[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 145 (Tuesday, October 13, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2112-E2113]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                RABBI STEVEN CARR REUBEN ON ROSH HASHANA

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 13, 1998

  Mr. WAXMAN. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to bring to my colleagues' 
attention the wise words spoken by Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben on Rosh 
Hashana.

     Lashon Ha-Ha--The Power of the Tongue--Rosh Hashana 5759/1998

                     (By Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben)

       I think I agonized these past few weeks over tonight's 
     sermon more than anything in years. I ran a HH Sermon Seminar 
     for the So. Cal. Board of Rabbis this year--my advice to all 
     of them 3 weeks ago was--``Don't talk about it.'' Since then 
     almost daily someone has called or come up to me and asked, 
     ``What do I tell my kids, Rabbi?'' ``Where are they supposed 
     to look for moral leadership?''
       Like most of you my mind has been on information overload 
     this week. I felt like the woman who once wrote about an 
     overwhelming day in her life. She said, ``The washing machine 
     broke down, the telephone kept ringing incessantly, the mail 
     carrier brought a bill I had to no money to pay. Almost to 
     the breaking point, I lifted my one-year-old into his 
     highchair, leaned my head against the tray, and began to cry.
       Without a word, my tiny son took his pacifier out of his 
     mouth . . . and stuck it in mine!''
       I could have used that pacifier all week, as I kept 
     thinking about something Rabbi Milton Steinberg, one of the 
     great rabbis of the 20th century once said--``When I was 
     young, I admired clever people. Now that I am older, I admire 
     kind people.''
       This has certainly not been a kind week--not for Ms. 
     Lewinsky; not for the President or his wife or his child, not 
     for the country; not for anyone. In fact, in many ways it 
     seems to have brought out the worst of human nature--meanness 
     of spirit, vindictiveness, derision, humiliation.
       ``The worst'' because as British philosopher Bertrand 
     Russell once noted, ``Nobody ever gossips about other 
     people's secret virtues.''
       Parents tell me everyday that they are loath to open a 
     newspaper, listen to the radio or watch the television for 
     fear of what they might find. We have become victims of our 
     own technological wizardry--caught up a whirlwind of sex, 
     lies and videotape. A media feeding frenzy to have everything 
     about everyone sent everywhere, instantly--it is the 
     information age run amuck.
       But I see this communal trauma we are going through as one 
     of our nation's great ``teachable moments.'' There are so 
     many truly important lessons that we can learn and teach our 
     children if we are open and willing.
       Lesson number one might be this: ``Just because we can, 
     doesn't mean we should.'' I fear we are becoming a society 
     without boundaries, without restraint, without respect, 
     without a public moral sense of decency, or compassion or 
     human dignity.
       It's as if our hierarchy of values has been turned on its 
     head--as if ``truth'' for its own sake is the highest value 
     in life. And so on this Jewish New Year it is worth 
     remembering, that the 4,000 years of Jewish ethical tradition 
     teach something quite different.
       For Judaism the highest value is not truth, it is the 
     sanctity and dignity of human life itself. We ground our 
     values in the commitment that human life is sacred--that the 
     Torah teaches every human being is created in the divine 
     image, with a spark of the divine within.
       You see, in Judaism the way we fulfill our destiny as human 
     beings, is to find ways of getting that divine light within 
     each of us to shine brighter and brighter because of what we 
     do or what we say.
       And every time we do or say anything that diminishes that 
     inner light in another human being, by trashing their image 
     or reputation in the world, even if what we are saying is 
     true, we are committing one of Judaism's gravest sins.
       My God, look at the society we seem to have created--it's 
     the tabloidization of America, where even Heraldo Rivera 
     can't compete anymore with the daily sleaze of Jerry 
     Springer, one of the most popular shows on television; and 
     the Kings of the radio waves are shock jocks who specialize 
     in personal attacks and public humiliation.
       That is why I so desperately want us to seize this moment 
     as an opportunity to remember who we are--who we can be--who 
     we must be. To remember perhaps the core, fundamental ethical 
     value of the Torah--for we have forgotten to teach our 
     children and remind ourselves the all-important truth that 
     what we say really matters.
       It is written simply and powerfully in the book of 
     Proverbs: ``Death and life are in the power of the tongue.''
       Do you realize that in all of the Talmud, in all of Jewish 
     ethics after taking a life, the most serious sin in our 
     entire tradition is the public humiliation of another human 
     being? (2 X)
       It is what the Talmud calls, LASHON HARA--THE EVIL TONGUE, 
     and it includes not only gossip and slander, but all words 
     that are hurtful--any speech that damages the reputation or 
     lowers the status of another. And it's the most widespread 
     sin there is.
       In a remarkable insight into the human psyche the Talmud 
     teaches, ``Many are guilty of stealing, fewer are guilty of 
     sexual misconduct, but everyone commits the sin of slander; 
     of Lashon Hara to some degree almost every day.''
       That's why Rabbi Yosi ben Zimra created a fictional lecture 
     which God delivers to our tongues: ``What else could I have 
     done to rein you in, to control you?'' God begs the tongue. 
     ``Though all other human limbs stand up, you lie flat.'' 
     Though all other limbs are external and visible, I hid you 
     inside the body, I enclosed you behind two walls, one of bone 
     and one of flesh and even so no matter I do you still do more 
     damage than anything else I have ever created.''
       Today is Yom Hazikaron the Day to Remember--remember what? 
     Remember who we are. Remember that we think we are human 
     beings  having a spiritual experience,

