To Care Or Not To Care
Stories
Object:
Contents
"To Care or Not to Care" by Frank Ramirez
"Beating the Judge" by Sandra Herrmann
"Practicing the Precepts of God" by Sandra Herrmann
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To Care or Not to Care
by Frank Ramirez
2 Timothy 3:14--4:5
For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.
-- 2 Timothy 4:4-5
Though he wrote plays and poems 400 years ago, the writings of William Shakespeare are still alive and performed to appreciative audiences around the world. Phrases like "To be or not to be," "To thine own self be true," and "All the world's a stage," as well as hundreds of others, came from his pen and are part of the way we speak.
But what if I told you that almost no one has ever heard one of the greatest speeches Shakespeare ever wrote. Certainly no one heard it performed in his lifetime. Yet that unknown scene and speech challenged the prejudices of his day, and probably his own as well, directly addressing people who, in the words of Paul, "... turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths."
Now to understand what I'm talking about, you have to remember that in Shakespeare's time no one really cared who wrote the script for a play, anymore than most people care who writes an episode for their favorite TV show. It's the show they loved, not the credits. So playwrights didn't treat their scripts as sacred expressions of their souls. They were a means of making money. They also doctored other people's scripts for quick cash, without worrying about getting credit. It's only scholars who centuries later run computer scans for word counts to determine who wrote what.
So about 410 years ago, give or take a year, an acting company tried to knock a failed script called Sir Thomas More into shape for production, and it's clear from the raggedy manuscript that rests in the British Museum that at least six different writers had a hand in the doctoring.
Three pages of that manuscript are in Shakespeare's handwriting. It involves a scene about an anti-immigrant riot in London. In his day Londoners were suspicious of foreigners. They believed all sorts of rumors and the lives of economic, political, and religious refugees in London were therefore precarious at best.
So in Shakespeare's scene ordinary workers begin to riot because they believe that prices for staples are rising because foreigners are ruining the economy. Things quickly get out of control -- that is, until Sir Thomas More quiets them and then appeals to their better natures.
First he asks them to imagine they have had their way and all foreigners are expelled. He asks them -- and us -- to imagine what it must be like to be an outcast, a true refugee. Instead of dividing the world into us and them, with his vivid description Shakespeare invites us to share the sufferings of others.
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
Their babies at their backs, with their poor luggage,
Plodding to th'ports and coasts for transportation
...What have you got?
More tells the rioters that what they have got is a country where "insolence and a strong hand should prevail," and that they might find themselves the next victims of public rage. Where, after all, does prejudice stop once we give it rein?
Having calmed them, he asks a deeper question: "What do you do to your souls in doing this?" Might their actions not have an eternal effect? When people are inciting deeper prejudices against outsiders, might they not be imperiling their immortal souls?
These are powerful speeches, but because the censors never gave a license to the play (they feared any description of civil unrest), it was never acted. However it's worth asking -- as Shakespeare seems to have shared many of the prejudices of his day, why did he show such sympathy for a group that his audience members would actively dislike?
Perhaps it's because Shakespeare, who owned homes in his native town of Stratford, had to rent various lodgings during the decades he lived in London while writing, producing, and acting in plays. And between 1603 and 1605, while he was writing this scene, and later other plays casting a more positive light on outsiders, he lived on Silver Street, renting a room from the Mountjoy family from France.
Perhaps living with this family of outsiders, who fashioned headdresses for women, helped him to better understand what it was like to be a stranger in a strange land, to pay higher taxes, be subject to assault without protection, and hear harsh and undeserved words of hatred from the ignorant and hateful.
Paul's second letter is written to his younger friend Timothy who he left to minister in Crete, a land subject to prejudice, misconceptions, and stereotypes throughout the Mediterranean world. Even today the word Cretins is an often unmerited insult. He too asks Timothy and his congregation to remember that people regularly turn away from the truth and cling to stereotypes and myths, whether it is about Cretans, Christians, or the many outsiders in our society. One wonders if it is any different today.
(Want to know more? You can read Shakespeare's addition to Sir Thomas More in books like The Oxford Shakespeare or The Riverside Shakespeare. For more on the years Shakespeare lived with the Mountjoys see The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street, by Charles Nicholl.)
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids, and Breakdown on Bethlehem Street.
Beating the Judge
by Sandra Herrmann
Luke 18:1-8
Hannah was a strong, resilient woman. She had been made so by the circumstances of her life -- really, a number of events that had taught her how to cope. The first was the loss of her firstborn, who died before he was even shaped enough for her to see him as the cramps sent her to the bathroom in time for the blood to gush into the toilet rather than the carpet. She hadn't cried. She wasn't sure she was allowed to cry. The doctor was so calm when she called him to report what was happening that she supposed a clinical response was called for on her part too.
