Do Not Stand Idly By

As most of you know, I have been active in the Chicago Board of Rabbis since I arrived in the area seven years ago. I have served on the Executive Board for four years, the last two of which have been as Executive Board secretary. Recently I was nominated to serve as VP of the Board for the next two years.

You might wonder, how did I reach such lofty heights among the constellation of Chicago Rabbis?  The simplest answer is that I simply showed up! I have not missed a single Executive Board meeting and I have attended most of the programming that our organization puts on for rabbis. I have no doubt that my fellow rabbis are  particularly impressed that I drive all the way from Naperville to Wilmette for these meetings. Most of my colleagues, who live on the North Shore,  are convinced ,as you might have guessed, that somehow our beloved Naperville is on the border with Iowa …No wonder  they are in awe of my capacity to travel long distances to our discussions. I also don’t say much and therefore, I like to think, they may believe I am wise as well.

To tell you the truth, once in a while I am not that interested in the subject matter of the programs I attend.  However, how can I impress upon our own Board of Directors at CBS to show up for services and programs if I, as a Board member of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, do not set a good example?  So, I go, sometimes reluctantly, in part because I then feel I have the right to lecture our Board members on attending synagogue functions.

Such were the nature of my feelings upon receiving the announcement of the program that I attended this past Wednesday in Wilmette. Rabbi Joel Mossbacher was scheduled to speak about his efforts to curb gun violence in this country. I did not have a burning desire to attend.  But I went, and, as usual, I was glad I did.  I learned quite a bit.  This evening I want to tell you a little about it this event.

Rabbi Mossbacher grew up in Glenwood, Illinois. He has been the Rabbi at a congregation in New Jersey since 2001. His father was killed by a handgun in 1999 in the course of a robbery at the Chicago store he owned. Rabbi Mossbacher became an activist after telling his eleven year old son how his grandfather died. He spoke the Board of Rabbis in his role as spokesperson for a national campaign called “Do Not Stand Idly By” which takes its name from the verse in Leviticus, “Do not stand idly by the blood of your fellow.”  The campaign seeks to reduce gun violence --not by passing gun control legislation -- but through harnessing the forces of the market economy.

Before launching into his presentation, Rabbi Mossbacher went around the room and asked us to introduce ourselves and tell how we personally have been affected by gun violence. Each rabbi had a story. One rabbi lived next door to a family where there was gun violence. Another rabbi said that his brother had been held up with a gun and held hostage for a period of time. He and his brother had very different reactions to this event. The rabbi himself had been inspired to work for gun control in his community. His brother said he thought that was foolish, and bought a gun to protect himself. A rabbi of my generation recalled with fondness playing with toy guns when he was a child. He reflected on how things have changed in our society.   When my turn came I said that my first thought to his question – how had I personally been affected by gun violence -- was of the assassination of President Kennedy. Then came the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and not too long after that the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. These events touched us all in profound ways and had forever changed the history of our country, and through that, all of us. I wondered out loud how many potentially good leaders have been lost because people were afraid to put their lives on the line by going into politics.

Rabbi Mossbacher then told us about “Do Not Stand Idly By”. This campaign does not challenge the rights of Americans to own and use firearms. Rather, it seeks to convince gun manufacturers to make guns safer through the use of “smart gun” technology. When a person owns a “smart gun”, only the actual licensed owner of the gun is able to fire it. Since many guns used in crimes are stolen, the thinking goes that this would reduce their use by unauthorized users.  It would also prevent children from accidentally firing a gun they found in the house. However, gun manufacturers have little interest in developing this type of gun. The “Do Not Stands Idly By Idly” campaign seeks to get manufacturers to act through the market power of the public sector. 40% of firearms are bought by the military and the police in this country. The hope is that public pressure can be brought upon the military and the police to demand these smart products. If that large market demands a product, then firearms manufacturers will be incentivized to provide it. Once it is readily available, the thinking goes, at a reasonable price, ordinary citizens will choose to buy these safer guns as well.

Will this make us safer? It is hard to say. A comparison could perhaps be drawn between the desire for safer firearms and a desire for a safer cigarette. E-cigarette sales have soared in this country, and usage has tripled among teen-agers in the past year alone.  E-cigarettes do not have the tar and the chemicals of regular cigarettes, but do deliver nicotine, one of the most addictive substances we know.  Are e-cigarettes safer, or do they actually increase overall, long term danger because more people are using them at younger ages because they are marketed as safe? Are they leading people to “smoke” who otherwise would never have picked up a cigarette?  In the same way, will “smart guns” make us safer, or will they simply encourage people who ordinarily would not buy a gun to do so – thereby increasing the total number of firearms in our country?

I really admire Rabbi Mossbacher for working toward a solution of a problem in our society that he has been personally, deeply, affected by. Like most of the vexing challenges in our world, like most of the problems we face in our personal lives, there really is no one answer that will solve it for us once and for all. The most we could do is meet our challenges – whether in our society or in our personal lives -- with courage, conviction and faith. Most important of all, we must not simply stand idly by. We must not stick our heads in the sand, turn our faces away, or otherwise ignore a problem just because it appears to be intractable. Our sages teach that we may not be able to solve a problem in our own lifetimes, but this does not give us an excuse to ignore it completely. And who knows – perhaps we may, in even a small way, succeed.

Shabbat Shalom