WHAT’S YOUR GROUP ID? by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on June 26, 2020 by Baruch

WHAT’S YOUR GROUP ID?

Amid the conflicting charges we hear and see daily, pro and con about groups like Black Lives Matter, some writers accuse them of anti-American policies while others would write off the Founding Fathers as slave owners.  Taking down statues and revising history will not solve today’s social dilemma.

We in the Jewish community find some of our representative organizations sincerely committing themselves to join in accusing American law enforcement of deliberate crime, and promising to help our Black fellow citizens by backing Black Lives Matter.  Other Jewish spokesmen write of BLM’s alleged dependence on subsidies from anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sources like Farrakhan’s “Nation of Islam.” We all witnessed vandalism of synagogues and Jewish businesses during the recent protest marches. 

Is there any solution to these vexing conditions?

Maybe we could take a basic approach to solving them.  As citizens of this great country, most of us, if not all, belong to one group or another.  Every group has an identity.  How we analyze our group identity, individually as well as organizationally, can have a vital effect on how we all get along.  For example, are you an American Black or a Black American?  Am I a Jewish American or an American Jew?  Which describes our loyalties more accurately, the noun or the adjective?

Whichever word best describes your group identity, what might that be?  Maybe it is your family’s geographic origin.  Your group could be Nordic, Slavic, Latino, Asiatic, African or a Native American tribe.  Maybe your group is religious, so if it is Christian you could be Catholic, Mormon, Quaker, Evangelical, Seventh Day Adventist – or you could belong to other religions whether Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Muslim – or maybe your group is Secular or Atheist. 

The important question is still the same.  Is your group identity primary?  Is it indeed the noun that defines the basic You?  Or is it the adjective?  Is your U.S. identity more important?  Is “American” the real You?  Or is that just your address?

Recent marches and riots illustrate the vital necessity for each of us to answer this question.  It’s not just coronavirus that threatens our country.  It is also a widespread and risky division among us.  Let’s take a deep breath, move away from political extremes, and look at our planet.  Where else would we find a comparable place to live, work and build families in freedom?  The noun is it, friends.  Whatever heritage or doctrine colors our lives, we are Americans.  Born here or naturalized, or even recent arrivals – not yet citizens but committed to making this country our home — we are Americans.  If we have any sense, we will work together for a better and better future.

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THE LATEST STYLE by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Baruch

THE LATEST STYLE

One result of current travel restrictions is spending more time watching television.  Interesting experience, isn’t it?  Among the changes we see, from baseball games that are historical instead of newsworthy, to old films remade by 21st century standards, we can find many new styles.  Watching them, you may find some of those new styles questionable. I did.

American movies that attracted 20th century audiences were frequently action-adventure stories or glamourized bios, and generally featured three C’s — cuties, cowboys, or comedians.  Dialogue was sometimes clever, always censored. 

Not now.  Remakes of some well-known films exhibit a definite change of style.  New releases tend to feature three V’s — vice, violence and vulgarity.  Past standards of story content and acceptable wording are replaced with principal characters whose immorality is totally acceptable.  And four-letter words never heard on screen before invade every character’s dialogue.

Is this how we view our life today?  We know all that stuff existed 50 years ago and exists equally now, but should we glorify it on screen?  That’s the new style, friends.  We need to consider how it can influence our children

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CHECK IT OUT Sh’lakh l’kha – Numbers 13-15 by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on June 16, 2020 by Baruch

CHECK IT OUT Sh’lakh l’kha – Numbers 13-15

 

You get a call from your friend, or an employee, or a member of your family, advising you of an opportunity. A home for sale in a neighborhood you like. You are interested. So you suggest: check it out.

Depending on how that person goes about checking out the prospective purchase, you may or may not want to make an offer on it. For example, here’s one kind of report:

The house looks solid enough. Roomy, too. It has a big yard
with fruit trees. In fact, we picked a couple of lemons and this
avocado — not bad, eh? Can’t get in to see the inside because
the agent demands an accepted offer first. It’s been painted
recently, so the price is very firm. Questionable neighborhood.
Right down the street we saw some grafitti. Kids
wearing their hats backwards. May be gang infested.

And here’s another:

Got talking with the lady next door. Found out the owner is
very anxious to sell. Open to any offer. Just modernized the
kitchen and redecorated, and then got transferred to the east
coast. So he has no cash on hand to put down on a home there.
Anyone with a large down payment can write their own ticket.
Neighborhood Watch is very effective; no major problems.

Are these two people talking about the same house? Sure they are. Just as the two groups of spies we can read about in this Torah portion, and in its Haftorah, the corresponding prophetic reading in the book of Joshua. They were both talking about the same country.  An important difference is how they “checked it out.”

The 12 spies Moses sends out are princes.  Executives.  Commissioned officers.  They follow accepted procedures – sample the fruit, assess the strength of the fortifications, take note of the appearance of the local population.  If they only had video, maybe they could bring back picture and sound to back up their report of 50-foot-high walls and men of giant size.  By a vote of 10 to 2, they convince the people that Canaan can’t be conquered.

The 2 spies Joshua sends are different. One is 80-year-old Caleb – the only other surviving member of the original checker-outers and one of the dissenting minority (Joshua himself being the other dissenter). The second spy is a youth of 18. One chosen for courage, the other for wisdom. They don’t take notes and they don’t bring samples. They spend the night with Rahab, whom the Talmud identifies as one of the four most beautiful women in history. Her occupation is innkeeper, providing accommodations to travelers. From the Hebrew word zonah we gather that she provides other comforts too.