[[Page E2113]]

     when we are really spiritual beings having a human 
     experience.
       Do you know that Jewish law commands us not to allow the 
     body of even a convicted murderer to hang on the gallows over 
     night? This Mitzvah is dramatized in a famous Midrash which 
     tells the story of twins--one who becomes the King and the 
     other becomes a thief and murderer. The thief is caught, 
     convicted, sentenced to death and hanged in the Town Square. 
     And as the body hangs limp for all to see, strangers who pass 
     by not knowing what happened look at it and what do they 
     think? The King is hanging from the gallows.
       For the Rabbis, God is the King--and we are God's twins. 
     That is why even the worst human being; one who sheds 
     another's blood is accorded dignity and respect. Because 
     every one of us from the lowest to the highest has within the 
     same Divine light.
       For Jewish wisdom knew that even the truth can be evil--
     lashon hara--if it is used to cause pain, disgrace and 
     humiliation. Jewish ethics teach us that just because 
     something is true, doesn't mean we must say it--it is the 
     intention of our words that matter most.
       We have lost our moral balance--from political sound-byte 
     attack ads to Hard Copy to what passes for the nightly news--
     we have cheapened life itself; nothing is private, nothing is 
     sacred.
       ``Death and life are in the power of the tongue.'' Remember 
     Richard Jewell who helped save lives when the bomb went off 
     in the Olympic Park in Atlanta? His life went from Hero to 
     horror overnight--because we have lost the sense of 
     boundaries, and knowing itself has become our highest value 
     regardless of who is hurt as a result.
       You probably don't remember Oliver Sipple. He was the ex-
     Marine who became a hero overnight by saving then President 
     Ford's life when he grabbed the arm of Sarah Jane Moore as 
     she pointed a gun at the President. Her aim was deflected and 
     the bullet went astray.
       Reporters came to interview him and he had only one 
     request: ``Don't publish anything about me.'' Right! Tell 
     that to an investigative reporter. Within days the LA Times, 
     followed by dozens of other papers trumpeted the news that 
     Sipple was active in gay causes in San Francisco.
       A reporter in Detroit confronted his mother, who knew 
     nothing about his homosexuality, with the news. She was 
     stunned, and stopped speaking to her son. When she died four 
     years later, his father informed Sipple that he wouldn't be 
     welcome at her funeral.
       Devastated, he began to drink heavily, and a few years 
     later was found in his apartment--dead at age forty-seven. 
     ``Death and life are in the power of the tongue.''
       This is what Jewish tradition calls, Avak Lashon Hara--
     ``The Dust of the Evil Tongue''--and it is settling all 
     around us.
       So when people asked me, ``What do I tell my kids?'' I say 
     don't tell your kids, teach your kids.
       And what can we teach our children at this New Year--even 
     knowing that tomorrow morning hour after hour of the 
     President's taped testimony will be broadcast over the 
     nation's airwaves?
       That the Talmud says ``You can kill a person only once, but 
     when you humiliate him, you kill him many times over.''
       This we can teach our children.
       What else can we teach our children?
       ``If you mess up it is tempting to tell a lie, but people 
     will usually be much more angry about the lie than the 
     original act itself.
       This we can teach our children.
       What else can we teach our children?
       In the end, growing up means the willingness to accept 
     personal responsibility for our own actions.
       This we can teach our children.
       What else can we teach our children?
       We transgress in a moment; we regret for a lifetime. 
     Repentance and forgiveness take work and time--sometimes the 
     work of a lifetime.
       This we can teach our children.
       What else can we teach our children?
       It's not how many times you fall down that ultimately 
     matters in life--it's how often you get up again that counts.
       This we can teach our children.
       Arrogance, jealousy, temptation are as old as time. From 
     nearly every Biblical hero to our own lives. After all, how 
     many of you can think of at least one episode in your life 
     that would cause you great embarrassment were it to becomes 
     known to everyone else here?
       This, too we can teach our children.
       And above all, don't look out there for moral heroes--to 
     politics, or sports, musicians or actors or celebrities--You 
     are your children's primary moral models, and you must be 
     their moral heroes.
       So teach your children respect. Teach your children 
     restraint. Teach your children by how you talk and the jokes 
     you do or don't tell; the snickering or respectful tone of 
     your voice, the dignity you extend to others.
       Teach your children that the highest value isn't always 
     truth--it may in fact be kindness.
       One cold evening during the Holiday Season, a little boy 
     about six or seven was standing out in front of a store 
     window in New York City. The little boy had no shoes to speak 
     of and his clothes were nothing more than rags.
       A young woman passing by saw the little boy and the 
     condition he was in, so she took him by the hand and led him 
     into the store. She bought him some shoes and warm clothes 
     and told him she hoped he'd have a better holiday season now.
       The little boy looked up at her and asked, ``Are you God, 
     Ma'am?'' She laughed and replied, ``No son, I guess I'm just 
     one of God's children.''
       And as the little boy turned to walk away, he smiled and 
     said, ``I knew you had to be some relation.'' That's who we 
     really are.
       It's Rosh Hashana, and a new year lies ahead. A New Year 
     filled with infinite possibilities for change and growth, 
     forgiveness and kindness and love.
       So teach your children the wisdom of Rabbi Nahman of 
     Bratzlov who said, ``If you are not going to be any better 
     tomorrow than you are today, than what need have you for 
     tomorrow?''

     

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