Counting Everyone! May 14, 2010

Shabbat Shalom!
The nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court brings with it the story of a young girl who was a trailblazer at her congregation, Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York City.
This tale was recounted in The New York Jewish Week: “I remember she was very definite,” recalled Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the congregation’s spiritual leader. “She came to me and very much wanted it; she was very strong about it. She wanted to recite a Haftorah like the boys, and she wanted her bat mitzvah on a Saturday morning.” Never having officiated at a bat mitzvah before, Rabbi Riskin said he had to “figure out what to do for a bat mitzvah. ... I was playing it by ear.” He said he “could not give her everything” she wanted. For instance, Rabbi Riskin said she could have her bat mitzvah on a Friday night, not a Saturday morning. And instead of reciting a Haftorah, she chanted, in Hebrew, selections from the Book of Ruth. “I was very proud of her,” he said. “She did very well. After that, we did bat mitzvahs all the time. ... She was part of my education. This was for us a watershed moment.”
Elena Kagan’s Bat Mitzvah experience reflects a modern interpretation on this week’s and last week’s Torah readings which would teach these principles:
1) There is an equality among all people that must be maintained (Leviticus 25 and following: a quick end to slavery; forgiving debts; noting that the earth belongs to God and we are caretakers, so that, in the Jubilee Year every 50 years, land could revert to previous owners, at least in theory.
2) Every person who positively takes his or her place in the community counts! (While it was only the men who were counted at the beginning of the book of Numbers, it is significant that Elena Kagan’s rabbi, Shlomo Riskin, was prepared to learn that SHE should be counted in the same way!).
In any congregation and community, every person has a role and the possibility of making a difference and a positive contribution. May we continue to find new ways to lead each other and to make every person – and every act – count!
L’shalom,
Rabbi Larry