"Just flush it. You don't need to come in unless the cramping goes on into this evening. Let nature take its course."
And of course her husband was the same way. "It's not as though you actually know it was a boy. It was just a blob of tissue, wasn't it?" Rather like an egg, broken in a pan, she responded privately. So she didn't cry, not until years later.
Next there was the loss of her marriage. She'd known he was unfaithful, but she looked past it. After all, they had a daughter now, and a daughter needs a father, someone to look up to, to see as a guide to picking a husband. She wasn't sure she herself qualified. But Lester was a good husband in so many ways, and she was sure her daughter had no idea, until her daughter told her that some of the kids at school were taunting her with the knowledge of what her dad was and who he was doing it with. Then she left. Left him, left town, started a new life in a place where no one had the knowledge to torment her.
That of course meant the loss of her home, the pretty little cottage on a lake where they could swim whenever they wanted, and all of the neighbors laughed over their barbeques from the time the snow was melted in spring until the first snowfall to last in the fall. Most of her friends, who found it easier to stay friends with Lester, who was, after all, right there, while she had gone away. She knew she could have fought him for the house, made him sell and split the profit, but at least this way Renee could visit him and be at the house every other weekend and holiday.
She had nearly lost her daughter in all that mess. Renee hated her dad for cheating, but she loved the lake, the boat, the barbeques, and, it turned out, the boy three houses down. For all that, Renee was willing to forgive and to protest when her father got her in the car to return her to Hannah and the house Renee had not grown up in, away from the boy she loved as only a 14-year-old can love.
Those hard times had passed, of course. Renee had her heart broken more than once by boys who promised undying love but couldn't wait for her to get back from a vacation with her dad before they had found another girlfriend. Hannah sighed with compassion for her daughter, who had never found "Mr. Right" even after moving to the coast for a fresh start. It was while she was gone from the scene that Lester had died one morning on the golf course. He was 53.
So now Hannah was in another contest. Lester had never remarried, but he had been living with a woman for the last five years of his life. He had never, for reasons that baffled everyone, changed the beneficiary on his life insurance. Since Social Security was not about to pay out life benefits to his live-in lover, Beverly sued Hannah over the life insurance, which, it turned out, was a huge policy. It would be enough to pay off all of the bills due from the estate and all of Hannah's bills, plus enough left over to pay off both his and her mortgage. Hannah went to see a lawyer.
The struggle between Beverly and Hannah had gone on for over a year now. Beverly had taken to calling Hannah and screaming at her over the phone, usually after a wee drink or two. She was apparently counting on being taken care of for life and thought that since Lester hadn't managed to stay alive long enough to accomplish that, Hannah had to take on the responsibility. It was ridiculous! At least she thought so until the lawyer said that Beverly had a point that might win her the insurance if the case went to a jury. Her best bet, the attorney had said, would be to make a financial offer to Beverly and see where that got her. At the worst, she needed to avoid a jury trial and ask for a ruling by a judge. So she did. Both. As Renee would say, "Well, that went well -- not."
The judge did not want to find himself between two women struggling over an estate. He said that quite plainly. No, he would not suggest a jury trial, he told Beverly, even if the lawyers thought that would be the best bet for her. Juries could simply not be counted on to be consistent in whom they favored, especially since Beverly and Lester weren't married. A marriage, he said, would have settled the situation, even without a change in beneficiaries. Lester could be seen as a careless man, rather than intending to care for one of the women over the other, but he might have wanted to make up for his cheating by awarding the ex-wife his entire estate. A good lawyer could argue that either way. He suggested she just drop the case.
When Hannah's lawyer talked to the judge, he got the same story. The judge was disinclined to hear the case and thought the women should work it out between themselves. There was nothing to be gained by going to court. No matter what the lawyer said, the judge was adamant. Defeated, she fired the attorney, went home, and cried for an hour.
The next day, she called the judge's office. His secretary said he was in court until three that afternoon, so she went to the office at three o'clock and waited. It was a long wait. The judge finally arrived at 4:20, but he waved her off as he sped past the secretary's desk, and when she stood up, the secretary waved her off as well, and disappeared into the judge's office. She waited and waited. She finally gave up at 6:00 and went home.
