Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis Sermons

July 21, 2005

by Harold M. Schulweis

The philosopher Bertrand Russell once remarked "the mark of a civilized person is to be able to read a column of numbers and to cry."

The world knows the math. They know how to read a column of numbers but they do not cry. To know and not to cry, to know and not to act is a vain knowledge.

It is not enough to know that 500,000 people of Darfur were slaughtered; that women and children are imprisoned in rape camps; that casualties rise to 500 every day. It is not enough to know that a persecuted people have bellies bloated by starvation and tongues parched for lack of waters. It is not enough to know that Darfur is a diseased laden land with no wells and no latrines.

It is not enough to know bodies are riddled with disease, water is contaminated and people barely survive without elementary sanitation.

We know the math. We know how to read a column, but the world does not cry. The conscience of the world has been calcified and we can read anew the condemnation of the psalmist, "Eyes have they, but they do not see; lips have they but they do not speak. Legs have they but they do not walk."

But we have eyes, lips and legs we can open the eyes of those who pretend blindness, we can open up the lips to those who pretend dumbness and we can use our legs to stand before city, state and federal buildings.

You are here because you know that silence is betrayal and that apathy is conspiracy with evil and that compassion fatigue is inexcusable.

The whole world is looking at us to see whether or not conscience is dead. Whether human compassion is exhausted. You who are here are witnesses to both human atrocity and at the same time the hope for human intervention to rescue an abandoned people.

You have the gratitude of millions of people who cannot speak, who are enslaved, pilloried and ravaged. Somehow sometime and somewhere they will know and tell it to their children that there were people who cared, who acted, who cried and who protested.

I want to acknowledge the Jewish World Watch and its chairperson Janice Kamenir-Reznick and its many devoted workers who have raised monies to help cover the operation costs of two medical clinics under the supervision of the International medical corp. These clinics serve three Darfur camps and a population of approximately 40,000 people. The funds which we have raised are used to continue the international medical corp¹s efforts to provide clean drinking water and adequate sanitation.

With the monies raised mostly by the youth of the Jewish World Watch over 15 wells and nearly 500 latrines have been built in Deliej.

We dare not lose hope. We must not allow fatigue overtake us. Before us is the choice between life and death. We choose life and transfuse hope to a beaten down people.

We are drawn together from all walks of life, all ethnicities, all ages. Compassion and determination unites us.

As the prophet Joel proclaimed "Your sons and daughters shall prophecy. Your OLD shall dream dreams and your young shall see visions."

You are blessings to the beleaguered people of Darfur and you are blessings to the world.

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