Faith in Action | There are times when we all are called upon to ‘look into the mirror’

Finish President Sauli Niinisto said at a news conference that he spoke with President Putin regarding Finland’s decision to apply for NATO membership. During a news conference he said that Putin should look in the mirror if he wanted to know why Finland would give up its longstanding years of neutrality for the protection of NATO as a result of Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Obviously President Niinisto was saying in no uncertain terms to Putin that he alone bears the responsibility for Finland’s decision and ultimately Sweden’s forthcoming decision to join NATO. Talking about speaking truth to power!

Aren’t many of the narratives in Judaism and Christianity about speaking truth to power? Just review the Bible and especially the prophets. From the moment that Moses commanded Pharaoh to “Let my people go,” we see the beginning of many examples of prophets who spoke truth to power.

In addition, the idea of looking into the mirror and seeing one’s own culpability for immoral actions goes back to the beginning of the Torah. In Genesis 3.9, for example, God sees that Adam and Eve have sinned by not heeding the Divine command to refrain from eating the fruit of the goodly tree. Eve and Adam did, in fact, eat the fruit from that tree.Then the Torah says, “And the Eternal God called out to Adam and said, Where are you?”

I can’t think of a better event to depict a look-into-the-mirror moment than by God asking Adam, ‘where are you?’ Was this verse meant to be interpreted literally? Or shall we understand that God wanted Adam to face his own actions and be accountable for the consequences of eating the fruit? That doesn’t sound so far from the Finnish president reminding Putin to face the consequences of his own actions. I question whether Putin could ever muster the courage to face himself for what he has unleashed upon Ukraine and on the rest of the world?

Isn’t this a time in our nation’s history where we, too, are obliged to look into the mirror? Just as people commit transgressions when they have power to lead nations, so do nations themselves have a duty to look in the mirror. America has had to do this many times in our history. We speak about looking into the mirror when we discuss race relations, reproductive rights or when we dialogue on the environment or LGBTQ Americans and the future of our world.

We have had those look-into-the-mirror moments in regard to the never-ending gun violence in our nation. Over the weekend we were horrified with wanton killings happening almost every day. These acts of murder are possible because of the unrestricted use of guns. But it is more than that because underlying gun laws or lack of gun laws is the prejudice and bigotry of extremism and especially white supremacy groups.

Just last weekend we witnessed the shooting spree in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. We saw reports of a shooting inside a Taiwanese church in Southern California. Then there was the shooting which led to the deaths of two men and then three others wounded in Deep Elum, Dallas, Texas. Five were killed in Millennium Park in Chicago. Twenty-one were killed in Milwaukee last weekend. The real question is when are we going to look into the mirror?

Hilton Head leaders have also been looking into the mirror, too. The consortium of leaders who joined together seven weeks ago to plan for this weekend’s Celebration Park concert beginning at 12 noon Sunday to save lives in Ukraine did, in fact, look into the mirror. They all faced the reality that it was incumbent upon us all to accept this challenge because not to do so would have been a betrayal of our values, particularly our relationship to God. We must save lives in Ukraine and in America. We are defying Putin by raising money for medical supplies and food. Our effort, therefore, is our way of speaking truth to power. We are looking into the mirror and saying to Putin and Russia, ‘Let these people go!’

We have had many figures over history speak truth to power — from Moses to Pharaoh, Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the Rev Martin Luther King Jr. to Lyndon Johnson, Mahatma Ghandi to the British, and Elie Wiesel to President Reagan when he tried to convince Reagan not to travel to and pay homage at Bitburg, Germany, to visit the military cemetery where SS troops were buried.

What happens when we look into the mirror as individuals or as a nation? At first we usually do not want to acknowledge or admit to past actions. Too often looking in the mirror produces the initial effect of denying the truth or ignoring moments that do not make us proud. But if we ever want to see meaningful change to help our nation fulfill its promise, then looking at ourselves in the mirror as well as at those who preceded us will compel us to ask hard questions.

Is God asking us as well, “Where are you?” Our answer may determine the outcome of the future of the world.

Rabbi Brad L. Bloom serves Congregation Beth Yam. He attended the University of Wisconsin and lives on Hilton Head Island.