Clergy Blog

Shabbat Shalom,

This coming Sunday, a new Ken Burns documentary entitled “The American Revolution” will premiere on PBS. Burns is known for his long-form documentaries covering foundational American moments like Vietnam and the Civil War. His upcoming series on the Revolution has been anticipated for some time. 

One of the hallmarks of being within Jewish life is to look back into text and time - applying the wisdom of yesterday to the issues of today. The entire enterprise of our textual tradition boils down to one word: timelessness. How is it that rabbis like me or b’nai mitzvah students every week are able to encounter a text as old as time, mine it for meaning, and actually come up with something relevant, interesting, and topical? If you think about it, it’s an amazing testament to our capacity as a people to do two things simultaneously: maintain our tradition and mold it to modernity. 

This process, however, is not unique within Judaism. As Americans, we do the same thing - take the ideals of the country that we helped found, interrogate them, strengthen, and mold them to create, as our founders envisaged, a more perfect union. Jewish life in the revolutionary period had a small footprint. About 100 Jews fought in the revolutionary war, though our presence was still present. In the Philadelphia parade on July 4th of 1788, marking the ratification of the constitution, a rabbi, Jacob Raphael Cohen walked arm-in-arm with his fellow Christian clergymen to mark this momentous American occasion. That was no small deal back in 1788. 

With Veteran’s Day just behind us, I encourage you the next time you’re in the building to step into the clergy wing to see the plaques commemorating the hundreds of B’nai Abraham members who served in World War 2, embodying the values of the revolution and the deepest Jewish values of service, commitment to peoplehood, and tikkun olam, the betterment of the world. 

Shabbat Shalom,
Max