Dear Margie,
As Jews around the world observe the High Holy Days, I want to take a moment to share a teaching that I believe is relevant to all of us doing the work of justice.
This week marks the Aseret Yemei Tshuvah, the ten days between Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish New Year - and Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. During this time, we say to one another, Gmar Chatimah tovah / May you be inscribed in the Book of Life, because our ancient liturgy imagines that God is judging our deeds from the past year and sorting us into two fateful books. If our actions have been righteous, God inscribes us in the Book of Life, and we are permitted to live another year. But, if we have acted poorly, God inscribes us into the Book of Death, and we are destined to perish over the course of the year.
As powerful as this image is, the Rabbis point out that world does not seem to work this way. Good people die and bad people live – if there is a divine accounting, it is certainly not that simple.
The founder of Chassidism, the Baal Shem Tov, teaches that it is not God who writes us into the book of life or death. Rather, he teaches, it is we who write ourselves into the books. By striving to be our best selves, and by doing all we can to manifest justice and compassion in the world around us, we write ourselves in the Book of Life, and allow ourselves to live lives of joy and meaning. Conversely, by living passively, giving up on ourselves and the world, we write ourselves into the book of death – perhaps not literal death, but the death of opportunities for joy, love, and growth.
As people that care deeply about the world and the people around us, it can feel so easy to sink into despair when we witness the injustice around us. Yet, I believe what we do together in ECCO is lift each other up, and give one another the courage and skills that we need to confront injustice and work for the just and compassionate world we envision. Through our work together, and through our relationship building and celebrations, we write ourselves into the Book of Life (at least metaphorically), knowing that even if we cannot control the outcomes, we are doing everything we can to make ourselves and the world around us the best we can be.