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Solidarity and Justice
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Moti Rieber
Director
Mid-Kansas Jewish Federation
Invocation at 2009 AFL-CIO Service Conference
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Moti Rieber
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When faced with difficult times like these, there are some values that it is useful to re-learn. I’m going to share a couple of them with you – and they are values
of both the labor movement and from Jewish tradition. These values are solidarity, and justice.
For our purposes today, solidarity is realizing that
there but for the grace of God go I, and that it is our responsibility to do what we can to help the other person weather the storm. If we think of the best
organizations we’ve known or belonged to – whether they be churches, civil organizations or unions, they are the ones that reached out to help those in need.
This is exactly the opposite of the “I got mine, pal” ethos that we’ve been living out too long in this country.
In the Jewish tradition, the word for the idea that we translate as “charity” is tzedakah, which is from the root meaning justice. The idea of tzedakah tells us that giving is not giving
something we do whenever we feel like it, but rather is what is required of me - my obligation to the other person. Wow - these two concepts are closely related, aren’t they?
Think about the biblical requirement to leave the corner of the fields. The landowner is obligated not to harvest to the very borders of the property, but to leave the edges
unharvested, so that those less fortunate can come through and take the rest. That’s not
charity, that’s justice. There’s no expectation in God’s world that the fortunate person or
the wealthy person, should be able to exploit their good fortune up to its very limits. We are required to think of, to care for, those going through hard times.
Well, not too many of us are in a position to harvest the corners, even if we could do so. But we are required to do what we can/ We are not to shake our heads or cluck our
tongues in sympathy – we are to pull our sleeves and do what we can to make the lot of our brothers and sisters a little lighter to bear. And if the landowner wants to hold on to
those corners, or chop them up into derivatives and sell them for a profit, or ship those corners overseas – well, then the time for social action is at an end and the time for social
justice has begun. And that’s what unions are for!
God, we ask you today for the openheartedness to be open to those in need, who are
suffering in this economy – those in our unions and in our social circles and those beyond. We ask for the willingness to be able to do what we can to make their burdens a little
lighter. We ask for the awareness of what actions to take. And we ask for strength – for personal strength for when the going gets rough, and for collection strength – for a strong
and vibrant labor movement to bring into this world not just a little more charity, but a lot more justice. |
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Solidarity and Justice
|
|
|
|
Moti Rieber
Director
Mid-Kansas Jewish Federation
Invocation at 2009 AFL-CIO Service Conference
|
|
|
Moti Rieber
|
|
When faced with difficult times like these, there are some values that it is useful to re-learn. I’m going to share a couple of them with you – and they are values
of both the labor movement and from Jewish tradition. These values are solidarity, and justice.
For our purposes today, solidarity is realizing that
there but for the grace of God go I, and that it is our responsibility to do what we can to help the other person weather the storm. If we think of the best
organizations we’ve known or belonged to – whether they be churches, civil organizations or unions, they are the ones that reached out to help those in need.
This is exactly the opposite of the “I got mine, pal” ethos that we’ve been living out too long in this country. ng and vibrant labor movement to
bring into this world not just a little more charity, but a lot more justice. |
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©2002-2009 Wichita/Hutchinson Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
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Check availability of meeting room at the
Wichita/Hutchinson Labor Federation.
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