Today a national NBA basketball star, Amar’e Stoudemire, joined us for daveing.  Now retired from playing and a coach of the Brooklyn Nets, this almost seven foot tall black convert to Judaism is inspired to daven with a minyan wherever he is.  He has no want for money or honor, I’m sure he can have any house, any mate, any physical thing he desires.   But he chooses to lead an Orthodox life even though it can not be easy. On the surface he does not “fit right in,” and unfortunately, we know it can be hard for converts in the Orthodox community, especially those who look like they might be one.  (Of course this should not be the case as it says 36 times in the Torah to love the stranger.)

In spite of the obvious difficulties a seven foot black man might have feeling at home in shul, according to the instagram post he made following davening at Kesher, he found it inspiring to be at a minyan- “To pray with the righteous and to realize Hakadosh Baruch Hu (the Master of the Universe) made the world, and we can tap into the Big Homie.”  He makes an impressive Kiddush Hashem (sanctification of God’s name) by being who he is and the effort he puts into his Jewish life, despite the challenges and other options he may have.   For me, as a modern Orthodox Jew who is not always sure that we have the capacity to inspire our children and congregants enough, seeing his inspiration gives me hope for the Jewish future.

In stark contrast, the events of last week in Colleyville make me less hopeful about a secure Jewish future. Jewish hatred and anti-semetic tropes are alive and well in our world.  Were the attacker just a crazy man that would be one thing, but if he is, as many say, a product of our world in which Jewish hatred is gaining tracktion, then we, comfortable American Jews, are feeling the burden of dangerous antisemitism which Jews have felt often over the past few mellenia.

Last week’s Torah portion, Beshalach, ended with the attack of Amalek on the Jewish people.   An attempt to destroy the Jewish people for seemingly no reason other than what they stand for.  In contrast, this week’s Torah portion, Yitro, begins with a non-Jew, a midianite idolatrous priest, who comes to meet the Jewish people in the desert and praise their God for the miracles God did for them.

The Sefat Emet, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger (1847-1905), comments that these two stories, of Amalek and Yitro, are juxtaposed to contrast them.   The mission of the Jewish people is to sanctify God in the world, and Amalek wishes to destroy the Jewish people so they are unable to engage in this mission of bringing ethical monotheism with the obligations it places upon human beings.  Yitro, in contrast, is the example of a non-Jew who comes to support the Jewish mission of making a Kiddush Hashem, and so his story is placed just after Amalek to reassure us that there is hope.  The Jewish people ultimately will succeed in overcoming those who do not want God to be sanctified in the world, and they will do it through the support and example of the Yitros and the righteous converts.