The next day, she called her lawyer. He said that this was "pretty standard" for this particular judge. She would be better off to go talk to Beverly. But Hannah knew better. She and Beverly couldn't talk for ten minutes without shouting. If they got into this discussion, they might come to blows. She went to get her hair done, bought a new suit, and headed back to the judge's office. He wasn't in. She found out that he usually didn't come back to the office between sessions, so she went over to the courtroom. She sat in the back of the gallery area until court was dismissed and walked up to the judge as he was heading for his chambers. When he saw her, she could have sworn he sped up, turning his head away. But she started walking faster too and caught him before he could get inside.
He was still adamant. "You two ladies," he said, "need to solve this problem yourselves. I've told you, I don't want to be involved in your problem."
"You don't want to be involved?" He tried to hush her, but it only infuriated her more. She raised her voice, deliberately, and repeated her question. "What kind of a judge 'doesn't want to become involved in a matter of law?' " She took a deep breath and started in again about how her husband had never married Beverly, and that he had never changed the insurance beneficiary, and she had never made him sell the house and split the profits, and that she really needed the money, but would be willing to give some to Beverly, if only this problem could be settled.
The judge interrupted her. "I've told you already, if you can do that kind of negotiation, work it out with the other woman."
"The Other Woman!" Hannah shouted. She had started shaking, and she could feel her hands clenching into fists. "That Other Woman has a name, and she -- Beverly -- needs to get things settled too! We can't go on like this! You have to judge this case, JUDGE!" Her fists came up, waist high, as she tried to control herself. She was nearly in tears, but she felt certain that would only go against her with this man. So she stood there, gasping for air, trying to unclench her hands, to keep from striking out.
The judge stood there, alarmed. What was with this woman he wondered? What could have caused this outburst? Was she a danger? His hand felt for the doorknob. But she had her hand on his, holding on to him, despite his judicial robes, despite being in his courtroom. Had she no respect for his position? His gaze swept the courtroom, looking for help.
The bailiff saw the judge's plea for help and started in his direction, but he had barely gotten halfway to the door when the woman standing with the judge started shouting again. It was something about a case that the judge needed to hear. The bailiff shook his head. Didn't she know better? She sure didn't know this judge that was for sure. He didn't give a darn about anybody or anything! He decided to slow down and see what happened if she saw him coming. He'd just as soon not have to wrestle her to the ground.
But Hannah was past caring who heard her or what anyone thought of her. She was desperate, frightened, and past any caring. She needed help, and she needed the constant strain to end. She opened her mouth and took a deep breath, but the judge put up his hand.
"Stop right there," he demanded. "Listen to me for a minute. I realize that you aren't going to give up. Get that oth--," he stopped as she turned red in the face again. "Get Beverly and set up an appointment with my secretary when you both can meet. We'll settle this thing. Bring your documents. Her too. Now are you satisfied?"
"No. I won't be satisfied until this mess is settled. But that's a good start." She smiled, nodding her head. The judge sighed and slid into his chambers.
Practicing the Precepts of God
by Sandra Herrmann
Psalm 119:97-104
The Ba'al Shem Tov was a rabbi who lived in Eastern Europe in the 18th century. He began studying the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) when he was three years old. This probably sounds a bit bizarre to modern Americans, but Torah study in the 17th century was often begun by devout parents before a child was able to read. Such education was, however, confined to those with leisure time or the money to hire tutors, which meant that the sons of the poor were not learning the things that young Israel (as his parents had named him) was learning. How they managed to begin his education is unknown, because they were definitely not rich, but they managed to give him a start in learning that stayed with him. This is a good thing, because they both died when he was five years old.
The Jewish community in his town took over the care of the young orphan. The people of his village, like so many others in Eastern Europe, had suffered a pogrom (a slaughter of Jews and the destruction of many homes and theft of their belongings) and were still reeling from the aftermath of shock and devastation that followed. Many who had had a good position and income were reduced to grinding poverty and menial labor.
Furthermore, there had been a man named Shabtai Zvi, who led thousands of despairing Jews to believe that he was the long-awaited Messiah, come to set them free. However, he then converted to Islam under pressure from the Ottoman Turks, leaving the faith of those who had hope in him to a worse condition than when he had found them.
A great many children were forced to go to work at the age of five or six so they could help to support their families. Israel, however, was able to continue his studies because of the commitment of the villagers to care for him. Even more important, he was free to spend time meditating on what he had read and to spend hours in prayer. There were also several rabbis who saw the intuitive nature of the boy, and who spent many hours discussing the precepts of the Talmud (a Jewish book of writings about the law of God) with him.
