אַתֶּ֨ם נִצָּבִ֤ים הַיּוֹם֙ כֻּלְּכֶ֔ם לִפְנֵ֖י יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֑ם רָאשֵׁיכֶ֣ם שִׁבְטֵיכֶ֗ם זִקְנֵיכֶם֙ וְשֹׁ֣טְרֵיכֶ֔ם כֹּ֖ל אִ֥ישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
You stand this day, all of you, before God, your tribal heads, your elders and your officials...
This verse is not meant to be read, it’s meant to be heard. Imagine what it felt like to be an Israelite hearing Moses say this to you. 400 years ago your family was enslaved in Egypt, but now, there you are, on the cusp of entering the promised land. Moses, now a great orator, reminds you that you stand with all the other tribes of Israel. And the other tribes of Israel are reminded that they stand with you.
This morning, each of us stands Before God. None of us are tribal heads, per se, and most of us likely do not know which of the 12 tribes we belong to, but thus doesn’t make the Torah’s verse any less powerful. Because in the first few words of this first short verse, we learn what it means to be holy.
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Each of us belong to many tribes. Most people in this room are Jewish, and all have a serious connection to Judaism. There’s also the tribe of gender, political orientation, sexual preference, and racial identity. If you are on Facebook, think about the groups that you belong to. These are also tribes. And if you want to see tribalism in full force, go to Sanford Stadium during a football game, or a movie theater during the opening of the next Star Wars movie (December 20).
Many of you know this joke: A woman is found after living by herself on a deserted island for several years. The rescuers see that she has built two different structures. They point to one and ask, What is this? She says, Oh, that’s my synagogue. That’s where I pray and connect to Judaism and to God. They point to the structure just across the way and ask, Ok, then what’s this? She responds: That’s the synagogue I won’t step foot in. When we belong to one group, it often implies that we are not a part of others. I am Jew. This means that I’m not Christian or Muslim or any number of other identities.
In order to say hineni with integrity, it's important to identify where you belong, and also where you do not belong.
Our belonging, to CCI, to Judaism, to America, and our identification with dozens if not hundreds of other tribes help us figure out who we are. They provide belief systems and structure, culture and tradition, and ultimately, community.
But there is another side to this, and it’s why Moses told each person to stand with all of the other tribes. Tribalism gives way to groupings, which gives way to the identity pronouns of us ... and them. This is possibly the greatest cause for stereotype, prejudice, hatred, violence, and in extreme cases, genocide.
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In 1966, Botswana won its independence from Britain. There was one major challenge ahead, however: Botswana had seen Mali, Indonesia and the Congo gain their independence, and in each case, tribal warfare and chaos ensued. Leaders of Botswana were justifiably nervous.
At the time, Botswana was home to over 20 tribes, each of which had their own language and religion. Leaders knew that if it did not take radical action, an independent Botswana would suffer the same fate as those African countries.
They decided to break up these strong tribal identities. And it was indeed extreme. The government forced civil servants, most notably teachers and doctors, to move all over the country in order that different tribes would live amongst one another, a policy that is still active today. This remains wildly unpopular, as the policy is hugely intrusive into people’s personal lives, but that’s precisely the point. It disrupts relationships, stability and the comforts of routine to take people out of their tribe, literally. Current officials acknowledge the hardships of this policy, as some citizens have to make a new life for themselves every few years as they move to a different region of the country.
But they also stand by it: They say that this policy helped create a unified nation from what was disparate tribal stands. And interestingly, Botswana is a country that has never seen war, and one of Africa’s best working democracies.
But I think that this transfer program achieved a Pyrrhic victory at best. Because whereas it may have succeeded in creating a unified nationalism, it also served to dissolve individual strands of culture - and language - and history - and identity.
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You stand this day, all of you, before God, your tribal heads, your elders and your officials...
I often comment on the beauty of the specificity of Judaism, its rituals and theologies, customs and traditions. This is our tribe, and I do not want to remove or weaken our particular identity. As a matter of fact, we are all here to do the opposite!
We are distinctly Jewish, and we should not diminish from that fact. The Israelites were not told to get rid of their unique and different identities. They were told that they ... that we ...must stand together with everyone else.
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Our city of Athens is home to the tree that owns itself, but in a forest in New Zealand, there is a greater curiosity. There is a tree stump that has no leaves, no stems, and no greenery that is somehow still alive. It’s alive because the kauri trees that surround it rerouted its system of roots so that they could be hydraulically coupled with the stump, keeping it alive.
Atem Nitzavim - we have to learn that our identity is stronger when we reach out to others. This is one reason that I find interfaith dialogue so important. I don’t get together with Christians and Muslims and Hindis and Quakers and Unitarians and Baptists and others so that we can express the similarity that we are all children of God. I get together with them to express our beautiful differences, the particular and specific things that make each of us part of that one tribe.
In our modern society, it’s far too easy to seclude ourselves from other tribes. Many of us live in neighborhoods of people that look like us. We surround ourselves with friends that share many of our beliefs. We come to a temple where we agree on almost .... oh, never mind...
Moses told us to stand with other tribes.
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On this day of At-one-ment, we have to learn to stand with others, even those that might not be in our tribe.
This is the message of Greta Thunberg, a modern-day prophet. She is a climate activist jolting all of us into realizing that God needs all of God’s tribes to stand together and take actions of care and repair. I like imagining that her words are scribbled somewhere in the margins of the Torah commentary on Nitzavim. Moses’ words thousands of years ago and Greta’s recent words are perfect bookends. I hope that we can stand together between both. These are a few quotes from Greta:
- The eyes of all future children are upon you.
- The moment we decide to fulfill something, we can do anything.
- I often talk to people who say, ‘No, we have to be hopeful and to inspire each other, and we can’t tell people too many negative things’ . . . But, no — we have to tell it like it is. Because if there are no positive things to tell, then what should we do, should we spread false hope? We can’t do that, we have to tell the truth.
- Humanity is now standing at a crossroads.
- Sometimes we just simply have to find a way.
All of our prophets have one thing in common. They challenge their tribe to expand the worldview of the tribe. They aren't interested in us and them. Prophets are only interested in we.
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Later in Nitzavim, Moses gives this powerful oration: I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Chose life - that you may live.
On this sacred day, we must choose life, not just for you or me or our tribes, but for everyone. We must help all of the other tribes and cultures and countries choose life. The world needs our help. God needs our help.
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Each of us is like that kauri tree stump, being kept alive by the the resources of its neighbors. And each of us are the strong trees that have water to spare. We are both. And we are Jews. This is our tribe. This is our Torah. And this is our message - to stand with others, to partner with one another on the healing of God’s creation. Humanity is indeed standing at a crossroads. I pray that we choose life.
