Light One Candle -- Parasha Vayeshev

This coming Sunday morning, our congregation will host our fourth annual “Season of Twinning Event”. Members of our Beth Shalom community will join together with members of the local Muslim community to feed the hungry. We are part of an international effort to both feed the hungry and to build relationships between Jews and Muslims. Twinning events are being held in nearly 20 countries around the world – Los Angeles, New York, Paris, London, Sao Paulo Brazil, Malmo, Sweden, Tel Aviv, New York City, Los Angeles and Naperville – to name a few. The theme of this year’s event is “We Refuse to be Enemies”.

As in previous years, Zamir Hassan, the founder of “Muslims Against Hunger” will be joining us to help prepare sandwiches in our CBS kitchen. Zamir grew up in Pakistan.   He openly shares that as a youth he had negative views of the Jewish community although he never knew a Jewish person. When he finally met a Jewish person, he realized that, as he said, “people are people”. As he learned more about Judaism, he realized it had much in common with Islam, including the concept of community service, known as Tikkun Olam in Hebrew and “islah” in Islam.

Today, more than ever, with the rise of both Islamophobia and antisemitism worldwide, programs like these are needed to help break down stereotypes and combat fear. Zamir tells the story of distributing sandwiches along with other volunteers to the homeless in Boston. Upon hearing that he was Muslim, one of the recipient s of the sandwich asked if it was poisoned. Could you imagine how painful that experience must have been to Zamir, who is only trying to help? Zamir recognizes that extremist groups in the Muslim world are giving Islam a bad name. He says, “In each faith group there is always this fringe group which has a fringe agenda. The good people have to be louder.”  Unfortunately, it is far easier to grab headlines through acts of violence than it is through acts of kindness.

In our Torah portion for this week, Jacob sends his son Joseph on an errand. His brothers are tending the flocks at some distance from their home. Jacob instructs Joseph, “Go see the well being of your brothers and the well being of the flock and bring me back word.” This has puzzled commentators because earlier the Torah tells us that Joseph brings “bad reports” about his brothers, and they hate him for it. Joseph is always looking for things to criticize about his brothers’ behaviors – and report them back to his father. Why does Jacob send Joseph with this task of reporting back, when Joseph always exaggerates the negative and downplays the positive?

The commentators surmise that Jacob is trying to teach Joseph a lesson. Joseph is to report back on how “well” his brothers are doing. Instead of digging for gossip, or focusing on their negative traits, Joseph is to report on the positive things they are doing and whether they need help. The lesson for us is that rather than focusing on the unflattering information we can discover about people, we too, should look in to their well-being and whether we can help them.

Jacob is teaching Joseph that by understanding his brothers’ needs he might overcome his tendency to be overly critical of them. By being more empathic toward his brothers, Joseph might come to understand how his own behavior has contributed to the strain in their relationship. This is certainly a lesson for us as well in our interpersonal relationships. Instead of focusing upon what we don’t like about others, we should search out their positive qualities and try better to understand their needs and how we can help. We undoubtedly would hope that’s how others will treat us.

This also applies to our community’s relationship to the Muslim community. The news brings us “bad reports” about our Muslim brothers and sisters almost on a daily basis.  The reprehensible actions of a few tarnish the reputation of the many. It seems as if the evil is threatening to engulf the innocent as well as the guilty. Yet, what can we, as individuals, do to stop that process from occurring?

The story is told of a group of disciples of a Hassidic rabbi who were troubled by the prevalence of evil in the world. They requested the rabbi instruct them on how to drive out the forces of darkness. The Rebbe suggested that they take a broom and try sweeping the darkness out of the cellar. They did as their Rebbe said, but reported that the darkness remained. The Rebbe advised them to get a stick and try beating the darkness away. They did as the Rebbe said, but reported that the darkness was still there. The Rebbe then said to them, “My students, let each of you meet the challenge of darkness by lighting a candle!” The disciples descended to the cellar and each lit a candle. Behold, the darkness was dispelled.

There are those in our world who want to plunge us into darkness. We need to resist. We need to light candles to drive out the darkness. Through reaching out to the Muslim community, and through the Muslim community reaching out to us, we work on establishing a positive relationship with one another. Instead of relying on the “bad reports” that we hear about one another, we need to seek out those who are lighting candles against the darkness in both communities.  Our mutual participation in programs such as The” Season of Twinning” lights a candle against the darkness that threatens us and the world.

Let each of us meet the challenge of darkness by lighting a candle!

Shabbat Shalom