Pursuing Fame and Glory

I recently watched a movie made in 2004 called “Troy”. It stars Brad Pitt in the role of Achilles. It tells the story of Achilles, the greatest warrior of all Greek heroes. The Greeks are about to go to war against Troy but Achilles is reluctant and to fight.  Achilles senses that he is not only being used but also exploited by his king, Agamemnon, who he doesn’t like very much at all. The movie portrays Achilles as someone who would rather stay home, tend his sheep, settle down and have a family.  The problem for everyone else is -- how can we get Achilles -- this legendary warrior and hero -- to join us in battle? 

The answer lies in appealing to Achilles’ vanity, specifically his desire for fame. In one scene, Achilles receives a messenger from the King asking him to sail with them to Troy.  Achilles wavers.  He doesn’t want to fight any more.  Then Achilles’ mother lays it our for him. She reminds him that he can remain home and be a shepherd or, he can go to Troy and become famous!   She tells him: If you stay here, you may live a long and quiet life, but if you go with the King to Troy, EVEN IF YOU DIE, your fame will last for a thousand years! (I can’t imagine a Jewish mother saying that to her son!)  And so on and so forth, throughout the movie.  Each time Achilles is reluctant to join the battle, someone appeals to the opportunity for fame, for the chance to be remembered forever. Achilles own desire for fame overcomes his nagging doubts that he is fighting on the wrong side of this battle.

The story of Achilles reflects the value the ancient Greeks put on the heroic quest for fame and glory. According to the myth, Achilles’ pursuit of fame did not end with his death on the battlefield. It continued beyond his mortal life to his eternal afterlife! In our culture as well, people are often obsessed with celebrity and fame. We are bombarded with the comings and goings on of the rich and famous on social media, television, magazines and newspapers.  Scientific American magazine reported a study that a desire for fame solely for the sake of being famous was the most popular future goal among a group of 10-12 year olds. That is, when 10-12 years old were asked about their future goals, most said that they “just wanted to be famous”. Their goal was not financial success, not professional success, not getting married or having a family – their goal was to be famous!

Social scientists believe there are three main reasons that pre-adolescents want to be famous. First, they equate “fame” with being valued and recognized by the larger public. Remember how a few weeks ago Twitter exploded after Brad Pitt was photographed wearing a name tag at an Oscar’s luncheon? Brad Pitt is famous – why would he need a nametag! Second, fame is associated with wealth, power and a lavish lifestyle. Third, pre-teens believe that the riches and high profile associated with fame would make family and friends proud of them.

Fame and power are also alluded to in the Torah. The Torah tells us that “Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, among Pharaoh’s courtiers and among the people of Egypt.”  His reputation even spread outside of Egypt. Yitro, Moses’ father in law, heard of Moses’ fame and accomplishments in the Land of Midian. Indeed, the word spread far and wide. We read in the Song of the Sea, “The nations heard and trembled”.  The name of Moses, it appears, is known throughout the ancient world.

Yet we know that fame and celebrity meant nothing to Moses.  He didn’t care whether he was famous or not.  When G-d becomes angry with the Israelites, he threatens to wipe them out, and begin the People of Israel over with Moses and his descendants.  “I will destroy them, and make YOU a great nation,” says G-d to Moses.  Moses, however, is worried more about G-d’s reputation than his own. “People will say, “You took them out of Egypt only to kill them in the desert!”  Furthermore, Moses says, if you don’t forgive the Israelites, then you might as well erase my name from the Torah. Moses doesn’t care about fame, Moses doesn’t care about his personal legacy, Moses doesn’t care about being remembered in the Torah -- all he cares about is the cause that he is serving.  All he cares about is G-d and the Jewish people.

Author Leil Lowndes writes: "There are two kinds of people in this life. Those who walk into a room and say, 'Well, here I am.' And those who walk in and say, 'Ah, there you are.'" Moses is the second type – he puts his ego aside and cares about others. Therefore this great man is remembered as the humblest human being who ever lived.

Greek heroes sought fame, honor and glory for themselves. Jewish tradition emphasizes the heroic nature of selflessness, compassion, and service to others. Which set of values do you choose to live by?

Shabbat Shalom

Sacred Spaces - A Synagogue Initiative for the #Me Too Era

In this week’s Parasha, Bo, we find the commandment to wear tefillin. Tefillin are small square black boxes that contain certain biblical verses. These boxes are attached to straps. We attach one box to our arm, and one box to our head by means of these straps. Each day during morning prayers, except on the Sabbath and on holidays, traditional Jews wear these tefillin in observance of this commandment

The precise commandment is, “You shall place a sign upon your hand, and a reminder between your eyes, in order that the Law of G-d shall be in your mouth.”

