Rabbi Greene asked me to share some memories of mine with you of what the Shofar has meant to me over the years, both in Grand Rapids, where I grew up, and where Barb and I married, and lived for 45 years, and started our dear family, and then came here and our dear Chicago Sinai Congregation, which became our second home, and our two dear Rabbis, Rabbi Greene and Rabbi Bennof.
The Shofar reminds me of eloquent remarks by Elie Wiesel. My hero. Many reflect about this pivotal icon because of his catastrophic experiences in Auschwitz with his dad.
Importantly, we have also become aware of Elie Wiesel’s later lifetime eloquent remarks, reminders to us of a profound lesson from that ill-fated cataclysm, that is, not to stand by when we are aware of tragedies and bad things occurring in front of our eyes. Not to be indifferent to them. Not to be apathetic about them, and thereby suffer unfortunate results due to such indifference.
You might Google Ellie Wiesel, and the YouTube short video of The Perils of Indifference. You will see what I am talking about.
The Shofar blasts conger up in my mind both negative and positive memories of when, in the past, I too failed to address injustices in my life and in society which were occurring in front of my eyes. The Teruruas and Tekeyas have come to my rescue, and then I have somehow figured out how to do what was right, instead of surrendering to my inclination to take the easy route, and instead now to act.
What Wiesel observed in Night, as we so unhappily know, the world stood by, chose not to act, not to rescue us from the Shoah, when the world knew it, darn well could have. One third of world’s Jews then became gone. Wiesel contends convincingly that apathy and indifference of people, in standing by suffering, which you know about, is as irrevocably consequential as the underlying causes are of the suffering in the first place.
Closer to home, and the world around us today, on Rosh Hashana, we face another potential cataclysm in our lives, and our precious Planet, according to the vast majority of environmentalist and economic experts.
The Shofar shouts out at me now not to stand by and let humankind, get destroyed by extreme storms, towering high temperatures, rising each year to record highs, this year 2024 the highest, clean water vanishing from the elimination of our glaciers, with them vanishing into salt waters, huge population upheavals, as seen on our borders due to climate inability to farm in Central America, catastrophic out of control wild fires, record flooding, all of which we all see on T.V., in front of our eyes virtually every day,
Let’s stop fiddling around, so to speak, while our planet, and our lives, burn out of control. And, what do you know, being able to prevent it.
The future of our kids and grandkids depends upon it! We know just what to do to arrest, responsibly, what is happening.
That is good news.
Just pick ourselves up, overcome our human instinct which we all have once in the while, to not work so hard, and now decide to rev up the will, which we also possess, and Act to put an end to use of fossil fuels of gas, oil, and coal, and further put a final cessation of the resulting poisonous carbon dioxide and methane emissions.
And to move irrevocably to renewable resources of solar and wind.
The vast majority of these experts tell us that we can actually profoundly arrest this global warming
Let’s talk. Please contact me on how we all can act and prevent another existential cataclysm to human kind. I have some ideas, which I have developed over the years, with the assistance of some prestigious environmental organizations.
In the past in my l life, when I have stood by instead of having done something corrective in my life, when I could have done something, affecting my friends and my family close to home, and regarding social justice concerns on a broader scale, I have had bad feelings about myself later for having been weak, instead of having been strong, when it counted.
Then there are those times when, I did somehow, overcame my lethargy, surprised myself and, stood up, and pulled off some deeds to correct a problem, and then felt better about myself.
And, you know, when Barb’s and our daughters and granddaughters have seen us positively act like this! OMG! The look in their eyes of love and respect for us have been palpable. Talk about then having some good feelings about yourself. Haven’t you guys also gone through similar experiences with your loved ones?
Let us all put our dignified Shofar and its resonant Teruruas and Tekeyas to work this New Year and have good memories for having picked ourselves up, acted, and, in the process, also honor Ellie Wiesel, and ourselves, and do things for which we will then continue to have good feelings about ourselves, and for the future of the world.