CELEBRATION AND TRAGEDY

BY RABBI YAKOV KERZNER, BETH ISRAEL SYNAGOGUE, HALIFAX, NS

The days between Pesach and Shavuot contain contradictory emotions. The Torah, as understood in our tradition, portrays these days as a transitionary period. We slowly count the 49 days, between our Redemption from Egypt to Revelation at Mount Sinai on the 50th day. Ideally, as one day follows the next, we should be in joyous anticipation of the defining feature of Judaism, receiving the Torah as G-d reveals Himself to the Jewish People. As often happens in Jewish history, the reality does not always match the dream. At the end of the 11th century, the Crusades brought death and destruction to numerous Jewish communities. Only a few days before Shavuot, the Jews of Worms were massacred by the Crusader army. The Jews of Speyer and Mainz fared a similar fate. As a result, the days of Sefirat Omer (the counting of the 49 days) became a time of mourning in Jewish tradition. This mourning period was also associated with the story in the Talmud of the tragic death of 24,000 students of the famed Rabbi Akiva. Although historians assume their death was a result of the failed Bar Kochba Rebellion in 132 C.E., the Talmud relates that they died of respiratory diseases during a plague. The parallels to the beginning of our modern day COVID Plague occurring in the same season can not be ignored. In typical Talmudic fashion, the blame for our afflictions and suffering are assumed to be a result of our sins. The plague or our enemies are only the agent of a wrathful God. Our sin? The Talmud relates that the students did not show proper respect to their fellow students. Not idolatry, murder, thievery or other forms of depravity. Rather, they did not show respect to each other. The Talmud goes on to say that Rabbi Akiva reestablished Torah study with five students who spread learning throughout the Jewish Nation. This Talmudic story is obviously a morality tale more than it is a retelling of historical events.

The message seems very clear. No matter how large our audience or how widespread our ideas, we can never forget the importance of individuality and the unique character of every single person. For our society to thrive and grow or even to survive, we can never forget the beauty of every individual. We can not create an identity if that identity is a carbon copy of others. We can not exist as individuals if our sense of self is only a reflection of our neighbors. My father often quoted the Kotzker Rebbe as saying, “If I am I because You are You and You are You because I am I, then I am not I and You are not You. But if I am I because I am I and You are You because You are You, then I am I and You are You.”

Respect for a spouse, a sibling, a friend or a neighbor is not a feigned superficial nod to their right to an opinion. It is a deep appreciation of the essence of the Other. Survival, in the long term, depends on learning what others stand for, getting to the core of their identity and sincerely knowing who the Other is. Shavuot is a time of Revelation from G-d. G-d doesn’t speak in a booming voice that overwhelms our senses and dissolves our identities. Rather, as Elijah learned in his private revelation, G-d speaks in a “kol demamah dakah”, a thin still voice. Revelation is a private experience uniquely experienced by each and every one of us. We all see G-d through our own private lenses. Just as the beauty of a rainbow is its variety of colors, so does the exquisite splendor of the Jewish People depend on the many shades of light that shines forth from our personal encounters with G-d. When these colors unite, the product is a bright white light that shines forth in the World and creates the illumination that allows all that exist to experience “the light unto the nations” that is our ultimate mission in life.