An Incredible News Story
Shabbat Hagadol, 5765
Rabbi Jack Riemer
I have an announcement to make. If you know anything at all about Jewish history,
then hear me well, for this is an incredible announcement.
There was an amazing story that appeared in the papers yesterday. It is a two
part story, and I am not sure which part is the most amazing.
The first part of the story came from the Italian news agency, Ansa. It said
that Pope Benedictus XVI invited the chief rabbi of Rome , Rabbi Riccardo di
Segni, to be his guest
at his official installation as the new pope, which will take place tomorrow.
Let me stop there for a moment, and say that again: Pope Benedictus XVI invited
the Chief Rabbi of Rome to be his guest at his official installation as the
new pope.
Let me ask you: what would your grandparents and mine have said if they heard
that the Pope, the leader of more than a billion Catholics, had issued a formal
invitation to the chief rabbi of Rome to be a guest of honor at his coronation?
I think that they would have been stunned. For in their lifetimes, such a thing
would have been inconceivable. Do I have to tell you for how many centuries
and in how many ways the Catholic Church demonized and persecuted and mistreated
the Jews? Do I have to tell you about the blood libels and about the number
of times when mobs, fired up by the sermons that they heard on Easter Sunday,
broke into Jewish homes and pillaged? Do I have to tell you that, according
to the Taz, it is advisable to drink white wine instead of red wine at the
seder because of the blood libel? And we have lived to see the day when a pope
invites the chief rabbi of Rome to be his guest at his coronation? Surely our
ancestors would have recited the Shehechiyanu at such a momentous event in
our history.
This is not a moment to be taken for granted. History was made today.
Let no Jew grumble and let no Jew complain that this pope comes from Germany
or that, in his childhood, he was part of a Nazi youth group. Bite your tongue,
and do not repeat such calumnies For you should know that this pope was instrumental
in writing the declaration on the relationship of the church to the Jewish
people that was issued by the Vatican . And you should know that this pope
came out of his childhood with an understanding of what Nazism is and that
he has opposed it ever since. And you should know that no one has the right
to label him or condemn him without knowledge. This is a pope who, on the first
day of his pontificate, in his first statement to the college of cardinals,
announced that he wants to have dialogue with other faiths. And this is a pope
who has invited the chief rabbi of Rome to be his guest at his coronation.
And therefore, let us all wish him well and let us pray that he will be able
to continue in the footsteps of his predecessor.
And now, the second part of the story, one which I think is as just astonishing
as the first part. Do you know what the Chief Rabbi of Rome did when he got
the invitation to attend the coronation of the new Pope? The Chief Rabbi of
Rome responded to the invitation from the Pope and said, respectfully, but
clearly: thank you, but no thank you. He wished the Pope very, very well and
said that he and his people would be praying for him on this day. And he thanked
him for the invitation. But he explained that this Sunday, the day of the installation
of the Pope, is the first day of Pesach, and therefore he will be with his
people at services and so he regrets that he cannot attend.
What would our ancestors have said to that? There was a time when, if a pope
or a cardinal or a bishop or a priest invited Jews, they came-whether they
wanted to or not. They came out of fear. But now, this rabbi feels free enough
that he can turn down the invitation. For him, Pesach has priority over the
pope's installation. And by demonstrating that, he is teaching us what it means
to be a free man.
What's the message in this story for us?
I think that there are two.
One is that we should welcome the coronation of this new Pope with high hopes,
with an open mind, and with an open heart. Let us wish him well and let us
pray that he succeeds. And let us not prejudge him or condemn him before he
even begins, as I hear some Jews doing. It is not right to prejudge him, and
surely we Jews, who have been misjudged so cruelly so often, should not do
so.
And the other lesson is: let us have self respect, for if we don't, then no
one else will respect us either. For a Jew not to be at the seder tonight or
for a Jew not to be at the synagogue tomorrow, on the festival of freedom,
is to be oblivious to history or contemptuous of history. And a Jew with amnesia,
a Jew without a memory has no purpose in the world.
For a Jew to be at the synagogue tomorrow is to declare by his presence that
he is part of a noble people, more than three thousand years old, a people
who gave the world the idea of human freedom. Without the Exodus, there would
have been no English Revolution, and no American revolution, Read Oliver Cromwell
or read John Adams and you can see that. And so by celebrating the holiday
of freedom, by eating the same unleavened bread that our ancestors ate when
they became free, by tasting the bitter herbs that teach us that the price
of freedom is eternal vigilance, the Jew sends a message to the world that
freedom is the will of God.
And if we don't come? If the Chief Rabbi of Rome could say no to the Pope because
he has a prior engagement, a prior commitment, namely-Pesach, then where on
earth can we possibly go this Sunday that is more important than being at services?
If we have to be at our jobs, then we are truly slaves. And if we have to be
at the golf course or some such place, then where are our priorities, and where
are our commitments? And who are we? Who are we ultimately if anything takes
priority over being what God and history have made us-namely Jews.
I don't usually preach to those who are here about the importance of coming
to services. It is like preaching to the converted and so I usually refrain
from asking you to come. But this year is different. This year the Chief Rabbi
of Rome has taught us a lesson in priorities. And we should learn from him.
And therefore, I ask you to do two things:
First, promise me that you will be here for services on the first day of Pesach.
Will you do that, please?
And second, promise me that you will tell your friends the news of what happened
in Rome yesterday. Promise me that you will tell them the good news of what
the new Pope did. And promise me that you will tell them the good news of what
the Chief Rabbi did in response. And tell them, in my name, that if he could
turn down the Pope because he understood that he belonged in shule on the first
day of Pesach, then surely you and I can and should do the same thing.
I hope to see you in shule tomorrow. And may each of us have a very good Pesach.
May it be a Pesach, not only of good food and of good family reunion, precious
as those things are. May it be a Pesach in which we express our pride in being
Jewish by being where we belong. Amen.
Rabbi Jack Riemer