Rabbi's Message

Today, we mourn the killing of two children and the wounding of seventeen others at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis yesterday.  This most recent tragedy of the all too frequent incidents of gun violence in our country, senseless shootings that leave families bereft and communities broken, hit home for me.  First, because, again, this shooting happened at a religious institution while people were at prayer.  And second, because this church is located not far from the former synagogue site where I celebrated my Bar Mitzvah.  I’d like to say that maybe this tragedy will finally awaken the will of our leaders to tackle this problem in comprehensive and meaningful ways.  But sadly, I have little confidence that anything substantive will be done.

Nevertheless, this lack of confidence doesn’t absolve us from the responsibility that our society bears for this act of violence.  It reminds me of the story that comes at the end of our Torah portion this Shabbat, Shoftim.  It poses the challenge of an unsolved murder.  A body is found in an open field. What should be done?  The Torah describes an elaborate ritual that brings together the leaders of the closest town, a triumvirate of elders, magistrates, and priests, to perform a ritual to publicly condemn the murder and to absolve the members of the town of its guilt.  In the midst of this ceremony, the elders of the city declare, “Our hands did not spill this blood, nor did our eyes see.” The Mishnah wonders why the elders have to make this declaration, surely no one suspects the elders of actually committing this crime.  It explains that what the elders really mean by this declaration is that “he did not come to us for food and we dismissed him, nor did we see him leave and let him leave alone.”  In other words, they are even saying that if we would have had a chance to help this person, we would have.  But who is this person, the “he,” in this explanation?  Sefi Kraut, from the Pardes Institutes, points out that there are actually two different understandings as to who the “he” is.  According to one opinion, the “he” is the victim.  If the elders had seen the victim in the town, they would have helped him, and perhaps prevented his murder.  Another explanation reads it differently.  It says that the “he” is the murderer.  In this reading, the elders are saying that they had no prior knowledge or evidence that there might have been a murderer in their midst.  These two interpretations get at the different layers of working to prevent a terrible crime from occurring.  Whether in the time of the bible or today, a society and its leaders cannot be negligent.  We have a responsibility to do our best to care for people’s needs and to do all that we can to stop acts of violence before they happen.  As the case of the unsolved murder shows, it is impossible to prevent all bad things from happening; still, that does not absolve us of the responsibility of doing our best to try.  Yesterday’s violence shows us once again that we are not doing our best, and that we certainly can try harder to prevent terrible acts of gun violence like this from happening.  We send our strength and comfort to the community of the Annunciation Catholic School, and may the victims’ memories always be for a blessing.

Shabbat Shalom