One of my most precious possessions is a copy of the Talmudic tractate Kiddushin printed in Munich in 1946 on presses once used for Nazi propaganda. A Talmud printed on an erstwhile Nazi printing press is a powerful symbol of our privilege to use our time, our talent and our material resources to help replant vibrant, progressive Jewish learning and living in the places where the Nazis tried to destroy them.

In this volume (page 40B) we find one of the most uplifting of rabbinic teachings whose message is particularly appropriate during the last month of the year, the month of Elul: Each of us should see ourselves as half innocent and half guilty, as though our good deeds and our bad deeds completely balance one another. If we then commit one good deed, we tip the scales in our favor!

What a marvelous metaphor! How wonderful a place would our world become if each of us went through life committed to making our next deed a good one.

My late and beloved Ulpan teacher in Israel, Sarah Rothbard, used to say, “It is not just a gift for Jews that we created a Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and the forty-day period (starting at the beginning of the month of Elul) leading up to it. It is a gift for all humanity.

Assigning a numerical value to each Hebrew letter our Sages deduced that the word, Elul (Aleph, one. Lamed, thirty, Vov, 6 and Lamed, again, thirty) has the same numerical value, sixty-seven as the Hebrew word binah (Bet, two, Yod, ten, Nun, fifty and Hay, five) which means, “understanding.” Elul, then, becomes a special month to seek self-understanding.

We each have talents and abilities, and our goal—particularly during this special month–is to ask ourselves, “What particular talents and abilities do I posses? How can I use them to benefit others?

In the middle of the month of Elul my wife Vickie and I will travel to Germany as we did last year. There we will spend the Days of Awe (the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) and two months thereafter speaking and teaching in synagogues, churches and German schools. I will also offer two seminars at our seminary, the Abraham Geiger College in Berlin.

We go with the hope that we may spread knowledge, understanding and appreciation of Jewish ideals and thought in a place that once tried to extirpate the practices, the wisdom and, indeed, the very gene pool of our people.

 Like my prized Talmud tractate I was born in 1946. I hope our presence in Germany will represent the message that the Munich Talmud conveys. In a place which once was ravaged by hatred and destruction, may we testify to the vitality and relevance of Jewish life and thought.

When I was younger, I dreamed of doing more grandiose things, but I was not given the talent to cure cancer or bring about peace in the world. But I can help Jews and non-Jews understand and appreciate the meaning of the Torah’s lessons and the wisdom of our Jewish heritage. By using these talents productively I hope to tip the balance scales in my favor as I enter the New Year and contribute in a small way to making the world a better place.

My son, Leo Fuchs, is principal of LWL (Learning without Limits) an elementary charter school that he founded in inner city Oakland, CA with the goal of going boys and girls from underprivileged backgrounds a better shot at meaningful and productive lives. I am very proud of him.

His letter below was published in the San Frnacisco Examiner in response to disparaging remarks about Israel that appeared in a recent Examiner Op-ed essay.

I am writing in response to Rachel Ebora’s July 28 Op-Ed. As the parent of Jewish children who attend the SFUSD and the grandchild of three Holocaust survivors some, of whose family members escaped from Germany to Israel, I felt relieved to read Superintendent Carranza’s remark quoted in the Examiner on July 14 that “We are not interested in … providing an environment where any group of people will feel disparaged or unwelcomed.”

I applaud the district’s effort to include instruction in languages spoken by significant proportions

of our city’s population, including Vietnamese and Arabic. I also applaud the intention to carefully avoid putting curriculum and personnel in front of children that would disparage any ethnic group’s culture or homeland.

If what has been reported in the press is true, that AROC leaders have made comments disparaging Israel, and AROC’s Executive Director is unapologetic and lacking understanding of the pain of these words, then surely this is not a group that should be working with the SFUSD’s children.

As this conversation moves forward, I hope that we in the Bay Area can model for our children difficult conversations the way we hope our children will hold them as they grow up and take on the world’s great challenges.

I hope we can model empathetic listening and the seeking of win-win solutions in problems small and large.

Leo Fuchs

In Deuteronomium 15,4 findet sich eines der definitivsten Worte der Bibel: אפס efes – null, keines, bubkas, nada, nicht ein einziges! “Es wird efes Bedürftigen unter euch geben!”

Aber nur einige Sätze später (Deuteronomium 15,11) lesen wir: “Es wird immer Arme im Land geben.”

