It's Your Call

May 30, 2008
Rabbi Seymour Rossel

In October 1995, a US naval ship off the coast of Newfoundland received a radio call from the Canadians. The Canadians warned the US ship that it was headed straight for them.

The American ship radioed back: "Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision."

The Canadian answered: "I recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision."

The American replied: "This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert your course."

But the Canadian insisted, saying: "No. I say again, you divert your course."

Now the American captain got feisty. He told the Canadian: "This is the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, the second largest ship in the United States' Atlantic Fleet. We are accompanied by three destroyers, three cruisers, and numerous support vessels. I demand that you change your course 15 degrees north -- that's one five degrees north -- or counter-measures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship."

The Canadian radioed back: "This is a lighthouse. It's your call."

As the Canadian said, You can choose to bluster and persist in your foolishness, if you want. You can choose to put a mighty battleship on the reef if you want. One way or another, it's up to you to choose whether to go stubbornly forward or veer fifteen degrees. "It's your call."

In this week's portion, God tells Moses to count the number of adult males, heads of household, able to serve as soldiers. Up to this moment, God has fought Israel's battles, but something has changed.  History's first citizen army has just been formed. Every Israelite male is to be armed and ready to serve. The forty years in the wilderness is the training ground. Its difficulties will prove the Israelite's citizen army the way Valley Forge proved the citizen army of the American Revolution.

The thing about a citizen army is that each soldier must believe in its cause. Each person must believe that what they are fighting for is worth the fight. Therefore, there was another change in the wilderness. The court of public opinion was born. There was nothing like this in the rest of the ancient world. These former slaves had to agree that they wished to go forward, they had to agree that God was with them, they had to agree with the leadership of Moses, they had to agree to the strategic purpose of conquering the land.

It is written in the Torah that the court of public opinion has always been fickle, right from the start. The people would agree and surge forward, then they would bicker and fight with Moses, oppose God, and wish that they were slaves again to Pharaoh. Time and again, God worked wonders, Moses showed his leadership, and God punished the wayward. But in the end, it was the court of public opinion that counted.

Why didn't God just command obedience? Why didn't Moses just kill anyone who disobeyed? If we step back, we see the larger picture.

Dictatorship was the standard answer for every other nation on earth. But God did not wish to become Pharaoh and Moses did not wish to be either a king or a god. Instead God chose the Jews: a stiff-necked people, a nation of doubters, a nation of opinions, to fulfill the purpose of God's creation.

From the start, God intended to give human beings choice. "You may eat of the fruit of every tree, but not the fruit of the two trees in the middle of the garden," God said. And Adam and Eve chose to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Why plant it in the middle of the garden to tempt human beings? Why not keep the forbidden tree in heaven? But that was the point.

God wishes us to exercise free will, to conquer the world and subdue it, and in the process learn to use it wisely. God is still there, looking out for us and helping us, but the tree of knowledge is planted among us. It is up to us to use knowledge, to hold opinions, to create theories, to prove theories, to experiment and sometimes even to wreak havoc. We can build and we can destroy. We have the right to decide for ourselves, for the worse or for the better. Lightning does not strike you when you break God's commandments. God does not destroy you for making errors.

All this became crystal clear Bamidbar, "in the wilderness" -- the only possible place where God could realign the whole issue of who is God and what is the role of each human being. So, here's the thing:

You are each the captain of your own ship. You sail on waves that are sometimes calm and placid; and sometimes threaten to overturn and swamp you. But you are in charge of your own moral rudder. You can even steer into other ships deliberately, if you please. You can join others in armadas sailing together when it is your pleasure to join for camaraderie, for protection, for strength, for evil, or for good.

But God is the keeper of the lighthouse. God's way is marked by salient beams of light, each beam commanding you to pay attention, each one showing you the way and the dangers of not following the way. Those who believe God is not there suffer because they sail blindly, some end up on reefs or shatter against rocky shorelines. But if you recognize God's light, if you read God's commands as signs of safety -- you do not give up your free will, you do not give up your right to doubt, you do not give up your right to make mistakes, you do not give up your right to your opinions, you are free to choose the dictates of your heart.

Bamidbar, "in the wilderness," the former slaves learned the true meaning of freedom. They were set free to become a citizen army, responsible for their own behavior, responsible even to their own court of public opinion.

With freedom comes opportunity. With freedom comes responsibility. Free will is implicit in the Jewish way of life. As the keeper of the lighthouse told the captain of one of the mightiest battleships ever built, "You can choose to keep going in the direction you are heading, or you can listen to me and veer fifteen degrees south to avoid death and destruction. I am the lighthouse. I can tell you what is good and what is right. I can show you a beam of light to help you make the right decision. But I cannot make the decision for you. In the end, it is your decision to make. You are the captain of your own ship and you have the moral rudder of your ship in your hands."

Every decision is up to you. This day and every day, you have ceased to be a slave and you are free. And every moment of every day you must choose what to do with that freedom. You are the ship and there is a lighthouse, and the lighthouse has a Keeper, and the Keeper gives good counsel. Will you heed God in your life? It's your call.

And let us say, Amen.