Straight Outta Sinai

  

A new film has been released.  "Straight Outta Compton" is a story of violence, drugs, struggle to make life meaningful, conflict between friends, fear of the future and questions about the role we all play in our world. The film tells the story of N.W.A., a group from Compton, California that was highly influential in the early days of hip-hop, and included several members that are still famous today, including Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, who also produced the film. Critics and audiences are raving about its portrayal of life in a community with a bad rap of being crime-ridden and drug –infested. Having read about it and not seeing it, I gather that a major element is conflict between African – American males and the Police.

     Six years before the riots in Ferguson, MO, the film was already in development.  In recent years we have seen an epidemic of encounters between Police and young Black men, many of them violent, many of them confusing and all laden with anguish, provoking many terrifying questions. At the top of the list of these questions, compelling for all people is the use of power and control by police, balancing PROTECT with SERVE. Throughout our entire nation, governments, civic groups, Blacks, Whites and other communities are combating inherited mistrust of authority and decades of abuse and fear, while always emphasizing the need to safeguard families, individuals, officers and youths from too many threats. It’s overwhelming!

     This week all synagogues throughout the entire world roll the Torah to the Parsha entitled Shoftim (Judges).  Opening Torah to read God’s word, Jews throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas simultaneously hear the opening phrases “Judges you shall GIVE to yourself…Justice, Justice shall you pursue.” God demands of us justice; justice between each of us and a neighbor-justice so essential to life that each of us must chase after it to bring it into our own communities. God cherishes justice so much that the Creator of the universe views judges as a gift to be given by people to each other. Our gift to the world is the absolute imperative of TZEDEK/Justice. Thousands of years ago Torah was given and it is now ours. If we do not give Torah to the world the original gift risks being  empty of value. Ask yourself as "Straight Outta Compton" garners millions of dollars in revenues if each of us has contributed enough passion to bring Justice to our world.

 Shabbat Shalom,

 Rabbi Steve Silberman