Walk With Me & Behar/B’khukotai

I’ve been thinking all week about what it means when Torah says, “I will walk amongst you.”

If we follow everything God tells us to do, it says in this week’s Parsha, like taking care of our “brother,” and other ways we treat each other, God will walk amongst us.

A couple of weeks ago a gay student from Yeshiva University died by suicide.

Last year, the university refused to allow an LGBTQ club to come into existence.

It’s okay, they say, to be gay, but you can’t practice it.

So now another young person is dead.

Because he didn’t feel like his brothers were walking alongside them.

All week I’ve been thinking of my last week’s thoughts about what is holy. (And this will make much more sense if you read what I wrote—so click on the link if you didn’t get a chance!)

I got a lot of pushback from other rabbis on my agreement to co-officiate at the weddings I told you about.

No big surprise!

If you do things others wouldn’t do because you’re trying to change the culture, that’s what will happen: lots of pushback.

I know I’m going against the grain.

I suppose I knew that from the time I entered rabbinical school.

In fact, I chose to become a rabbi because I saw the need for more rabbis that could potentially change the status quo.

I know there’s a need out there that breaks with what exists.

These two couples have to fly me in because of that need!

As it is, so many Jews are walking away!

What’s their disillusionment or disinterest about? (I have plenty of thoughts on it.)

I posted my blog on a list serve of Jewish Renewal clergy, and I got big questions and challenges.

Why, for instance, would I co-officiate with someone I was not aligned with?

I thought I had answered that question: because if it weren’t for me, there would be no rabbi at their wedding!

And having a rabbi is very important for both the couples.

And—you never know the impact you are going to have on a couple’s life—on a single person’s life, even—just by being present for them.

If there is no rabbi opening the door and saying, “Come in, I will walk with you,” I know I would win the bet that they would walk away forever.

That’s why I will go so far as to say, “I will walk amongst you.”

Is that holy?

Yes.

Because that’s how you treat your brother.

All humans, whatever their belief systems, are brothers—better yet, siblings, for nongendered language.

Walking alongside your sibling is holy.

It is holy to meet people where they are and walk with them.

Walking away because they’re not where you wish they were is not holy.

How else will we bring healing to this very wounded world if we can’t walk together?

I got a bunch of Amens last week.

I need to hear them again this week.