Wie kann die Tora eine Sache sagen und wenige Sätze später das genaue Gegenteil?

Die Lösung dieses großen Wiederspruches liegt darin, dass unser Bund mit Gott an Bedingungen geknüpft ist.

Der Bund mit Gott stellte immer Bedingungen.

Als unser Volk entstand versprach Gott Abraham und uns Schutz, Kinder, Dauerhaftigkeit als Volk und das Land Israel unter der Bedingung, dass wir ein Segen für andere sind (Genesis 12,2), Gottes Weisungen folgen (Genesis 17,1) und es praktizieren und unsere Kinder lehren, die Welt zu füllen mit “tzedakah u’mishpat, mit Rechtschaffenheit und Recht.

Das sind immer noch die Bedingungen!

“Es wird keine Bedürftigen unter euch geben”, wenn und nur wenn alle im Volk ver- und fürsorgend sind, sensibel für die Bedürfnisse anderer und freigiebig. Aber da das so leicht nicht verwirklicht sein wird, müssen wir, die wir die Verpflichtungen unseres Bundes ernst nehmen, aufmerksam sein und bereit unserer Herz und Hände zu öffnen für die Armen und Bedürftigen.

Es geht zurück zu der überaus wichtigen Frage, die Kain Gott stellt: “Soll ich meines Bruders Hüter sein?” (Genesis 4,9)

Translation: with thanks to Pastor Ursula Sieg

Gott antwortet uns das gleiche, was er Kain antwortete: “Deines Bruders Blut schreit zu mir…” (Genesis 4, 10-11)

Hoffentlich hören und beantworten wir heute diese Klageschreie: Solange wir nicht unserer Brüder und Schwestern Bewahrer werden, wird die gerechte und mitfühlende Gesellschaft, die Gott uns auffordert zu schaffen, nie mehr sein als eine sehnsüchtige Hoffnung.

 In Deuteronomy 15:4 we read one of the most categorical words in the Bible: אפס efes as in zero, none, bubkas, nada, not a single one. “There shall be efes needy among you …”

But just a few sentences later (Deuteronomy 15:11) we read, “The poor shall never cease to be in the land.”

How can the Torah say one thing and seven sentences later say the complete opposite?

The resolution to this “Great Contradiction” lies in the conditional nature of our Covenant with God.

The Covenant has always been conditional.

 When our people began, God promised Abraham and us protection, children, permanence as a people and the and of Israel on condition that we be a blessing to others (Genesis 12:2), follow God’s teachings (Genesis 17:1), and practice and teach our children to fill the world with, “tzedakah u’mishpat, righteousness and justice.”

Those are still the terms!

 “There will be no poor or needy” if and only if all people are giving, caring, sensitive to the needs of others and generous. But since that is not likely to happen, we who take our covenantal obligation seriously must be aware of and ready to open our hearts and our hands to the poor and needy.

It goes back to the essential question Cain Asked God:

Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9)

God’s answer to us is the same as to Cain: “Your brother’s blood cries out to me…” (Genesis 4:10 -11)

Hopefully we hear and respond to those plaintive cries today: Until we become our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper, the just caring and compassionate society that God called us to create will never to be more than a wistful hope.

Mein Verständnis der Tora befiehlt mir, mich von jeder Art Fanatismus zu distanzieren.

Wie alle anständigen Menschen entsetzt mich, wenn Fanatiker sechs unschuldige Menschen bei einer Gay Pride Parade

niederstechen – von denen eine Person inzwischen gestorben ist – oder Brandanschläge auf ein Wohnhaus im palästinischen Dorf Duma verüben und ein unschuldiges Kind töten.

Deshalb müssen wir (nicht können, wir MÜSSEN) Abschnitte der Tora neu interpretieren, wo Gott unsere Ahnen anweist: “Eure Augen sollen kein Mitleid mit ihnen haben!” (Deuteronomium 7,16)

Solch ein Satz ist beschämend. Sie liefern Anti-Semiten Munition, die behaupten, der Gott der Hebräischen Bibel ist ein Gott der Rache und Gewalt.

Wie kommt denn solch ein Satz in die Bibel?

Er lehrt uns, dass wir gegenüber den sozialen und religiösen Praktiken der damaligen heidnischen Welt, zu denen orgastische Riten und schreckliche Menschenopfer gehörten, keine Toleranz haben dürfen.

