Lottye Brodsky  Lyle

Adult Bat Mitzvah

December 17, 2020

The list of moral and ethical commandments in Leviticus 19 encompasses nearly every aspect of human relationships. Verses 12-14, which I chanted, deal with not taking the name of the Lord in vain- or using profanity when referring to God, not stealing such as not retaining a worker's wage overnight, and not insulting the deaf and misleading the blind, all of these details are ultimately about holiness, in our lives and our society.

According to Rashi, laws were spoken in an assembly consisting of men, women and children so everyone heard the same message and understood that the law pertained to everyone, not just the priests.

Rabbi Chaim Sofer commented "to be holy" means not merely in the privacy of your home. Be holy in the community, in public, out in the open society, among your own people or in the midst of strangers, wherever you may find yourself. Never be ashamed of your character and sanctity as a Jew. Act and live in accordance with these laws so you can have a relationship with God.

The commandment: “Do not profane the name of God,” seems easy to explain - by profaning God's name you are not honoring God. I thought I knew about not using God's name in vain but from the words of Rabbi Sofer and others I have learned of a much broader meaning. Any behavior that brings public disgrace on Jews and Judaism is considered profanation of the divine Name and any action that enhances the dignity and honor of Judaism is sanctification of God's name.

How many times do we cringe when we hear Madoff, Weinstein, and Epstein’s names? And how proud are when that email that has been sent around for years lands in your Inbox that lists all the accomplishments of Jewish leaders, scholars and inventors even though we are such a small percentage of the population? Do we need to do anything that brings unfavorable recognition when there is a rise in Anti-Semitism throughout the world right now? We should be mindful of our actions, so they reflect worthiness. We are ALL created in God’s image and if we do not speak honorably to others, we are not honoring God’s name. Nothing in the Torah says we must be perfect, but we should strive to honor God’s name and in doing so we will be striving for holiness.

My immigrant parents were very concerned that we all "fit in" with our small Louisiana community. We were never to call attention to ourselves by bad behaviors.

My mother occasionally would comment that she didn't want to be shipped back to Lithuania, her birthplace. So manners, words and deeds were very important to her.

After college, I moved to Dallas and dated a very well educated man who was the headmaster of a school; yet in his social life, lots of curse words were part of his conversation.

One day he asked me:
"Lottye- why don't you ever invite me to meet your parents when they come to Dallas?" 
I was honest and said "my parents would be upset with your cursing." He laughed and said, "You know they cuss when you aren't around, lighten up." The next time I went to Shreveport, I said to my father, “ Daddy, If you are home all alone and you stub your toe - so badly that you are seeing stars- what do you say to yourself?” My dad knew that I was serious in my question and he looked at me sincerely and said, "Ouch." He wasn't actively teaching me the third commandment, but he was living it.
The last verse of my Torah portion, verse 14, is the main reason I chose these 3 verses. This verse says, “You shall not curse or insult the deaf or place a stumbling block before the blind.” A literal interpretation of the verse suggests it is mean and vindictive to say something to or about a deaf person when he cannot hear and refute your statements. Putting a stumbling block in front of the blind is an equally unkind thing to do because a visually impaired person could get hurt.
Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, draws upon an interpretation from the Talmud, and applies this verse to a host of different situations. In the course of expanding its parameters far beyond its simple meaning, the Rabbis placed the verse firmly within the modus operandi of a community.

This verse resonates with me on both personal and professional levels. As a professional, with 14 years’ experience working with persons with disabilities, I saw first-hand how belittled many were made to feel at times by unenlightened persons. I was with the students when we went on field trips and I cringe to this day when I remember the cruel ways they were dismissed as inadequate. Or worse yet, people spoke about them as if they couldn’t understand. They acted as if the men and women I accompanied didn’t count, didn’t exist.

Thinking about this verse as I prepared to share my D’var Torah last spring made me more aware of some of the current critical issues in new ways. Now 6 months later, the issues are even more compelling to me. The 8500 cars lined up for free food from North TX Food Bank, the 545 immigrating children whose parents cannot be found, the racism that is running rampant, the spread of COVID, the politicization of wearing face masks, I began to wonder about those of us who are not deaf nor blind, yet we routinely turn a deaf ear or turn a blind eye to problems in our world.

There are many who do not recycle, who do not give to the poor nor help the homeless. 

 Our news is 24/7 so it seems safe to say that most of us are aware of the problem surrounding us.
Yet many of us turn a deaf ear or blind eyes to the situations that need our help. We don’t take problems seriously and nor personally. This verse resonates with me on many levels.

An equally poignant example is the true story of Jan Karski, a Catholic man from Poland who in 1942 embarked on a dangerous mission to travel from Nazi-occupied Poland to London, and ultimately to America to inform world leaders of the horrors the Germans were perpetrating. To prepare himself for the journey, he equipped himself with testimonies and stories to make the information both plausible and believable. Finally, in June, 1943, Karski met with Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, a great legal mind and he himself a Jew, who listened as Karski detailed the liquidations of the Warsaw ghettos and the extermination of Jews in concentration camps.

Frankfurter listened intently and eventually stated that he could not believe what Karski was saying. While Karski’s colleague pleaded for Frankfurter to accept what Karski was telling him, Frankfurter replied: “I didn’t say this man is lying. I said I am unable to believe him. My mind, my heart, they are made in such a way that I cannot accept it”. While Frankfurter didn’t question Karski’s account of the Nazis systematically killing the Jews, he simply acknowledged that he could not believe it and he became aware of the that inability.

This caused me to ask myself: To what am I, unknowingly or unwillingly, turning a blind eye or deaf ear? What facts about my city, state, nation, world, am I simply not able to accept, not because I don't believe them, but because they are just too overwhelming to fully accept? We numb ourselves to the problems around us and we don't even know we are doing it. Am I actively engaged in finding a solution to the problems I observe so I can act in a more holy way as my Torah portion teaches? Am I recognizing the humanity, dignity and soul in each person? I am still learning to stop and remind myself that how we treat one another is a reflection of our connection to God.

So, as the kids who become bar or bat mitzvah say… Now that I am a bat mitzvah… I am making a plan. My plan begins with recognizing the goodness, the. holiness in each person. From there, I am assessing and reassessing where I can dedicate my time and attention, with open eyes, open ears and an open heart. I hope each of you will make a plan to manifest holiness in your private life and in our world. Before you go to sleep tonight, think about ways in which you can help your fellow man/woman. Write it down- on paper and in your heart.

Then join me and act, we can all be more holy.

Lottye