freedom, individual liberty, and justice; encouraging the youth to be the agents of change. In the course of his remarks, he said: ‘There is a Chinese curse which says “May he live in interesting times.” Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty.’[1]

He could have been offering these words to all of us today. However, if he had lived today he would have known to check google and he would have discovered that it is not actually a Chinese curse. The source of the quote and its Chinese attribution is likely due to a British politician from the late 19th century.[2] I guess we Brits have a lot to answer for in terms of appropriating things from other countries and cultures, but I digress. The sentiment of the “curse” is that interesting times are negative, they are times of tumult and unrest, they are times to be avoided.

I am not sure when our current era of interesting times began, but for the Jewish community things unfortunately and tragically got a whole lot more interesting on October 7th and in its aftermath.

Several years ago, my Saba, my grandfather, began giving away various nicknacks and items he had collected over the course of his life. Knowing my interest in his service first in the Haganah, the Jewish pre-State paramilitary organization, and then in the Israel Defense Forces, a lot of the related memorabilia made its way to me. Part of this collection included the dog tag he had worn while serving; with his name Eli Neumann, and his number 44339 embossed on it. I started wearing them; primarily as a connection to him, but also as a connection to Israel and to that formative time in our people’s history.

I have often thought about what he lived through and got to witness during his service. He certainly lived in interesting times. But despite the challenges and the difficulties, in the face of hardship and suffering, through tragedy and loss – they came together and they built something amazing. A Jewish State was re-established in our ancient, ancestral homeland. Our people were reborn after generations of suffering and persecution. Towns were reestablished and the desert was made to bloom. If I’m honest, I have often wished that I could have lived at that time, served in the way that he did, and participated in the rebuilding and rebirth of our people.

Recently, alongside his dog tag, I have started wearing a different dog tag. This is not a family heirloom that has faded over several decades. It is not related to an individual’s military service. It does not provide a link to our people’s history. But this dog tag does speak to our Jewish family, it is a connection to 101 people, and it is a sad statement on our present day. On it is written: Halev shelanu shavua b’aza – our heart is captive in Gaza. Bring them home now!

I have thought a lot about these two dog tags and what they represent. Our people’s past and our people’s present. The challenges of then and the challenges of today. The service that he was called to and the service that we are called to. The interesting times he lived through and the interesting times we are living through.

It is clear that events in Israel have always had an impact on the global Jewish community; Haim Gouri, the Israeli poet, famously wrote: shlomi, keshalom ami – essentially saying, I am only as good as my people are. In the aftermath of October 7th while the war between Israel and Hamas rages on, while hostages are still held in Gaza, and with missile attacks from Iran, our people are not in a good place over there and they are not in a good place over here. We are currently facing challenges that are unfamiliar to the modern American Jewish community. Levels of antisemitism have risen at an alarming rate. Our children have expressed concern about displaying or sharing their Judaism in public. Many college campuses have become places where Jewish students feel unsafe and unprotected. We have become the favorite target for hate from the extreme right and the extreme left. Our sense of security, of safety, of our very place in American society has been challenged. These are unfortunately very interesting times for the Jewish community, and that’s without considering the tumult in American society as a whole or in the wider world.

But these are our interesting times. This is our moment.

For the last few years, I have had a passage of our Tanach, our Bible, that has repeatedly been echoing in my ears. When times have been difficult, as challenges have accumulated, as we’ve faced a hostile world, I have thought about these words. In Megillat Esther, during another interesting time that our people had to live through, we faced a decree that all the Jews of Persia were to be murdered. Our only hope was that Queen Esther would be able to convince King Achashverosh to avert the decree (of course we needed a woman to fix it). The problem was that Esther had not been invited to the King’s presence in over 30 days, and to appear without an invitation risked being executed. But Mordechai suggested, and this is the crucial line: u’mi yodeah, im l’et bazot higat lamlchut.[3]  He essentially says to her: Who knows? Perhaps you were put in this place, precisely for a time such as this. We know the end of the story. Despite the real fears and challenges, she embraced her position and she saved our people.