One day while young Israel was walking in the woods, he met a man who was deep in prayer. Israel sat with him, and they discussed the teachings of the Talmud and of the Kabbalah, a mystical approach to Judaism. This man, Israel said, was a Tsaddik, one of the "36 hidden masters" who, though they were learned scholars, pretended to be peddlers or laborers, so that they might talk with and educate the average Jew in their mystical faith. Though this unnamed "teacher and master," as Israel called him, never asked for alms, yet was always able to feed the two of them. After three years of this, the unidentified man introduced Israel to Rabbi Meir, another mystical Jewish teacher, who took over his education. Three years later, Rabbi Meir, in turn, passed him to Rabbi Adam Ba'al Shem, who furthered his education. Since Rabbi Adam had earned the title of Ba'al Shem, we know that he was a healer, because that is what this title designates.
In this way, the young Israel became a visionary as well as a fine scholar. At the conclusion of his years with the two rabbis, he was accepted into the society of the hidden tzaddikim and again began journeying from town to town on various missions on behalf of the society.
On his sixteenth birthday, he says, "I went to meditate alone in the field in accordance with the practice, instituted by the early sages, to set aside time on one's birthday for private contemplation. I secluded myself, recited chapters of Psalms, and meditated upon the various divine names in the Psalms [as I had learned] in the teachings of Kabbalah.
"Thus engrossed, I was completely unaware of my surroundings. Suddenly, I beheld Elijah the Prophet standing before me, a smile on his lips. In Reb Meir's home, and in the company of other hidden tzaddikim, I had, on occasion, revelation[s] of Elijah the Prophet, but never before on my own, so I wondered at the reason for this unexpected vision. I also could not understand the significance of the Prophet's smile.
"Elijah said to me: 'You are struggling with great effort to focus your mind upon the [divine names] ... from the verses of psalms that David, King of Israel composed. On the other hand, the couple who run the inn [where he was staying] are completely unaware of the [unity between God and the Creation] that emerge from their utterances, "Blessed be He forever and ever," expressed by the innkeeper, and "Praised be His holy name" uttered by his wife. Yet these words resonate through all the worlds, causing a greater stir than the unifications configured by the greatest tzaddikim.'
"Elijah the Prophet went on to explain to me the great pleasure that G-d* derives from words of gratitude and praise uttered by men, women, and children, especially by simple folk, and especially when this is done on a consistent basis, reflecting a pure faith, wholesome heart, and a state of perpetual attachment to G-d.
"From that point on I embarked upon a new method of serving G-d: to bring about the speaking of words of praise to G-d. Wherever I went, I would talk to people, inquiring after their health, their children, their livelihood, and they would all reply with expressions of praise to the Almighty ("Thanks to G-d," "Blessed be His Name," and the like), each after his or her manner.
"For many years I pursued this practice. At a conference of the fellowship... it was resolved to adopt this method of divine service, which in turn became the beginning of an approach that stressed the importance of brotherly love toward every Jew, regardless of his or her degree of Torah knowledge or spiritual attainment.
Israel also became a natural healer. In their discussions with him, people would often tell him about plants that could heal, and he put these to use. By the age of 26, people came from all around for treatment and care, and this is how he gained the title Ba'al Shem. More than "Master of the Name" (the literal meaning of the title), this was a designation the people of his day gave to naturalistic healers. His care was different from most healers; more than simply analyzing their physical illnesses, he also sought to heal their ailing spirits. Israel taught them the importance that the Torah places on optimism and joy and encouraged them in their service of God. This twofold approach has been rediscovered today, under the term "Holistic Medicine" (coined by Granger Westbrook) and has again been proven to be much more effective than treating only the physical symptoms. It was for this reason that he became the Ba'al Shem Tov -- the good natural healer. His empathy and kindness healed more than the body; people's souls were healed as well.
Israel Ba'al Shem Tov became a powerful teacher, to whom other scholars came for learning, so his influence became widespread. He taught all those who came to him that the Spirit of God dwells in all parts of creation, even the tiniest or poorest. While the movement he started is claimed by the Hasiddim, it is also alive in all those who study the mystical elements of Judaism -- or Christianity -- today, that is, anyone who can say, with the Psalmist,
Oh, how I love your law!
It is my meditation all day long.
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is always with me....
I hold back my feet from every evil way,
in order to keep your word.
I do not turn away from your ordinances,
for you have taught me.
How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through your precepts I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.
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* In order not to offend God by breaking the commandment that says, "You shall not take the name of God in vain," pious Jews leave out the 'o' and put in a dash instead, so it cannot be pronounced.
Sandra Herrmann is a retired United Methodist pastor living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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StoryShare, October 20, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"To Care or Not to Care" by Frank Ramirez
"Beating the Judge" by Sandra Herrmann
"Practicing the Precepts of God" by Sandra Herrmann
* * * * * * *
To Care or Not to Care
by Frank Ramirez
2 Timothy 3:14--4:5
For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.
