Dear all,
Last Shabbat, in the wake of national conversations regarding loyalty, I shared the following with our community. May we find our moment in time to reaffirm our loyalties to the values we hold dear.
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Loyalty is kindness
Loyalty is bravery
Loyalty is commitment
Loyalty is covenant
Loyalty is about values
Loyalty is keeping a promise
Loyalty is guarding a confidence
Loyalty is telling your spouse that his or her haircut looks magnificent
Loyalty is embracing our principles
Loyalty is pursuing justice
Loyalty is our ancestors coming to this country because they believed in its vision
Loyalty is our fathers and grandfathers and mothers and grandmothers fighting for this country so we could be free
Loyalty is my grandfather reading has the Declaration of Independence every Fourth of July
Loyalty is standing up for Israel, the only democracy in the region
Loyalty is calling out both Israel and the United States when its leaders do not embrace values we share
Loyalty is Tip O’Neil and Ronald Reagan trying really hard to form a common goal in spite of their differences
Loyalty is remembering to say I love you even when we’re angry
Loyalty means hanging in there and even through difficult times
Loyalty is jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, bahai, Mormons…LGBTQ, asians, blacks, natives, immigrants, atheist, agnostics, believers, Democrats, Republicans, independence,… Loyalty is all of us under one roof, expressing different colors of a grand tapestry – But all with one vision in mind. That we want to make the world a better place rather than divide it.
Adoni sfatai tiftach – oh God, open my lips, that I may pledge allegiance of loyalty to pursuing goodness.
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With love and shalom,
Rabbi Zach Shapiro
