Religion and Nation building

BH COMMISSION FOR THE PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND LINGUISTIC COMMUNITIES National Consultative Conference - Durban 29 November – 3 December 2004 Religion and Nation building Rabbi Dovid Hazdan It is an honour and privilege to be present at this conference and to have this opportunity to share a few thoughts that are rooted in the Jewish Tradition and religion. The History of the world as it unfolds in the Bible begins with insight into two distinctly different societies. Firstly, there were the first ten generations following Adam which gave birth to a society founded on permissiveness and individual entitlement. It was an era of personal pleasure and gratification. It was an age of consenting adults when individual greed, lust and decadence eventually achieved a world filled with theft, robbery and violence. Following the flood, a new society and a counter culture and order was born. It was the generation of the Tower of Babylon intent on making for themselves a name. Individuality and personal freedoms were sacrificed on the alter of central government and nationalism. The building of structures and skyscraper towers represented the power of central control. Our literature describes the mourning for bricks that fell from the top of the tower and at the same time, the indifference to the loss of life of the labourer. An inanimate object furthering the goals of the state was more valuable that life itself. It was Abraham who initiated a new journey. He embarked on a route to found and establish a relationship with the Creator. He fathered monotheism and the responsibilities of choices - meaningful choices - and accountability before a supreme force and power. His was not only a geographical journey, but one into the deepest inner resources of soul and self. He founded a moral consciousness and a society committed to building a better world. The gift that he bequeathed to his children saw human rights being the product of human responsibility. The teachings of the Bible would see that the rights of wives, husbands, employers and employees, the wealthy and the poor, teachers and learners, health workers and the infirmed, would be best guaranteed by achieving responsibilities and commitments. It is through a society and culture of giving, caring and being concerned for others that constitutional rights would be guaranteed and actualized on the streets where we live. Abraham bequeathed us a way of life and a model for society that would recognize that to change the world we have to change ourselves, our thinking and our attitudes. He espoused awareness and respect for the image of G-d within us and within every other citizen of the world as an essential ingredient of nation building. The model of Abraham was universalism through particularism. Even as he founded a particular religion and embraced the practices of his own faith and even as he indelibly marked his body through circumcision identifying himself with a different lifestyle, we see him recuperating at the opening of his tent, watching for wayfarers who were in need. He rushed out to welcome strangers into his home. His particularism was not isolationist. The purpose of realizing a personal, particular identity was to meet universal need and to effect universal responsibility. As a born and bred South African, I feel humbled and privileged to have been a witness to and a participant in the miraculous transformation of our country into our new South Africa. As a proud Jew I am grateful that diversity of thought and practice has been facilitated and encourage and that I can walk freely and confidently as a Jew and as a South African. I see it as my task and responsibility, alongside representatives of all faiths and all the children of G-d, to ensure that we cultivate compassion and love for all humanity. We must do all in our power to ensure that neither the decadence of self indulgence and its ensuing anarchy that defined the generation of the flood, nor the pursuit of central power to the detriment of its citizens - when gold became more valuable than the labourer who mined it, will be the future of our children of our beloved South Africa. It is a basic tenet of the Jewish faith and the summary of all the doctrines of our faith, to love our neighbour as ourselves and to recognize that all G-d’s children are worthy of heaven and a haven on earth whether they are Jewish or not. Our synagogues and religious schools, and those of all cultures religions and languages, must be generators of this love, understanding, brotherhood and bridge building. Our religious values can and must address the ills of violence both public and domestic, including the abuse of women and children. They must promulgate the ethics that need to accompany medicine, business, science and technology. They must promote a morality that can help alleviate aids, drugs and poverty. They must sew together the fabric of family and bolster family values that are the blocks of nation building. A number of years ago my family visited Manhattan. Travelling on the FDR Drive along the East River, my children were mesmerised by the huge bridges that loomed over us. They asked why the bridges extended so high into the sky when there purpose was to span across the river. I explained to them that it is only by virtue of the strength and height of its structure, that the bridge can cross the gaping void to reach the distant shore. Yet, even as the workmen built upwards perfecting the tower, every brick was laid in such a way that it would ultimately support and serve the purpose - to reach out and to connect to the beyond. As we join together to build the necessary bridges of our Nation, we need to cultivate and strengthen the numerous individual towers that are the diversity of languages, cultures and religions of South Africa. But even as we do so, we must never loose sight of the goal of joining our individual strengths in the cooperative responsibility of Nation Building. Our rainbow nation symbol is significant. Every archer knows that the reach of a bow extends way beyond the force of ones own hand. It is by drawing the string of the bow closer towards oneself that one can extend the distances that we can achieve. It is thorough addressing ourselves that we can positively impact on the furthest reaches. It is the colours of the rainbow that are so distinctly diverse and evidently different from one another but which are so often invisible in the glow of the greater light that their combined efforts radiate. May our rainbow nation continue to foster and appreciate the Dignity of Diversity and thereby be a true light to the world around us.