The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - Bridging Divides: A Rabbi's Approach to Peace

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

An insightful conversation with Yael Splansky, the Senior Rabbi of Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto's historic first synagogue. Amidst a time of emotional turmoil within her community, Rabbi Splansky faces unprecedented challenges in her rabbinical leadership. She tells us how she works to foster peace and resilience during these trying times.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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from rabbinical school. Holy Blossom Temple is actually the first synagogue of the city of Toronto founded in 1856, so older than Canada. So I would say since October 7th it's been a very trying time on many levels. The focus of our work has had to change. You know, during the pandemic we learned how to pivot. Well, this is another pivot. And we're finding strength in community. We're finding strength in friends and allies. And we also draw strength from our history knowing that as a people that has been discriminated against over centuries in many lands we have stores of strength to draw from from our ancestors and we tell those

stories we retell those stories we study our own history and that can also be a great source of strength. We have to spend a lot more time now on practical things like security, right? My friends at churches locally say their security budget is zero dollars. We didn't need as much before and now we really have to pay attention to those systems to keep our people safe. How else has my work changed? Much of what I teach and preach now is about resilience, is about coming back to our core

values, knowing what is the Jewish way, how to find our way forward, how to know who we are and to know where we come from and to know to whom we belong, to know what we stand for, to know what we won't stand for. All those questions need to be asked again and there isn't just one answer to any one of those questions but those are the conversations that our people are having now. So I think it's very important at this time for people to know who they are and to be able to articulate what's important to them and what they value. And in Jewish life, there is a constant tension between the particular and the universal.

So what do I mean by that? We are a particular people. We are a very small people. And we have to take care of one another. And so it's only natural that whoever you are, you take care of the people closest to you first, your family, your town, your group. That's only natural. But of course, in Judaism, we never stop there

because we believe that we are responsible for the entire world. At the beginning of our Torah, the very first chapter says that human beings, every human being, is created in the image of God. And so we are accountable for one another. And I think if there's one thing I wish more people knew about Judaism is that, yes, we do have a special allegiance to one another as a people.

It never stops there. And we are constantly thinking about how we can contribute to the world through generosity, through research, through the arts, through academia. And I think Jews throughout our history and across the lands have shown themselves to be dedicated to a wider purpose and a greater mission beyond our own particular people. I would love for Canadians to realize

that they each have a role to play right now. Most Canadians don't like what they see in hateful rhetoric, in violence, and they're really upset by it. I've heard people say, I don't recognize my city, I don't recognize my country, that Canada was always a peaceful place before, and now I'm frightened by the news of the day. So what is the response? It's a grassroots movement. We cannot leave everything to the police and the courts and the elected officials.

We need parents and teachers and grandparents and neighbors and faith leaders to be able to say to one another, I think a line has been crossed here and I'm not comfortable with what you just said. Or, you know, a small act is not a small act if it's hateful. It's actually enormous. We shouldn't let anything slide now. We have to do it in a way, of course,

that doesn't publicly shame anyone. That's very important. But privately and rooted in relationship, we need to be able to look each other in the eye and say, this is not okay. This is actually taking us down a very dangerous road. And because I care about you, I'm going to help to draw you back to a path that is more peaceful and more about compassion and righteousness.

Some of the people I have the best conversations with these days are taxi cab drivers. They see everything. And they've heard everything. And once they hear that I'm a rabbi, all of a sudden, they tell me their truth about Canada, about other places they've lived. They're saying things like there's one humanity, and that many being newcomers to this country have said they know when someone is acting humanely and they know when someone is

not they can read people very quickly I think it's a it's a skill that they've developed through their life experiences and through their work. And so they sort of have a bird's eye view on our culture and our society, and they can see things more clearly than some of us can. We've lost the skill set for thinking slowly, thinking carefully, taking a relationship and build trust and listen carefully and integrate new ideas into your thinking. We've lost that. How can we de-escalate the violence that we've seen in the last number of months here in Canada, really coast to coast?

I believe that everyone has the right to demonstrate peaceably. That's core for our democracy. And I believe that there should be a low threshold for accepting hate speech and violence. I really think we should be able as a society to draw those lines. And again, they can't only be drawn by the police and by the courts. It has to come from a grassroots response where people are self-correcting one another. To say, you know, for faith leaders to say to their people, this is not acceptable. For elected officials to say, we will not stand for this. The police may have reported on this that in recent months they're more willing to make arrests than they were before and that came from somewhere,

that directive, that instruction, that was a decision that was made. And so I think part of what we've seen over the last number of months is leadership trying to decide where that threshold is, right? What is permissible and what is considered to be dangerous and even criminal. Whether you are people of faith or people without faith, we all have a role to play now. And I feel very strongly that we shouldn't let anything slide. If there's something that happens in our child's school, we need to make it our concern. If there's something that happens at our neighborhood coffee shop, we need to make it our concern. If there's something in our workplace that we overhear, you know, just a flippant comment that is hateful, we can't let that slide because that then becomes the culture.

That we should be very tolerant of our diversity and celebrate it, but we should not tolerate intolerance. And I think that has to come from everyone in every corner of Canadian society now. Thank you.