In these past two weeks America has been turned upside down. Some demonstrations have been peaceful, bringing our attention to the plight of the Blacks in our communities. (Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy is a great book, if you want to educate yourself on this subject). Other demonstrations have turned into riots where people have taken a cause and sadly shamed themselves and our country.
People are asking: Are the police to blame? Is White Privilege the problem? Is it because Black lives don’t matter? Heaven forbid, I hope not!
Then what is the problem? More importantly, how do we find a solution? Clearly, burning and looting other peoples’ property is definitely not the answer.
Let us look into the Torah for some guidance. Specifically, this week’s Torah portion.
The story starts out telling us how the family of Kehot carried the ark that the Torah and the tablets were held in, and for this merit they are always mentioned first. Yes, they had privileges. And with those privileges came responsibilities.
This did not make them better. What it did make them is responsible for being keepers of the Torah. They had to learn the Torah so that they knew what it said inside. They had to teach it and guard it. However, and this is very important, in order for them to do so successfully, they had to do so with humility! If they had allowed this honor to get to their heads and become egotistical, then they would stop teaching and sharing and start preaching. They would be a friend no longer but a person who looks down at their neighbors and no longer an example unto others.
The Torah is teaching us that the teacher and the student need to have a dose of humility, to be able to teach as well as to be able to learn. This way the teacher becomes a student and the student becomes a teacher. There is a relationship between the two. It no longer matters who is who.
There is a story about a mother whose son wanted to marry a women of color, and although the mother liked the girl, she was uncomfortable with the color of her skin, and wasn’t sure how to deal with her emotions. Should she just accept her son’s desire to marry whomever he wished to? Or should she let her bias be known? She turned to the Lubavitch Rebbe for advice. The Rebbe responded, “Do you know why the Torah is written with black letters on white parchment?” he rhetorically asked her, and he right away gave the answer: “Because G-d is colorblind.” With that one-line, all her doubts were removed.
We too, should be colorblind; we should look at a person based on their actions. Get to know people. Become their friends. The better we get to know someone, the more we can learn from them and them from us.
Pointing fingers will do no one good, unless we are pointing at ourselves.
The Kehot family said yes, we are privileged to carry the ark, therefore we are going to share its teachings with others. If we hold it for ourselves, then what does the privilege mean?
If we want to change the world, let us start by making a new friend