Rabbi gives message prior to Jewish New Year

Religious Views, by Abraham Garmaize

This time of the year, as we are approaching the new year, we need time for spiritual stock-taking. A moment like no other in the span of days that fill our calendar. It comes with precision whether we are ready for it or not. It is our annual appointment with God -- the physician of our soul.

The Shofar of Rosh Hashanah, a time of awakening; Kol Nidre -- a night of mystery, a night of magic -- of transformational music. This is a time of ultimate encounter. We come into the presence of that from which we are so accustomed to run -- stop and look at thy self

This is the season of personal inventory as we enter into the courtroom of self-examination. The scales of judgment are set before us. On one side we eagerly place all of our virtues, the good to which we lay claim. Upon the other we set our sins, the darker side of our life's pathway.

Now good friends, if you were asked what is the gravest sin of all, what would be your answer? Murder? Dishonesty? Adultery? Domestic violence? Ironically, Judaism teaches us that the greatest transgression is not something we do, but something we fail to do. Our Torah declares, "Al Titalem - Thou shalt not be indifferent." The section of the Torah from which this passage derives contains 72 laws. And yet we are told that the admonition against indifference is the most crucial. Why is this so critical? Because indifference contains the seeds that make possible every other evil. "All that if necessary for evil to triumph, " declares Thomas Jefferson, "is for good people to be silent."

This is a story told about a Washington, D.C., congregation:

"Several years ago, when we drove a Washington Hebrew Congregation's Brazilian exchange student from the airport through suburban Washington, he looked around in amazement. 'Where are the walls?' he asked. 'Your homes don't have any walls around them.' 'How sad,' we thought. 'How fortunate are we who live in the United States.'"

It reminds me that Israel is now building a wall for protection.

Yet in a few short years, all that has changed. In urban areas as scattered as Miami, Phoenix, Long Island, Philadelphia and San Diego "walled communities," complete with security guards and special police, have become a way of life.

"It's the hottest housing ticket in the Washington area," a real estate agent wrote in his newsletter after Sept. 11, 2001. "The community behind walls. This is more than a new construction trend for the 2000s, it has become the interior design for the insulation of our social conscience. It says 'don't bother me,' 'Leave me alone,'"

This, too, was the sentiment of the reluctant prophet, Jonah, whose story we read every Yom Kippur.

"He wanted to escape, Lord, he wanted to evade the demands of life," wrote the poet Rex Chapman. "He wanted to avoid what had to be. He wished for peace at any price, but the price was too high. His peace became a prison. Lord, you send us to Ninevah, the whale is no escape, our flight from responsibility is not a ship but a wall of indifference.

The problems of the world are higher than any wall we can build — and they will not go away.

On this we are compelled to confront the moral carnage that the sin of indifference has brought. Al chait, for the sin which we have sinned against you, by fencing ourselves off from the suffering of those who are far away, by closing our eyes and turning away from the pain of Israel.

"Never again" we have piously declared ever since the Holocaust. And yet, for almost 10 years, we have watched as more than a million men, women and children were murdered -- one or more million refugees, almost a quarter of the entire population, were driven from their homes to wander the face of this earth, and little children become orphans every hour from the terrorists everywhere.

Never again? Concentration camps rise once more, ethnic cleansing is a national policy in Africa, Balkans, and with terrorists, and the world shrugs its shoulders. "Yes you're right, it is a tragedy," some will say. But it's so very complicated. The evil is so complex, and for years our leaders have told us we should not get involved.

"The hottest places in hell, " declared Dante, "are reserved for those who in a time of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality." When Hitler came into power the world was neutral until the whole world was in danger.

How many of us have expressed our outrage, written to our elected officials to let them know that we want our country to be a part of an activity and not of complacency? The Shofar is a call to wake up in our own community, our country, Israel or any place like Iraq and more than any other place in the world, it is to begin with yourself.

I wish you all a healthy and happy new year and peace on earth, Amen.

Rabbi Abraham Garmaize leads Temple Knesset Israel. Rosh Hashanah is being celebrated Sept. 26-28, while Yom Kippur and Sukot is being celebrated in October.