Cheerleaders have a tough job. Whether the team is winning or losing they are expected to be cheerful, and they are to be consistently energetic while the energy within the audience waxes and wanes or while some stretch their legs and others intently focus on food, the big screen or the myriad distractions at a big game. The question remains - how to motivate a community of many diverse perspectives to speak with one voice?
These days we in America are sharply divided. Turn on the TV and the voices, (politicians , political analysts, community leaders, consumer advocates, corporate owners, minimum wage earners and neighbors on our streets) are seemingly ever more divided. More important than trying to come to a consensus is the felt need to shout louder than the other person, group or party. While we are speaking loudly these past years about ending bullying in schools, bullying is becoming ever more common in the adult world which exists beyond our K-12 schools. While we speak of the importance of preserving life and many shout slogans in support of closing abortion clinics, fewer shout of the need to increase funding of health and education programs for at-risk populations, both here and overseas. While we speak of the importance of improved health care we do not take the necessary time to study the health needs of 320 million Americans. While we work to be a nation which cares equally for people of different racial backgrounds, the chasm between Black and White yawns ever ever more widely. We are all descendants of immigrants and we forget what we or our ancestors experienced as many shout “Close the doors” without suggesting proposals as to how the door could be more secure and remain partially ajar. Our voices are scattered.
Is there not one guiding principle to which we can all agree? I have a short list of possible suggestions. 1)Listen to someone and allow that person to finish speaking without interruption. 2)When disagreeing, disagree with the approach or the perspective or the interpretation of evidence-do not disagree with the individual. 3) Name-calling does not help. 4) In your mind’s eye see yourself as living in some other place ( a different apartment or home) and perhaps you will view the situation being discussed differently.
This week’s Torah reading, Parshat Emor, is a challenge to moderns. It addresses the Cohen and stipulates many protocols for maintaining purity. Many Cohanim lived throughout ancient Israel; some were old, some young, some married, some single, perhaps some were Conservative and some were Liberal. They probably did not agree with each other on every issue of daily life. But there was one element to which they could all agree- the need to be pure. And it was this need for purity which effected them and influenced their community. Perhaps we could all identify one common principle which we could articulate, one voice which we could all share, thus beginning to nullify the discord found in so many parts of our beloved land.
Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Steve Silberman
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