Strength And Frailty In The Service Of God
Rosh Hashana Sermon 5779
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
September 10, 2018
Of all the great mysteries of Creation, the one we still know least about is the one we’ve pompously labeled the Crown of Creation: us, human beings. Yes, we know about evolution; we understand at least someof the forces that drive this process forward. Yet the mystery remains.
For one thing, there’s no explaining the reason or purpose of our existence. Nor, despite Sigmund Freud and all his theories, and for all the psychological and scientific studies that have broadened our understanding since then, can we account for all those traits and features that come together to create the individual that each of us is. Chemistry and biology only go so far in giving us answers. Genes carry within them much of the story, but still, even identical twins have distinct characteristics that define them as unique individuals, with differences that only they, and perhaps their parents, are able to recognize.
Perhaps that’s why there’s such an abundance of stories and myths that try to explain humanity and how it came to be. Even the Bible has two explanations. There’s the version we read in the first chapter of Genesis, in which God forms Adam and Eve together. In the very next chapter, however we find details that only serve to complicate the issue. It is here that we learn how God creates the first man out of earth (adama) and names him Adam, perhaps as a pun, or perhaps to remind him of his lowly origin. The story then continues to tell how God separates Adam into two different beings, each with its own distinct sex, male and female.
In this respect, Greek mythology differs from the Bible. The Greek playwright Aristophanes, by way of Plato, assigns nospecific gender to the separated bodies. They can be male and female, as the Bible has it, but they can also be male and male, or female and female. Nor is there agreement about other details of the uncoupling. Some myths relate that original Man was created as one being, but with two frontal panels, glued, as it were, back to back. With the speed and accuracy of lightning then, God parts the one being straight down the middle, creating two complete, entire beings out of the one original form.
An ancient rabbinic story, a midrash, tells that Adam was first created as large as the entire world. Recognizing the power and danger inherent in such a huge being, God divides this original humanoid, fashioning a somewhat more manageable version. Yet another midrash explains that, in forming Adam from earth, God gathered dust from all corners of the world, perhaps so that no one individual or nation could claim exclusive ancestry in God’s original handiwork. We are all God’s children, is the lesson of this story.
However it is that we came to be, there’s no doubt that we embody many qualities and traits; some coexist in harmony, while others clash and conflict, causing harm and mischief both within us and in the outside world.
Of all these many traits, I have always marveled at two qualities that seem contradictory, and yet are both found within us: Strength and frailty.
Though seemingly incongruous, the two traits actually go hand in hand. We would be incomplete without one or the other. Our strength enables us to withstand tremendous pressure; it helps us fight off danger; it enables us bear heavy burden and overcome affliction. Without strength, we would not be able to walk upright or survive the many challenges that beset us every day.
Just as essential to our wellbeing, however, is frailty. Without frailty we would never bend with the harsh wind, but rather break at the very first frost. Frailty let us know our limits. Otherwise, all too certain of our power, we would never experience hardship or want; we would never know need, nor suffer deprivation. We would never feel pity or compassion, experience the pleasure of friendship, the sweetness of love, or the sorrow of parting and loss.
Strength and frailty, confidence and doubt, are both indispensable in defining our humanity. They work together within us.
Our need for fellowship and community unite us. But lines of identity and definition also turn into limits and boundaries, and borders in turn become fences and walls.
And so it happens that, whereas love, humbleness and need unite us, fear, arrogance and hate divide us.
The writer, philosopher and historian Henry Adams, great-grandson of John Adams and grandson of John Quincy Adams, proposed that perhaps the greatest epoch in human history was around the 12thcentury, long before divisions between east and west, north and south became unbridgeable rifts. I’m not sure I totally agree with his assessment. Throughout history, huge empires have risen and fallen; the strongest unions were tested—and often found wanting.
Even the Jews, a people whose history among all peoples is unique and exceptional, weren’t always unified (surprise, right?). Before the Exodus from Egypt, we were twelve separate and distinct tribes. It was only under King David’s rule, for the dual purposes of self-defense and cultural preservation, that the tribes joined and became one kingdom. Yet today, though we still call ourselves one people, the great diversity of traditions and customs among us have caused some of us to question and even deny the validity of the Judaism of others.
Similar divisions appear in our own country, the United States. For all the noble ideals that unify us, our Nation still comprises fifty individual and unique states, each with its own government, cultural and political identity; each with its own needs, and each with its own avowed state rights.
There were times when our country declared itself unified behind common objectives and purposes, yet dissent was never far behind. The Civil War was possibly the greatest test that the Union faced and withstood, but wide gaps still exist to this day. Today, cultural differences between North and South; between rich and poor; between the educated and the unlearned, between the two coasts and the interior of our country, are threatening to tear us apart.