Und das war nicht einfach durchzusetzen!

Der Tora-Abschnitt erinnert uns, dass, als Mose etwas zu lange auf dem Berg Sinai blieb, die Israeliten von Aaron ein Goldenes Kalb zum Anbeten forderten (Deuteronomium 9,9ff).

Mit Sätze wie diesem versucht die Bibel uns beizubringen, dass wir einen Bund mit Gott haben. Gott fordert von uns, Gerechtigkeit fair auszuüben, Armen, Witwen und Waisen besondere Aufmerksamkeit zu schenken, und Fremden mit Respekt zu begegnen.

Nur, indem wir das tun, verherrlichen wir Gott.

Nur so werden wir das “Licht der Völker” (Jesaja 49,6), das Vorbild für die ganze Welt, das wir nach Gottes Willen sein sollen.

Nein, Gott will nicht, dass irgendjemand ausgelöscht wird, sondern fordert energisch, dass wir uns von dem Verhalten distanzieren, das die Bibel ihnen zuschreibt.

Translation: with thanks to Pastorin Ursula Sieg

 

Op-ed: Taking the Bible Literally Helped Take Shira Banki’s Life

Op-ed: Taking the Bible Literally Helped Take Shira Banki’s Life
The death of an innocent teenager at Jerusalem Pride can be traced back to ‘bibliolatry.’
BY RABBI STEPHEN LEWIS FUCHSAUGUST 05 2015 3:30 AM ET
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No country in Asia comes close to Israel’s affirmation of LGBT rights, and observers commonly regard Tel Aviv as one of he most gay-friendly cities in the world.

The government of Israel affirms LGBT rights, and even the mainstream Orthodox establishment concurs. When the chief rabbi of Jerusalem, Aryeh Stern, went to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital to visit the victims of Yishai Schlissel’s despicable stabbings at the annual Gay Pride parade, he proclaimed, “It is a day to pray for the safety of the wounded.”

His visit was an important gesture and sent an important message. The Orthodox establishment is not the problem.

In fairness too, far from all the ultra-Orthodox population advocate violence against Israel’s LGBT population.

And yet we cannot deny that Yishai Schlissel comes from a fanatical fringe environment that continually calls any sort of LGBT sexual activity an “abomination.”

An apt analogy is Yigal Amir’s 1995 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Most of Israel supported Rabin, but many citizens objected to his peace initiative. Supporters and detractors engaged in vigorous debate, but only the fringe far right called him a rodef, one who threatened Jewish lives and was therefore fair game to be cut down.

That fringe right — well beyond the Orthodox and even much of the ultra-Orthodox spectrum — also influenced Yishai Schlissel. He took cues from the likes of chief rabbi of the Samaria region in the West Bank, Elyakim Levanon, who called homosexuality “an abomination.”

Ah, the old abomination tag?

It comes form Leviticus 18:22, which calls men lying with men an abomination, and 20:13, which says those who do so “shall be put to death.”

As many have pointed out, if we did that, those who gather sticks on the Shabbat or insult their parents are also subject to execution.

The real sin here is “bibliolatry” the sin of taking the Bible literally and not interpreting it to reflect anything beyond the literal rendering of the words.

What gives homosexual acts “privilege of place” over those other “abominations”? Here’s a guess.

Everyone gets that the death for gathering sticks on Shabbat business is to impress the reader with the importance of making Shabbat a special time. The same goes for impressing kids to respect their folks.

As for a man lying with a man, we need a different perspective.

I challenge anyone to carefully read the 39 books of the Hebrew Bible and show me a single clear reference to a homosexual relationship described in warm, loving terms.

David’s relationship with Jonathan might have been that (I Samuel, 19 ff) or it could have been a strong “bromance.” We cannot be sure.

What is sure is that the only clear biblical references to men “lying with men” are to forced acts of homosexual sex as in the context of war or rape situations. The desire of the men of Sodom to force themselves upon Lot’s protected guests (Genesis 19) is a prime example. Of course the Bible condemns such acts.

It is clear to me as well that the “abomination” passages are trumped by one of the most basic principles of Hebrew thought: that human beings are created “in the image of God (Genesis 1:26ff).”

Any serious Bible student should be able to see that if God made people a certain way, and we revere God, than we need to respect the diverse innate realities of others lives as a reflection of the Divine.

