"READING THE WRITINGS"
Lessons for Living in Every Season

Part 3

'LIVING IN THE LIONS' DEN"

A Sermon for Kol Nidre Eve 5763
September 15, 2002








Rabbi Edward Paul Cohn
Temple Sinai
New Orleans, Louisiana


Ah, Aunt Judy. Yes, I remember that night. It was summer, I figure, 45 years ago. My cousins and I were waiting to hear you read us a bedtime story. You see, each night she would open the Golden Book of Bible Stories (Old Testament) and read us a chapter of that large book with its color pictures.

I'll never forget the night she read us "Daniel in the Lions' Den." She had taken us to the National Zoo in Washington that very day. We had seen real lions only hours before. Little did any of us know-certainly not my Aunt Judy (now gone many years)-her choice of a story on that night would some day inspire a text for Kol Nidre Eve: "Living in the Lions' Den."

"Reading the Writings"-K'tuvin-the third section of our Hebrew Scriptures: first, there's Torah, then the Prophets, and now The Writings. The Writings, that's our theme for these High Holy Days. The author of Daniel, which is included in The Writings, wrote the latest material to become part of our Bible. It is unique in two other ways: Daniel is apocalyptic (otherworldly) and it's also written in Aramaic instead of Hebrew. Although his story purports to be set in 7th century BCE in Babylonia, the wicked, ruthless king described in Daniel is actually none other than Antiochus-the evil villain of Chanukah, who lived much, much later, in the 2nd century BCE.

You see, the author of Daniel was intent on inspiring hope within those Jews who were daring to keep their Judaism despite Antiochus' bloodthirsty decrees which outlawed our faith-its worship and its observance such as circumcision and dietary laws. Daniel's story was addressed to Jews living in fearful times. It's a fine message for those of us who still find ourselves in a fearsome world.

According to the story, as Aunt Judy read it, Daniel-the king's favorite advisor, had nevertheless somehow managed to get himself into trouble with his boss, thanks to a group of jealous coworkers. These co-workers were behind the promulgation of a new law that specified that anyone who was found not praying to the king would be tossed into the lion's den. Even though the king was fond of Daniel, he most reluctantly had to uphold his own decrees.

Well, as you can imagine, that king, his name was Darius, spent a sleepless night, dreading what had become of his good buddy, Daniel. So did we kids in our pajamas, as we listened to my aunt read us that story. As the events unfolded, we heard how, with morning's first light, the king rushed off to the lion's den, called out to Daniel, with great joy hearing Daniel calling back and reassuring him:
God sent me an angel who shut the mouths of the lions so that they did not injure me, in as much as I was found innocent by God, nor have I, O King, done you injury.
In those simpler times, we kids were so happy and excited to hear my Aunt tell us how Daniel was safe and released, and how Daniel's enemies took his place in the lions' den. The lions, sad to say, having spent a long and frustrating night with their jaws sewed up and closed, quickly broke their fast. Unlike Daniel, the lions were not vegetarians!

So now, from Aunt Judy's story to this Kol Nidre Eve. Well, one would expect Daniel to have been scared stiff, huh? But wait; he was fearless. The lions, for him, were like affectionate pussy cats. But for Jews throughout the ages, this night of Kol Nidre, has been one of suspense and awesome trepidation. There is on this Holy eve a temptation to see ourselves as children caught by their "Heavenly" parent in the act of misbehaving and foolishly thinking that we might even manage to cover it up. Parents always have a way of finding out despite our cleverest efforts to keep them clueless, don't they?

But such is really not the authentic mood of this night. We are not acting out here Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Because we are the children of a loving God-a God who knows our frailties and hidden soft spots, and Who is our constant Friend, and Who will embrace us and patiently hope that for us, tomorrow will be better than yesterday or even today.

No need to fear the lions this Kol Nidre eve, dear friends. Unless you consider those lions which are within us, not outside of us! That's quite another story there. So let me say this.


I.   Don't be afraid to look your lions in the mouth.

Thanks to my friend Dr. Neil Baum, some years back I heard another story. I was introduced to a man of short physical height, but one of enormous spiritual stature. His name was Nathan Zepell. And, although Nathan is gone from this earth, he lives for me and for those who knew him and who have come to know his story. Let me share it with you.

Nathan Zepell was born in Latvia, stood about that tall, spent four agonizing years in a concentration camp, losing his entire family, came to this country in 1949. He came to work for the Schaeffer Pen Company as an inventor and proceeded to revolutionize the ball point pen industry, and became a millionaire many times over.

