Synagogue Sermon
For the Love of Jews (1955)
Many noble qualities have contributed to the historical cohesion and survival of the world Jewish community, despite its dispersion in exile over the face of the earth. Among these qualities, such as common religion, customs, traditions, ethnic similarity, language, home life, and so on, one stands out for its beauty, steadfastness, and its depth – ahavat yisroel, the love of one Jew for another. It is a bond, an affection, a love that transcends differences in color, language, social standing, local customs, and even opinions. It serves as the mortar for the world Jewish community, that undefinable something which always makes one Jew feel a sense of kinship with any other, which makes brothers of two men though one be fair and the other dark-skinned, though one speak only Arabic and the other only English, though one wear a hat and the other a turban and the third nothing at all.This Love of Israel is one of those enduring qualities of our people’s existence which our Rabbis found in their symbolic interpretation of that profound and sacred song we read this morning, the shir ha’shirim. Our Sages noticed that Solomon, in this holy and charming song, makes frequent reference to that fruit known as a nut. El ginas egoz yaradti, I went down to the nut-garden, says the lover in this religious poem. Why, they wondered, only this kind of garden and this kind of fruit? Since the entire poem is a symbolic dialogue between G-d and Israel, is there not something deeply significant in these words and in this metaphor? Yes, our Rabbis answered, there is a reason for this particular poetic image, for it is the symbol of Israel. Other fruits are soft-skinned, while the nut is a hard-shelled fruit. But other fruits, if placed in a basket, are such that if you remove one of them, the others are unaffected and unshaken. But take this hard-shelled nut, which seems so pugnacious and individualistic, and place them in a basket, and try to remove one of them – and the entire batch of…
