Guns In The House Of God
D’var Torah Shabbat Yitro
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
This week’s Torah portion is Yitro (Jethro), Exodus 18:1-20:23. This is the portion where Moses brings the Ten Commandments to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. This is such an important moment in our history, that when we read these verses during services, the entire congregation rises to its feet, reliving the moment when God’s Presence was revealed to us.
While the Commandments themselves warrant hours of discussion, today I would like to focus on another verse from this important portion: “And when you make for Me an altar of stones, you shall not build them of hewn stones, lest you wield your sword upon it and desecrate it” (Ex. 20:22 in the Hebrew Bible, 20:25 in the Christian versions).
The sword—tool of warfare and suffering—may not be used in the service of God. It’s a powerful lesson especially this week, a week that saw a synagogue hostage situation with a terrorist holding a gun against a rabbi and three of his congregants.
I remember a “M*A*S*H” episode that aired on TV almost exactly 40 years ago. Titled “A Holy Mess,” in this episode an agitated soldier holds Father Mulcahy hostage. Outraged, the good priest exclaims, “How dare you! You seek refuge in this house of the Lord when it serves your purpose. Then when it’s no longer convenient, you desecrate it by pointing a deadly weapon at another human being. Private, a faith of convenience is a hollow faith.”
The terrorist who entered the house of God in Colleyville, Texas, last Sabbath, seemed to be in a similar state of mind. Distraught, he sought shelter from the cold and asked for something to drink. The rabbi let him in and proceeded to prepare some hot tea for this individual. At that very moment, the terrorist pulled a gun from inside his coat, beginning an eleven-hour ordeal that kept us all in a state of horrified suspense.
This wasn’t the first time a synagogue became setting for terror. We recall vividly the mass murder of eleven worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh only two years ago. Nor, to be sure, is this kind of terror limited to Jewish houses of worship. Churches, mosques and Hindu temples were similarly attacked in recent years.
We live at a time punctuated by too many of these tragic and horrendous events. We witness them at city squares, schools, and at movie theaters—any place where people congregate en masse, providing an easy target for deranged individuals or others, moved by extremist philosophies and beliefs.
The Ten Commandments represent the most basic laws of civilization. For bloodshed and violence to take place in plain view of the commandment “Thou shalt not murder” is more than irony. It is desecration of everything human beings hold holy. A faith that calls for such acts is indeed a hollow faith, used to further selfish and evil purposes.
A house of worship is a place dedicated to peace. It’s where we come to find solace and comfort, purpose and meaning. To bring violence to such a place is ultimate sacrilege and profanity. It demeans the highest values to which we ascribe. Today as thousands of years ago, in America, at Sinai or elsewhere in the world, to wield a sword or a gun in a House of God is an unforgivable crime as well as sin.
May we reach a time when the true aim of faith becomes our purpose in life—to bring kindness and peace to the world, not yet more violence and havoc. That is my dream and highest hope.
© 2022 by Boaz D. Heilman
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