The third week in January holds a powerful experience for the American Jew in the present. On the third Monday of each January we honor and remember the soul of Martin Luther King Jr. King was a dreamer who at times dreamed the impossible dream for religious freedom and ethnic equality. King was a sermonizer who prayed and spoke up for peace and for companionship.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the greatest Jewish thinkers and Rabbis of the 20th Century stood right by King’s beliefs and dreams. Heschel was one of the many who marched with King for civil rights, hand in hand crying out for justice and righteousness for Jews, for Blacks, for all Americans and for all of humanity. Several years after King’s assassination, our country put a date on our calendar to memorialize and to remember one of the greatest thinkers and visionaries who provided heroism and dreams of opportunity for each of us.
As we begin the new year of 2006, may we as individuals and as a community find the strength within our hearts, minds and souls to create a world filled with the dreams of both King and Heschel. However, by our actions, they will no longer be simply dreams or words, rather they will be a reality of both goodness and peace.
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, one of the great and early American Jewish leaders once said that we as Jews have the obligation of spreading the American Spirit. In his book “As I See It” written in 1944, Wise makes the following statement:
“I am an American. Because I am an American, I am free. Because I am an American, I shall live and labor to the end that all people be set free and that the spirit of American freedom rule over all the children of humanity.”
May it be through God’s assistance that we see the day when freedom rules our world. It will be through our words and our actions that such a day will come to fruition leading our country and our world to a time of peace and friendship, happiness and freedom, kindness and righteousness.
Michelle, Brianah, Julia and I wish our entire Bet Shira community a blessed and healthy 2006. May we accomplish that which our hearts desire and live out our lives with infinite blessings and peace.
Kol Tuv, All the best,
Rabbi Micah Caplan
