For Jewish people throughout the world, the Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday night and ends at sunset on Saturday night. In these 24 hours, Jewish people traditionally take a break from work, observing, in a variety of ways, a day different than the other six.
Here, in the Santa Ynez Valley, the Jewish Community also observes the Sabbath. Jewish people, with some non-Jewish spouses and friends, gather in each others’ homes on alternate Friday nights to celebrate the Sabbath. Sometimes there is a formal Sabbath service, especially when Rabbi Larry Raphael travels here once a month from San Francisco and leads the Jewish community. But, on other Friday evenings, the community gathers to socialize, eat a pot-luck dinner and enjoy each other’s company. Sometimes there is a theme.
This past Friday night, the theme was Jewish humor. Why are there so many wonderful Jewish comedians (think Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman, Billy Crystal, Adam Sandler)? What makes Jewish people such consummate storytellers? Each of the people present, and there were almost 40, were invited to tell a Jewish joke. The themes were clear: parenting, self-deprecation, sex (or lack there of), trying to please one’s mother or father, and so on. You’ve all heard Jewish comics on late-night television.
It was a Friday evening of hilarity as we sat cozily together in a Santa Ynez living room; laughter rang out as old and new jokes were told.
Then, on Saturday morning of this very same Shabbat, we all woke to the news of the worst massacre of Jewish people in United States history. Eleven people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh were gunned down during prayer. Pillars of the community, Jewish and beyond, were killed by a gunman toting an AR-15 (the same assault rifle used in mass shootings in Parkland, Las Vegas, San Bernardino, Newtown, Orlando and Aurora) while shouting anti-Semitic venom. Other worshipers and several policemen were wounded. In the basement of that same synagogue, a baby was being given its Jewish name. Thankfully, the crazed gunman did not make it to the basement.
It was a low moment for Santa Ynez Valley Jews and Jewish people all over the world. However, the next day, Sunday evening, something miraculous happened.
Members of the Jewish community decided to hold a candlelit vigil in Solvang Park to remember the victims killed and injured. Members of the community let one another know of the vigil. Soon, these members let other friends in the community know. Among the friends notified were religious leaders such as Rev. Randall Day of St. Mark’s Church and Bethania Church’s Pastor Chris Brown.
As dusk came to the park on Mission Drive, people of many faiths gathered. We said the traditional Hebrew prayers for healing and the Kaddish, the prayer to remember the dead. We sang. We recited poetry. We hugged one another.
Two of us read the following poem written by Martin Niemöller in Germany during the holocaust.
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak for me.
After the poem was read, and the service concluded, Pastor Brown spoke up. He said the poem above was written by a Lutheran minister who had been fearful of standing up to the Nazis. Eventually, Niemöller knew that he could remain silent no longer and actively resisted Hitler and wrote the poem. Although Martin Niemöller was eventually imprisoned in a concentration camp for his opposition to Hitler, he left behind this legacy of speaking up for one’s neighbor.
The lesson learned is that Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, gays, lesbians, are all part of the fabric of our community. Only by speaking up for each other, can we protect our own liberty.
The Anti-Defamation League, the national organization that tracks hate crimes and prejudice, noted that acts of anti-Semitism were up in 2017. Violence and anger are causing unbelievable grief in our time.
University of Chicago author Martha Nussbaum wrote, “Anger is a poison to democratic politics, and it is all the worse when fueled by a lurking fear and sense of helplessness.” Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela knew this. Their movements for change were fueled by nonviolence, not hatred.
Sunday night in the park in Solvang, I saw our neighbors, Jewish and otherwise, united in courage, intelligence and love. On that profound evening, I was proud and grateful to live in our beautiful Valley.