-- 2 Timothy 4:4-5
Though he wrote plays and poems 400 years ago, the writings of William Shakespeare are still alive and performed to appreciative audiences around the world. Phrases like "To be or not to be," "To thine own self be true," and "All the world's a stage," as well as hundreds of others, came from his pen and are part of the way we speak.
But what if I told you that almost no one has ever heard one of the greatest speeches Shakespeare ever wrote. Certainly no one heard it performed in his lifetime. Yet that unknown scene and speech challenged the prejudices of his day, and probably his own as well, directly addressing people who, in the words of Paul, "... turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths."
Now to understand what I'm talking about, you have to remember that in Shakespeare's time no one really cared who wrote the script for a play, anymore than most people care who writes an episode for their favorite TV show. It's the show they loved, not the credits. So playwrights didn't treat their scripts as sacred expressions of their souls. They were a means of making money. They also doctored other people's scripts for quick cash, without worrying about getting credit. It's only scholars who centuries later run computer scans for word counts to determine who wrote what.
So about 410 years ago, give or take a year, an acting company tried to knock a failed script called Sir Thomas More into shape for production, and it's clear from the raggedy manuscript that rests in the British Museum that at least six different writers had a hand in the doctoring.
Three pages of that manuscript are in Shakespeare's handwriting. It involves a scene about an anti-immigrant riot in London. In his day Londoners were suspicious of foreigners. They believed all sorts of rumors and the lives of economic, political, and religious refugees in London were therefore precarious at best.
So in Shakespeare's scene ordinary workers begin to riot because they believe that prices for staples are rising because foreigners are ruining the economy. Things quickly get out of control -- that is, until Sir Thomas More quiets them and then appeals to their better natures.
First he asks them to imagine they have had their way and all foreigners are expelled. He asks them -- and us -- to imagine what it must be like to be an outcast, a true refugee. Instead of dividing the world into us and them, with his vivid description Shakespeare invites us to share the sufferings of others.
Imagine that you see the wretched strangers,
Their babies at their backs, with their poor luggage,
Plodding to th'ports and coasts for transportation
...What have you got?
More tells the rioters that what they have got is a country where "insolence and a strong hand should prevail," and that they might find themselves the next victims of public rage. Where, after all, does prejudice stop once we give it rein?
Having calmed them, he asks a deeper question: "What do you do to your souls in doing this?" Might their actions not have an eternal effect? When people are inciting deeper prejudices against outsiders, might they not be imperiling their immortal souls?
These are powerful speeches, but because the censors never gave a license to the play (they feared any description of civil unrest), it was never acted. However it's worth asking -- as Shakespeare seems to have shared many of the prejudices of his day, why did he show such sympathy for a group that his audience members would actively dislike?
Perhaps it's because Shakespeare, who owned homes in his native town of Stratford, had to rent various lodgings during the decades he lived in London while writing, producing, and acting in plays. And between 1603 and 1605, while he was writing this scene, and later other plays casting a more positive light on outsiders, he lived on Silver Street, renting a room from the Mountjoy family from France.
Perhaps living with this family of outsiders, who fashioned headdresses for women, helped him to better understand what it was like to be a stranger in a strange land, to pay higher taxes, be subject to assault without protection, and hear harsh and undeserved words of hatred from the ignorant and hateful.
Paul's second letter is written to his younger friend Timothy who he left to minister in Crete, a land subject to prejudice, misconceptions, and stereotypes throughout the Mediterranean world. Even today the word Cretins is an often unmerited insult. He too asks Timothy and his congregation to remember that people regularly turn away from the truth and cling to stereotypes and myths, whether it is about Cretans, Christians, or the many outsiders in our society. One wonders if it is any different today.
(Want to know more? You can read Shakespeare's addition to Sir Thomas More in books like The Oxford Shakespeare or The Riverside Shakespeare. For more on the years Shakespeare lived with the Mountjoys see The Lodger Shakespeare: His Life on Silver Street, by Charles Nicholl.)
Frank Ramirez has served as a pastor for nearly 30 years in Church of the Brethren congregations in Los Angeles, California; Elkhart, Indiana; and Everett, Pennsylvania. A graduate of LaVerne College and Bethany Theological Seminary, Ramirez is the author of numerous books, articles, and short stories. His CSS titles include Partners in Healing, He Took a Towel, The Bee Attitudes, three volumes of Lectionary Worship Aids, and Breakdown on Bethlehem Street.
