What is Freedom?
At Jewish Newport
May 25 2019
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On Saturday, May 25, I visited Congregation Or Atid in Wayland, MA, to celebrate the aufruf of Steve Baturin. I greeted him with, “Steve, we have known each other for a long time. He replied, “Yes, from before Sinai.” “Before Sinai” reflects Steve’s involvement in Jewish life. A lot of water has gone over the bridge for both of us since then.
Steve Baturin will receive a Maasim Tovim (Good Deeds) Award at the convention of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs (Conservative) in Toronto in July. More info is at the convention site. Also receiving the award is Phil Margolis, who grew up in Newport.
Rabbi Louis Polisson kindly shared his dvar with me, which I have edited:
“In his recent ordination address at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson spoke about German explorer and researcher Alexander von Humboldt. Rabbi Artson told how, in the early 1800s, von Humboldt spent five years climbing the Andes and sailing up the Amazon river, tracing a map of Latin America for the very first time.
“Humboldt came up with the theory that nature cannot be studied in its particulars without studying the whole, that nothing has an identity by itself, that everything’s identity is the total of its relationships to everything that connects to it. Like many of us Humboldt imagined a charming, lovely world in which everything harmoniously contributed to the betterment of everything else. Then reality struck.
“Sailing up the Amazon River, he noticed a Latin-American pig called a tapir. The tapir regularly faced a terrifying dilemma. In the water, crocodiles swirled and approach it. So the panic-stricken pigs would run out of the river and into the slashing claws and teeth of jaguars. On the ocean he watched flying fish flee the jaws of dolphins only to be snatched in the air by hawks.
“Humboldt realized that part of what evolution has produced is the result of terror, competition and each asserting its own survival at the expense of all around it, until it became the prey. We too are bred of tooth and claw.
“But out of generations of terror and violence emerged creatures able to care, love, have compassion and empathy. Mammals marked the emergence of a survival strategy not of brutality and narcissism, but of identifying with those that one loves.
“We have a choice to make. Do we embrace animalistic selfishness? Or do we choose our more compassionate and caring side that yearns for justice and a world of love.
“Torah study invites us to make that choice. We have the ability, as human beings and as Jews, to reach out to each other not to suffer alone and to recognize that it is our business when we see others suffering to alleviate that suffering. And that is, in fact, a commandment from this morning’s Torah portion.
“Parashat Behar contains a quote that’s written on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia: ‘ukratem deror - you shall proclaim release, liberty, freedom throughout the land for all its inhabitants.’ We are commanded to do this every 50 years, in the jubilee year. ... this Deror, this liberty, was intended to be a moratorium on debts and indenture, a release of those bound by servitude. But later in the parashah, we have the opposite message. God says, ‘Ki Li Benei Yisrael avadim, avadai heim - For it is to Me that the Children of Israel are servants, they are My slaves!’ Are we free, or are we slaves?
“The answer is both. Shabbat is a day of rest, meant to rejuvenate us. Yet Jewish texts are full of laws regarding the proper ways to observe Shabbat. Why? Wouldn’t free choice be the best way for us to enjoy a day of relaxation and renewal? Jewish tradition says, ‘No.’ We are only truly free when we recognize,embrace and enjoy the obligations that come from being in relationship with each other, with our tradition, and with the Divine.
“My colleague Rabbi David Seidenberg puts it this way: ‘We model the Jubilee cycle in our annual journey from Passover to Shavuot, when we count seven weeks until the liberation of Matan Torah, the gift of the Torah at Mt. Sinai, on the 50th day. Both Torah and Jubilee represent a higher freedom that comes from knowingly accepting the obligations rising from our relationship to God, to the land, and to one another. That is what true liberty looks like.’”
According to Wikipedia, “Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a Prussian polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and influential proponent of Romantic philosophy and science.” He influenced Darwin, Wallace, Thoreau Whitman, Emerson, Muir and Irving. He was a careful explorer and observer. With the permission of Spain, he toured South America. He briefly visited the United States and met President Jefferson, who was eager to know about New Spain (Mexico) since the recent Louisiana Purchase made Mexico and the United States neighbors.
Humboldt discovered so many things that his trip was considered the second discovery of the New World.
Many schools, towns and geographical features are named after Humboldt, including Humboldt University in California and 4,940 meters high (16207.35 feet) Pico Humboldt, Venezuela's second highest mountain, in Mérida.
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Alberto Carnevalli Airport Mérida |
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Alberto Carnevalli Airport Mérida |
When I visited Venezuela in the 1980s, I took the opportunity to fly into the Andes. I ran from the plane when it landed in Mérida directly to the sidewalk to rent a car. Those were the days. After my visit, a fence was erected around the airport.
Driving out of town to explore the Andes, I had to go around a demonstration that included a burning car. I couldn’t help thinking that it could have been my car.
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Teleférico de Mérida |
The Teleférico (cable car), is one of the longest (12.5 kilometers or 7.7 miles) and highest in the world. Starting in Mérida, it rises from an elevation of 1,640 metres (5,380 ft) to 4,765 metres (15,633 ft) on Pico Espejo. When I got to the top, which took a couple of hours, I was in the clouds. Here is a video taken in 1998. https://youtu.be/OJdfZ13XGVE The Teleférico closed in 2008 and a totally new replacement opened in 2016.
This weekend, during Shavuot, we celebrate Matan Torah, the giving of the Torah, on Mt. Sinai. Climbing Sinai is more difficult and more rewarding than ascending the Teleférico, and is a journey that never really ends.
Shabbat Shalom
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