Stand Up for Us
Honest introspection demands that we don’t overlook our flaws. Honest introspection also demands that we don’t overlook our qualities and virtues. If this is true for every individual it is certainly true for our people as a whole. ACHAREI-KEDOSHIM ACHAREI-KEDOSHIM
Respect for Age
Respect for elders is one of the many commandments that appear in this week’s Parsha. And although respect can be shown in many ways, the Torah commands us to show respect by standing up for the elderly.
The Talmud discusses the issue as to whether one has to stand up for an elderly person who is uneducated. The conclusion is yes. And the rationale for this conclusion is “there were many of life’s experiences that he went through.”
From this answer we learn that education is not just what one learns from a text or a teacher. One also acquires useful knowledge just from living through and experiencing life.
ACHAREI-KEDOSHIM
Respect for the Old and Young Jewish People
If this is true about an individual then it is also true of a people. A nation that has gone through years, decades, centuries and even millennia is, by Torah’s definition, an aged nation for whom one must have respect. When that nation has also been subjected to a multitude of experiences such as oppression on the one hand and miraculous deliverance on the other, this nation is certainly worthy of much respect.
Even if occasionally that nation falls short of the mark with respect to formal scholarship, it is comparable to the elderly person who should be respected even if he lacks formal education.
This introduction will serve as a rationale for the exalted position of the Jewish people today, despite the low grades we might get for our scant collective knowledge of Judaism in the current era.
Our generation is truly the most unique of any generation in Jewish history, not because we have greater intellectual sophistication and spiritual prowess, but because we are a people that has gone through an intensive course of nation-building experiences in the University of Life.
Every Jew, notwithstanding his or her level of
ACHAREI-KEDOSHIM knowledge or observance, is an honor student in this institution we call life, because we are not just individuals but members of a chain of tradition and experience that goes back 4,000 years to the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Of course, in many other respects we are a youthful and radically new generation in the positive sense of the word. Never before have so many Jews withstood the test of affluence and the allure of modernity and remained faithful to Judaism. But even where we failed individually, we collectively are deserving of respect because of our advance age and experience.
No such thing as a Jew without any Background
A prominent Jewish leader once bragged to the Lubavitcher Rebbe that he organized a Holiday service for “hundreds of Jews who have no background.” While the Rebbe certainly appreciated his efforts to inspire Jews and bring them closer to Jewish practice, the Rebbe lovingly corrected his characterization of these Jews as being “Jews without any background.” The Rebbe remarked to him, “There is no such thing as a Jew without any background. Every Jew is a descendent of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!”
ACHAREI-KEDOSHIM
This message is particularly poignant now that the Jewish people are going through hard times because of what is happening in Israel. The Jewish people are at the receiving end of much criticism for various things that we are rightly or wrongly (most of the time: wrongly) accused of.
Occasionally, some of this criticism—though unwarranted and, considering where it comes from, hypocritical—can get to us, causing feelings of depression and demoralization.
Self-Respect as Well
The lesson we can learn from this week’s parsha’s commandment to stand up for the elderly is that it is high time that the entire world should stand for the Jewish people.
Let the whole world recognize that we—the Jewish people— have gone through thousands of years of persecution and a multitude of other experiences that have made us a unique nation. Of course, our collective scholarship, commitment to the Torah, dedication to the virtues of goodness and kindness that has no parallel over the ages, contributed immensely to our stature as a nation. However, even where we are lacking in one area or another, our ACHAREI-KEDOSHIM collective historical experience accords us the right to demand the proper respect.
However, before we can demand and expect the respect that we deserve from others, we must have self-respect.
Argue with G-d?
With the renewed appreciation for our special status, we can then come before G-d—particularly in these troubled times— and demand that He too stand up for His people. We may justifiably say to G-d: “We, the Jewish people, have gone through innumerable and extraordinary experiences that have forced most other nations into oblivion. We have thus—by virtue of our historical education— graduated cum-laude from the University of life.
We thus have every right and, indeed, obligation— as we do in our prayers three times daily—to ask, plead and even demand of You, G-d, to follow Your own law that states, ‘Before the elderly you shall rise.’ “ G-d Fulfills the Mitzvah of Standing before the Elderly How does G-d fulfill this Mitzvah?
ACHAREI-KEDOSHIM
When G-d brings and end to the subjugation of the Jews by other nations and causes them to appreciate and respect the Jewish people, if only for their collective history of travail, then G-d and the entire world will in effect, be standing up for the Jewish people.
For G-d to fulfill this Mitzvah properly, He must and will, bring an end to the degradation and suffering we have to endure in exile, by bringing our righteous Moshiach, who will usher in an age of true peace.
ACHAREI-KEDOSHIM
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Acharei-Kedoshim by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