Beating the Judge
by Sandra Herrmann
Luke 18:1-8
Hannah was a strong, resilient woman. She had been made so by the circumstances of her life -- really, a number of events that had taught her how to cope. The first was the loss of her firstborn, who died before he was even shaped enough for her to see him as the cramps sent her to the bathroom in time for the blood to gush into the toilet rather than the carpet. She hadn't cried. She wasn't sure she was allowed to cry. The doctor was so calm when she called him to report what was happening that she supposed a clinical response was called for on her part too.
"Just flush it. You don't need to come in unless the cramping goes on into this evening. Let nature take its course."
And of course her husband was the same way. "It's not as though you actually know it was a boy. It was just a blob of tissue, wasn't it?" Rather like an egg, broken in a pan, she responded privately. So she didn't cry, not until years later.
Next there was the loss of her marriage. She'd known he was unfaithful, but she looked past it. After all, they had a daughter now, and a daughter needs a father, someone to look up to, to see as a guide to picking a husband. She wasn't sure she herself qualified. But Lester was a good husband in so many ways, and she was sure her daughter had no idea, until her daughter told her that some of the kids at school were taunting her with the knowledge of what her dad was and who he was doing it with. Then she left. Left him, left town, started a new life in a place where no one had the knowledge to torment her.
That of course meant the loss of her home, the pretty little cottage on a lake where they could swim whenever they wanted, and all of the neighbors laughed over their barbeques from the time the snow was melted in spring until the first snowfall to last in the fall. Most of her friends, who found it easier to stay friends with Lester, who was, after all, right there, while she had gone away. She knew she could have fought him for the house, made him sell and split the profit, but at least this way Renee could visit him and be at the house every other weekend and holiday.
She had nearly lost her daughter in all that mess. Renee hated her dad for cheating, but she loved the lake, the boat, the barbeques, and, it turned out, the boy three houses down. For all that, Renee was willing to forgive and to protest when her father got her in the car to return her to Hannah and the house Renee had not grown up in, away from the boy she loved as only a 14-year-old can love.
Those hard times had passed, of course. Renee had her heart broken more than once by boys who promised undying love but couldn't wait for her to get back from a vacation with her dad before they had found another girlfriend. Hannah sighed with compassion for her daughter, who had never found "Mr. Right" even after moving to the coast for a fresh start. It was while she was gone from the scene that Lester had died one morning on the golf course. He was 53.
So now Hannah was in another contest. Lester had never remarried, but he had been living with a woman for the last five years of his life. He had never, for reasons that baffled everyone, changed the beneficiary on his life insurance. Since Social Security was not about to pay out life benefits to his live-in lover, Beverly sued Hannah over the life insurance, which, it turned out, was a huge policy. It would be enough to pay off all of the bills due from the estate and all of Hannah's bills, plus enough left over to pay off both his and her mortgage. Hannah went to see a lawyer.
The struggle between Beverly and Hannah had gone on for over a year now. Beverly had taken to calling Hannah and screaming at her over the phone, usually after a wee drink or two. She was apparently counting on being taken care of for life and thought that since Lester hadn't managed to stay alive long enough to accomplish that, Hannah had to take on the responsibility. It was ridiculous! At least she thought so until the lawyer said that Beverly had a point that might win her the insurance if the case went to a jury. Her best bet, the attorney had said, would be to make a financial offer to Beverly and see where that got her. At the worst, she needed to avoid a jury trial and ask for a ruling by a judge. So she did. Both. As Renee would say, "Well, that went well -- not."
The judge did not want to find himself between two women struggling over an estate. He said that quite plainly. No, he would not suggest a jury trial, he told Beverly, even if the lawyers thought that would be the best bet for her. Juries could simply not be counted on to be consistent in whom they favored, especially since Beverly and Lester weren't married. A marriage, he said, would have settled the situation, even without a change in beneficiaries. Lester could be seen as a careless man, rather than intending to care for one of the women over the other, but he might have wanted to make up for his cheating by awarding the ex-wife his entire estate. A good lawyer could argue that either way. He suggested she just drop the case.
When Hannah's lawyer talked to the judge, he got the same story. The judge was disinclined to hear the case and thought the women should work it out between themselves. There was nothing to be gained by going to court. No matter what the lawyer said, the judge was adamant. Defeated, she fired the attorney, went home, and cried for an hour.
The next day, she called the judge's office. His secretary said he was in court until three that afternoon, so she went to the office at three o'clock and waited. It was a long wait. The judge finally arrived at 4:20, but he waved her off as he sped past the secretary's desk, and when she stood up, the secretary waved her off as well, and disappeared into the judge's office. She waited and waited. She finally gave up at 6:00 and went home.
