After ten years in Buffalo, I should know by now what it means to be Buffalo Strong. I learned it my first snow fall here when my office staff kindly instructed me that three inches meant I still had to come into work. I learned it during my first Hanukkah when it snowed so hard that I couldn’t see more than a foot in front of me and services were not cancelled. And I certainly learned it that first February, when people gathered far and wide to support one another after the crash of flight 3407 and the loss of our beloved Cantor Susan Wehle, of blessed memory.
I remember distinctly standing in the lobby of the hotel the Red Cross had transformed into a support center on Flint Road, listening to the amazement of the hardy volunteers who had flown in from all over the country about how helpful everyone was, how genuinely caring. They had never seen anything like it in any of their other travels. That’s what Buffalove is all about.
But, over the years I have seen that Buffalo Strong extends much beyond crisis situations, bad weather, and perennial losing sports teams. I can see Buffalo Strong every time I go to the Jewish Community Center and see octogenarians working out with the intensity of thirty year olds. I see it at every funeral when people come regardless of family connection or communal affiliation, just because they believe it’s important. I see it when former synagogue presidents and board members continue to come to meetings even when their time of service had long since passed, and when current presidents come directly from work to set up and take down chairs in the social hall.
And, I can see it way beyond the Jewish community, when religious leaders from all faiths come together at a moment’s notice to support change. I see it when our city opened up its arms to a wave of refugees from all over the world. I see it on countless trips to Niagara Square, when people, young and old gather, in below freezing weather, in torrential rain, simply to stand up for what they believe in.
Yes, Buffalonians are special. The people you want when the chips are down, when you have no choice but to push ahead. We are Buffalo Strong.
Today, in honor of Yom Kippur, I would like to explore what the saying means not from the perspective of the people who live in Western New York, but from the actual animal that gives our city our name. An animal whose image fills our landscape, on highways and byways, outside hospitals and business centers, and even inside the confines of Congregation Shir Shalom itself, and yet before this week I knew so little about.
To help me out, I have brought with me a plush version of our city’s namesake. Meet Chizki, and while she may look small, as you will soon learn, she is also very mighty. The skills that she brings to the world are perfect for the challenge we are presented on this most auspicious day, and in this particular moment in time.
First, back to Yom Kippur. No, there are no buffaloes in our liturgy. Want to know how to say buffalo in Hebrew, that’s easy boofalo.
The ancient Israelites knew the landscape and animals of the Middle East, with its ibexes and mountain goats, camels and donkeys, and not that of North America. But, what they knew was human nature and our propensity to evade our problems, ignore the challenges we face and generally muck up our lives.
Yom Kippur is our day of reckoning. We stand before God, the Judge of Truth, with everything on the line. As the words of the Unetanah Tokef announce: “Let us proclaim the power of this day – a day filled with fear and dread…”
It seems we have no option but to move ahead or do we? Our scriptural readings offer us three possible responses to the dire state we find ourselves in:
- Run as far away as possible. Ignore, obfuscate, and then, escape. This is the option Jonah takes in the famous Haftarah for Yom Kippur, the one we will read in the afternoon. The choice of obeying God and traveling to Nineveh is too much for him. This would mean forgiving his people’s enemy, making peace with the empire that nearly wiped us out. Instead, he stows away on a boat bound toward Tarshish, the opposite direction of where he was instructed to go.
At some point, we all want to run – run from our unpaid bills, from our broken relationships, from our forgotten promises, from our health problems and our family problems. Tarshish seems so much more appealing than whatever we have to face.
But, as Jonah finds out, he has no choice but to go to Nineveh. Whether in a belly of a whale or a barren wilderness, his problems find him. And, so too, no matter how far we go or how fast, our problems will catch up to us as well.
- Ignore. Pretend your problems do not exist at all. This is the strategy Aaron employs in the Torah reading this morning. As we read in earlier in Leviticus, Vayidom Aharon– one of my favorite phrases in Torah – and “Aaron was struck dumb.” Before his eyes, his two eldest children are consumed in fire. He chooses to remain silent, to proceed as if nothing has happened at all. After all, he is the High Priest, and this is most important holiday. Carry on he must, even if kills him.
We watch him gather the two identical she-goats, sacrificing one and banishing the other to Azazel, some unclear point in the wilderness, as a scape goat for everything Aaron has undergone. We watch as he, alone, approaches the Holy of Holies, communes with God, begs his creator for forgiveness. Vayidom Aharon– and does so in silence.
This approach works just about as well as the first, not very well at all.
- Which brings us to the final approach, and the only one that will have any effect: Confront. Face our problems head on. This is Isaiah, he who lived during a time of great calamity, watched as the exemplars of truth, the Temple priests, abused their power, following the basic precepts of the law, but not their original intention.
