THE REAL HEROES: (Yom Kippur
Day)
Years ago, my family and I went to
visit a place which, to me, symbolizes the greatness of Israel and its people.
The bullet factory, located in Rechovot not far from Tel Aviv, was where the
Haganah secretly produced all the bullets needed to fight the English during
the British Mandate and the Arabs in the 1948 War of Independence.
What’s
unbelievable about the Bullet factory is that for all the years it was in
operation, it was kept a secret from the British who controlled Palestine at the
time. The entire factory is underground, below a functioning kibbutz which was
being watched and patrolled by the British who made it illegal for Jews to
create munitions. And so the Haganah commissioned a small group of volunteers, consisting of both men and women, who would appear to be Kibbutznicks working in the fields above. While ostensibly, they were simple commune workers, they would descend into this hidden factory below and work in rotations with huge bullet manufacturing machines to produce tens of thousands of bullets
each day.
They took us into the laundry room for the kibbutz and our tour
guide moved this huge washing machine which covered this large hole in the
ground. We then climbed down a ladder about 25 feet into the ground to get to this surreptitious factory. They showed us the tanning machine the volunteers in
the factory would use, because after spending so much time down below, their skin
grew pale. In the interest of maintaining appearances, that is to say, appearing as Kibbutzniks working the fields, they would tan
themselves below. They thought of every contingency, and ultimately produced
40,000 bullets a day, bullets being the only munitions that the Haganah didn't run out of
during the war to create the Jewish State.
I was quite impressed, but the one thing
I just couldn’t wrap my mind around was how they somehow got these huge and sophisticated
bullet making machines in the first place. They couldn’t have manufactured
them in Palestine, and they certainly could not have gotten them from their Arab
neighbors. I asked our tour guide and he said that there was a group of Polish
Jews who purchased these machines in 1938 and spent the next 4 years between
the years of 1942-1946 smuggling in all the machine parts from Poland.
Who were these people capable of successfully pulling this off? While Jews were being put into ghettos, these people were somehow able to
smuggle machine parts through Nazi occupied Europe, into the Middle East, past
British security? Were they some kind of spies? 007? War heroes? Who were they?
Well, the answer is a lot less glamorous than any of those. They were simple Polish Jews. They
weren’t spies, they weren’t soldiers. They were ordinary men and women who did
something extraordinary. They were true heroes precisely because they were regular
people who did what needed to be done when it was most necessary.
There was a fascinating article in the Science section of the New York Times entitled: “Free
Will, Now You Have It, Now You Don’t." The article dealt with the ongoing
debate within the world of science and philosophy as to whether there truly
exists free will; whether we as human beings can truly transcend the deterministic and
causal world in which we live--to break out of what, many times, feels like
controlling elements from our own socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds--and
act in a completely independent way.
While many people treat it as such, this is NOT just an academic issue. It's not just a quandary for dusty philosophers, it's a real one for us today on Yom Kippur, as we make our resolutions for the
New Year. Should we even try to live in a way that is different from our
cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds? If your whole family consists of
accomplished professionals; your Mom is a lawyer, your Dad is a doctor, your
brother and sister are Wall Street analysts (that’s a fun family) and your
grandparents and all your cousins and friends are the same, do you have free
will to become a photographer or an artist of some sort?
Do we really have the power and
ability to make autonomous decisions that are not in line with our backgrounds? The
general consensus these days is that, essentially, we are
products of our environment and genetics and therefore cannot be expected to
live in a manner that goes beyond the community, culture and environment in
which we are raised. Except when it comes to making money. Hence, the American
mentality of “rags to riches” is very much felt, but ostensibly exclusively within the financial arena. When it comes to virtually everything else,
the world teaches us that the decisions we make are ultimately determined by
our socioeconomic and family background, and by the natural tendencies and dispositions we
possess from birth. As a result, simple people from ordinary places cannot be
expected to live extraordinary lives, and individuals not raised with religion
may not even think about becoming more religious, because that’s just not the
kind of family or background they have. The Torah vehemently disagrees with
this and strongly believes that each of us is capable of things way beyond what
our backgrounds and natural dispositions would dictate.
