People take a knee during a Black Lives Matter rally, as protests continue over the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, June 3, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Jonathan Ernst.
While there will be no quarrel regarding the Biblical admonition to pursue justice, what actually constitutes justice is less clear. There is the sense that if one willfully wrongs another and is held accountable, the accountability should be proportionate to the wrong. In Judaism, a disproportionate punishment is deemed unjust. This is Abrahams argument demanding justice for any righteous inhabitants of Sodom, in the first discussion of justice in the Torah.
Abrahams argument reflects the abhorrence of collective punishment. A righteous man living in Sodom should not be punished for the sins of his community. But the Torah also recognizes a communal responsibility in several places. Deuteronomy describes how when a murdered corpse is found outside a city, the community must undertake the ceremonial sacrifice of the eglah arufa.
And then there is Rashis explanation that the sin of the golden calf, chet haegel, falls upon all future generations and that every misfortune that falls upon the Jews is, in part, retribution for that sin.
How can this be just? We were not there, and we didnt worship any golden calf. And there is the Third Commandment, which states that God takes account of the sin of parents upon their children and their childrens children even though they may be complete innocents. Here the commentators explain this apparent injustice as actually an act of grace. Judgment is withheld so that a future generation may purge the sin and atone for a prior generation.
August 9, 2020 11:05 am
The sense of communal responsibility is hardly limited to the Jews. Jews accept reparations paid by young Germans today who would recoil at the atrocities committed by their parents and grandparents. But the Germans pay reparations out of the sense of communal sin, despite their individual innocence.
In short, there is the concept of communal justice and ongoing responsibility, even when members of the community did not commit the original sin.
The reasons for this communal responsibility become clearer when we consider our circumstances.
We are American citizens. We are born into (or seek out) that citizenship and accept it. The United States has treated the Jewish people better than any country in our history. Since the creation of Israel, we have by choice remained American citizens and accepted the gifts and burdens of that citizenship. So great are those benefits that most of those who move to Israel retain their American citizenship.
Those benefits are the result of a communal heritage developed over 250 years: a democratic government; the Constitution, particularly its Bill of Rights; perhaps, above all, extraordinary religious tolerance; the great causes: the Revolution, the Civil War, World War II. And these concepts are supported by a historical heritage of great leaders. To the extent Jews feel comfortable in America today, it is the result of that historical culture.
With that American citizenship comes the burdens and communal sins the American chet haegel, golden calf.
These sins include what was done to the Native Americans, which led Hitler to taunt Roosevelt when he criticized the German treatment of the Jews (Go speak to an Oglala Sioux). But perhaps the largest communal sin is the sin of African-American enslavement, and the compounding of that sin is before us today.
That sin is as much a sin of Americans today as the chet haegel is to Jews. We believe even a convert to Judaism bears responsibility for that sin. Similarly, the unexpiated sin of slavery is part of the American heritage and a responsibility of that citizenship.
Even Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves and saw the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of soldiers lives in carrying out that liberation, recognized that it was a national sin that God had inflicted on the American people. In his great Second Inaugural Address, he quoted Tehillim on this point:
It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just Gods assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other mens faces, but let us judge not that we be not judged. The Almighty has His own purposes. If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which in the providence of God must needs come but which having continued through His appointed time He now wills to remove and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmans 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
So it is no answer that we Jews the majority of us came to America long after the slaves were freed. We are Americans, and we share in the heritage the good and the bad. We did not worship the golden calf, and perhaps no member of the community murdered the body found outside the city. As part of the ceremony of the eglah arufa, the elders say: Our hands did not spill this blood. Still, they must sacrifice and expiate the communal sin. And so it is for us who may not have committed the sin of slavery, but partake of the heritage.
How often have you heard someone say that their great-grandparents came with nothing and look at what they sacrificed and accomplished a comparison that somehow passes the blame on to African-Americans for their plight today?
The Torah has much to say about this as well. The greatest two events in Jewish history were the redemption from slavery and the revelation at Sinai. Yet the mark of slavery was so great that tradition tells us that God forced the Jews to sojourn in the desert until every member of the slave community who left Egypt was dead. Even though they saw the sea split and heard the word of God at Sinai, they had been slaves and the Promised Land was not to be founded by freed slaves. (See Ibn Ezra on Exodus 14:13.)
The only portion of the Torah that tradition teaches is a Torah commandment to read is the command to remember what the Amelekites did to us when we left Egypt. (See Deut. 28:17.) What did the Amelekites do? They attacked us as we left Egypt, when we were a vulnerable slave people who had just been freed. This is considered the most nefarious thing done to the Jews recorded in the Torah, so heinous that it is reinforced later when King Saul loses his kingship for failing to heed Gods command to kill all the Amalekites.
When our African-American brethren were liberated, they did not have the good fortune to prevail over the Amalekites. Lincoln was killed and there was no Aaron and Hur to hold up Moses arms, and with Gods aid crush the Amalekites. After they were freed even during the heyday of Reconstruction they were attacked, lynched, and to a great extent effectively enslaved again. We know that this remained their condition in the harshest of ways long, long afterward, for generations. They were in a promised land but with no promise.