Even within the strongest union, there is friction. Perhaps that’s a good thing. Unity does not mean conformity. Diversity of thought and opinion enriches us. Then too, there are groups within our society that have long been ostracized, marginalized and even victimized. The Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigations shed necessary light on events that transpired in darkness and secrecy for decades, if not forever. The #MeToo phenomenon has revealed in lurid detail predatory behavior that for much, much too long was considered standard and even acceptable. Black Lives Matter gives voice to the prejudice and harassment that still exist in many places around our country. Inversely, the movement to “Boycott, Divest and Sanction” the Jewish State, Israel, BDS, with all its self-righteous indignation, highlights the ongoing anti-Semitism that still designates Jews not only as a separate people, but also as not-equal, perhaps even undesirable, members of society.
At the same time, however, tension between the groups has also grown.
National politics, always a dividing line among us, has become a wide rift, more so than at any other time I can recall since the 1960’s. The recent passing of Senator John McCain and the widespread reflection on his lifelong contributions to our country made many of us realize that the two major parties have for quite some time now stopped working together for the sake of all Americans and are instead focused on blocking any progress at all.
We live not in an age of “Me-Two,” but rather in one of “Me-One.” Societal norms have turned many Americans into self-absorbed, self-centered individuals. The lofty ideals expressed by the Founding Fathers have become a vulgar reality of grab-as-grab-can. We witness today not love and acceptance of our diversity, but rather the emergence of separate and not-so-equal groups that pride themselves on denying essential rights and freedoms to others, all in the name of democracy.
The divisions among us today are real, present and dangerous.
Today more than ever there is need to relearn how to compromise for the sake of peace, for the sake of those bonds that still exist between us. Instead, what we are seeing is the complete opposite. We see walls coming up. We see hatreds emerging from shadowy depths and turning into behemoths that threaten to tear us apart.
Calling for ever-greater strength, corrupt leaders have learned to manipulate the frailty within us and turn it into fear, and that, as I see it, is a dangerous trend.
What I fear today is that the violence that we witnessed a year ago in Charlottesville will become as commonplace as the mass shootings that have lately been punctuating our once-peaceful life. Our President matter-of-factly speaks of violence that will break out if his party loses in the mid-term elections. In demonstrations across the country, right-wing extremists have been not-at-all shy about their hateful intentions, while counter demonstrators, the Antifa as they call themselves, have proven just as eager, in the words of the Anti-Defamation League, “To engage in confrontational tactics, including violence.”
In his 1907 autobiography, Henry Adams wrote, “Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, had always been the systematic organization of hatreds.” Yet today, rather than organizing and containing the hatreds, our politicians have instead been fueling the fires.
What I fear today is that the delicate balance of strength and frailty within us is quickly breaking down into chaotic displays of brute force, as divergent groups fight for, and claim, victory and superiority.
I fear not only for the innocent victims whose lives will be cut short because of violence. I fear also for our entire society and people. I fear that the hatreds and fears that are emerging will tear asunder the bonds that make us “one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
It is more than ideals that are at stake here. We face real global issues today, real dangers that threaten the existence of all humanity and possibly the very planet we call home.
On this day, the day we have set aside to recall the Creation of the World, I fear that we are seeing the beginning of its Destruction. We have once again become too big and powerful for the purposes for which God created us. I fear the consequences.
On the other hand, this Sacred Day also fills me with hope and optimism. The Midrash teaches that before God created Adam, God first consulted with the angels. Some—most, actually—voiced doubts about the outcome. Yet, despite their misgivings, God proceeded with His plans. As I see it, if God could choose to be hopeful and optimistic, certainly I can follow God’s example and look forward with hope and a prayer!
My prayer today is that people all over the world will see the folly of disrupting the balance between the elements that Humanity is made of. Hopefully, as in the days of King David and Thomas Paine, Common Sense will prevail. Recognizing the fragility of the planet that was given to our care, I pray that we will once again awaken to the call of the Shofar and re-engage with greater strength in the sacred and ongoing task of protecting and maintaining all Creation, in all its unity and diversity.
I look forward to a time in which the ideals of equality, acceptance and love will once again be the yardstick with which we measure Progress, a time when Strength and Frailty will once again coexist at peace within us, with no one claiming superiority over another.
Oseh shalom bi-m’romav, hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu: May the One who caused peace to reign in the heights, cause peace and harmony also to dwell among us.
May we all be inscribed for a year of joy, sweetness, health and peace. L’shana tova tikatevu.
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