The ability to interpret biblical passages as I do here (and the way I do so in my book What’s in It for Me? Finding Ourselves in Biblical Narratives) is not new. In the Talmudic era (c. 200 B.C.E. until c. 550 C.E.) wise sages interpreted scripture in such a way to upgrade the status of women in many important ways and made other vital innovations to bring the emerging Jewish religion from an ancient agrarian society to a much more urban one. Unfortunately, the fringe ultra-Orthodox has failed to evolve in any way since then.

As far as LGBT issues go, society itself has been slow to evolve. The good news is that we are in a period of great awakening and growing awareness.

As late as 1968 when I graduated from Hamilton College, then an all-male school, there was not one classmate who identified himself as gay. By the time of our 25th reunion, a significant number did. As our 50th reunion draws nearer, many more of my classmates acknowledge that they are gay.

With regret and shame, I acknowledge that I too came only recently to genuine concern for this issue, in October 1998.

On October 6, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson brutally beat and tortured Matthew Shepard because he was gay and hung his body on a fence post to die. Their savage act caused me to realize that on this issue I could no longer remain where McKinney and Henderson left Matthew Shepard, on the fence.

Mathew Shepard’s murderers felt free to carry out their heinous act because society reinforced their view of homosexuals as less than human. That horrible incident convinced me that when it comes to the rights of gays, lesbians, and transgender individuals, there are only two possibilities: We will either be part of the problem or part of the solution.

Society’s laws and attitudes have been part of the problem for too long. It is time for all of us to become part of the solution, and we Jews should stand in the forefront of the struggle. That’s what makes the evolution of the Gay Pride March in Jerusalem so important. We have come a long way, but we have a very long way to go.

This week we mourn the tragic death of Shira Banki. I pray that her horrible death will open other eyes the way Matthew Shepard’s opened mine.

RABBI STEPHEN LEWIS FUCHS is the author of What’s in It for Me? Finding Ourselves in Biblical Narratives. He is the former president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth Israel, West Hartford, Conn.

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My understanding of Torah commands me to distance myself from fanaticism of any stripe.

Like all decent human beings, I react with horror when fanatics stab six innocents, one of whom has died, at a Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem or firebomb a home and kill an innocent child in the Palestinian village of Duma.

Therefore we must (not only can we but we MUST) reinterpret passages like those wherein God instructs our ancestors, “Your eye shall have no pity upon them! (Deuteronomy 7:16 ff)”

These passages are an embarrassment. They give ammunition to anti-Semites who claim that the God of the Hebrew Bible is a God of vengeance and violence.

Why then do these passages appear in our Bible?

They teach us to have zero tolerance for the social and religious practices of the ancient pagan world that included orgiastic rites and the horror of human sacrifice.

It was not an easy sell!

The portion reminds us that when was Moses gone a bit too long on Mount Sinai the Israelites demanded Aaron make them a Golden Calf to worship. (Deuteronomy 9:9)

These passages are the Bible’s way to teach that God makes a Covenant with us. God demands that we administer justice fairly, have special regard for the poor, the orphan and the widow, and treat the stranger with dignity and respect.

Only by doing these things do we glorify God.

Only by doing these things do we become “the light of nations (Isaiah 49:6),” the example God wants us to be for all the world.

No, God does not want us to wipe out anyone. But God emphatically demands that we distance ourselves from human sacrifice and other horrible practices the Bible attributes to them.

There are no words to describe the revulsion I feel when I think of the Jewish arsonists whose evil act murdered an 12-month old Palestinian toddler in the Village of Duma. The child’s parents and 4-year old brother are in critical condition. People who do things like this besmirch the name Jew and bring upon the Jewish state the stench of shame and disgrace. I hope that the Israeli police will soon apprehend the perpetrators of this horrible crime against everything for which Jewish values and the State of Israel stand. Once and for all, “May the cry of violence cease to be hear in the land (Isaiah 60:18)!” Make that ANY land ANYWHERE!

You have profaned the Divine Image in which all of us are created. You have brought shame and disgrace upon our people.
You did this ten years ago. You should have been in prison.
Now I pray, the Israeli authorities will put you away for the rest of your life, so that you never have the chance to hurt anyone again.
Your heinous act has made it difficult for us to celebrate this Shabbat as a time of peace and joy. But we will try because we are commanded to choose life and blessing instead of the curse (Deuteronomy 30:19) that you have brought upon our people and all people of good will!