The first part of this verse is quite clear. The tefillin are a sign and a reminder. But a sign and a reminder of what? Since this commandment is given in the context of the Exodus story, we deduce that the tefillin are reminders  to us of G-d’s role in bringing our people from slavery to freedom.  They remind us of the values of Justice, of Freedom, of Kindness – the values by which G-d wants us to live our lives. However, the second part of the verse   is a bit more difficult. What does it mean that “The Law of G-d shall be in your mouth?”

The contemporary Rabbi Jack Riemer has taught me that this means that we must speak up on behalf of the values that Judaism teaches. The verse teaches that it is not sufficient to merely “remember” these values, but to stand up for them in our daily lives. We not only must live by these values ourselves, we need to speak up when we see these values violated in our community, in our nation, in our world.

One of these values is respect for one another. We are to remember that our fellows are created “BeTzelem Elohim” – in the image of G-d – and treat them accordingly. We have recently been reminded of our failure as a society to do this by the spread of the #Me Too Movement. This movement calls attention to the ways in which we have failed to treat everyone with the respect every human being deserves.

The #Me Too movement was founded in 2006 by an African American woman named Tarana Burke. A survivor of sexual abuse herself, she became convinced of the need to develop a community of survivors on social media using the hashtag #Me Too. The movement exploded in 2017 when Hollywood actresses and actors began to reveal the sexual abuse and harassment prevalent in the movie industry. Suddenly, many women, and men, were coming forward with posts on Facebook saying “me too” – I have experienced sexual abuse and assault.

I should not have been surprised when I saw posts by congregants on Facebook with the hashtag #Me Too. I should not have been surprised when I saw posts from family from friends and from neighbors with the hashtag #Me Too. I should not have been surprised to learn about the prevalence of sexual abuse and assault in our country and our world. I knew that this happened. I just didn’t realize that it happened to the people I knew.

In April of last year I received a notice through the Chicago Board of Rabbis that the Jewish United Fund of Chicago – the JUF – was funding an initiative called “Sacred Spaces”. Five congregations in Chicagoland would be chosen to participate in this ground breaking program. The core of the program is a series of five half-day workshops held in Chicago that would educate us about abuse, harassment and bullying and prepare us to write a policy and develop a standing committee to address these issues in our own community  should they occur.

I want to make clear that when I applied for our congregation to participate in this program I did not do so because I thought there was abuse and harassment occurring in our synagogue. I applied because I was very aware that abuse and harassment can occur in any institution, whether it is a sacred community like a church, mosque, or synagogue, or whether it is a secular institution or business. The #Me Too movement helped make me, and others, more aware of the magnitude and devastating effects of this problem in our society. The question was, and is, what can we do about it?

Congregation Beth Shalom was accepted as one of the five congregations in Chicagoland that would undergo this training. Our Board of Directors gave us the official stamp of approval to participate. A group of five synagogues in the Washington DC area are also participating in the same program in their community.

The 10 people on our committee represent a cross section of our congregation. Besides me, Cantor Perman, Dore Tarr, Jill Lexier, Ann Rabin, Julia Rabin, Al Barshevsky, Chris Igo, Erica Scott, and Eric Forster are the members of our committee. We have attended four of the half-day seminars – our final meeting is this Wednesday at Spertus. Aside from these seminars, our committee has met numerous times on our own. Thus far we have written a values statement, a description of the roles and responsibilities of a standing committee and procedures for screening and hiring new employees. 

Our goal ultimately is to expand beyond this committee and involve the entire congregation in creating a culture that is more aware of the potential for abuse and harassment, in putting policies into place that will help minimize the chance of it happening here, and in developing the tools to address it in respectful, lawful, confidential and professional ways should it occur in our congregation.

Our Torah reading this week describes the final three plagues that afflicted Egypt. The ninth plague is described as a “thick darkness” that descended on Egypt; a darkness so severe that “a man could not see his fellow.” Some have understood this metaphorically, as describing a society in which a person could not see the pain of their fellow human being. The #Me Too movement has helped shed light on an on the private suffering of our fellow human being and the shame they had to endure. It has helped pull the curtain back on an area of life that had heretofore been hidden. Now that we have seen it, we have the responsibility to speak up and do something about it. The Sacred Spaces initiative is our opportunity to do something about that in our small corner of the world.

Shabbat Shalom