This week our community gathered to recognize the third anniversary of the horrors of October 7, 2023. My opening words of welcome to the gathering were a confession: “I am Jewish, and I am an unapologetic Zionist!”
Before I could formally welcome and thank everyone in attendance, our local rabbis, professional colleagues, distinguished guests, community members, and our non-Jewish friends and neighbors, it was essential that I contextualized the words that would follow my confession.
...
In this week’s Torah portion, our opening parshah of the year, Bereisheet, Gd asks Adam in Genesis 3:9, Ayekah (“Where are you?”). Like our great sages who scrutinized this question, are we to seriously believe that the Gd who only a few verses prior completed our world’s creation, forming the heavens and the earth and all living things from the great sea monsters to the tiniest of insects, does not know where Adam is? Of course not. So, what is Gd asking Adam in this question? Ayekah? Where are you?
For context, this scene immediately follows the infamous consumption by Eve and Adam of the forbidden fruit, consequently opening their eyes and providing them with an awareness they did not previously have (3:7).
In a time when social hate and rage are at their highest levels in recent history, where are we? In a world that is literally burning, where citizens are setting the streets and city centers on fire, where are we? And as a Jew, when anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are at painfully high rates of occurrence unseen at least during my lifetime, where are we?
Gd’s question of Adam was not in reference to his location, rather, it was about his frame of mind, “Where are you? [Now that your sight is no longer being shielded by innocence; now that you are aware of your surroundings.]”
October 7 was the Jewish community’s modern-day consumption of the forbidden fruit. We wanted to remain innocent, unaware, naïve to our unique relationship to our Homeland, but the world forced us to take a bite out of the forbidden fruit, just as the snake coerced Eve… and now that we know, what will we do?
Fortunately for our community, our Jewish Federation board of directors has been asking, “What are we doing to ensure a flourishing Jewish community in Greater Naples?” In fact, this week members of our JFGN board began their journey of board development as a member community of Leading Edge’s Board Accelerator initiative. The goal of this learning journey, to become a more effective board as part of our strategic planning process. That’s where our JFGN board is.
But the flames of Jew-hate cannot be quenched by agency boards alone, we need every person’s help possible… because we are Stronger Together. So, now that you know, how would you answer Gd’s, Ayekah?
Shabbat Shalom,
|
|