Before we recite the prayer for our country I wanted to just take a moment to share one more insight from our parsha this morning. Moses, one of the greatest speakers and leaders of our generation, calls himself an arel sefatayim, which we usually translate as a stutterer, as someone who gets tongue tied. But Rav Simcha Bunim of Pesischa looks at that phrase, and remembers a fascinating incident that changed his entire understanding of that phrase.
He teaches about Rav Kofel Reich of Budapest, who was known as one of the best speakers and teachers of his generation. Every sentence out of his mouth was like a string of pearls. It is told that once his son came to visit him and found him hard at work preparing a drasha. He was surprised. He asked his father incredulously, “you also need to spend so much time preparing your words?” “Let me tell you, my son,” Rav Kofel responded, “all of my preparations are not about what to say, rather, about what not to say. He taught that the verse, “Ani Aral Sefatayim,” in the aramaic Targum Onklus translation reads not as “I am a stutterer,” but rather as “Ana Yakir Memalel,” “I am a careful, respectful, wordcrafter.” I sift through my words, take control of my mouth, and am very careful with what I say,”
The best speaker is one who doesn’t toss words around, but who makes each word matter – someone who doesn’t mince words and who speaks clearly and from the heart.
One of the best examples in the history of our country of someone who did that was Martin Luther King, JR. Who we remember and honor this weekend. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, he wrote:
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”
What would he say to all of us about our country today? What would he say to the residents of the Twin Cities in Minnesota? As a pastor and preacher, King got so much of his inspiration from the Bible. People see their own revolution stories in the Exodus story. People see their own stories in the Jewish story.
He continued in his letter, “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”
We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country’s antireligious laws.
I listen to each one of these words today and they shine with the clarity of pearls. As we recite the words of the Prayer for our Country today, let us say them carefully. Let us try to mean what they say. Bless all the inhabitants of our country with your spirit. May we be an influence for good throughout the world. May justice and freedom abide in our midst.
