Dark Paths – A Response to the Shooting in Aurora, Colorado

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.”