It’s sunny in San Diego. It’s always sunny in San Diego. This week, I’m among 5,000 Reform Jewish leaders, clergy and lay, attending the URJ Biennial Convention. This is the place where the best ideas, the latest news, and the newest platforms are shared. Two years ago, in Houston, we welcomed this delegation and shared the excitement of the Reform Movement in North America. Now, Craig Lieberman joins me and leaders of Beth Israel, again, to learn and to experience as much as we can gather and bring home to you.
Apart from the remarkable workshops and programs about ways to serve you at home, there are also important policy statements that reflect the Reform Jewish outlook. On Shabbat, we anticipate a statement from Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ). In his remarks he will address what are the pressing issues that we will face as Reform Jews in America and around the world. He will speak to us on a personal level as we consider our life as Jews who will celebrate the 60th anniversary of Israel in May 2008. No doubt he’ll comment on the prophetic teachings that implore us to deal directly with the case against war and the prospects of more war. Surely, he’ll speak to the spirit of “Tikkun Olam,” the Jewish principle that urges us to be partners with God in the repair of the world. We’ll hear urgent calls to fix the health insurance debacle in our country, the illegal immigration crisis, and the transparency of government and its leaders.
While the URJ’s mission as a movement appears to speak for the liberal agenda alone, it is not necessarily so. The URJ has fairly consistently spoken for the Jewish agenda that was first articulated and written down in the Book of Prophets in the Hebrew Bible. There we hear Isaiah, who preached God’s word against slavery, poverty, hunger, and the care we must extend to the stranger and the widow. There we hear the words of Amos, who taught us that it’s in our nature as a people to respond to God’s call. He said, “A lion has roared, who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?”
Right or left, liberal or conservative were not the concerns of the Hebrew prophets. They were bipartisan. They saw the injustice of the conditions of their time and called on all people to rise to a standard first articulated in God’s message to them. They put down their idols, tore down their altars, and restored their commitment to the covenant that championed the causes of all people and especially those who were the most needy and vulnerable. Compared to our Jewish history, we, in America, have never enjoyed such a prosperous and free experience as we have had in recent decades. Without quotas of the past and absent any real barriers to participation in society, we are enjoying life, liberty and pursuit of happiness in ways our ancestors could only have dreamed about.
The message of the URJ is the most contemporary version of Jewish principles first spoken by the Hebrew prophets more than 2000 years ago. And, if you thought it was easier to hear them then than they are today, you’d be wrong. The Hebrew prophets were unpopular. Their message was not easily adopted by everyone. Today’s Reform leaders are not prophets, nor are they sons of prophets (cf. Amos 7:14), but they, like we, are inheritors of a Jewish call to justice. What else would we do but heed the collective voice of our people who has sought and found justice not only for our own people, but justice for all.
From my desk to yours, Shabbat Shalom.
__________________________________________________
Contact Rabbi Lyon