The next day, she called her lawyer. He said that this was "pretty standard" for this particular judge. She would be better off to go talk to Beverly. But Hannah knew better. She and Beverly couldn't talk for ten minutes without shouting. If they got into this discussion, they might come to blows. She went to get her hair done, bought a new suit, and headed back to the judge's office. He wasn't in. She found out that he usually didn't come back to the office between sessions, so she went over to the courtroom. She sat in the back of the gallery area until court was dismissed and walked up to the judge as he was heading for his chambers. When he saw her, she could have sworn he sped up, turning his head away. But she started walking faster too and caught him before he could get inside.
He was still adamant. "You two ladies," he said, "need to solve this problem yourselves. I've told you, I don't want to be involved in your problem."
"You don't want to be involved?" He tried to hush her, but it only infuriated her more. She raised her voice, deliberately, and repeated her question. "What kind of a judge 'doesn't want to become involved in a matter of law?' " She took a deep breath and started in again about how her husband had never married Beverly, and that he had never changed the insurance beneficiary, and she had never made him sell the house and split the profits, and that she really needed the money, but would be willing to give some to Beverly, if only this problem could be settled.
The judge interrupted her. "I've told you already, if you can do that kind of negotiation, work it out with the other woman."
"The Other Woman!" Hannah shouted. She had started shaking, and she could feel her hands clenching into fists. "That Other Woman has a name, and she -- Beverly -- needs to get things settled too! We can't go on like this! You have to judge this case, JUDGE!" Her fists came up, waist high, as she tried to control herself. She was nearly in tears, but she felt certain that would only go against her with this man. So she stood there, gasping for air, trying to unclench her hands, to keep from striking out.
The judge stood there, alarmed. What was with this woman he wondered? What could have caused this outburst? Was she a danger? His hand felt for the doorknob. But she had her hand on his, holding on to him, despite his judicial robes, despite being in his courtroom. Had she no respect for his position? His gaze swept the courtroom, looking for help.
The bailiff saw the judge's plea for help and started in his direction, but he had barely gotten halfway to the door when the woman standing with the judge started shouting again. It was something about a case that the judge needed to hear. The bailiff shook his head. Didn't she know better? She sure didn't know this judge that was for sure. He didn't give a darn about anybody or anything! He decided to slow down and see what happened if she saw him coming. He'd just as soon not have to wrestle her to the ground.
But Hannah was past caring who heard her or what anyone thought of her. She was desperate, frightened, and past any caring. She needed help, and she needed the constant strain to end. She opened her mouth and took a deep breath, but the judge put up his hand.
"Stop right there," he demanded. "Listen to me for a minute. I realize that you aren't going to give up. Get that oth--," he stopped as she turned red in the face again. "Get Beverly and set up an appointment with my secretary when you both can meet. We'll settle this thing. Bring your documents. Her too. Now are you satisfied?"
"No. I won't be satisfied until this mess is settled. But that's a good start." She smiled, nodding her head. The judge sighed and slid into his chambers.
Practicing the Precepts of God
by Sandra Herrmann
Psalm 119:97-104
The Ba'al Shem Tov was a rabbi who lived in Eastern Europe in the 18th century. He began studying the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) when he was three years old. This probably sounds a bit bizarre to modern Americans, but Torah study in the 17th century was often begun by devout parents before a child was able to read. Such education was, however, confined to those with leisure time or the money to hire tutors, which meant that the sons of the poor were not learning the things that young Israel (as his parents had named him) was learning. How they managed to begin his education is unknown, because they were definitely not rich, but they managed to give him a start in learning that stayed with him. This is a good thing, because they both died when he was five years old.
The Jewish community in his town took over the care of the young orphan. The people of his village, like so many others in Eastern Europe, had suffered a pogrom (a slaughter of Jews and the destruction of many homes and theft of their belongings) and were still reeling from the aftermath of shock and devastation that followed. Many who had had a good position and income were reduced to grinding poverty and menial labor.
Furthermore, there had been a man named Shabtai Zvi, who led thousands of despairing Jews to believe that he was the long-awaited Messiah, come to set them free. However, he then converted to Islam under pressure from the Ottoman Turks, leaving the faith of those who had hope in him to a worse condition than when he had found them.
A great many children were forced to go to work at the age of five or six so they could help to support their families. Israel, however, was able to continue his studies because of the commitment of the villagers to care for him. Even more important, he was free to spend time meditating on what he had read and to spend hours in prayer. There were also several rabbis who saw the intuitive nature of the boy, and who spent many hours discussing the precepts of the Talmud (a Jewish book of writings about the law of God) with him.