So we are commanded to remember how the Amalekites pursued us on the road from Egypt, even though every last Amalekite was slain during the reign of King Saul. And what the Amalekites did is considered a transgression against us. Recall that no slave who left Egypt, even after standing at Sinai, was deemed worthy of entering the Promised Land such was the stigma of generations of slavery. And so, there is no dismissing for this or that excuse, that Black lives matter, or that we are excused because our hands did not shed this blood.
Howard Langer is the founder of Langer Grogan & Diver, an antitrust and consumer law firm in Philadelphia. He is adjunct professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and has taught at the Centre for Competition Law and Policy at Oxford and the Law School of the University of Tokyo.
Visit link:
Jewish Responsibility During Black Lives Matter | Jewish ...
- Face facts: Black Lives Matter is all about hate - February 10th, 2021
- What Is The Black Lives Matter Movement? - WorldAtlas - February 10th, 2021
- Who Is Black Lives Matter? - Washington Examiner - February 10th, 2021
- Black Lives Matter May Be the Largest Movement in U.S ... - February 10th, 2021
- The Agenda of Black Lives Matter Is Far Different From the ... - February 10th, 2021
- Black Lives Matter: A primer on what it is and what it ... - February 10th, 2021
- PolitiFact | Is Black Lives Matter a Marxist movement? - February 10th, 2021
- Boulder's Motus Theater to hear about immigration from Black Lives Matter founder - coloradopolitics.com - February 10th, 2021
- These BLM activists are fighting for the civil rights of the next generation - CNN - February 10th, 2021
- Lompoc Black Lives Matter organizers awarded Valley of the Flowers Peace Prize - Lompoc Record - February 10th, 2021
- #BlackLivesMatter: A Silver Lining to the Movement's Aesthetic - Harvard Political Review - February 10th, 2021
- Livingston Kicks Off Black History Month Events with Black Lives Matter Banner Dedication - TAPinto.net - February 10th, 2021
- BLM influencers: 10 Black Lives Matter activists on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter you should follow - USA TODAY - February 4th, 2021
- A man in Illinois pleaded guilty to inciting a violent riot in support of Black Lives Matter - Insider - Insider - February 4th, 2021
- From Black Panthers to Black Lives Matter: The fight for equality continues - KTVU San Francisco - February 4th, 2021
- How Black Lives Matter Came to the Academy - The New Yorker - February 4th, 2021
- Valley of the Flowers Peace Prize awarded to Lompoc Black Lives Matter organizers - Lompoc Record - February 4th, 2021
- Nonprofit barred for supporting Black Lives Matter may be allowed back in Maine jail - Press Herald - February 4th, 2021
- USC looks to preserve the Black Lives Matter Movement through firsthand experiences - WLTX.com - February 4th, 2021
- Bills filed to counter Black Lives Matter protests - The Herald Bulletin - February 4th, 2021
- Breonna Taylor: A beloved sister becomes a symbol of pain, an icon of hope - USA TODAY - February 4th, 2021
- How the Radical Graphic Design of the Black Panthers Influences the Movement for Black Lives - HarpersBAZAAR.com - February 4th, 2021
- Beethoven Meets Black Lives Matter in Heartbeat Opera's Breathing Free - San Francisco Classical Voice - February 4th, 2021
- Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action 2021 - School Library Journal - February 4th, 2021
- A summer of solidarity: Looking back on the Black Lives Matter marches in Japan - The Japan Times - December 22nd, 2020
- Black Lives Matter has brought a global reckoning with history. This is why the Uluru Statement is so crucial - The Conversation AU - December 22nd, 2020
- New WA Black Lives Matter Alliance agenda aims for 'liberation' - KUOW News and Information - December 22nd, 2020
- Black Lives Matter 757 organizing toy drive and distribution - WAVY.com - December 22nd, 2020
- Black Lives Matter Protests Spur Creation of Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice - Rutgers Today - December 22nd, 2020
- Asking the Clergy: Black Lives Matter movement and Kwanzaa - Newsday - December 22nd, 2020
- Black Lives Matter Backlash: The NYPD's War on Protesters Intensifies - The Indypendent - December 22nd, 2020
- Year in Review: How Black Lives Matter Inspired a New Generation of Youth Activists - Rolling Stone - December 17th, 2020
- In 2021, we must show that Black Lives Matter beyond diversity theater - Fast Company - December 17th, 2020
- Why Black Lives Matter: African American thriving for the twenty-first century - Religion News Service - December 17th, 2020
- Black Lives Matter demonstrator's rescue is this year's Most Inspiring Moment - CNN - December 17th, 2020
- Six months after mass protests began, what is the future of BLM? - The Economist - December 17th, 2020
