The voices of the high school students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, who visited Harvard’s Kennedy School this past week to speak in the Institute of Politics about their leadership toward reform in firearm legislation, truly are some of the most impressive voices I have heard at Harvard. I commend to you the account, and most especially the video recording of their visit in our University.
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,” says Psalm 51:17. Glossing that verse, a classical rabbinic interpretation of our reading from the Torah this week (Leviticus 6-8) suggests that people who manage to mend ways in this world are considered as though having ascended to Jerusalem, having rebuilt the Temple, and having enacted in it all of the services prescribed by scripture (Leviticus Rabbah 7). That is, such ones are considered as having accomplished a tremendous act of repair. The Parkland students, impelled first of all by their brokenheartedness, and filled consequently with constructive resolve for the future of this country, seem to put faces to that ancient teaching – and poignant, clear voices.
“Peace is so great,” Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is quoted as saying in the Midrash on our Torah portion this week, “that all the blessings of the world are embraced within it.” (Leviticus Rabbah 9). And a sage by the name of Chizkiyah is recalled in the same context to have taught that the word “seek” (which may also be translated as “demand”) in the scripture "seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:15) is meant to instruct us to find occasions and opportunities in our own immediate surroundings in which to bring about peace – places where we can see with our own eyes that peace is direly required and vital – so that, eventually, we may pursue and bring about peace more globally. In the terms of that teaching, too, the Parkland students are exemplary.
“I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go to the House of the Eternal One” (Psalm 122:1). With their call for all of us to join them in the “March for Our Lives” taking place this Shabbat, the Parkland students give us an opportunity to join them in the rebuilding of our Sacred Sanctuary, if we hear their call in the terms of our ancient tradition. I am reminded of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's having said, when he marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Jewish Sabbath, that he felt his legs were praying. In keeping with our heritage, we can heed the remarkable young people from Parkland who visited Harvard this week and called to us to take steps with them right where we are. We can lend support and our own presence to their seeking peace and demanding it, and thereby we can take part in pursuing peace, tranquility, and security throughout the land.
In the forum of Harvard’s Kennedy School, Parkland student Cameron Kasky explained: “We spoke out. We said, ‘No, you’re not controlling our narrative, you are not telling our story. We see past the façade that this is inevitable and this is the price of our freedom. We know that we can fix this, but we have to jump now. We have to start now.’ So I instantly started writing, David instantly started writing and speaking, and soon enough Emma gave her speech. Alex was speaking. We all got together. We assembled on my living room floor."
Now we can join in, too, with these remarkable young leaders of their generation and of our times. We can join in the spirit of one of our most ancient prayers:
"May there be peace within your walls,
security within your citadels.
For the sake of my siblings and friends,
I will say, Peace be within you.
For the sake of the House of the Lord our God,
I will seek your wellbeing."
(Psalm 122:7-9)