Plenary, 25 Jun 2008

Meeting date: Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Official Report 462KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. As always, our first item is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is Rabbi Nancy Morris from the Glasgow Reform synagogue.

Everyone knows that the Scots invented the modern world. So asserts Arthur Herman in his book "How the Scots Invented the Modern World". The Scots formed the first literate society and invented our modern ideas of democracy and free-market capitalism. Their

"contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of"

their

"numbers."

Is that not true? Herman puts forth good arguments for all those assertions—but that previous sentence was actually a quotation from Mark Twain, in the article "Concerning the Jews". Such statements about literate culture, democracy and capitalism have been made by many people with regard to Jews as well. Undoubtedly, both Scots and Jews have much to be proud of.

In our cycle of scriptural readings this past week, we read chapters of the book of Numbers that describe how Moses, still wandering with his people in the desert, moving towards a land promised to them, sends out a group of 12 spies to scout out this promised land. Ten of them come back afraid of what they have observed and lacking in any confidence in their own strength or resources. Because of them, the Israelites are condemned to wander the desert a full 40 years.

The spies had been terrified of the fortifications surrounding cities such as Jericho. Because of the walls, they concluded that opposition was massive, and that, because the cities were strong, the people were strong. In fact, Jewish tradition concludes that the truth was the opposite: the cities were strong because the people were weak.

We Jews, as a wandering, exiled people, have had many historic challenges to face in a world without walls to protect us—external challenges such as anti-Semitism, but also internal ones such as assimilation, lack of confidence and even loss of faith. It is only firm belief in our own inner strength, great culture and tradition that permits us to be at home in a world without walls—a diverse world, a world that can at times be scary and threatening. It is powerful self-belief and rejection of fear that allows us not only to survive but to become a positive moral and spiritual influence on the societies of which we form a part. Let us understand how much we Jews and Scots are well suited to living in a world without segregating walls.

By not giving in to tribalism or triumphalist nationalism, nor retreating to a seemingly safe but constricting place, we can teach the world that true liberty requires a sense of personal obligation as well as individual rights. We can show that modern life can be spiritually, as well as materially, fulfilling. We can demonstrate that

"private affluence can enhance a sense of civil responsibility"

and, finally, that

"confidence in the future depends on a reverence for the past"

—a true past. Are those the aspirations of a Moses, or are they more admiring words from Mark Twain? No. They form the conclusion of Herman's book about the Scots.