Tikkun Leil Shabbat 7/28/06Introduction to dvar tikkun by Daniel Solomon, DC Vote ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The hot days we've been having somehow got me thinking about one of my favorite stories in the Talmud in Masechet Yoma -- a story about snow!
Every day Hillel would work and earn one tropaik. Half would go for food for himself and his family.
He would give the other half to the guard at the Beit HaMidrash. One day, he earned no money and the guard at the Beit HaMidrash would not permit him to enter.
Hillel climbed up on the roof and listened through the skylight so that he could hear the words of the living God from the mouths of Shemayah and Avtalion.
It was the eve of Shabbat in the middle of winter, and snow began to fall.
When dawn came, Shemayah said, "Brother Avtalion, every day this house is light and today it is dark.
Is it a cloudy day?"
They looked up and saw the figure of a man on the skylight.
They went up and found Hillel covered with three cubits of snow.
They took him down, bathed him, and placed him in front of the fire.
They said, "This man deserves that we violate the Sabbath on his behalf."
-- Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 35b
Here in Washington DC, we are very close to the national conversations that take place among American citizens' elected representatives. We know people who work for senators and congressmen, we get emails urging us to contact our senators about various issues, we are so close to these conversations, these debates through which most Americans express their vision for this country. We are so close, but we aren't let in – we participate in these conversations the way Hillel did; with our ear pressed up against the outside of the beit midrash.
It's clear from the story in the Torah that the rabbis in the beit midrash had never intended their policy of charging half a tropaik to leave anyone out of their study circle – and given the tremendous honor they show to Hillel in bringing him off of the roof and helping him warm up, as soon as they see that this policy has left someone out and needs to be changed.
Barbara Jordan used to say that her faith in the Constitution was complete – and that she believed –- as an African-American and a woman -– that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left her out "by mistake". As a resident of the District of Columbia, someone barred from full representation in the national government, I too feel that the framers left us out by mistake – that they never intented to disenfranchise 600,000 permanent residents of the District.
This exclusion is a detraction to our government, just as Hillel's exclusion blocked the light in the beit midrash – and no one is working harder to address that situation than Daniel Solomon, our speaker tonight. In addition to his work in DC Vote, he has been a
powerful champion of the Jewish community's social justice work here and nationwide, so I'm going to invite Daniel to give our dvar
tikkun.
-- Joelle Novey