Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Jewish Stories #3 - The Difference is the Silver

Rabbi’s Column - Dec/Jan 2015/6

In the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, it was often the rabbi’s job to make sure that there were enough funds for the poor. While the poor might be turned away at the door, people felt they could not turn away the rabbi.  One such rabbi called upon a rich man in his town who was known for not giving tzedakah.  The rabbi took the man to his front parlor and told him to look in an ornate mirror that hung on the wall.  “What do you see?”, the rabbi asked.  “I see myself,” said the rich man.  The rabbi then took the man to the window and asked him what he saw.  The rich man said that he saw the town square: merchants selling their wares, porters carrying packages, women hurrying home with their purchases, and the poor begging for money.  The rabbi asked the rich man if he knew what the difference was between the two views.  The man was confused.  The rabbi explained that both the window and the mirror were sheets of glass, but the mirror was backed by silver - and that silver caused the rich man to see only himself, not the people outside.

The simple meaning of this story is that money (silver) can blind us to the needs of others.  Possessions have a lure of their own, that leads us to see only what we have.  For us, perhaps, there is a more complex lesson.  What is the silver that blocks us from seeing others, instead causing us only to see our own reflection?

For some, the silver is our political outlook.  We read every news event, every public poll, every opinion piece through a predetermined lens.  Anyone who disagrees with us is a socialist or a fascist.  We are the only ones who see clearly, and anyone who disagrees in an idiot - or, at best, willfully ignorant.  Polishing our mirror, we delete the posts and defriend those who disagree with us.  Our views are reflected back to us from a thousand similar mirrors.

For some, the silver is the opportunities that we have had on our own journeys through life.  We see the struggles that we have overcome, as if everyone had the same tools, the same starting point, the same difficulties.  We wonder why others complain about not being able to achieve as we have, not realizing that our experience is not universal. that we may have had advantages we did even realize.

For some, the silver is our own difficulties.  We are so overwhelmed by what challenges we face, from day to day, that we cannot lift our heads up to see that not only might there be those worse off than we, but there may also be those around us struggling with the same things that we are - possible allies in our fight.

For some, the silver is religion.  Either their faith gives them pat answers that fail to awake a sense of outrage, or encourages questioning and action to help others, or their rejection of certain aspects of religion has blinded them to the good that is found in religious community, in Divine inspiration, in the call to heal the world.

Again, we return to the words of Hillel. There is a time for the mirror - “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?”  But we cannot define ourselves and fulfill our desires without seeing others as real people, co-existent on this earth - “If I am for myself alone, who am I?”  How do we know when we have been too self-focused?  “If not now, when?”  We are constantly called to look out the mirror, and to see ourselves in the larger context of the world that we live in.

Tap that camera icon.  Instead of a selfie, look at the other side of your phone.  Refocus past the length of your arm, to see everything else.  We were not created to idle our hours in self-reflection, without being drawn into the world to interact, to build, to heal, and to improve.  Peer through the murky glass to see the world outside.  Then open the door, take a step out, meet some people, hear what they have to say, and do some good, together.