COMMENTARY
February 2022
Federation Star
9A
Affirming our identity Rabbi Mark Wm. Gross
F
eb. 6, as the first Sunday of the month, is marked in the United States as “Four Chaplains Sunday,” commemorating the heroic death of four U.S. Army chaplains in the line of duty 79 years ago. First meeting when they came to train military chaplains, Pastors George Fox and Clark Poling, Father John Washington and Rabbi Alexander Goode became fast friends. All four men were on board the same troop transport when it was torpedoed by a U-boat just before 1 a.m. the morning of Feb. 3. In the ensuing 25 minutes before Dorchester sank, the four chaplains worked together to establish some kind of order to the evacuation of panicky survivors. The chaplains organized the loading of the lifeboats; they distributed life jackets
(including their own) to those without one; they administered last rites to the dying injured; they offered encouragement to those floating in the icy water; and ultimately, they went down with the ship, locked arm-in-arm and singing a hymn together. As one tough petty officer tearfully reported to naval authorities, “It was the finest thing I ever hope to see, in this world or the next.” The sacrifice of the Four Chaplains has been remembered and recognized over the years. They were posthumously awarded the D.S.C. and Purple Heart by President Roosevelt in 1944. President Truman marked Memorial Day of 1958 with the Four Chaplains commemorative stamp. As President Eisenhower’s last act in office in January of 1961, he presented the families of the four men with a special Chaplain’s Medal for Heroism. There are Four Chaplain memorial chapels and plaques (and, for that matter, bridges and football fields) all over the United States, including a monument in North Dakota bearing the inscription: “‘Love your neighbor,’ even if he does not go to the church where you worship.”
That admonition is significant, since in the decades prior to World War II, far too many Americans had been unabashed in their suspicion of and active dislike for people different than themselves. Various bigotries and prejudices, racial and religious alike, were exacerbated by the Great Depression, in which half the population of the country was unor under-employed. Yet we managed to put aside all that divisiveness in wartime. Films from the 1940s summarized the unity of America by depicting guys named McNamara and Smith and Ramirez and Epstein all hunkered down together in the same shell crater. (Or my personal favorite: 1940’s “The Fighting Sixty-Ninth,” in which Father Duffy, an Irish Catholic priest portrayed by the great Pat O’Brien, recites the Sh’ma in Hebrew to comfort a dying Jewish doughboy.) The problems we continue to face as a nation (ongoing pandemic, inflation, global supply problems and under-employment) may very well be considered the moral equivalent of a war — one that we must fight together. And, as it happens, our greatest strength as a nation is the diversity
making us strong as a corporate whole that can, in fact, respond together. Our Jewish community is an integral component in that endeavor, with individual rabbis participating in local interfaith alliances and our Federation participating in a regional Catholic-Jewish partnership with the Diocese of Venice. Your local churches may not be observing Four Chaplains Sunday, nor may your own synagogue be incorporating an appropriate remembrance on the Qaddish list the prior Shabbat, but I invite you to devote a thought this month to the “pluribus” that gives our “unum” meaning … and, perhaps, to think about long-range planning with our interfaith partners to make the 80th annual memorialization of The Four Chaplains in 2023 into a shared interfaith occasion marking our truest strength as a nation. Rabbi Mark Wm. Gross serves at Jewish Congregation of Marco Island.
A season of renewal Rabbi Ammos Chorny
S
hortly, we shall celebrate the festival of Purim. For many, this holiday, like Hanukah, seems to be a children’s celebration without much adult meaning. Yet, also like Hanukah, Purim has a serious message and its observance should not be limited to our children. We must all take part in its rituals and customs, seeking out the deeper message hidden under the fairy tale story in the Megillah. Our sages tell us that, in time to come, when the Messiah arrives to redeem the world, all the holidays will fade away into relative insignificance, except for Purim, which will continue to be celebrated, remaining as relevant then as it is today.
What is the difference between the other holidays and Purim? The others are primarily associated with the exodus from Egypt, involving miraculous acts that transcend the nature of the world. What does Purim celebrate? It does not recall miraculous acts, per se. In fact, God’s name is not even mentioned in the Megillah. He appears to be ‘hidden away.’ The Talmud claims that the Torah hints at the observance of Purim in a verse found in the book of Deuteronomy. “Where do we find Esther in the Torah?” they ask. When it says, “Haster astir et panay.” Playing on the consonants of the name of Esther, haster, astir, I will hide my face. It seems it is in the book of Esther where God’s face is hidden. In the Megillah, the decree is issued to completely annihilate the Jewish people. All the inhabitants of the 127 provinces of King Ahasuerus are enlisted to attack the Jews and destroy them on a single day, the 13th of Adar. Yet, by the end of the book, we are told, “v’nahfoch hu,” everything is overturned, and the opposite
takes place. On the very day the enemies of the Jews expected to destroy them, the opposite happened, and the Jews were spared from disaster. Our sages explain that, in fact, Purim is simply a foretaste of what is yet to come in the Messianic age, after a complete transformation of Israel’s position in the world, a time when all those who sought to destroy us will seek to join us. A time when the world will recognize the power of the one God. Purim will always be relevant, because it speaks of the hope that ultimately — through the natural processes of the world — the message of the Torah will prevail and transform the world. One cannot imagine two holidays more different than Purim and Yom Kippur, yet the rabbis enjoy playing on the names of these two holidays, finding similarities between the two. In the liturgy, Yom Kippur is referred as ‘Yom Hakipurim,’ literally the day of atonements. No doubt, we hear the word “Purim” in that expression as well, suggesting that Yom
Kippur is a day k’Purim, like Purim. Just as on Purim, righteous Jews dress up in costume, pretending to be wicked; so, on Yom Kippur, Jews who are filled with sins, dress up in their white robes, pretending to be righteous. Purim is an affirmation of that which transcends the rational system of reward and punishment, of holiness and impurity. When all else is lost, when it seems unlikely that there is any hope, we remember Purim and realize that the special relationship we enjoy with the Almighty is an enduring covenant, allowing us to overcome even the deepest levels of sin and return once more to His good graces. May our Purim celebration this year, usher a season of renewal for all as we overturn the habits of complacency and the barriers we have placed between ourselves and the Heaven. Rabbi Ammos Chorny serves at Beth Tikvah.
Real Estate is quite well in Naples! Contact me to list your home TODAY! Chellie Doepke
239.592.9377 Full Service Printer serving Naples since 2003 Graphic Design • Mail Campaigns • Brochures • • Business Cards • Business Identity Packages • • And Much More!
info@naplesenvelope.com
Premiere Plus Realty Co.
239-877-1722
seachell2@hotmail.com • www.sells-naples.com www.facebook.com/chelliedoepkerealtor
Making Real Estate Dreams REALITY