He speaks to her, but he also speaks to us – perhaps we were put in this place, precisely for a time such as this.

We do not get to choose the generation into which we are born. We do not get to choose what challenges our people will face. We do not get to choose our interesting times. But we do have a choice. We have a choice about how we will respond. We have a choice to face the challenges head on. We have a choice to act and improve our situation.

There is no Jewish equivalent to the “curse” may you live in interesting times; because the idea that interesting times are a curse does not align with Judaism. For one, as Cantor Hollis suggested to me, we could consider Jewish history a journey through interesting times, of varying intensity – never dull and quiet. And against this backdrop we have embraced interesting times as our opportunity to make a difference in the world. We have never shied away from a challenge, rather through the challenges our community has risen to ever greater heights. And we have always recognized our power to improve our situation and to make this world a better place for everyone. For the Jewish community we have embraced our interesting times as an opportunity, a call to action, a chance to make a difference.

Today is Rosh Hashanah, the birthday of the world, but it is also the beginning of the month of Tishrei. With our Jewish calendar following a lunar cycle we might expect a month to begin with the full moon, when the night sky is at its brightest. But that is not our way. If you look up at the sky tonight, you will see a sliver of a moon. The Jewish month, and by extension the Jewish year, begin when the night is at its darkest. We are linked in this way to the moon because we know that out of darkness light will come again. It may wax and wane, but it will again be full. Like the moon we always emerge renewed and reinvigorated – seemingly brighter than before. The New Year is an opportunity to bring new light into the world.

The task before us may seem daunting. We might have imagined that Israel’s continued existence was an accepted fact. And we might have believed that the fight against antisemitism had been won, that this most ancient example of hate had been consigned to the annals of history. But this is not the case. Ancient tropes have been reimagined using the language of today, age-old conspiracy theories have had new life breathed into them; harnessing technology to ensure that age-old accusations are being spread in modern forms. And I cannot think of any other group in society that is attacked by the extremists on both sides; they might not agree on anything, except when it comes to antisemitism.

This has been a difficult and painful year. So many of our friends have failed to pick up the phone to check in on us. So many have failed to speak out for us. So many have failed to stand up for us. Leaders in our society have failed to offer a full-throated condemnation of terrorism, sexual violence against women, and hate. News reports and the media have so often diminished, downplayed or fully dismissed our suffering, our pain, our anguish. I want you to know that I see you. I see the weight that we are carrying on our shoulders. I see the questions we have asked ourselves about our place in this society that we never expected to ask. I see our exhaustion, physical and emotional. I see us dejected, depleted, and let down. I see you. I see us. And I also see that this is a community ready to respond, a room filled with unlimited potential.

We have never backed down from a challenge before and we will not back down today. We have overcome Pharaohs, emperors, and mighty kings – their empires are gone, but we have survived. Renewing ourselves through the struggle and emerging stronger than before. Success in a struggle of this magnitude does not come overnight, it comes step-by-step, through acts large and small, through working together.

When Bobby Kennedy delivered his speech he said: ‘Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.’[4] The task before us today is to be at the center of those ripples, acting so that we will ultimately create a tsunami to sweep away the evil and hate we are witnessing.

In sport, and especially football, people often talk about the fact that defense wins championships. But as New England sports fans, since the departure of Tom Brady, we have seen firsthand that defense without offense goes absolutely nowhere. In the aftermath of October 7th we were on defense. The attack itself and the antisemitism it unleashed caught us off-guard, and the American Jewish community has spent a year responding from a defensive position. Today as the year turns, it is time to accompany this defense by going on the offense. We need to be the ones setting the agenda, we need to be the ones leading the conversation, we need to be the ones building a coalition to fight these challenges head on. And I know that we are up to the task.