Over 800 years ago, the great Jewish
philosopher Maimonides wrote about Judaism’s strong belief in Free Will. He
wrote that what distinguishes human beings from the animal kingdom is our
ability to rise above instinct, make independent choices and to exert our own
free will over the decisions we make in our lives. Maimonides went as far as to
say: "kol adam rauy lo lehiyot t’zadik kemoshe rabbeinu" - any person can be as great as Moses our teacher, "o rasha
keyeravam" -or as evil as Yeravem, who was an evil tyrant in the
times of the prophets.
If we don’t believe we can rise
above our circumstances and natural dispositions, then why, asks the Rambam, did
God send prophets in Biblical times to speak to the people to attempt to improve their ways? If everything was determined and we have no free will, then improving our behavior is an impossible task. In fact, what purpose would
there be for the whole giving of the Torah? Ultimately, the Torah is an agent
for change, a catalyst for us to improve and refine ourselves. If each of us is hard wired to
behave in a certain prearranged way, if or our backgrounds and dispositions dictate
everything, then self-improvement is impossible and the whole Torah becomes
meaningless!
God gave us a Torah because He
believes we are capable of evolving, of becoming different and
better. God gave us His Torah because He believes in our capacity to grow. The
question is do we believe in ourselves and in our ability to
accomplish great things, or do we sell ourselves short because of where we come
from or who we think we are? If we sell ourselves short, then why are we here on Yom Kippur? Why beat
ourselves up for not doing everything we should have in the past year and why strive to be
better in the coming year? We come on Yom Kippur because we sense
that notwithstanding our backgrounds and dispositions, we are capable
of more and we can do better. We just have to believe in
ourselves.
An elementary school teacher in Israel told a story at a conference. She said, “I work as a resource room teacher with
children who have learning disabilities. A few years ago a young boy began
taking lessons in my resource room. I couldn't figure out what had brought him
to seek my help; he clearly had no difficulty with his lessons, and he did well on
all his tests. Yet, time after time he consistently came to my resource room
for his lessons. I was determined to find his area of weakness but, as hard as
I tried, I could not find any type of learning disability or difficulty.
"Finally, out of frustration, I took him aside and told him I could
not continue giving him lessons. It was a waste of his time and his parents’
hard earned money and he clearly did not need any sort of remedial help. The boy turned to me and said, 'I will tell you why I am here but
I'm asking you not to tell anyone else. I have a friend with a learning
disability. Our teacher told him that he needed remedial classes in the
resource room. He was so embarrassed to be singled out as having to go to your
classes. I told him that it was no big deal and that I also take remedial
classes. That is why I come to you- so that my friend will not be embarrassed.'"
Heroes are regular people who do
amazing things. Whether it’s making bullets for the Haganah or just being
sensitive to a friend, these are all acts of heroism. It's just that some are a little quieter
than others. Being more careful of what we say
about others in a world that loves to gossip can be heroic because it might require great restraint. But maybe not for some people, which is why heroism varies from person to
person.
For some, dating only Jewish people is a heroic act. I'll never
forget sitting in Logan airport waiting for my flight back to NY from a
rabbinic conference in Boston when a guy dressed in a full pilot uniform
comes running over to me saying, “Rabbi Wildes, what are you doing here?" I looked beyond his hat and replied, “David, is that you?" “Rabbi, you know I fly for
American Airlines. Gotta go fly your plane but I just want you to know that
because of my involvement with MJE I only date Jewish girls now.’ For David, that was heroic. For someone else, dressing more modestly in a world where “if
you’ve got it, flaunt it” is an all-too-prevalent maxim is an expression of heroism.
When making our New Year's resolutions, let’s not limit ourselves by what we were not given
as children, but rather use the blessings each of us was given, by our parents and our families, to grow even further. To pray with greater
conviction, to study even more about our heritage and traditions, to excel as
much as possible in all parts of our lives (be it in our professions or in our
most intimate relationships). And let's do all this because we believe that we,
ordinary people, can do extraordinary things.
Shana Tova.
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