September 17th: Ha’azinu
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Rabbi’s D’var Torah for Rosh Hashanah Morning
Very few of us have been exposed to the judgement of media or social media—especially on a large scale, but those who have often describe the experience as horrible. Everything one has ever said and every moment one has ever lived and every inopportune photograph are suddenly on display and subject to comment, ridicule, outrage, and judgment.
It sort of sounds like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. As we read in our Machzor,
“Are not all things known to You, both the mysteries of eternity and the dark secrets of all that live? You search the inmost chambers of the heart, and probe the deep recesses of the soul. Nothing is concealed from Your sight.” As we know, from many years of reading the prayerbook, God knows everything about us, and God judges us exactingly.
The difference between Rosh Hashanah and social media, of course, is the perspective and quality of the judges.
Those who proffer opinions on media and social media have a variety of agendas—from political to personal to pathological, and their opinions are generally based on limited information. Think of the opinions we all have on the various stories that appear before us—Simone Biles, Brexit, the Eviction Moratorium, Critical Race Theory, the NCAA—and how our limited knowledge does not affect our ability to form these opinions. Then, think of how these opinions change as the stories proliferate and we learn more and hear other opinions. Our thought processes are subject to a thousand different and continuing inputs, and what we think about any given subject is inevitably going to change frequently. Now imagine publishing these furtive thoughts and adding to the cacophony of judgment. It is not a pretty sight.
One of my favorite examples of a changing story revolves around the tragic drug overdose death of actor Heath Ledger. He died, and an enterprising reporter’s research yielded the fact that Mr. Ledger’s address was the same as Mary-Kate Olsen—one of the Olsen twins. Immediately stories arose about a secret relationship and the role Ms. Olsen might have played in the tragedy of Mr. Ledger’s death. This side of the story took on a life of its own until someone figured out that the “same address” was one of those New York apartment buildings with hundreds of apartments and thousands of residents. It was just sloppy journalism—which is a sin in and of itself, but too frequently nefarious motivations spur the stories and conjectures and implications of what is no less than high tech gossip.
Another example came when Breitbart News published a video-clip of an African American official in the US Agriculture Department speaking about an encounter she had with some racists. Some people whom she knew to be racist—and who had actually persecuted her family—came to her for governmental assistance. She spoke about getting revenge and denying their request. Well, you can imagine the furor this created, and the outrage shot right up to the White House: President Obama fired the official immediately. Come to find out, however, after a little more reporting, that the remarks of the African American Agriculture official were taken out of context. In her speech, after confessing her initial evil inclination, she talked about how her religiously based morality made her resist the temptation to persecute them. She overcame her personal and vengeful feelings and did the right thing, treating them with the courtesy they deserved under the law—and that was her duty. The brouhaha continued for a few days, and she was reinstated, redeemed from malicious film-editing and high-tech gossip.
One hopes for a more judicious attitude from God. Indeed, our Tradition makes a point of describing the Lord’s attitude as utterly just and utterly merciful. God is certainly aware of our foibles, failures, and profound imperfections—and God is often disappointed in us. However, God approaches us with understanding, compassion, and love—working with us and begging us to do better. Listen to the words of Ezekiel (18.23) as he describes God’s judicatory orientation:
“This is Your glory: You are slow to anger, ready to forgive. It is not the death of sinners You seek, but that they should turn from their ways and live.”
The Machzor then adds, “Until the last day You wait for them, welcoming them as soon as they turn to You.”
This is the unrelenting message of the Scripture, and it is accentuated in that most classic of Yom Kippur lessons, the Book of Jonah. After getting his little attitude adjustment in the belly of the fish, Jonah invests himself and his prophetic reputation in the certainty of God’s awesome punishment. He is looking forward to a bloodbath. Thus, when the king and people and even animals of Nineveh repent—and God accepts their repentance, Jonah is grief-stricken and disgusted with God: “O Lord! Isn’t this just what I said when I was still in my own country? That is why I fled beforehand to Tarshish. For I know that You are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in kindness, renouncing punishment. Please, Lord, take my life, for I would rather die than live.”
Jonah refuses to extend the same compassion and forgiveness that God gives to him and continues his complaint about God’s compassion and forgiveness. Finally God explains to us what Jonah refuses to see: I care about Nineveh, that great city, and its more than 120,000 people who are still in need of moral education. I even care about the animals! God cares about them as God cares about us.
It may not seem particularly profound to suggest that the God of the Universe is more thorough and judicious than the Twitterverse. What is profound, however, at least to me, is the question of what kind of judging model do I want to follow? Do I follow God’s example, or do I follow the shallow, sanctimonious, arbitrary, anonymous, and far-too-often mean-spirited digital monster known as social media?
Think about it: even those of us who do not immerse ourselves in FaceBook and Twitter and all of the other universes of opinion cannot escape the stories and discussions. Whether the subject is a political leader or a celebrity or just a random citizen who happens to be involved in something unusual, the judgments of strangers come hard and fast. The stories are originally told because they are interesting, but they are often retold in ways designed to seize our attention and provoke feelings of disgust or outrage. Realizing that there are real people at the origins of these salacious tales, perhaps it would be judicious to take a moment and try to see through the shallowness or slanted presentation or meanness of the stories before we join in the judging.
We may not be “influencers” or public personalities with large followings, but our reactions are the basis of the propagation of these stories, and, as anyone who has been the subject or victim of these stories can tell you, this stuff can hurt. It can be humiliating and devastating, and, at a certain level, impossible to deflect or defend. The grammar school adage may say that “words can never hurt you,” but, that is often not the case. When the hearers of gossip join in and add to the criticism and hating, words can hurt very deeply. I believe that we all play roles in the propagation or lack of propagation of gossip: our acquiescence or refusal to participate can make a lot of difference.
It can also be a matter of self-purification. What does it do to our souls when we join in mean-spirited attitudes, judging and hating and piling on? By putting our energy into lashon hara, the evil tongue, we turn ourselves into vessels of maliciousness and hate. Even if we never speak or tweet or post our comments, our spirits and sensibilities are defiled by such ungodly thinking. Let us pray for forgiveness and repentance.
I am not suggesting that people are without imperfections—that there are not people out there who do dishonest or illegal or corrupt things. Is not the message of Rosh Hashanah that we are all guilty of sin? My thought, however, is that we should approach the reports we hear about other people’s behavior the way God approaches the imperfections in our lives. Does a misstep or misdeed render the sinner worthless? Does a case of stupidity or insensitivity or youthful foolishness signal the complete irretrievability of someone being considered for employment or political office? Is an embarrassing detail from the past indicative of a secret and nefarious agenda, or is it something that the candidate regrets and for which he or she has sought repentance? Remember, repentance—teshuvah—is the name of the game.
וּתְשׁוּבָה וּתְפִלָּה וּצְדָקָה מַעֲבִירִין אֶת רֹֽעַ הַגְּזֵרָה
Repentance, prayer, and charity: these return us to God.
My thought is that we should try harder to follow God’s example—seeing both the good and the bad, praising the good, calling out the bad, and working with the sinner to return to godliness.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, חוֹנֵן הַדָּעַת, הָרוֹצֶה בִּתְשׁוּבָה
חַנוּן הַמַּרְבֶּה לִסְלֹֽחַ
We praise You, O Lord, Who graces us with knowledge, Who desires our repentance,
and Who graciously abounds in forgiveness.
May we remember how God thinks of us, and, when we think of others, may we emulate God’s justice and compassion.