Every year, the Greenport Ecumenical Ministries holds a special service on Veterans’ Day to honor our veterans and other civil servants. This year, the service was expanded to honor and thank our essential workers — the North Fork Heroes of the Pandemic. The event took place at the First Presbyterian Church of Southold on Sunday, Nov. 14.
In Tractate Avot 4:1, the Talmud asks the question, Who is a hero? He who overcomes his inclination, as it says in Proverbs 16:32. “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit is better than he who takes a city…” Earlier in Avot 2:16, Rabbi Tarfon asserts, “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to quit it…”
According to our sages, being a hero is like being a soldier, one who has no right to abandon his post. Moreover, Biblical heroes are the ones who believe they do not have the right to cease from their work. In fact, the Hebrew word tzava describes service in the military and also service to God by the Levis in the Holy Temple. Rabbi Tarfon adds, “Faithful is your employer to pay you the reward of your labor, and know that the grant of reward unto the righteous is in the age to come.” Being a hero is also a willingness to serve without feeling appreciated or seeking an immediate recompense. Still in Avot, Rabban Gamliel, the son of Rabbi Judah Hanasi, said, “…all who labor with the community should labor with them for the sake of Heaven, for the merit of their forefathers sustains the community…”
The consistency exhibited by our heroes — those doctors and nurses who did not abandon their posts in hospitals and other health facilities despite facing immediate danger daily — are like the Temidim, the daily offerings in the Temple, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. They are examples of those Rabban Gamliel is talking about, those who serve for the sake of heaven and whose merits sustain the community. I am reminded of our shared responsibility for the sins of the community on the High Holidays. By the same token, the merits for good and heroic acts by a few can redeem a whole community.
As the year 2021 is closing, let us take this lesson to heart. Let us roll up our sleeves and get our hands in the dirt. Let us serve the community with the owe of heaven. We also owe gratitude to the heroes in our own CTI, our own Temidim, who show up every morning and afternoon, every weekday, every Shabbat and holiday. To all those who serve on the shul’s Board of Directors and to all the members of our various working committees, we salute you, and extend to you and all in the shul family the blessings of this this Thanksgiving day.
—Rabbi Gadi Capela