Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis Sermons

December 9 1994, Shabbat Service

by Harold M. Schulweis

INTRODUCTION:

Cardinal Mahony is one of ours. Born at the old Cedars of Lebanon hospital in Hollywood, raised here in the San Fernando Valley, and educated for the priesthood at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo.

Ordained as a priest in 1962, he became auxiliary bishop in Fresno, then Bishop of Stockton and ten years ago became the Archbishop of Los Angeles, the fourth in this city's history.

In 1991, His Holiness, Pope John Paul II named him to the College of Cardinals of the Catholic Church, one of the youngest members of the College of Cardinals.

Throughout his career the Cardinal has demonstrated an exquisite moral sensibility in his involvement with issues of social justice. Among other Church commissions, he has served on the Committee of Migration and Refugees, on the Farm Labor Committee and on the Committee on HIV and AIDS. The Cardinal lives in the tradition of the prophetic calling: to afflict the comfortable and to comfort the afflicted.

The Board of Rabbis recalls with great pride his most recent courageous and forthright opposition to the draconian Proposition 187.

In an era of growing compassion fatigue, the Cardinal has repeatedly responded to the cause of the disenfranchised, to the weaker vessels of our society, especially to the alien.

The Talmud notes that one verse appears no less than 36 times in the Torah "And if a stranger sojourn with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger that sojourns with you shall be as the home born among you. And you shall love him as yourself for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God."

On a personal note, when the Jewish Foundation For Christian Rescuers was formed a number of years ago, a Foundation to honor and support Christians who risked their lives to defend, hide and protect Jews throughout the Holocaust, the Cardinal was one of the first to join its Advisory Council.

Cardinal Mahony is one of the chief advisors of Pope John Paul II, spending much time at the Vatican from which he has recently returned. It is with enthusiasm and joy that I introduce one of the princes of the Roman Catholic Church, the head of an Archdiocese of four million Catholics, a neighbor and friend of all faiths and races -- his Eminence, Cardinal Roger Michael Mahony.

RESPONSE TO MAHONY ADDRESS:

Cardinal Mahony, as you know, the Jewish community this past week has completed the celebration of Hanukkah, the festival of religious freedom, the season of lights and miracles.

In Hebrew the term "miracle" is "nes" which means "sign", the root term of significance. In the Bible and in rabbinic tradition, there are signs of significance, important events that mark transforming incidents. Thrice daily, including this evening, we recite a prayer for the signs that are daily with us evening, morn and noon. We have but to see and hear the signs and signals this evening, an event that celebrates the transcendent unity that binds children of the star and cross in the embrace of one loving God, one God who has created us in God's image. This extraordinary Sabbath brings together men and women of different faiths who in common yearn for peace and harmony and love.

Signs are experienced by those with vision and goodness. And there are signs in our times of a new millennium of promise.

In our time Pope John Paul II has made heroic and significant efforts to deepen the relationships between Roman Catholics and the Jewish people.

John Paul II is known as the Pope of surprises. He is indeed the Pope of firsts.

In 1986 he was the first Pope in history to visit the synagogue in Rome which is but a few kilometers from the Vatican. Last April, a Papal concert took place in the Vatican officially commemorating the memory of the millions of European Jews killed by Nazis and for the first time Jews and Catholics prayer together, each in the way of their religion, but all under the roof of the Vatican.

For the first time a Jewish Cantor sang the liturgy at the Vatican.

For the first time at a public event at the Vatican, a rabbi co-officiated with the Pope.

For the first time the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff sat side-by-side with the Pope at St. Peters Basilica in Rome in the presence of four rabbis and twenty-two Cardinals.

For the first time the Vatican formally commemorated the Holocaust.

For the first time last year, the Pope in a Good Friday meditation spoke of Jews as the Catholic's "elder brothers in faith". Let me quote his statement: "The attitude of the Church toward the people of God's Old Testament can only be that they are our elder brothers in faith." He went on to say "I have been convinced of it from my youngest years in my native town of Wadowice."

In his revealing book Crossing the Threshold of Hope, the Pope refers to the Holocaust in most personal terms. "This was also a personal experience of mine. An experience I carry with me even today. Auschwitz, perhaps the most meaningful symbol of the Holocaust of the Jewish people, shows to what lengths a system constructed of principles of racial hatred and greed for power can go. To this day, Auschwitz does not cease to admonish, reminding us that anti-Semitism is a great sin against humanity that all racial hatred inevitably leads to the trampling of human dignity."

Last month, Pope John Paul II in a public statement urged the Roman Catholic Church to mark the third millennium of Christianity, starting in the year 2000 by atoning for transgressions. Listen to the mettle of the Pope's powerful words: "In modern times how can we not lament the lack of discernment, which at times become even acquiescence, shown by many Christians concerning violations of fundamental human rights by totalitarian regimes."

The twentieth century has been "scarred by the first and second world wars, by the experiences of concentration camps and by horrendous massacres."

In his papal letter preparing for "the great jubilee", the Pope stated with courageous lucidity that historical circumstances "did not exonerate the Church from the obligation to express profound regret for the weakness of so many of her sons and daughters who sullied her face."

This is the papal voice that stems from a prophetic self-criticism.

It is the same voice heard in the very first homily that the Pope offered in St. Peter's Square. His message is reiterated throughout his book: "Be not afraid."

There is much history between us and some of it is dark and tragic. But we take heart from the Pope and from his recent recognition of the State of Israel and from his vision for the future.

