Which Comes First, Peace or Justice?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thank you for joining me. I'm Rabbi David Lyon from
Congregation Beth Israel in Houston. In the world today filled
with challenges all around us. Whether we live well or
live with less, we all face challenges about what the
future will be. There's so much that is imperfect, undone,

(00:21):
and waiting to be completed in the future. Grammatically, we
would speak of an imperfect tense or a future tense
that awaits us to accomplish what needs to be done today, tomorrow,
and in all the days to come. The fact is
that in Hebrew modern Hebrew, there is past, present, and

(00:41):
future grammatically, but those tenses are called in English by
different names. For example, the future tense is future for sure,
but we call it the imperfect tense to help us
understand that, yes, it lies in the future, but it
is imperfect. It's unfinished and requires us to participate in

(01:04):
completing the work that needs to be done. There are
two specific examples. One that I've shared before comes from
Leviticus chapter nineteen. There it says kiddoshim tu. The first
word kiddosh means holy to you is the imperfect form
of the verb to be, You shall be, you shall

(01:28):
be holy. It sounds like something that lies in the future.
But if we understand the imperfect tense properly, we'll see
that we need to participate in making it perfect, present,
and whole. And so we might be holy today, but
to be wholly in the future. From the imperfect tense,

(01:52):
from the acrammatical form means that we engage and participate
in holy work, to do sacred deeds, to eve ate
the mundane to a higher level every single day. For example,
eating is a very mundane activity. Some of us do
it more often than others, some of us do it

(02:13):
better than others. But the fact is that when we
sit down to an ordinary meal, sometimes because we take
food for granted in so many places in our country,
we might offer a blessing, as Jews and Christians and
Muslims do. We might say a blessing that gives thanks
to God who brings forth bread from the earth, will

(02:33):
provides the nourishing meal that we're about to participate in.
What it does is it elevates the moment to help
us appreciate that even something so simple and so mundane
can be elevated to a higher, holier level. Does it
make the food holy? Does it make the moment sacred,

(02:54):
not necessarily, but it does engage us in an act
that was once mondane and now is appreciated for all
that it means to us physically, spiritually, and even by
way of nourishment. So it applies to so many things.
But let's think about another factor in the world that

(03:14):
confounds us. Where is justice today? How many times have
you said, or have you heard from children or adults alike,
that's not fair, it's unfair. We say, well, how do
we find fairness? We're taught to go to court, and
if we find justice there, we're satisfied. If we're not

(03:34):
satisfied there, we go to an appeals court, and if
we're not satisfied there, we go to the Supreme Court.
And we might not even be satisfied there. But that's
the end of the line. That's the civil way we
handle things in this country at this time. But justice
has been an issue in religious faith traditions for centuries

(03:56):
for millennia, including Judaism and us As I pointed out
the verse from Leviticus nineteen kidoshim teu holiness, you shall
be or you shall be holy. We can also turn
to Deuteronomy chapter sixteen, where we find the very familiar
and famous phrase in English justice justice shall you pursue? Similarly,

(04:20):
it's written in Hebrew ek seedek tiir dof the Hebrew
word setek means justice. It's written twice for many reasons.
According to the commentators. One reason is that if you
don't find justice in one court, you should find another court.
It's really the foundation and the building blocks of our
court system that leads to an appellate court, because we

(04:43):
have the opportunity and the privilege to be retried, to resue,
to re litigate and see if there is greater justice
elsewhere seed ek sedek. Also because the tora doesn't contain
any punctuation, no bold print, no italicized print, no underlying either,

(05:04):
and so the repetition, especially in a time of oral tradition,
was meant to emphasize something so critically important to the
well being and the sacred quality of the community. Cedek
sedek justice justice. But the verb tir dove, like the
verb teu, is written in the imperfect sense, the imperfect tense.

(05:27):
Justice justice shall you pursue? Might be said justice, justice,
shall you always pursue? Find justice? Today? Pursue it tomorrow
and every day. It is something that is necessarily incomplete
until we participate in engage in it to make it
whole and present for ourselves. But the idea of a

(05:50):
just world, finally and completely is well beyond our reach
unless we truly participated it every day. But there's something
something else that we also need all over the world.
In every headline, we want peace. We want peace now
in our city streets, in our nation. We want peace

(06:12):
in Ukraine, we want peace in Israel and Gaza. We
want peace now. And why shouldn't we have it. We're
so accustomed to having whatever we want whenever we want it. Anyway,
the other day, I needed to replace a simple watch
that had finally died and no battery was going to
fix it. You know, I went online. I found an

(06:33):
inexpensive watch, and I learned that it would be delivered
the very same day to my home for a very
inexpensive price. What a world we live in. What high
expectations we've been given and now we take for granted.
I can have a watch by the time I get
home at the end of the day and go about
my business the following day without worrying about my watch.

