You’ve probably seen the headlines, read the articles or even watched the videos that came out of the recent incident in the McDonalds in Rosedale. For those who have been blissfully guarded from the story, I will share the details:
Last week, at the McDonalds on Kenwood Avenue in Rosedale, not too far away…a young woman – 22 years old – Chrissie Lee Polis was at the McDonalds. According to the police reports, she needed to use the restroom and was told she needed to order something first and so she did and then waited for her turn, in the meantime approached by a man who was trying to strike up a conversation with her. Minutes later, as she was exiting the bathroom a 14 year old and 18 year old young woman, Teonna Monay Brown, spit in Chrissie’s face asking her, “Are you trying to talk to my man?” Polis said that at that point she told the girl that she was not and that’s when the other girl spit on her and the two began their attack. Punching her in the face, pulling her hair, kicking her, and coming back to attack her again and again and again until the 22 year old ended up dragged and beaten from one end of the restaurant to the other -- crumbled in a ball by the front door beaten so severely that she had an epileptic seizure.
The details of the case, in my opinion, are relatively insignificant. Chrissy Lee Polis, the victim was a transgendered woman. Who had undergone a sex change to become a woman. Her life has not been easy – not before this incident and especially not now. In the words of her twin brother Matty, “It has been painful to watch her have to endure these sorts of attacks. That she has always had a hard time and has gotten this her entire life. Subjected to beatings and even sexual assaults.”
And if this wasn’t heartbreaking enough….the obvious and equally painful question is where was everyone else? And the response to that will make you sick. The employees and the other patrons were there. One, the then manager of the McDonalds, Vernon Hackett, (also 22) was video-taping the entire attack and could be heard laughing on the video clip, which he later uploaded onto the internet with his own ineffably mean and heartless commentary posted on his Facebook page and the others were watching, encouraging and laughing only issuing warning when Chrissie began to have her seizure encouraging the assaulters to run before the police come. And one person – one person – a 55 year old woman – Vicky Thoms --- decided that she couldn’t take it anymore because it looked like they were killing her. In an interview she said she watched the beating for about two minutes…She was afraid to intervene because she has a back injury…. But she couldn't take it anymore." She also said she had no idea the victim was transgendered, but added, "It wouldn't have mattered “I couldn’t believe that no one else in the restaurant tried to help. While she was hailed a hero and honored at a subsequent rally outside of the McDonalds…her response to this praise, was, I don’t know why people are calling me a hero, I just did what I felt was right. What would you do if you saw the same thing? How would you feel if you were being attacked and other people just sat back and watched it happen? The whole incident makes me sick… I would have done it for anyone. And despite the fact that she herself was punched in the face by the two assailants when she was trying to intervene, and that she now has two metal rods in her back, as well as, eight screws in her spine. Thoms said she would have offered to help again despite it all.
Rabbi Gila Ruskin called Vicki Thoms a few days ago to talk with her and during that conversation she asked Vicki why she did it…why she intervened. And you know what she said? It was the Bible. Later also saying she asked herself what would Jesus have done?
I can’t think of a more powerful response. You see, in the Torah reading that we read this week – Parasha Kedoshim – from the book of Leviticus we’re reading all about what it means to be a “holy community”. And in this week’s portion we are instructed as to how we should relate to one another:
You shall not hate your brother in your heart
You shall surely rebuke your fellow, you shall not bear a sin on his account
You shall love your neighbor as yourself
And perhaps, most relevant to this story…
Lo ta’amod al dam rayecha -- You shall not stand idly by while your neighbor’s blood is shed
As clear as these commandments seem to be, the rabbis in the Talmud expound on the principle “you shall not stand by while your neighbor’s blood is shed.” (Lev 19:16) and they ask:
“How do we know that if one sees someone drowning, being mauled by beasts, or being attacked (in the case they mention by robbers….) how do we know that one is obligated to save him? They respond to their question with proof from Leviticus: We know that we are obligated to save the drowning person, a person that is being mauled by beasts or attacked from the verse in the Torah that says, ‘Do not stand idly by while your neighbor’s blood is shed.’”
You see, one of the most significant differences between Jewish law and American jurisprudence is that in American law, there is no obligation to rescue a person who is endangered. Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon suggested the following hypothetical situation: “An Olympic swimmer out for a stroll walks by a swimming pool and sees an adorable toddler drowning in the shallow end. He could easily save her with no risk to himself, but instead he pulls up a chair and looks on as she drowns.” This athlete has violated no law. There is no peg in our legal system on which to hang a duty to rescue another person in danger. Writes Professor Glendon. But the Torah is different: Our Torah makes it crystal clear that one who can intervene when another’s life is at stake and does not is a grievous sinner and in violation of an important law. Now, Jewish law does not require that you put your own life at risk to save someone, if you are a lousy swimmer, you wouldn’t have to jump in and try to save the drowning child but you are still required to try to reach the person with a rope or do whatever you need to do to get help. But you are obligated to do all that you can to save an endangered person. [i]
Tomorrow, we begin the sacred day of Yom HaShoah – Holocaust remembrance day…and We, as Jews, know too well what happens when people stand idly by while their brother and sister and neighbors blood is shed. When people think too long about the “what if’s” and forget about God’s instructions, when no one asks, what would God want them to do.
We live in a frightening world where any action or reaction can have the most serious of consequences, but to be fully human, to be a child of God, to be a Jew…means that when we’re faced with difficult choices, we need to ask those very questions: What does God expect of me? What is the “right” thing to do, what would I want someone else to do if that was my child, for my family? The choices are almost always complicated and scary but sometimes, yes, we DO have to put ourselves in dangers way…. Because if more people lived this way, 6 million of our ancestors …and their children… and their children and their children would have lived on to make their unique contributions to the world. And so yes… for those who commit these atrocities, in the streets of Germany, the homes of Poland or the restaurants of Baltimore… and for those who stand by idly, silently, indifferent and in some cases, laughing, and encouraging …
to be fully human – means that yes, we ARE our brothers keepers, our sisters keepers, our neighbors keepers and yes, even the stranger’s keepers…. And this is not only God’s vision, this is what it means to be a Jew. Shabbat Shalom!
Telushkin, Rabbi Joseph. The Book of Jewish Values: A Day By Day Guide to Ethical Living.
|