Either way, she has ample opportunity to gauge the spirit of the population. She trades her inside information for a guarantee of safety, and the two spies return with a message: Piece of cake. Chances are, neither report is 100% accurate. But the contrast is phenomenal. The negative report here brings on 40 years in the desert. The positive report in the Book of Joshua empowers the people. They proceed to take over Jericho in a week.

How do we go about checking out our opportunities? Do we suffocate them by overanalyzing the difficulties? And does that make them look insurmountable?

Am I too old to learn to use a computer? After all, I’m not even a good typist, and computer science is as foreign to me as Swahili. I don’t have money to spend on computer software that can become obsolete in half an hour — let alone all the furniture that goes under the equipment! I’d better stay in the lead pencil desert for another 40 years.

Do I have the discipline to change my health habits? After all, those exercise machines are really no better than a good walk around the block, are they? Didn’t you hear about the fellow that lost big pounds and built up his muscles – and died anyway? I don’t trust these diets either. I’d better stay in the Aspirin and Alka-Seltzer desert for another 40 years. 

Can I really patch things up with my sister? So much time went by. She’ll consider me stupid for trying. Whatever happened between us isn’t even the issue any more. We just have different lives now. We build 50-foot walls between us. Our antagonism is too gigantic. Better stay in the breygez (angry) desert for another 40 years.

Let’s take another look. Check it out again. Maybe we can turn part of our future around. Take a message from your friendly “innkeeper:” A computer is just a tool, and a few simple functions of it can make your life easier and more interesting. The first cream puff you forego, and the first stationary bike ride you take, can be the first step to feeling better. And as for your sister, maybe you and she can both conclude that time wounds all heels. Take the first step.

Like Joshua at Jericho, blow the shofar loud enough and the walls come tumbling down.



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Collapse? By Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on June 5, 2020 by Baruch

Collapse?

During nightly riots kicked off by the death of one George Floyd in Minneapolis, some leaders in foreign countries spoke of the “collapse of the United States.”  Viewing news coverage of the disturbances, it could look that way.  Was it?

Frustrated by COVID19 restrictions, and in pain from resulting unemployment and bankruptcy, many Americans needed a good excuse to get out of the house and vent their anger. Seeing the TV video of a police officer killing a man he was arresting for allegedly passing counterfeit money was enough to start loud protests in the street – not just in Minneapolis but in cities throughout the country. 

Do “black lives matter?” Of course.  All lives matter.  Would George Floyd be alive today if he was white?  Maybe, maybe not.  Either way, his death at the hands of law enforcement was a crime.  Protests started immediately.

Marching in the protest crowd were demonstrators with a variety of causes.  Some were truly dedicated to justice for black Americans; others had quite different interests.  Political extremists like Antifa and Jihad used the protest movement for their own purposes – including vandalizing synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses in several cities.

Petty criminals grabbed the opportunity to join the night marchers and break into local stores to loot them for liquor and jewelry and drugs.

Violence and victimhood can look like national collapse.  But the America I know can recover from it.  G-d willing, medical scientists will yet cure coronavirus, law enforcement will implement firm standards, and our economy will once again lead the world to some prosperity.

And most important, we can all once and for all realize that whoever we are – black or white, Jewish or Latino, Asiatic or Hawaiian, Navajo or Eskimo — we are one nation. Significantly, in his memorial to George Floyd, his brother Terence called for our unity. 

Let’s all make whatever effort we can to reach that goal. 

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THE DAY AFTER THE HOLIDAY by Rabbi Baruch Cohon

Posted on May 31, 2020 by Baruch

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THE DAY AFTER THE HOLIDAY

As happens every year, on the eve of the Shavuot festival we had a nighttime learning session.  Subject matter was Jewish law, since Shavuot celebrates our ancestors receiving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.  This year being lockdown time, our learning was conducted via Zoom.  But “virtual” participants still asked questions, volunteered relevant information, and – guess what – argued.

Then came two days of celebration, complete with some memorable cheesecake, and now it’s the day after.  One subject we discussed online sticks in my mind.  How does today’s life style relate to religious law?

Many of us conduct ourselves by moral principles.  We accept Divine law as we understand it.  We don’t murder, we don’t steal, we don’t testify falsely.  We may even honor our parents and take one day off every week as a Sabbath.  Those laws are 3,000 years old.  What about today’s sexual standards?  Do we accept “same-sex marriage”, even though the Torah defines it as a capital offense called perversion? 

And if a male and female want to live together and maybe have children, do we consider them a family whether or not they bother to have a wedding?  No doubt about it, the family institution is in trouble in many parts of the world.  All through human history the basic unit of any civilization – from tribal to industrial – is the family, consisting of one man, one woman (in most places, but as many as 4 women in other societies), and one or more children.  Not reliable lately. The number of conventional families in the U.S. is in serious decline. 

Current protests raise a similar question.  If a police officer kills someone he is arresting, that action certainly breaks the law, both civil and religious.  And when other people stage violent protests and set fire to homes and public buildings and ransack the nearest stores, are they not breaking the law? 

Here, to my view, is the bottom line.  If and when my standards of conduct conflict with the laws of my religion, one of us is wrong.  Usually, if not always, I’m it.

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