Sermons & Stories

Shabbat Shalom!

New research indicates that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah that we read about in this week’s Torah portion may have been based on a historical event. After years of research, Scientists believe over 3600 years ago a meteor or comet exploded about two and a half miles above the city of Tall el-Hammam. The description of events is quite apocalyptic – temperatures rising to 3600 degrees Fahrenheit, a 740 mile per hour shockwave – Not one of the thousands of people or animals would have survived.  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/destruction-of-city-by-space-rock-may-have-inspired-biblical-story-of-sodom-180978734/.

Scientists stress that Sodom and Gomorrah may not have been Tall el-Hammam. Regardless, the idea that such an extraordinary story was most likely based on a real event makes us wonder about other Biblical accounts.

This new insight into history is fascinating, but when it comes to Sodom and Gomorrah in Jewish tradition, there is no sense of wonder. Sodom and Gomorrah were evil. When Abraham convinces God to seek out just ten righteous people, there’s no success. Our rabbis offer stories describing a culture of wickedness including theft, murder, and various forms of abuse. There’s no one suggesting that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were just misunderstood. The condemnation is unequivocal. Our tradition understands that these people were simply awful, terrible, evil people.

Sometimes, it’s really that straightforward. I hope we have reached a global consensus that genocide in all forms is appalling and unacceptable. Whether we are talking about the Holocaust or Rwanda or Bosnia or Cambodia or Armenia… any attempt to extinguish a people is completely wrong. The same goes for slavery or sexual violence as a weapon in war or other atrocities that justify or encourage treating any group of people as less than human.

Then there are a lot of things that are complicated and the opposite of straightforward – like teaching our children. It’s not easy and unfortunately, a recent law passed by the Texas legislature, House Bill 3979, has made that vital task much messier.

This bill is at the root of the most recent issues in Carroll ISD. It’s an ambiguous law that is hard to understand. And due to circumstances like trying to figure out what to do with COVID, masks, online learning, regular preparations for the year, and the need to fully understand House Bill 4545 relating to accelerated learning for struggling students – school districts across the state did not receive any real guidance on HB 3979.

The author of the bill, Representative Steve Toth, described the law’s intent this way: “You can’t teach that one race is better than the other. You can't teach that one gender is better than the other. You can’t discriminate either… and say that one race or one gender is responsible for the ills of the past.” https://www.keranews.org/education/2021-08-23/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-a-texas-bill-that-aims-to-ban-critical-race-theory Regardless of the intention, the problem is that there’s a lot of confusion about how the bill should be interpreted and applied.

It does state that if teachers choose to discuss current events or controversial issues, they are supposed to present diverse perspectives without supporting one perspective over another. I read several articles showing concern that this could be a way for Creationism to be taught alongside evolution. I’ve only seen that expressed as a concern at this point. More immediate is that even though the law doesn’t appear to say anything about what books can be in the school or a classroom library, books have become a major source of uncertainty for parents, teachers, administrators, and school boards. Libraries are being scrutinized, individual books have been called out, and people are nervous. It could just be an issue of how the law was rolled out. It’s possible that guidance from the Texas Education Agency is coming and will help make this a non-issue. For the moment, it’s a real cause of concern.

Another messy issue that may be more difficult to clear up is that in the requirements for history or social studies courses it states that no teacher shall require, or make part of a course that any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex. That’s the language of the law, which is hard to understand.

It appears to say that a teacher can’t teach about or make an assignment where someone could feel uncomfortable based on their race or sex. I’ve thought about this a lot since Ms. Gina Peddy’s apology to me last week. When this law passed, I knew that some confused educator or legislator would make such a comment. It was going to happen to someone. I knew it. And what she said was awful. Her apology was sincere. We have experienced Holocaust deniers in this community. Ms. Peddy is not one of them. But what I didn’t know and did not anticipate was that she told me that almost every year she has a parent that will refuse to have their child read a book about the Holocaust because they don’t believe the Holocaust happened. Almost every year.

My concern is that this law will give such a family cover. Would it be permissible to avoid learning about the Holocaust because a family could claim it would cause psychological distress on account of one’s race? I don’t know if it will be possible to apply the law in this way, but the problem is that the plain language of the law seems to allow it, along with a number of absurd possibilities.

Teaching our children has never been easy. It’s never as straightforward as saying that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were evil or that many horrible, unfathomable events in history are unequivocally wrong. And it appears that this law has made the job of teaching our children much more uncertain and much harder. One teacher I spoke with today told me that the teachers she knows are really struggling. I don’t think that’s a surprise to anyone.

So while I encourage you to join our conversation on Wednesday with Cheryl Drazin, I also want to encourage you to find a way to offer some kindness to the teachers you know. All the difficulty is just one more thing they have to deal with right now. And they are struggling every day to help our children learn and grow and discover their potential. So regardless of the district, show them some support and appreciation. I can guarantee that at this moment they need it.

Shabbat Shalom.

Text of HB 3979: https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/87R/billtext/pdf/HB03979I.pdf