Tristan DeBaere [April 30, 2022]Leviticus 16:9-16
Welcome to this Important day in my life. I would like to thank you for coming to this service today and for supporting me along the way.
Have you ever been blamed for something you didn't do?
How did it make you feel?
In society, often when times are hard there is more scapegoating and people getting blamed for things they didn’t do. This has happened to me. I have gotten blamed even when it wasn’t me. There are many more people who are blamed for things they didn’t do. It can be an entire group of people who are wrongly blamed. Many people blame minorities, immigrants, and those who are vulnerable for problems in our society. And this has been going on for many centuries.This is called scapegoating, and it is what my Torah portion is about.
Did you know that a term that we use every day actually comes from the Torah? In my Torah portion, Acharei Mot, from Leviticus 16, verses 9-16, Aaron, Moses’ brother and the High Priest, called forth a goat, and asked all of the Israelites to put their sins onto the goat. Aaron then sent the goat off into the wilderness. He didn’t kill the goat, but rather, the goat, a real goat who was literally the scapegoat, took the people’s sins out into the wilderness. This freed the people of their sins. This is the actual origin of the term scapegoating and it’s in my Torah portion!
So is scapegoating today the same as it was thousands of years ago when it was first explained in the Torah? Today, scapegoating is when you blame someone for something they didn't do. In ancient times, the people cast their sins into the wilderness on the back of a goat. It seems pretty harmless for the goat, who basically got to live freely, unaware of the sins on its back! But humans are different; it’s more harmful for us than for a goat who gets to live in the wild, unaware of what’s going on.
Today, scapegoating is the opposite of taking responsibility for what you do. Instead of sending our sins away with a goat, people blame other people for things they do wrong. People can do this to make themselves feel better about themselves or when they can’t take responsibility for their actions. Sometimes scapegoating happens when there is a crisis or problems of others. Sometimes we blame people when it might have been a misunderstanding or someone who is just mad at you, you also might have been scapegoated. I think that it is wrong to blame someone else for something we did, and it’s important to be honest with ourselves and others. I believe it is better to take responsibility and work to make a difference and make life better for all people.
This has happened to the Jews throughout our history, who have often been scapegoated. We have survived many things such as haters, anti-Semitism, and of course, the Holocaust. People normally scapegoat the minority groups and not the larger groups with more followers, because they won't get much backlash. The Jews are a minority group and often were blamed when times were rough. Other minorities such as Native Americans, people with disabilities, people of color, LGTBQ and many more are targeted as minorities. This makes it easier for people to blame us. But it can be dangerous to scapegoat, think of the Holocaust and other wars. George Floyd was killed because he was African American. Native Americans had their land taken away from them and still struggle today.
Jewish tradition believes that we need to take responsibility for our own actions and not blame other people when we make a mistake. Judaism believes that when you become a Bar Mitzvah like I am doing today, that you need to own up to your mistakes and not scapegoat other people when things go wrong. An ancient rabbi, Rabbi Eh-lee-eh-zer said: A parent is responsible for his/her child until the age of thirteen, at which point the parent must say: Baruch sheptarani mei onsho shel zeh, “Blessed is the One who has now free-d me from the responsibility of this child.” At age 13, a child becomes an adult and becomes responsible for his or her own actions.
How do we move forward? How do we become more accountable for our actions and stop blaming people for the bad things we do ourselves? How do we stop scapegoating others? Awareness is the first step. For example, if we never knew about the Holocaust then we never could have stopped it because we didn't know it was happening. It takes people to stand up and speak out, as difficult as it is sometimes, to make a change. If we spread awareness about a subject that needs attention then more people can help and history will not repeat itself. In my Torah portion, the scapegoat is a way that people let go of their sins, but first they need to acknowledge and name what they’ve done wrong. This becomes a way to move forward toward a better place and a better world.
Today I am becoming a Bar Mitzvah, and I have learned from the process about the importance of taking responsibility in life, and maybe that’s what it means to be an adult. So the message I am sharing with you today is that If you do something bad, It isn't ok to blame anybody, and certainly not the minority group just because they are an easy target. Instead we should all take responsibility for the actions we have done, and know that mistakes and hard times are just part of life. And just like Rabbi Hillel said, “in a place where people are not acting their best, we need to rise up and be a kind and honorable person,” to try to do our best for ourselves and for others.
Shabbat Shalom.