“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.[You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Deut 6: 4-9 NRSVue
My morning prayers are with a group of residents in a North York seniors' building who have experienced what is likely a hate crime. Roughly two dozen of these seniors woke up on the weekend to discover that the small containers called mezuzahs had been stolen from the doorframes of their apartments. These mezuzahs are a symbol of faith for Jewish people and hold parchment scrolls with verses from the book of Deuteronomy (above and below).
As hate crimes go this might be considered low level yet this would have required planning and figuring out how to gain access to the building for this cowardly theft. The mezuzahs were a few metres from the places where the residents carried out their daily lives and slept. Who could be so warped as to do this? Of course, that's what hatred does to the soul.
Volunteers help Jewish senior residents replace their mezuzahs on Monday, Dec. 8, after about 20 were stolen over the weekend. The police are investigating along with the hate crime unit.
The mezuzahs have already been replaced, which is helpful. It's more of a challenge to restore peace of mind to those who feel violated.
I hope that the perpetrator is caught and charged but that doesn't change the heart. Teaching each generation to be accepting of all and to respect different expressions of faith is essential
“If you will only heed his every commandment that I am commanding you today—loving the Lord your God and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul— then he[b] will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil, and he will give grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat your fill. Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshiping them, for then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will not yield its produce; then you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.
“You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise up. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
Deuteronomy 11: 13-21 NRSVue
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