One day while young Israel was walking in the woods, he met a man who was deep in prayer. Israel sat with him, and they discussed the teachings of the Talmud and of the Kabbalah, a mystical approach to Judaism. This man, Israel said, was a Tsaddik, one of the "36 hidden masters" who, though they were learned scholars, pretended to be peddlers or laborers, so that they might talk with and educate the average Jew in their mystical faith. Though this unnamed "teacher and master," as Israel called him, never asked for alms, yet was always able to feed the two of them. After three years of this, the unidentified man introduced Israel to Rabbi Meir, another mystical Jewish teacher, who took over his education. Three years later, Rabbi Meir, in turn, passed him to Rabbi Adam Ba'al Shem, who furthered his education. Since Rabbi Adam had earned the title of Ba'al Shem, we know that he was a healer, because that is what this title designates.
In this way, the young Israel became a visionary as well as a fine scholar. At the conclusion of his years with the two rabbis, he was accepted into the society of the hidden tzaddikim and again began journeying from town to town on various missions on behalf of the society.
On his sixteenth birthday, he says, "I went to meditate alone in the field in accordance with the practice, instituted by the early sages, to set aside time on one's birthday for private contemplation. I secluded myself, recited chapters of Psalms, and meditated upon the various divine names in the Psalms [as I had learned] in the teachings of Kabbalah.
"Thus engrossed, I was completely unaware of my surroundings. Suddenly, I beheld Elijah the Prophet standing before me, a smile on his lips. In Reb Meir's home, and in the company of other hidden tzaddikim, I had, on occasion, revelation[s] of Elijah the Prophet, but never before on my own, so I wondered at the reason for this unexpected vision. I also could not understand the significance of the Prophet's smile.
"Elijah said to me: 'You are struggling with great effort to focus your mind upon the [divine names] ... from the verses of psalms that David, King of Israel composed. On the other hand, the couple who run the inn [where he was staying] are completely unaware of the [unity between God and the Creation] that emerge from their utterances, "Blessed be He forever and ever," expressed by the innkeeper, and "Praised be His holy name" uttered by his wife. Yet these words resonate through all the worlds, causing a greater stir than the unifications configured by the greatest tzaddikim.'
"Elijah the Prophet went on to explain to me the great pleasure that G-d* derives from words of gratitude and praise uttered by men, women, and children, especially by simple folk, and especially when this is done on a consistent basis, reflecting a pure faith, wholesome heart, and a state of perpetual attachment to G-d.
"From that point on I embarked upon a new method of serving G-d: to bring about the speaking of words of praise to G-d. Wherever I went, I would talk to people, inquiring after their health, their children, their livelihood, and they would all reply with expressions of praise to the Almighty ("Thanks to G-d," "Blessed be His Name," and the like), each after his or her manner.
"For many years I pursued this practice. At a conference of the fellowship... it was resolved to adopt this method of divine service, which in turn became the beginning of an approach that stressed the importance of brotherly love toward every Jew, regardless of his or her degree of Torah knowledge or spiritual attainment.
Israel also became a natural healer. In their discussions with him, people would often tell him about plants that could heal, and he put these to use. By the age of 26, people came from all around for treatment and care, and this is how he gained the title Ba'al Shem. More than "Master of the Name" (the literal meaning of the title), this was a designation the people of his day gave to naturalistic healers. His care was different from most healers; more than simply analyzing their physical illnesses, he also sought to heal their ailing spirits. Israel taught them the importance that the Torah places on optimism and joy and encouraged them in their service of God. This twofold approach has been rediscovered today, under the term "Holistic Medicine" (coined by Granger Westbrook) and has again been proven to be much more effective than treating only the physical symptoms. It was for this reason that he became the Ba'al Shem Tov -- the good natural healer. His empathy and kindness healed more than the body; people's souls were healed as well.
Israel Ba'al Shem Tov became a powerful teacher, to whom other scholars came for learning, so his influence became widespread. He taught all those who came to him that the Spirit of God dwells in all parts of creation, even the tiniest or poorest. While the movement he started is claimed by the Hasiddim, it is also alive in all those who study the mystical elements of Judaism -- or Christianity -- today, that is, anyone who can say, with the Psalmist,
Oh, how I love your law!
It is my meditation all day long.
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
for it is always with me....
I hold back my feet from every evil way,
in order to keep your word.
I do not turn away from your ordinances,
for you have taught me.
How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through your precepts I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.
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* In order not to offend God by breaking the commandment that says, "You shall not take the name of God in vain," pious Jews leave out the 'o' and put in a dash instead, so it cannot be pronounced.
Sandra Herrmann is a retired United Methodist pastor living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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StoryShare, October 20, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