- The City of Portland Fines a Building Owner for Oversized Black Lives Matter Sign - Willamette Week - December 17th, 2020
- Maria Casely-Hayford on Black Lives Matter: It is a cultural wake-up call such as Ive never seen before - British GQ - December 17th, 2020
- Fact check: Story about United Airlines, Black Lives Matter and a toddler is satirical - USA TODAY - December 17th, 2020
- Black Lives Matter and the Color of the Public Square - Religion & Politics - December 17th, 2020
- 2020 Best of the Beat Forsyth County Edition: Black Lives Matter - Triad City Beat - December 17th, 2020
- Organizer of Black Lives Matter mural in Florence requests that the city does not remove it - WBTW - December 17th, 2020
- What's Happened To Charlotte's Black-Owned Businesses In The Wake Of COVID-19 And BLM Movement? - WFAE - September 26th, 2020
- Youth Spotlight Column: Black lives matter in the hearts of Ipswich Students - The Local Ne.ws - September 26th, 2020
- Back the Blue, Black Lives Matter rallies meet on Clinton Street - The Ithaca Voice - September 26th, 2020
- Black Lives Matter's Goal to 'Disrupt' the Nuclear Family Fits a Marxist Aim That Goes Back a Century and a Half | Jon Miltimore - Foundation for... - September 26th, 2020
- Letter to the editor: If you don't agree that Black lives matter, you are racist - Summit Daily News - September 26th, 2020
- The sheriff's race pitting Trump against Black Lives Matter - NBC News - September 26th, 2020
- 4 Things the Liberal Media Wont Tell You About Black ... - September 4th, 2020
- You're Being Duped: Black Lives Matter Founder Admits "We ... - September 4th, 2020
- Here's What Black Lives Matter Leaders' Ultimate Goal Is - September 4th, 2020
- Black Lives Matter Just Entered Its Next Phase - The Atlantic - September 4th, 2020
- Back the Blue and Black Lives Matter protests face off in Danvers - Boston Herald - September 4th, 2020
- Utah police union accuses teachers of 'political indoctrination' by supporting Black Lives Matter movement in class - Salt Lake Tribune - September 4th, 2020
- Mayor one-ups Black Lives Matter rally with his own plans - ABC News - September 4th, 2020
- Webster Groves neighbors mailed anonymous letter asking them to remove Black Lives Matter signs - KMOV.com - September 4th, 2020
- Man arrested after carrying AR-15 near Black Lives Matter protests in Vermont - NBC News - September 4th, 2020
- How to be an ally for Black lives - Medical News Today - September 4th, 2020
- Black Lives Don't Matter to Black Lives Matter, Says Rudy Giuliani - Mother Jones - August 28th, 2020
- 'Black Lives Matter' mural to be painted along Grace Street in Downtown - Richmond Free Press - August 28th, 2020
- NHLs lack of solidarity with Black Lives Matter protests out of touch, say critics - News 1130 - August 28th, 2020
- Yellow Springs Black Lives Matter Protests On Thirteenth Consecutive Week - WYSO - August 28th, 2020
- JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Voting in the Time of COVID & Black Lives Matter (LIVE PANEL AT 2PM) - 10News - August 28th, 2020
- Organizers expecting up to 250 participants in Aug. 29 Black Lives Matter march in Pendleton - East Oregonian - August 28th, 2020
- Elected officials join Black Lives Matter protest on third night since shooting of Jacob Blake - UW Badger Herald - August 28th, 2020
- The BoF Podcast: Stella Jean Asks 'Do Black Lives Matter in Italian Fashion?' | Podcasts | BoF - The Business of Fashion - August 28th, 2020
- McCarthy addresses COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter in live Q&A - The Bakersfield Californian - August 28th, 2020
- Flight attendant suspects his ties to Black Lives Matter led to vandalism of his SUV at DIA - FOX 31 Denver - August 28th, 2020
- Black Lives Matter in Northern Ireland - The Economist - August 28th, 2020
- San Jose in a quandary over what to do with unauthorized Black Lives Matter mural - The Mercury News - August 10th, 2020
- A look at where the Black Lives Matter murals will be placed in KC - KCTV Kansas City - August 10th, 2020
- How this Llama is playing peacemaker amid Black Lives Matter protests in Portland - The Indian Express - August 10th, 2020
- What is intolerance fatigue, and how is it fueling Black Lives Matter protests? - The Conversation US - August 10th, 2020
- How did the Black Lives Matter movement get to where it is today? - News@Northeastern - August 10th, 2020
- TV tonight: dramas from the Black Lives Matter frontlines - The Guardian - August 10th, 2020
- N.Y.P.D. Besieges a Protest Leader as He Broadcasts Live - The New York Times - August 10th, 2020
- High school student forced to take off Black Lives Matter mask at graduation ceremony, family says - CNN - August 10th, 2020
- In the Wake of Protests - The New York Times - August 10th, 2020
- Dozens of police officers gathered outside the home of a BLM ... - August 9th, 2020
- Protesters clash in Minden after sheriff's statement on Black ... - August 9th, 2020