Dark Paths – A Response to the
Shooting in Aurora, Colorado
Friday Night, July 20, 2012 – Rosh Chodesh Av
5772
Rabbi Michael Z. Cahana
Congregation Beth Israel, Portland,
Oregon
A moment to
honor the victims in Aurora, Colorado – shot down last night in a movie theatre
by a heavily armed 24 year old. 12 dead, 59 wounded and a nation in shock. A
moment to remember their lives as in the words of President Obama:
. . .we may never understand what leads anybody to terrorize
their fellow human beings like this.
Such violence, such evil is senseless.
It’s beyond reason. But while we
will never know fully what causes somebody to take the life of another, we do
know what makes life worth living. The
people we lost in Aurora loved and they were loved. They were mothers and fathers; they were
husbands and wives; sisters and brothers; sons and daughters, friends and
neighbors. They had hopes for the future
and they had dreams that were not yet fulfilled.
And if there’s anything to take away from this tragedy it’s
the reminder that life is very fragile.
Our time here is limited and it is precious. And what matters at the end of the day is not
the small things, it’s not the trivial things, which so often consume us and
our daily lives. Ultimately, it’s how we
choose to treat one another and how we love one another.
Let us take
a moment to reflect.
(SILENCE)
v׶¨vºh h±1Ÿ‘k*g o„3vh2g0x*n0k oˆ3vh2tD7m¨n‘,#t v®#A`n
c`«¯0fÐœ•u
And Moses
wrote their goings forth, stage by stage, by the commandment of the Lord (Num. 33:2)
These are
words of the Torah – as Moses is commanded to record our people’s long, and twisting
journey from slavery to freedom in a Promised Land. It was not an easy path. And
it was not one filled with peace.
In this
week’s portion Moses receives a command from G-d: It is ordained that he would
soon die. But one more thing, one last task before he leaves this world in
peace. Moses is commanded to go to war against the Midianites
Violence
leads to violence. Stage by stage. The War with Midian is fought and won.
Violence continues even as the captured are slaughtered and the spoils divided
among the tribes. But then – in the aftermath of the war, of the violence - a
remarkable thing happens: all captured gold, silver and other goods are
purified – and the soldiers are put outside the camp for 7 days in order to
purify themselves. They wash their clothes, they wait, they reflect for a full
week.
Perhaps this
pause before being integrated into society is for them to learn and us to
remember that violence does not bring glory, does not bring honor. Violence
plunges us into desecration, denigration. Our path twists and even the soldiers
must be purified.
Social
scientists and historians tell us that despite appearances, our world is
actually becoming less violent. Steven Pinsker in his book “The Better Angels
of our Nature” exhaustively demonstrates this. But on days like today, our
world does not seem less violent. It seems corrupt, lawless, senseless. That a
moment of ordinary experience, sitting in a movie theatre, can suddenly turn
into an agony of carnage and destruction seems more than mad. It is evil. We
cannot make sense of the senseless.
But we have
been down this path before. Dark and twisting, we follow the predictable path
until we emerge into light once again. We bury the dead, we memorialize, and
then we go on as if nothing had happened.
We may never
know, as the President this day suggested, what leads a person to act in this
way. But we know the glorification of violence coupled with the easy access to
weapons designed for the military, but with slight modifications flooded into
our communities, makes for a deadly combination.
Dark and twisting
is that path we record: Columbine High School, Virginia Tech College, Westroads
Mall, Tucson, Arizona where Representative Gabrielle Giffords was targeted and
six others murdered – the senseless violence continues. And we do not change.
There can be
no doubt – no doubt – that the easy access to guns in our nation darkly twists
our path stage by stage. The Colorado shooter, dressed head to foot in body
armor, reportedly carried multiple weapons: a 12-gauge shotgun, a Glock handgun
with a second one waiting in his car – and an AR-15 assault rifle. This
semi-automatic weapon is restricted in Canada, Austria, Germany, Sweden, the
United Kingdom, Australia. . . In the United States, there are no federals
restrictions on the ownership of AR-15 rifles. We regulate the sale of drugs.
We regulate the sale of alcohol. But not assault rifles.
o„3vh2g0x*n0k oˆ3vh2tD7m¨n‘,#t v®#A`n c`«¯0fÐœ•u
And Moses
wrote their goings forth, stage by stage
What will be
written about our path? Even as we mourn can we not cry out injustice? Can we
not step away from the madness of guns and violence? Can we not do everything
possible to keep terrorist weapons away from those who dream of glory through
death and destruction? Can we not pause outside the camp, reflect and purify
ourselves? Can we not be changed before we enter back into the camp? What will
it take to declare that our path leads away from the darkness of easy violence?
It is
Shabbat. We will be calm, even as we are outraged. Shabbat peace is a taste of
an ideal world. But today is also the beginning of time of sadness and
reflection. Today is the first day of the month of Av – the month in which we
mourn a time of terrible violence and destruction wrought on the Jewish people:
the destruction of our Temple and the exile of our people. In the Mishnah we
are taught:
– When Av
comes in, gladness must be diminished. (Ta’anit 4:6)
And so,
tonight, as we mourn, we are diminished. Even on this Shabbat we are reduced.
We reflect on our society’s path. What will be written about us? Will we accept
a circle of violence in which we tolerate the unimaginable as a reality in our
midst, or will we rise up and declare that our path is through purity, that we
will not tolerate a society in which easy access to weapons is more valued than
the safety of our children?
This week we
come to the end of the Book of Numbers. It begins with a census and ends with a
war. And as with all books of Torah we conclude by saying chazak chazak
v’nitchazek – let us be strong and strengthen one another. As we mourn, let
us be strengthened. Let us not simply made a census of the dead, but let us be
strong for the battle ahead. A battle to keep our communities safe from
unregulated weapons of destruction. Let us mark our pathway so our story
written will be one of honor and respect for life.
Write these
stories upon your heart. Honor the memory of those struck down senselessly and
in their name declare as do the words of Torah that “all our paths are peace.”
