Sermon: RH 2nd Day – “Book of Mormon or Natalie Portman?” Metuchen 2011/5772 Rabbi Gerald L. Zelizer
Please be forewarned that this sermon is not for the queasy. Its message will be different and important. It is triggered by two awards this past year in the entertainment world – one the Academy Awards and the other the Tony Awards. It will end though with a critical subject – the serious subject of human waste.
First let’s recall someone who won the Academy Awards this past year, a woman of our people, the actress Natalie Portman. Her credentials as a Jew are spotty and noteworthy at the same time. Natalie Herslag Portman was born in Jerusalem, to an Israeli father, a physician, and American mother. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors who settled in Israel. She grew up in Syosset, Long Island. She attended the Solomon Schechter Day School through the 8th grade and graduated from Harvard. She speaks Hebrew fluently. Not bad Jewish credentials.
On the other hand, her family never affiliated with a synagogue. She celebrated no bat mitzvah. When she visits her family in Israel, which is regularly, she does there attend HH services. She says she is more comfortable with her Jewish identification in Israel. As a matter of fact she is vocally pro-Israel in the USA. And you may recall that this past year she spoke out publicly about John Galliano, the now ex-Christian Dior designer and anti-Semite. Galliano was dining in a French restaurant and began an anti-Semitic attack on a female diner at the next table. There is a video of him saying “I love Hitler.” Natalie Portman was outspoken in saying that she would not purchase Christian Dior as long as Galliano was employed by the company, and indeed he was fired. So the question is, “Is Natalie Portman the next Sandy Koufax, a kind of poster child for Jewish pride and identity? Does her fame and identity combine two forces to deal with a host of sticky issues about Jewish identity and morality today?” After all, Natalie Portman in all the interviews following the Academy Award also revealed that she was pregnant – outside of marriage. She was engaged to a non-Jew – Benjamin Millepied. That’s probably a pseudonym because Millepied means a thousand feet and Benjamin Millepied is a ballet choreographer. Natalie P. announced that she intends to raise her child as a Jew. She said on ABC News “A priority for me is definitely that I would like to raise my kids Jewish, but the ultimate thing is to have someone who is a good person and a good partner.” So her conclusion is that being a good person trumps being a good Jew.
The second event from the entertainment world this year was the Tony Award for best play on Broadway. The play is called “The Book of Mormon.” You may have heard something about the plot, if you did not see the play. (I would advise by the way if you did not see the play and you can scrounge a ticket, run there. It is a good old fashioned Broadway musical but with a profound message.) Warning - you have to be ready if you see the play for scatological language and absolutely filthy scenes. The plot is about two 19 year old Mormons who are randomly paired and sent on a two year mission demanded by their church. One dreams of being shipped off to magical Orlando, Florida. But the duo end up in a poor dirty village in war torn Uganda. Other young missionaries already in Uganda waiting for them have sent a mayday signal. The Africans are resentful and dispirited and ridicule the whole Western religion thing. None have been converted by the Mormons. So what happens? Without giving away the whole plot and spoiling it for you, the following. The unyielding and rigid missionaries understand that they have to adapt their Bible and their religion to African ways. And adapt they do. What they end up with religiously becomes unrecognizable but succeeds in drawing the Africans into Mormon baptism. Up to that point interesting, funny and a block buster.
But David Brooks writes a different take in the New York Times which caught my eye. Brooks says that “the theme of the play – which Americans love – is that belief which is doctrinal and rigid fails while belief which is plastic and adaptable and metaphorical succeeds is only half the story. The other half is that the religions that motivate people to perform heroic acts of service like going to Uganda and trying to missionize are usually theologically rigorous, arduous, and demanding. Religions that push people to do what the Mormons do are the kind that the Book of Mormon ridicule: Codes of conduct rooted in sacred Scripture – strict demands – Halachah – principles that push people to behave dramatically and heroically. A Mormon according to Brooks who does not drink coffee seems like a silly thing – but regular acts of discipline like that lay the foundation for extra-ordinary acts of altruism and self-control when it counts the most.” A Jew who cannot eat pork may seem like a silly thing. But regular acts of discipline can lay the foundation for extra-ordinary acts of heroism and self-control when it counts the most. Brooks’ take on Book of Mormon is that the religions with codes of behavior and principles count the most.
So now the question to you. Which thesis is correct? That of Natalie Portman that “ultimately it is about being a good person.” Or Brooks’ take on the Book of Mormon that ultimately what counts the most is halachah – religions that make demands o f their adherents. I have a suspicion that most of you would vote for the Portman thesis. I myself was tempted to vote for the Portman thesis. But I changed my mind. I vote for Brooks’ take on the Book of Mormon. It is a rigid code and strict rules which motivate most people to perform heroic acts even in far places like Africa.
Actually, I sort of vote for Brooks’ take. After all, I am a Conservative rabbi. And we do have codes of behavior and rules, maybe not as rigid and strict Orthodoxy - our version of the Mormon strictness - but we do have codes and rules nevertheless – So I will vote for Brooks with a small “b”, and certainly not Portman.