(06:56):
Stopping halfway through the day and making me late. Possibly,
So why don't we have the same expectations for peace?
Will we do? Except that those expectations are childish, they're mature,
and they're impetuous, And so we have to work for
peace just as we would for justice. But I've also
heard only to complicate matters. I want peace and I

(07:20):
want justice, and I want them both. Now, I think
only Americans, who have grown so accustomed to having everything
immediately to satisfy that need for media gratification, have forgotten
that delayed gratification is a greater sign of human maturity
because it really responds to our sense of patience and

(07:42):
the sweat equity that we also have to accommodate and
contribute to what we want. So peace and justice are
things that often go hand in hand, but that they
also don't always come at the same time. Which should
come first? Which one should we pursue? The Taurus says justice, justice,

(08:03):
show you always pursue every single day, it won't come quickly.
And peace we're called rhodef shalom. That Jewish people are
called pursuers of peace. Peace is vital in Jewish life.
Prayer sections in everyday prayer on a daily basis end
with the hope that God will provide peace. But I

(08:27):
often include some commentary about that prayer in my own
prayer service that I lead for the congregation by acknowledging
that the beautiful song that we sing together for peace
each week cannot only be a song that we sing
to satisfy the beauty that we seek in that prayer.
When we sing it, it has to inspire us, touch us,

(08:47):
and move us, so that when we leave our sanctuary,
we'll participate with our hands and our hearts, and with
our words and in every way that we can to
contribute to peace, to be a source of piece, so
that when others encounter us, we might not only give,
but also receive sources of peace that can be built
upon to do greater good in the world, at least

(09:10):
in the part of the world where we live. But
if we had to choose you and I which would
go first? Do we need peace first and then justice?
Or justice first and then peace? According to the way
this grammar works, it seems to me that we can
insist upon peace. Now, lay down guns, lay down weapons,

(09:35):
lay down arguments, and find peace. It may not be
chlesmut a complete piece, a complete and honorable piece. But
at least it's the kind of peace where there is
no more war going on. Call it a ceasefire if
you will, But peace is a cessation of war and strife, argument, debate,

(09:57):
and all the acrimony that has been part of our
world as of late. And if we have peace, then
we can seek justice. But justice doesn't have to be harsh.
The world, it says, was built on justice and mercy.
The story goes in the Rabbinic mid Rush that God

(10:19):
wanted to create the world only on justice. But justice
is harsh if it isn't tempered. And so God's ministering
angels reported to God and said that the world should
be built on mercy compassion. But if it's only built
on mercy and compassion, it might be too soft, It
might not have any guard rails to tell people know

(10:39):
where the boundaries are. Ultimately, the world who's built on
both on both justice and peace. The Tumut includes in
attractycleed Zoar, which is also about mysticism. We read there
there's no true justice unless mercy and compassion are part
of it, and so we get constant reminders and reinforcement

(11:04):
to understand that peace comes first, because peace includes mercy
and compassion, a cessation from war and from the interest
to harm others in the interest of justice. But once
peace comes, then justice can be done, but not justice

(11:24):
that is harsh, and not necessarily justice that is accomplished
in one day or one month, but generally over much time.
Justice between people comes through a court of law. It
comes through setting boundaries, building fences, all kinds of arguments,
all kinds of details and clauses can be placed between

(11:48):
people to be sure that justice is met and justices maintained.
But there is another kind of justice too, certainly the
kind of justice that exists between you and me, but
there's also God's judgment, God's justice. And so if we
leave a court of law or we leave an argument
having made peace but also seeking justice to be sure

(12:09):
that that peace is sustained and endures. We might be
unsatisfied with the terms of justice, but we all have
the right and the opportunity to believe that in our
own respective faith traditions, that ultimate judgment is not ours
ultimate judgment, and justice is God's that relieves us from

(12:34):
having to accomplish perfect justice in a place where there
is real strife and potentially war II. But if we
can know peace so that we can contribute to and
begin to build on justice. It's a justice we build on,
we perpetuate, and we maintain over time. But ultimate justice,

(12:55):
God's judgment is beyond us, and it might even relieve
us from having to believe that we have the responsibility
to achieve it. Let it be in God's hands to
lead us to the place where real justice is found.
In the meantime, let's maintain peace between us and find
justice that helps us all to rebuild, to reshape our lives,

(13:18):
and to participate in what that imperfect grammatical tense urges
us to do. To keep at it until we get
it right. I'm Rabbi David Lyon from Congregation Beth Israel
in Houston. To listen again or to share this message,
please find it my podcast called Heart to Heart with
Rabbi David Lyon. You can find it at Sunny ninety

(13:41):
nine dot com, are on the iHeartRadio app. The truth
is that peace and justice are not something only for diplomats,
are only for the largest crises that we observe around
the world. Peace and justice are about what happens at
home too. Make peace between you and your family. And
when there is peace and justice and boundaries and guidelines

(14:04):
can be described and outlined and maintained. And if you're
not completely satisfied with the rules of the way, know
that in the end of the day that God's judgment
will come to bear on all of us, not only
those who were ones, our enemies or foes, but also
on us. So let's bear up to be the best

(14:25):
that we can be to contribute to the peace that
we need to find at home. So when we leave
the house, our workplace and community are the beneficiaries of
the best that we can be in all the places
that we go. And then we may be judged for
good or for better, and ultimately be satisfied with ourselves
that we made a positive difference in the part of

(14:47):
the world that we occupy and for as long as
we are here. Thank you for joining me today. I
look forward to being with you again next time.