An old Rabbi once asked his pupils how they could tell when the night had ended and the day had begun.
"Could it be," asked one of the students, "when you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it's a sheep or a dog?"
"No," answered the rabbi.
Another asked, "Is it when you can look at a tree in the distance and tell whether it's a fig tree or a peach tree?"
"No," answered the rabbi.
"Then when is it?" the pupils demanded.
"It is when you can look on the face of any man or woman and see that it is your sister or brother. Because if you cannot see this, it is still night." (from 'A Hasidic tale')
As expressed by poet/writer Suzy Kassem:
"Nobody can turn you into a slave unless you allow them. Nobody can make you afraid of anything, unless you allow them. Nobody can tell you to do something wrong, unless you allow them. God never created you to be a slave, man did. God never created division or set up any borders between brothers, man did. God never told you hurt or kill another, man did. So why is man your god, and not the Creator?"
The Scripture is also consistent in reminding that we are one family with God Himself as our one Father. As the prophets intoned:
"Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another By profaning the covenant of the fathers?" (Malachi 2:10)
Yet the best definition of true brotherhood that anybody could say is what Jesus told his disciples: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).
And he followed his own words. He laid down his life for all of us.
| RDH
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