The Musaf service which we will recite shortly is highlighted by a Trilogy, each with a different theme central to RH. The first of the trilogies is called Zichronot, after the Hebrew word “Zocher,” remembrance. God remembering the Almighty’s various covenants not only the Jewish people but the entire world. One of the first illustrations of a universal covenant is God remembering Noach - what we know as the Noachite laws in Judaism are universal mitzvot for all humankind. (Lev Shalem Mahzor, pp.160-161).
Some take the Noah account literally A Johan Huibers in Dordrecht Netherlands has actually spent the last few years building out of pine wood a large wooden ark, identical in size to the one Noah built in the Book of Genesis – 450 feet long and three stories high, stocked with animals. Huiber’s has requested permission from the mayor of London to bring the ark there for the Olympic Games next summer. The Noach story is universal and every child is fascinated by it. But following the lead of our Mahzor in Zichronot – God’s covenant with Noach - let me tell you one aspect of how our rabbis in Roman times, serious adults, read the story in different and unanticipated ways.
To our ancient rabbis building models of the ark would not only be childish, but trivial. They are more interested in the spiritual significance of the Noach story and God’s covenant in the Mahzor. (Some of you who may have already read my column in the October Bulletin know what the rabbis made of Noah’s ark, and where I want to go with it. My intention was that the Bulletin would arrive in October, after my sermon, but it was sent early.) But the practical application of this theme is so novel, that I prefer you to hear it directly. Someone told me that in advertising this is called “Reach” where a message is delivered to an audience once, versus “Frequency” where a message is delivered to an audience many times. So, “Frequency” – how do the ancient rabbi’s regard Noah’s ark?
They ask the unusual question. “Where did all the human and animal waste from those creatures go?” The Talmud (Sanhedrin 108b) explains the ark had three levels, one for Noah and his family, one for animals, and third for the waste.” The Rabbinic sources debate the layout of the ark and they describe Noah’s waste management system. We see that Noah toiled to maintain the cleanliness of the ark. Of course that kind of thesis about Noach is not pleasing. More entertaining is to imagine a model of the actual ark! But the rabbinic lesson of Noah in God’s covenant teaches that the benefits of a clean healthy living space over a filthy foul smelling environment are certainly worth the effort. The Torah writes in Genesis, chapter 9: “Noah began to be a man of the soil” after he left the ark. And according to the Midrash, Noah revolutionized farming techniques to soften the backbreaking toil that had been the way of the land since the fall, and he enriched the earth and topsoil. Based on my thesis this morning, you can figure out how he enriched the soil.
A UN campaign “Sanitation For All” has begun with goal of wittling in half, by 2015, the world population that is without basic sanitation. A large part of the problem is water contamination, because household sewage discharged untreated into natural water supplies. For the 2.6 billion people who lack access to any toilet-flush or composting. The Bill and Linda Gates Foundation are financing purchases in the third world of biogas digesters. Diarrheal disease kills 1.8 million each year, 90% of them children under five.
So what is a biogas digester? A biogas digester takes a animal or a family’s human waste - and turns it into methane which is then used as a cooking fuel. Methane is clean burning. It eliminates indoor air pollution, leads to lower respiratory infections. Biogas Digesters redirect human waste in two crucial ways: A. into positive life ends., B. away from life curtailing water contamination. A wonderful technology that gets rid of something that nobody wants in the first place. A practical contribution to the world’s poorest.
So why doesn’t’ everyone have a biogas digester? Mostly because of the expense. They cost a few hundred dollars and even though they might eventually pay for themselves, especially if they help save on fuel costs, a poor family can not get a loan to buy one. An invention that sounds too good to be true until you realize that there are 16 million already in operation mostly in China and India.
And now we come to you and to me. It is not the nature of our religion to emulate the Mormons and missionize in Uganda - you know what Jews do. We give money. There are many extraordinary Tikun Olam projects which has evolved in recent years, in serious attempts to better the conditions of those with less than us in the third world. Microfinance; Nothing but Nets, financing for bed-netting to ward off malaria bearing mosquitoes and these Biogas Generators. And there are already structures that direct charitable funds to these purchases. Whole Foods for example sponsors an organization which does micro-lending for these purposes.
Within our synagogue several people have researched which are the most reputable and many of us are contributing specific amount to buy for one family a biogas generator.
And so spearheaded by our Men’s Club, and especially it’s past president Harold Geller and researched thoroughly by our member Alan Stern, what I have said this morning - will officially be launched on October 29th, which is the Sidrah of Noach. Our goal is that some of us who understand the uniqueness and importance of this project will volunteer to finance individual biogas digesters for a family – say in Uganda. We are Jews, not Mormons. We do not missionize with our bodies; but we do convert dollars into sacred purposes, Tzedekah. Each device costs about three-hundred dollars which will accommodate one family for a whole year.
We each have our preference for Tikkun Olam. But this way, triggered by our rabbis’ comment on God remembering Noach grabbed my interest because of it’s specificity, it’s originality, yet it’s mundaneness. On this birthday of the world, “Vayizkor Elohim Et Noach” God remembers his covenant with all humanity, not just our people. Will you join me contributing to this kind of Tikkun Olam? If so, please see the response sheet on p. 8 of this month’s Bulletin and send it back to me.