In a riveting address which Nathan Zepell delivered in 1981 to the Million Dollar Round Table, he told his spellbound audience his incredible story of how, on so many occasions, he managed to survive the lion's den. Facing starvation and death, Nathan Zepell told his listeners how he had come to realize (listen)
we each one of us encompass at least three personalities, each of us-the strong you, the weak you, and the one in the middle who has to decide which side to lean.
 
Time and again, Nathan Zepell saved his life and those of countless others' in the concentration camp by listening to and heeding the strong Nathan.

Once, on a snowy winter's night, Nathan and his fellow prisoners looked out of the window of their barracks as the camp commandant headed their way with apiece of paper in his hand. That could only mean one thing. Those soon to be gassed were listed on that paper and would be called forth. But wait; what was he reading to them? It was a letter from the Commandant's wife asking if perhaps the prisoners might be able to design a clever toy for their children back home in Germany because Christmas was approaching and there were no toys in the stores. So the Commandant said to the assembled prisoners:
If you can do this, I'll let you live a little longer. If not, you'll be dead in a few days.
After the Commandant left, there was enormous confusion and turmoil in the barracks. Nathan quieted them down and said, "You have to admit; he's given us a pretty compelling incentive." There must be a way, he thought. And with Zepell's creative genius, those 29 starving men took turns at a gerrymandered, hand-operated lathe, fashioning a mechanical wooden toy of a monkey going up and down a pole which delighted "the kinder" and which saved the lives of those men. Nathan told his listeners how, when life brings you to the season of fear, you need to look the lions in the mouth and choose the strong you. Too bad the head honchos at Enron and WorldCom never read Aunt Judy's book or met Nathan Zepell. Perhaps they would have chosen more wisely. But we still can!

Kol Nidre itself is a 600-year-old prayer attesting to our fellow Jews' courage and loyalty to our faith despite the horrific conditions in which they so often found themselves. Recited by Jews hidden in cellars, the prayerful words of Kol Nidre have been secretly sung to God throughout the lions' dens of Jewish history. Don't be afraid to look your lions in the mouth. But there's something else, a second point. There is another even more surprising notion of fear that can grip the human spirit.
II. I want to urge us all not to be afraid of becoming better people.

Doesn't that sound ridiculous? But the fact is that sometimes we can be frightened of changing for the better. The lions of the status quo hold us at bay, frozen in our footsteps.

Malcolm Muggeridge once wrote:
The saddest thing to me, in looking back on my life, has been to recall, not so much the wickedness I have been involved in. . . . What hurts most is the preference I have so often shown for what is inferior, tenth-rate, when the first-rate was there for the having. Like a man who goes shopping and comes back with. . . paper flowers when the primroses were out.
You see what he means-we're the choosers!

Have you ever heard of the Chafetz Chayim? That's what they called Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan. "Chafetz Chayim" --- it means "the lover of life." He was a saintly man. One story I heard about him tells how one of his students was arrested by the Polish authorities on a totally false charge. Of course, the defense attorney planned to call the Chafetz Chayim, Rabbi Kagan, teacher of the accused, as a character witness.

But before doing so, he briefed the non-Jewish judge about this Rabbi's reputation.
"Your honor, do you know what the Jews all say about him?" the lawyer asked the judge. " That one day he came home and discovered a thief robbing his house. Spotting the Rabbi, the thief ran for it, clutching some valuables. And the Rabbi, what's he do? He runs after the thief, shouting, 'I declare all my property ownerless.'"
"So you see, that way the thief wasn't guilty of stealing anything."
The judge skeptically peered down at the defense lawyer-"Do you really believe that happened?"
"I don't know, Your Honor," the lawyer replied. "But they don't tell stories like that about you or me."
Friends, could it be as Nelson Mandela says,
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. . . [but] that we are powerful beyond measure. . . . [And] it is our light, not our darkness that frightens us[?]

So on this Kol Nidre Eve, I want to urge us all to number I:  Look those lions in the mouth.  Number II: Don't be afraid of becoming better.

And finally, ""Living in the Lions' Den," I want to urge you to put your faith in charge!


III.  Put Your Faith In Charge

Writer Noah ben Shea has taught:
Fears follow doubt.
Faith follows hope.
Doubt your fears.
Have faith in hope.

If fears are contagious, so surely is faith. Daniel knew it. Those secret Jews in the cellars of the Spanish Inquisition who still held their Torahs and sang their Kol Nidre, they knew it, too. Nathan Zepell taught it by courageous example and leadership to everyone he ever met. Put your faith in charge! Not your fears!

Reading the Writings-we learn from Daniel to live with daring, and to be true to the nobility which lies within us. And who knows, when we are gone, like the Chafetz Chayim, who knows what stories they could yet tell about you and me? Ah, Aunt Judy. Yes, I remember that night.

Amen.