From the Rabbi

At an event recently where I am known as a rabbi but was not functioning as a rabbi, I had occasion to make fun of myself. “Don’t worry,” I joked, “I’m always ready to talk … I’m a rabbi!”

There is one big topic, though, that everyone seems to be talking about these days … and I’m not sure what to say, rabbinic-ly speaking. It’s the spate of men of status – politicians, movie producers, actors, editors, and other leaders in the public arena – who are being named as sexual predators.

Like some of you, I belong to several professional group lists online. Most of them have been quite active on this topic, and not necessarily in helpful ways. The most poignant has been the Jewish Women’s Clergy group. We ask, we listen, we brood:

• Should we speak about this from the bimah? Tie it into the current Torah reading (and we are not short of such scenarios in the book of Genesis)? One colleague posted: #metoo is as old as the Bible.
• Should we focus on pastoral support? How do we signal our specific availability for such support? One non-pulpit colleague posted: I wanted to talk to my rabbi but feared she was suffering too.
• What about the creepy, slow-drip of awfulness that so many still experience? I’ve read an astonishing number of stories in the past weeks of colleagues demeaned, harassed and yes, assaulted in the context of their communities and congregations.

Many of us – and by “us” I mean conscious adults! – hope and pray that this is actually a defining moment, that the hashtags and the articles and the firings are not just a flash in the momentary pop-culture pan, but a signal that real change may be upon us.

Hope and prayer don’t make for change on their own. In a course I’m currently taking about social justice organizing, we are learning how to understand the vital importance of self-interest, and how important it is to recognize what it is, and that it resides both in the hands of those who are motivated to organize, and those who hold power. And the foundational tool of organizing? Talking. And listening. And finding common ground.

So, the most important thing I can say in this moment – because it is true – is #metoo. And I’m here to listen. Far more than talking, it’s what I do.

- Rabbi Liz