A Message from Rabbi Yitzhak (December 2007)

“There was evening and there was morning a first day.” This progression of evening moving toward morning, of darkness yielding to emerging light, is found repeatedly as a symbol of the Jewish concept of the ongoing creation moving in a hopeful direction. Our Festival of Lights, Chanukah, echoes this pattern. The notion that light, consciousness, should increase as we move forward in time, finds deep resonance with a yearning in the Jewish soul – a yearning for ever increasing light and consciousness as we move forward from the night of the present toward the dawning of an ever brighter future.

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Light from Darkness

It was in this spirit of hopefulness that a small group of TBI members participated in the initial exploratory phase of a Restorative Justice process. You have most likely read about this process in the local newspaper or in a message from our congregation’s board and rabbis. As many of you remember, several years ago, some members of the white supremacist skinhead group called Volksfront threw swastika engraved stones at the walls and windows of our sanctuary during a Friday evening service. They have all been dealt with by our very effective law enforcement organizations. The judicial system has meted out sentences that underline the seriousness of hate crimes.

One of the young men who participated in that awful crime sought out an opportunity to apologize and make amends for the crime that he had committed. Fifteen months ago, our congregation was invited to participate in this process by Community Mediation Services. This local organization facilitates restorative processes intended to foster the healing of crime victims, support positive change in the perpetrator of a crime and through this improve the condition of the entire community.

This process has a deep resonance with traditional Jewish concepts of Tzedek (justice) and Teshuvah (repentance). Our sages interpreted the biblical passage “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” to mean that justice requires that the perpetrator take full responsibility for the damage they have caused to a victim. Far from the brutal and vengeful images that come to mind when simply reading the literal words of this passage from the Torah, Judaism has long held that it is fair compensation for the loss of an eye or a tooth (or any other harm) that is required, not the infliction of violent punishment. Costs of medical treatment, loss of employment, consideration of physical and emotional pain and so forth, were all to be factored into a just resolution of a situation in which one person suffered due to the actions of another. It is responsibility rather that retribution that the Torah holds as an ideal. On the emotional and spiritual level, our tradition teaches that this “eye for an eye” is a lesson in empathy. We should so greatly identify with the loss suffered by someone we have harmed that we feel the pain of their loss as if it were our own.

In the coming weeks, a video interview of the young man we have been working with will be available to be shown to TBI members who are interested in learning more about the Restorative Justice process. It is my sincere hope that you will participate in this unfolding community process. I believe it can add to the emerging light of consciousness that is so needed in a world that still suffers in the darkness of so many forms of hatred and bigotry. Please stay tuned for further information about how TBI members who would like to learn more about the process that has taken place can do so, as well as for information about how members who wish to participate in the process can do so.

May your Chanukah serve to strengthen your belief in the possibility of a better future for the world as we learn to face the challenges of darkness by increasing the light.

Hag Urim Sameach, Enjoy the Festival of Lights.

Happy Chanukah,
Rabbi Yitzhak