Congregation Emanu-El of Westchester: Sermon Archives

Rosh Hashanah Morning, September 16, 2004

In this year, known in the Jewish calendar as 5765, but better known in the world of literature as the year of that religious thriller the Da Vinci Code, I would like to share a mystery that predates by millennia the search for the Holy Grail. In fact, this mystery can be traced to the beginning of time, the moment of creation described in this morning's Torah portion. And here is the exciting news - the mystery I bring to you this day can be solved by anyone --- for it is the mystery of the Lamed Vuvnik Code, and you possess the secret to break the code.

A word of explanation on Lamed Vuvniks. According to Genesis, on the sixth day God created two people --- "male and female he created them." But there is a legend that I will reveal to you for the first time, a legend kept hidden in the darkest of caves beneath the Temple Mount. And this legend claims that God really created 36 men and women. They came to be known as the Lamed Vuvniks. In Hebrew numerology the letters Lamed and Vuv when placed together, equal 36. Who were the Lamed Vuvniks? They were completely righteous, good people and it was for their sake that the world was created. Over the centuries, whenever one of the 36 died another would take their place. Until this day.

Since the future of the world rests on the 36 they must be treated with utmost respect or the world will perish.

Simple enough. Treat 36 men and women with respect. Simple enough. So what is the mystery? The mystery existing since the beginning of time? This is the mystery. No one knows who the 36 are. Or where they dwell. Is it possible that one of you may be a Lamed Vuvnik? And if we don't know who they are, how do we know whom to treat with respect?

How do we break the code? How do we discover the 36 for whom the world was created? How can we respect them if we can't find them?

And now, in this thrilling tale rivaling the Da Vinci Code I will give you the answer. The key to breaking the code doesn't rest in numbers, or holographs on the floor of the Louvre or in an abbey in England. It is here. Now. Today. And resides inside the heart of anyone who would listen. Ready?

Since we don't know who the 36 Lamed Vuvniks are, or where, the only way to decipher the code and solve the mystery is to treat everyone as if he, or she, were a potential Lamed Vuvnik? And if we did, we might not discover a Holy Grail but we would certainly discover a better world, a more sacred, holy place to live. And our world would thrive.

Now you know the mystery of the Code of the Lamed Vuvnik --- and anyone can break the code. All that is necessary is to treat another human being with respect. Sometimes we do. Too often we do not.

It was spring. I was traveling on Israel's West Bank with Gideon, a friend and tour guide. A long line of cars with Palestinian license plates were at a checkpoint waiting to pass Israeli army guards. Gideon stopped at the end of the line and we waited. Waited. Finally it was our turn. A young Israeli soldier, peach fuzz on his chin, an Uzi in his arms inspected our license plates and, with a puzzled look on his face asked Gideon. "Why did you wait in line?" You have Israeli plates. You're an Israeli. You could have gone in front of the Palestinians."

Gideon, an Israeli who fought in four wars, whose guided tours always pause at the Valley of Elah where David fought Goliath, smiled, his weather beaten face tight with wrinkles. Gently, he replied. "If the Palestinians have to wait at one of our checkpoints I will wait too. They might not respect me but I will respect them."

I do not suggest that all Israelis are this sensitive --- it is difficult when much of the world wishes to exterminate you, but the prophetic spirit is still very much alive in Israel and in the heart of the Jew.

And who knows? Perhaps a Palestinian might be a Lamed Vuvnik for whom the world was created. God never specified that the 36 must be Jewish --- at least archeologists have never found documents to this effect.

So simple. So very simple.

After clearing the checkpoint Gideon and I visited a rugged Israeli settler named Mordechai. Born in Jerusalem, Mordechai spent much of his 50 years wandering. Most recently he was a mercenary fighting in Rhodesia. But now he has come home - to Israel --- as have so many of our people. He lives in a barren settlement. Ten caravans on a hilltop overlooking Jerusalem. All that grows in that forlorn spot are three olive trees that Mordechai planted. The symbol of God's covenant with Noah, the symbol of peace. But on the day we visited Mordechai he was stretching a barbed wire fence around his caravan. Protection from the Arabs in the villages below. As the prophet said, "Peace, peace, and there is no peace." And the true sadness of the Arab Israeli conflict is that it is not about giving back settlements. I wonder if that would really change the climate. It is about Arabs accepting Israel, Palestinians having the hope for a decent life in a land where they can have some control. It is not about politics. It is about affirming the sanctity of all men and women; the potential for a Lamed Vuvnik anywhere in our midst. That is the only antidote to terrorism.

So simple. So difficult.

Many of you know that my father was a Rabbi. And some of have heard or read his final will; an ethical will that does not speak of his meager wealth but instead dwells on the wealth of our tradition. He wrote. "These worldly goods are of small material value. I am in possession of a far richer store. It is a way of life transmitted to me, through thousands of years, by prophet, sage and martyr of my people. It embodies a counsel for life which if taken diligently to heart and practiced by all men, would lead to larger understanding, less bloodshed, and more brotherhood. It is a counsel which thinks of man as 'a little lower than the angels.' Rather than as kin to beasts."