The Pope has not been in good health. It is all the more remarkable that he has declared his ambition to embark on a pilgrimage to the Holy land, that, in his words, he wished to follow in the footsteps of Abraham and Moses through Egypt to Mt. Sinai. "It would be very significant if in the year 2000 it were possible to visit the places on the road taken by the people of God of the Old Testament". We pray for the health of the Pope who enters the annals of Jewish history as a man of compassion, conscience, vision and reconciliation.

To those who are cynical, to those who ask derisively "How many divisions does the Pope have?" we reply in the language of the prophet Zechariah whom we have but quoted on Shabbat Hanukkah "Not might nor by power but by My spirit saith the Lord of hosts."

To those who are impatient with dialogue, skeptical as to whether anything can be accomplished after generations of alienation, we answer in the words of my teacher, Abraham Joshua Heschel who heard those discouraging remarks before he flew to Rome to dialogue with Cardinal Bea before Vatican II: "What right have you not to believe and therefore not to attempt?"

We dare not be enslaved by the past, we dare not be crippled by despair. We dare not surrender. We dare not disbelieve and therefore not attempt. We dare not live under the shadow of post millennia. The world is not flat, and people of faith know that the world is not horizontal. The way is vertical, either up or down. We either climb or we fall. We are resolved to rise. For we will not be judged for the history of our ancestors, or for the acts of others. We will be judged by what we do, by the history we shape, by the world we leave for our children and children's children, a world of understanding, of decency, and of faith to begin again to care for each other again, to love again, to recognize our kinship.

Cardinal, we have anticipated with enthusiasm and excitement your visit. We did not know at the time of our invitation what Sabbath you would be with us but this is the Sabbath of Vayigash. It is the Torah section from Genesis 44-47 read throughout the world in which we read of the great reconciliation between Joseph and his alienated brothers. They reached out to each other and kissed other and embraced. The great Pope John XXIII in his first meeting with representative of the Jewish community used the words from this reading: "Ani Yoseph achichem", I am Joseph your brother. "Sono io Giuseppe, tuo fratello."

Your Eminence Cardinal Mahony, you have brought to us a message of hope and of courage. This is an historic moment, a sign of ultimate significance. We bless you, we of our community, with an ancient benediction "BARUCH ATA ADONAI ELOHENU MELECH HA-OLAM SHE-NATHAN MICHVODO L'VASAR V'DAM" blessed art Thou O Lord our God King of the universe who has given of Thy glory to mortal man. "CHAZAK CHAZAK V'NITCHAZEK" -- Be strong and let us find strength in each other.

BEFORE THE KADDISH:

We are here together, Jews and Christians, we of one Father, on one creation. We are here together. God will not be segregated.

This is a moment of reverent recollection of those who are sheltered in the Divine Presence. In my mind's eye I see the martyrs of our people and of other people, the eleven million Jews and non-Jews slaughtered by the Nazi horde. Among them I recall two persons those whom our tradition calls "chassiday umoth olam" the righteous people of the world.

I imagine tonight the joy in the heart of Father Marie-Benoit, called also Padre Benedetti, the black-bearded, brown robed Capuchin monk who transformed the monastery at Marseilles, into a rescue agency, a passport mill in the cellar of the monastery, fabricating and distributing hundreds of identification cards, and certificates of baptism in order to smuggle Jews into Spain. Padre Benedetti turned himself "into a hiding place from the wind", turned himself "into a shelter from the tempest". This father said that the greatest honor bestowed upon him was from those he saved and who called him: "Father Benoit-father of the Jews".

I bear in mind Sister Anna Borowska, Mother Superior of the Dominican Sister in a small cloister near Vilna who with less than a dozen sisters hid and dressed in nun's habits those who escaped from the ghetto of Vilna. And many of whom became leaders of the Vilna ghetto uprising, among them Abba Kovner, Arie Wilner, Abraham Sutzgever, Edith Borok. Sister Borowska smuggled arms into the ghetto and is referred to in a most touching poem by Abba Kovner as "my little sister". Sister Anna Borowska was called by those she saved "Imma" -- mother.

Let us rise to honor the memory of those who died "al kiddush ha-shem", for the sanctification of the name of God in our world, in our lives, in our time.

STORY: 

A STORY THAT SHOULD BE KNOWN
In June 1942, the murder of Jews in the Krakow Ghetto was at its height. A Jewish mother, Helen Hiller, begged a Catholic family, Mr. & Mrs. Yachowitch, to hide and protect her only child, Schachne. They did so at the risk of their lives, moving from house to house, in barns and haystacks.

Helen Hiller and her family shared the fate of most Moscow Jews who were consumed in flames. The Yachowitches loved the child Schachne and Mrs. Yachowitch approached a priest to baptize the child. She told him the story of how the child came to be in their care. The young, newly ordained priest asked her "And what was the parents' wish when they entrusted their only child to you and your husband?" She answered, "Helen Hiller requested that in the event of her death, the child be told of his Jewish origin and be returned to his people."

That young priest refused to baptize the child. This took place in 1946 and that young priest became Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Krakow. As a seminarian he was involved with an underground organization that hid Jews from Nazi persecutions and acquired false identification for those who might flee. On October 16, 1978, he was elevated by the College of Cardinals as Pope John Paul II.

-- Yaffa Eliach, Hasadic Tales of the Holocaust

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