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E-Torah from Congregation B’nai Israel

January 21 2022

19 Shevat 5782

Of Commandments and Courage

By now, all of us have heard of the horrific events of last Shabbat in Colleyville, Texas, and the extraordinary courage shown by the rabbi of that small congregation.  Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker kept the mentally unstable gunman calm until he could not, and then he threw a chair at the terrorist and ushered his congregants to safety.

Rabbi Cytron-Walker is being properly lauded as a hero.  But then, the Jewish Forward decided to print a story two days after the event detailing how the rabbi’s contract was not renewed a few months ago after 16 years of service, and even printed some allegations, leveled without proof, made against the rabbi by a disgruntled congregant who had left the congregation.

The Ten Commandments, which we read this week, are echoed in the book of Leviticus in chapter 19, where one of the verses reads “Do not go about as a talebearer amongst the people”.  This is a prohibition of Lashon Hara, gossip and slander-because gossip and slander in our tradition are as deadly as murder.  Every time a rabbi leaves a congregation, rumor and innuendo abound, and I assure you such attacks are devastating.  That the Jewish Forward would engage in such an act days after this man saved the lives of his parishioners is beyond the pale.

It is tragic that Rabbi Cytron-Walker could survive a deadly attack by a terrorist, only to confront the slanderous gossip of a once great Jewish newspaper.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Doug Sagal

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