To begin with, this year we will be proactive in our response to antisemitism. We are not waiting for the next incident in one of our local schools, or the next time one of our children comes home crying because of hateful words that they heard. In association with the Anti-Defamation League we have established Parents Against Antisemitism; to ensure that we are educated, informed, and prepared. And we are going to make sure our towns, our districts, and our schools know that these groups have been established, because we are watching and we are ready – there will be no free passes this year.

I know that this has been a lonely year for all of us – many of you have shared the sense of abandonment you have felt. We need to rebuild relationships with communities, groups, and people who should be our natural allies in this moment.  To do this, we need to be ready to share our pain, our hurt, and even our disappointment publicly – both on an individual level and more widely. There are partners out there. Reverend Lloyd of the Greater Framingham Community Church stood on our bimah as our brother on October 8th and brought us a message of comfort, support, and solidarity.  Together with his community we are engaging in an allyship project, supported by CJP, to deepen the connection between the black and Jewish communities – preparing ourselves to have each other’s back in the fight against antisemitism, racism, hate, and prejudice.

And in the face of this moment, it is time for us to pursue a zero-tolerance policy. I know that personally, in the months after October 7th I would sometimes refer to low-level or minor incidents of antisemitism. I now realize that this language was wrong. While of course there is a scale which may relate to the level of vitriol and the physicality involved, we need to be clear that all antisemitism is unacceptable. And so, if we hear “it’s just kids being kids” we need to respond loudly and forcefully – “no it’s kids being antisemitic.” We cannot allow a situation where antisemitism is normalized or acceptable in any setting or context. Racism is racism, hate is hate, and antisemitism is antisemitism. And to this I will add: we, the Jewish community, are the ones who define what is and isn’t antisemitic. We will not allow ourselves to be gaslit by those who seek to deny our suffering, deny our experience, or deny the intolerable year we have had.

Interesting times, but we are ready.

Against this backdrop, it is also important to recognize that while things are bad, we need to have some perspective on our current situation. Rabbi David Wolpe imagined a conversation with a long gone relative. As he explained the problem that Jewish students have been facing antisemitism at Harvard, the relative interrupted him to say: “Wait, there are Jews at Harvard?” And so, he explained that there are and that because of what has happened in the State of Israel students have been protesting, and the relative interrupted again to say: “Wait, there’s a Jewish State of Israel.”[5] Yes, things are bad, but we are facing a situation where we are starting from a stronger position than our ancestors have in almost two thousand years.

I am sure that there is a part of me that will always wish I could have lived in the same generation as my Saba, and earned this dog tag through my own service, rather than as a memory of his. But those were not the times into which I was born; those were his challenges, his moment to act. And now this is our moment. We are heirs to him and countless others; we are heirs to generations of Jews who have faced interesting times head on to ensure our people’s survival, strengthening our community and making the world a better place.

As we begin this new year, we know that the light in the night sky will get brighter; we know that we have the power to ignite the candles that will illuminate the darkness. We are not cursed by interesting times, we are blessed by interesting times because they provide us with the opportunity to make a difference, to be involved in something bigger than ourselves, to ensure that there will be a brighter future for our children. And we do not do this alone. We might be a single community in MetroWest, but we know that we have allies, and we are part of something greater than ourselves, joining with Jewish communities across this country, in Israel, and around the world.

These are our interesting times, this is our moment, and perhaps, just perhaps, we were put here for a time such as this.

Shana Tova.

[1] https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/the-kennedy-family/robert-f-kennedy/robert-f-kennedy-speeches/day-of-affirmation-address-university-of-capetown-capetown-south-africa-june-6-1966

[2] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/12/18/live/

[3] Esther 4:14.

[4] https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/the-kennedy-family/robert-f-kennedy/robert-f-kennedy-speeches/day-of-affirmation-address-university-of-capetown-capetown-south-africa-june-6-1966

[5] Rabbi Wolpe was speaking at the Recharging Judaism conference.