Bechukotai: #BringBackOurBlessings

I've been thinking a lot, these past few weeks, about the awful situation in Nigeria. Over 250 young girls kidnapped by a terrorist group, and no luck, thus far, in finding them. It has sparked international outcry, with

celebrities, politicians, and average people around the world all shouting the slogan, 'Bring Back Our Girls!' Over 1,000,000 tweets of the slogan as a hashtag, and pictures all over the internet of people holding signs. And back and forth the debate also rages, about whether slogans and hashtags achieve anything, or whether we should send in our military to solve this problem 'once and for all.' Looking at the blessings and curses listed in this week's parashah - shouted at us, in fact, by the Torah - has really left me thinking about this issue a great deal.

What is the solution? IS there a solution?? On the one hand, we have mobilized the world's attention. That is amazing. A few years ago, no one would have known about atrocities halfway around the globe, and surely no one would have reacted. Though on the other hand, what is this campaign achieving? If we really

CARED about these girls, wouldn't we DO something more active, more aggressive? The answer, I'm afraid, is never so simple as to hold the solution in one hand OR the other. Are we really so short-sighted as to believe that even our military intervention would SOLVE this problem? Are the members of Boko Haram the only terrorists out there, the only fundamentalist psychopaths who think God condones their horrendous treatment of women? It's painful to admit, but we cannot rid the world of evil; either by shouting, or shooting, it out of existence.

But let us also not turn on one another, and decry or belittle someone else's efforts to connect to this painful tragedy. Who's to say what will

work and what won't? Even Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe - a renowned activist from Uganda, who works every day with girls like those kidnapped in Nigeria - told Stephen Colbert in a recent interview that we need to 'shout as loud as we can,' and that the hashtag campaign is indeed putting pressure on the Nigerian government AND on the terrorists themselves. Every effort to affect change, and to combat evil, is helpful and productive. There is no 'easy' solution out there, so it helps no one when we turn on each other.

Our parashah outlines a series of blessings for observing God's commandments, and then a long list of curses for rejecting or ignoring those same mitzvot. Faithfulness will lead to self-confidence and military prowess: "Five of you shall give chase

to a hundred, and a hundred of you shall give chase to ten thousand; your enemies shall fall before you by the sword." (Leviticus 26:8) The absence of faith, however, will lead to the exact opposite: "The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight. Fleeing as though from the sword, they shall fall though none pursues." (26:36) The difference between a blessing and a curse is only perspective; self-confidence or a lack thereof. So too in today's world, with the plague of terrorism and fundamentalism that we all endure. Eradicating evil may be more than what any one of us can accomplish alone. But standing together, voicing our outrage, and yes, sometimes uniting together in military action, is no small achievement. And we have to believe in our own ability to affect change.

Maybe it's not enough to hold up a sign. But for the sake of our families,
our own daughters, and for our humanity, we still must do SOMETHING! And taking action, in any form, can change our perspective, and hopefully - please God, soon - lead to us removing the curses of hate in our society, and replacing them with a life of blessing for us all.

Amen.

Photos in this blog post:
People holding up signs as part of the 'Bring Back Our Girls' campaign: Michelle Obama, Malala Yousafzai, Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs, Amy Poehler, and me.