As Lillian Gertzman used to read for us so eloquently from the pages of our old machzor, “is this the fast I look for? A day of self-affliction? Bowing your head like a reed, and covering yourself with sackcloth and ashes? Is this what you call a fast day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the fast I look for: to unlock the shackles of injustice, to undo the fetters of bondage, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every cruel chain?”
It seems so easy when Lillian read it to us, but we know it is anything but. Doing the right thing is hard? We need something to push us forward, to help us avoid the first two options, to ensure we do what we need to do to make amends.
Which brings me back to Chizki. While the ones you encounter at the Buffalo Zoo may seem tame, the shaggy hippies of the animal community, the buffalo is perfectly equipped for the challenge all of us face today. This animal that the Native Americans saw almost as a God, is blessed with incredible powers, and perfectly positioned to help us out today in our quest to become better human beings. Let me explain by looking at each of these approaches and how Chizki can help us make better choices as we move ahead.
First, let’s go back to Jonah. How many of you think they could outrun a buffalo? While she may look large and lumbering, she is actually faster than the deer that roam these parts and certainly faster than any of us humans, galloping at speeds of thirty miles an hour or more. Go ahead try to get away, and play Jonah, this beast will track you down.
All right, on to the second approach, that of Aaron, to conceal and hide from your problems, pretend they don’t exist at all. Chizki has another secret power that will keep you in check.
Ever hear of wallowing? This is not wallowing in sadness, but a technique used by buffaloes to clean themselves and mark their territory. To do so, they get down on the ground and roll around in the dust, creating large indentations in the ground known as Buffalo wallows. Check it out on YouTube.
Try to bury yourself in the sand, the Buffalo can ferret you out. Do you really stand a chance against one of these beasts?
But, the last trick Chizki has for us is my favorite. It has to do with what they do when storm clouds are forming over the horizon. Unlike a cow that tries to outrun the incoming winds and rain (you can imagine how that goes), the buffalo waits and watches. As the storm clears the nearest mountain top, she charges straight toward it, moving as fast she can to safety on the other side. What a perfect metaphor of how we should face our truths and what an amazing survival skill. If the storm is coming, I’m finding the nearest buffalo to see my way through.
In truth is the storm is always coming. The buffalo found this out all too well in the mid-19thCentury, when over a thirty year period, their population was whittled down from around sixty million strong, to almost extinct. Wanted for their hides and for the immense territory they commanded, from California all the way to Western New York. (While there is debate about our city got its name, a likely reason is that a herd of buffalos once grazed on the shores of the Niagara.) They were also killed to eliminate the Native American population that relied the animal as a central source of food.
The spirit of these proud animals hangs over this entire region. Our football team is named after William Fredrick “Buffalo Bill” Cody, who in his youth claimed to have killed nearly five thousand buffalo. He is also known as a champion of Native American rights and women’s rights.
We are not responsible for what happened. The events in question happened years before any of us were ever born. And, yet we can have a role of restoring these proud animals to their rightful place in North American history. And, we can benefit from them as well.
Which brings me back to Chizki and the name I chose to give her today: Chizki is the feminine form of the Hebrew word for strength. At a Bat Mitzvah service we call it out to support the young lady before she reads from the Torah. While I wanted to bring you a buffalo horn to use as a shofar, the only ones available were for dog treats at the pet store. What I want us to do is call out Chizki’s name like a shofar cry, spurring us on to face our problems, to run into the storm, to be Buffalo Strong.
First, take a moment to think of something you want to work on today and in the coming year. It should be something hard, a challenge you have been putting off, wanting to run away from.
(Pause)
Now, I invite you to rise and together on my signal we are going to call out Chizki’s name, just like we would a shofar blast. Ready, all right, here we go: Chizki!!!
(You can sit down now)
Yesterday, I had a chance to visit with one of the strongest women I have ever known, Marlene Glickman. She is in the ICU at Millard Suburban. And seeing as she would not be coming today, I read her my sermon. Having led our Music committee for years, and having sung in our choir, she is intimately connected to my experience of the holidays here in Buffalo. Holding her hand I was hoping to give her strength, but she gave me some as well. It is people like Marlene who built this place you are in and who help make Buffalo what it is. Buffalo Strong is about knowing that if it comes down to it the person next to you will run into the storm to save you, and the person next to them as well, on either side, all around the room. And, that deep in your heart you know you would do the same.
This year marks the eighteenth anniversary of the “Herd About Buffalo” campaign (I have to say that because I am a rabbi and love the number eighteen). Think of all of those large metallic buffalos that dot the landscape of our city, including the one that sits in the Marshal Glickman Education Wing, named after Marlene’s late husband. Whenever you see one, here, or anywhere else in the city, in fact, whenever you see any image of a buffalo at all, I want you to feel as if she is calling out to you: “I can do better. I will do better. I am Buffalo Strong. We are all Buffalo Strong.”
G’Mar Chatimah Tovah – May You Be Written and Sealed in the Book of Life.
Tzam Kal – an easy and meaningful fast.
Last Updated on 12/20/2018 by Marc Slonim