Trustworthy…

Dear Friends,

This week we had an interesting combination special of days to commemorate a horrific event and special people. On Tuesday, we commemorated Krystallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass where Nazis pillaged Jewish institutions and stores. This horrible event occurred on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938. Yesterday we celebrated Veteran’s Day by honoring those who have devoted and are devoting a significant part of their lives to serving in our military. We are blessed to live during a time and in a place where the military is our friend and helps keep us safe. One of the most special things I did yesterday was to thank a member of our military personnel for their service and I want to personally thank all of you who are reading this who are Veterans, for your service to our country.

Recently, I saw the Broadway musical, Hair, and was reminded of the turbulent period of the ’60’s and ’70’s when a number of Americans were not nearly as supportive of our military personnel as we are today. I remember how we didn’t trust what our leaders were saying about Vietnam and how many demonstrations were held to emphasize the disconnect between our leaders and the American people. When we read this week’s Torah portion, Vayeitzei, we are reminded of the Laban’s deception and how untrustworthy he could be. In every era where there are complex issues, it is challenging to try to figure out who to believe and how to know if the people with whom we are dealing are being honest and forthright.

I was having a conversation with a college student and confiding in her that I thought I should have become involved in politics and run for office instead of becoming a rabbi. I told her that I thought I would have had more impact on our world if I had chosen this path. She told me that she thinks I made a wise decision when I became a rabbi because most of the time people trust their rabbi and politicians are not generally trusted. She asked me if being trusted was important to me and I realized that trust is such an important value.

I hope that we can be trustworthy in our interactions with others and even when we disagree with each other, we can do so in a way in which others will trust that we are being honest with them. In our challenging world, I wonder how many of us trust those who are making important communal decisions, how many of our leaders are being careful to be worthy of our trust and how many of those with whom we interact are sharing their honest intentions with us.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Bruce Aft

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