COMMENTARY: `Who shall be confronted by fire and who by water …’

c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Last month on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the haunting, insightful prayer “Oonatanah Tokef” was recited in synagogues. That ancient prayer includes these words: “… who among us in the New Year shall live and who shall die … who shall be confronted by fire and who by water […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Last month on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the haunting, insightful prayer “Oonatanah Tokef” was recited in synagogues. That ancient prayer includes these words: “… who among us in the New Year shall live and who shall die … who shall be confronted by fire and who by water …”

It did not take long for the dreaded fire to arrive.


Nearly 1 million people in California have left their threatened homes to escape the rampaging flames. Among the evacuees are my nephew, niece and their three children who live near San Diego.

On the firestorm’s third day, our anxious family received a welcome e-mail:

“We’re fine. We evacuated yesterday and are staying at a friend’s apartment. … It’s kind of hard to tell from the news what’s going on in our area, but it still seems to be ok. The air quality was horrible at home and after we left there was a mandatory evacuation from there. I’m glad we got out when we did. Crazy, huh? It feels very surreal. All the things we really care about are packed into three cars.”

While initial reports from California indicate an extraordinary loss of property and nature, the loss of life has been minimal. That was not true two years ago in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast when many lives were lost to Hurricane Katrina. Comparisons are already being made between the responses to that disaster and the current catastrophe in California.

Any comparison must focus on the critical issues of race and economics. All Americans, especially our elected officials, need to face the unpleasant and inescapable fact there was a vast qualitative and quantitative difference between the responses to Katrina and the California fires.

We are long past hearing and accepting the lame excuses offered by Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials following Katrina. Their appalling incompetence is permanently part of our national memory bank. We can neither forgive neglect nor forget indifference.

Religious leaders need to emphasize the biblical commandment requiring fairness in treatment of the rich and the poor: “You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; you shall not respect the person of the poor, nor favor the person of the mighty; but you shall judge and treat your neighbor in righteousness.”

Once I learned my family members were safe, I began thinking about the last sentence of Judy’s e-mail. What, indeed, are the things we “really care about”?

It is a sobering, worthwhile exercise to compile a list of items we would pack if forced to flee our homes. We would soon discover there is precious little that is actually essential to human existence: only food, clothing and shelter.


But most of us would scoop up our pets, family photos, computers, financial records, stamp collections, children’s toys, a faded wedding dress or a treasured piece of grandmother’s jewelry.

But suppose we do not have “three cars” at our disposal to carry away “what we really care about.” And suppose we do not have “a friend’s apartment” to use as a haven of refuge. What then?

Living in our carefully constructed spiritual bubbles that are free of natural disasters, religious people vigorously debate the fine points of creedal assertions and nuanced tenets of faith. Sadly, religious groups have historically fought, tortured, expelled and frequently killed members of other faith communities in the certain belief they alone possess God’s truth. And not surprisingly, men and women of the same faith community often fight with one another.

But are such acts of violence and theological nitpicking “the things we really care about”? I hope not.

Hospitality, not theological purity, is the highest ideal of religious belief. In Genesis, when Abraham and Sarah see three weary strangers approach their tent in need of shelter, food and water, the biblical patriarch “runs” to offer his family’s hospitality. Jewish commentators placed extraordinary emphasis on Abraham’s eagerness and speed in meeting the wanderers’ specific needs.

That spirit of generous hospitality was absent two years ago. One hopes we have learned our lesson and today we emulate not our government, but rather Abraham as we “run” to help the fires’ victims.


(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

KRE/PH END RUDIN750 words

A photo of Rabbi Rudin is available via https://religionnews.com.

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