A little lower than the angels. Each one of us. Not only the 36 for whom the world was created.

Breaking the Lamed Vuvnik Code. So easy to accomplish. So easily flaunted. Instead humanity preys upon itself. We treat those with whom we disagree as kin to beasts. Iraqi villagers butcher Americans then hang their charred bodies from a bridge. Was one of those dangling a Lamed Vuvnik?

And we, in turn, humiliate Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib. As if humiliation spawns anything other than anger and hatred. Was Abu Ghraib an indictment of our society? No. But when force supersedes persuasion, when we act as if protections provided by international conventions do not exist, we descend into an Abu Ghraib --- The actions of a few, psychopaths or not, reflect a more endemic attitude where the code of the Lamed Vuvnik remains locked.

There is a story about the esteemed German Rabbi Leo Baeck who lived in Berlin during World War II. The Nazis offered to spare Rabbi Baeck deportation to the concentration camps but the Rabbi chose to accompany his congregation - to serve them in the camps as he had in his Temple.

One day Rabbi Baeck and another inmate were assigned to wheel the bodies of dead Jews to the crematorium. The bodies bounced up and down as Rabbi Baeck and his partner pushed the wheelbarrow. Suddenly Baeck stopped and facing his companion cautioned, "Be careful. We are jostling the bodies. Be careful."

Puzzled, the other man replied, "But they are dead."

And Rabbi Baeck explained. "Yes, I know. They are dead. But as I saw their bodies jostled I finally understood the meaning of the Biblical injunction, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

If Rabbi Baeck extended this respect to the dead how much greater our responsibility to show respect to the living. And we have that choice. 3,000 years ago Moses left his greatest legacy to the children of Israel before they entered the Promised Land. The legacy was words. "I set before you this day life and death, a blessing and a curse. Choose life and the blessing that you may live." Instead humanity chooses death and the curse.

As Jews we are too well acquainted with those who have chosen to inflict death on our people --- to curse our people. In times past. Even today.

On the day after its opening I attended a viewing of Mel Gibson's Passion. Rather than a religious movie portraying a man central to an esteemed faith I watched two hours of flaying a human carcass - a sado-masochistic exhibition that rivaled any of the worse incidents in Iraq. Today we live with what has been called a cult of death. New York, Chechnya, Tel Aviv, Baghdad, Bali. Suicide bombers. Car bombers. Too many people throughout the world fail to respect the life of others. The Passion did not ease this atmosphere.

But, on a personal level, I was dismayed at Gibson's revival of the most primitive anti-semitism. Gibson had two choices. One choice would reawaken the worst portrayal of the Jew, the other would treat the Jew as worthy of respect. Even as a Lamed Vuvnik. He chose to tell the story in a way that represents the Jew in a most derogatory light. The result was not factual, it was not truthful, it was a choice.

Pope John Paul II chose a different path when he proclaimed: "In the Christian world, erroneous and unjust interpretations of the New Testament regarding the Jewish people and their alleged culpability have circulated far too long, engendering feelings of hostility toward this people." That is what he said. That is what Pope John Paul II said. And as Pope he sponsored a Holocaust memorial service in the Vatican, visited the synagogue of Rome, recognized the State of Israel.

The Pope also had a choice. He chose to reject deicide. To respect the Jew. He understood the concept of the Lamed Vuvnik. He broke the code.

But in spite of our fears of anti-Semitism the Jew has been accepted in the greater society. Especially in America. We have arrived. Madonna has taken the Hebrew name Esther, she studies Kabbalah and is close to a Rabbi who sells Kabbalah water for $2.50 a bottle. And if this is not sufficient proof of our mainstreaming then we only need to look at Christian children who ask their parents for a lavish Bar or Bat Mitzvah party. I suppose this is an attempt to keep up with the Cohens, although whether or not these are the values we wish to export, or for that matter, adhere to ourselves, is open to question.

But we do have a legacy, a gift to give, now that we have arrived. To be a light unto the nations. To proselytize in the spirit of the Lamed Vuvnik.

Many years ago I had a close friend in Jerusalem. Yosef. He owned a shop on Jaffa Road. At the entrance to the store Yosef placed a pile of coins on a table. Those in need, maybe a Lamed Vuvnik in the guise of a beggar, took a coin as they passed. A single coin. The honor system.

We are those coins - there for those in need. There to show respect to those often lacking respect. In our families. In our community. In our world. It begins with us. With breaking the code. And when we do then barbed wire will be cast away, walls of hatred will be torn down, check points demolished. And even if we can not change others we can change ourselves --- by acting as if each of God's creations was of infinite worth. Unless proven otherwise.

In the beginning God created 36 righteous men and women for whom the world endures. We are back where we began except, finally the mystery has been revealed, the code broken --- by understanding the power of respect.

Back where we began.

In the words of T.S. Eliot.
"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

May this come to pass.