For Yom Kippur

Ideas are Fireproof

One of the challenges of the print media is that you always have to work ahead—printing and distribution takes time. So I find myself writing about Yom Kippur on Erev Rosh HaShannah to reflect on events that may or may not have happened by the time you read this! Boy, this can get confusing, so what’s all the fuss? As I write today (Erev Rosh HaShannah) the big news is “will he or won’t he?” This question refers to the planned 9/11 Koran burning in Gainesville. By the time Yom Kippur comes we will know what happened but either way, I think the issue teaches us something about ourselves.
Erev Yom Kippur Jews will gather to hear Kol Nidrei. No matter where it takes place the service is pretty much the same and so is the congregation: a mix of people who represent the community. There will be Jews who pray every day, there will be Jews who haven’t prayed since last Yom Kippur, and there will even be Jews who won’t even be praying because they are still trying to figure out why they are even there! My point is that there is something that draws us together on Yom Kippur that may be beyond our ability to explain. The music, the mood, the desire to reconnect or to connect for the first time- all of these and more draw us to the idea of spending Yom Kippur in shul. But what in the world does this have to do with burning Korans to protest 9/11?
Let me first say that I do not support this “protest.” It is hateful and serves no purpose. Those of you who read my columns regularly know that I spoke out very early on about the Ground Zero mosque but the actions planned in Gainesville are not the way to react to that or any other situation, nor does it honor the victims of 9/11. There is a bigger issue that we should also learn from Jewish history: you can burn books but you can’t burn ideas.
Look at our history: The church burned sacred Jewish books in the streets of Europe. Torah scrolls, prayer books, manuscripts, and other Jewish literature were thrown into the flames to wipe out Judaism. Centuries later the Nazis would also try to destroy us and they started with the burning of our books. What did it achieve? Think about it when you are at services on Yom Kippur—the bonfires of hate could not touch what was most critical to our existence- our faith, our ideas, and our beliefs. To paraphrase a midrash “you can burn the scroll but you can’t burn the letters.”
The burning of the Koran will only produce more acts of hatred. No matter what you do to an object you can’t change people on the inside unless you change their ideas. Our books have been burned over and over but no enemy has ever been able to assault what we believe. Maybe that is the enduring idea of Yom Kippur.