Rabbi's Message

Twenty-four years ago today, I was studying in a beit midrash in Manhattan.  Thankfully, we were in Morningside Heights, far away from the towers, on September 11, 2001.  Still, I will never forget the shock, confusion, and panic on that day, as well as the smell of destruction, posters of the missing, and the shiva I attended for a friend’s father in the days after.  It was a terrible day where we were caught off guard by that violent act of terrorism.  

While 9/11 remains unique in its scale and impact, today we confront the reality of another violent act.  Charlie Kirk’s tragic murder yesterday was the latest in a series of instances of political violence that have left all of us on edge.  The pervasive violence in our society, which includes another school shooting in Colorado yesterday, is something that ought to alarm all of us.  This violence has no one simple cause or solution; rather, it is the result of a society that has forgotten that words have consequences, that violence brings more violence, and that a mental health crisis in a culture of outrage and all-too-easy access to guns is a bad combination.  At its core, however, it is a problem of values.  Our parashah this week, Ki Tavo, subtly points out what happens when our priorities are out of whack.  Ki Tavo contains a series of blessings and curses that are almost mirror images of each other.  For example, it begins “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.”  A few verses later, the curses begin with, “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.”  The lists continue as opposites, except for one subtle difference.

The order is changed for two of these consequences.  In the blessings section, we read first a blessing for family and home, and then we read a blessing for prosperity.  But in the curses section, we read first the blessing for prosperity, and then the blessing for family and home.  Rabbi David Weiss Halivni, who happened to be Rachel’s teacher at Columbia back in those days after 9/11, saw a lesson in this.  He taught that if we make prosperity, which I will define as a selfish desire to put our own views and needs above everything and everyone else, our highest priority, then life can be cursed.  However, if we make family and home, which is the most basic building block of a society, our highest priority, then life can be blessed.  

On this anniversary of 9/11, as we confront the latest casualty of the epidemic of violence in our society, we must realize that we will never break free from this cycle by only lowering flags and holding moments of silence.  Rather, it will only be broken when we actively choose to value human life in our words and our deeds.