Video
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Meaning in a homeless man's death
By Jeremy Burton
Senior Vice President of Philanthropic Initiatives
Jewish Funds for Justice
This week, Jews around the world will celebrate the holiday of Shavuot, which commemorates receiving the biblical law at Mount Sinai. On Wednesday morning the Ten Commandments will be read in synagogues around the world. Some of us will spend all night beforehand in study and classes, preparing for the divine experience of receiving the Torah (the Hebrew Bible). But whether or not you observe Shavuot, all Americans can find a new perspective, and a challenge, in considering the life and death of Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax.
(Read more about Shavuot at Patheos.com)
On April 18, Tale-Yax died on a sidewalk in Jamaica, Queens. But as the details of his tragic death became known, mostly through sidewalk security tapes, his death and its lesson for all of us became clear. What the tapes show is a man angrily confronting a woman. Where others ignored the knife-wielding man's threats, Tale-Yax stepped in. For his efforts, he was stabbed. People walked by as his blood seeped into the street for an hour -- some stopped, one man shook him, someone else called 911. But most did nothing. And no one stayed with him to make sure help arrived. By the time it did, it was too late.
An hour later, without aid or assistance, Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax was dead. He was 31 years old, a Guatemalan immigrant, a day laborer. And he was homeless.
So what does this have to do with Shavuot?
Shavuot is a holiday that sits in direct relationship to Passover. Passover is about freedom, the individual liberty from the tyranny of slavery in Egypt. But that freedom is incomplete without the gift of Shavuot, the gift of law, a social contract between God and the people -- and, more importantly, among the people.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of England, explains it thus:
If freedom means only that I can do what I want, then my freedom will inevitably conflict with yours. If I am free to steal, you are not free to own.... That is why Judaism sees the exodus as the beginning, not the end, of the journey to freedom. The culmination came in the giving of the Law. The biblical vision is of a society in which no one will be at the mercy of others. Its rules and institutions aim at creating a social order of independent human beings linked by bonds of kinship and compassion.... The freedom to do what we want creates individuals. It does not create a free society.
Tale-Yax perceived these values. He understood that his own freedom, to be in America and to work, also compelled him to get involved, to take responsibility for others. He stepped in, he became part of the conflict, because he saw his own relationship to other people. That he paid the ultimate price for his actions indicates that those around him didn't see their obligation to him. Maybe they would ignore all people in trouble. Or maybe they ignored him because he was homeless, because they made assumptions about who he was, because he was "other." In New York, as in most states, there is no legal requirement for a bystander to help someone in distress.
So how might we discover the link between us and this man?
By making the link between Passover and Shavuot transparent.
One way to do so is by counting the Omer. For 49 nights, we mark off each night, building a bridge in our minds and hearts between freedom and social contract. But a bridge without awareness is only one step, a way to cross over, but not to be conscious of the meaning in the underlying journey.
So, for the past seven weeks, many of us at Jewish Funds for Justice have been counting the Omer along with our friends and partners in New York. We've been studying texts from Mishna Avot, the ancient tractate that explores the idea that ethical perfection is developed by exploring our relationship to others. And we've been going out into the streets with the New York Coalition for the Homeless, delivering meals and deepening our understanding of our relationship to others in our city. Over these weeks, we've fed nearly 8,000 men, women and children in Manhattan and the Bronx. And we've learned, even if just a little bit, about the lives of others whom we might never engage within the comfort of our everyday freedom.
For a few hours, we talked to these people, recognizing that they too are of this city and of our own neighborhoods, with hopes and dreams and fears and wants. We saw them line up calmly, in their own social order, to receive the food, and we in turn received their gratitude for the meals they received. We saw some pick up food for others who couldn't, and we met volunteers who go out every night to make sure they get at least one hot meal a day.
We probably never met Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax, who died only a week into the Omer period. But we met others with similar stories. Certainly we all met with a deeper understanding of our shared humanity.
Whether or not you counted the Omer or talked to a homeless person recently, I hope you'll consider how Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax died and, more importantly, how he lived. He came to America to realize freedom and opportunity, and he died because he saw that with that freedom came his own responsibility to others.
We may never know who killed Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax, but until we build a more interconnected society, we are all responsible.
Jeremy Burton is Senior Vice President of Philanthropic Initiatives of Jewish Funds for Justice, which works to create a just, fair, and compassionate America.
By Jeremy Burton |
May 18, 2010; 2:44 PM ET
Save & Share:
Previous: America's fickle faith consumers |
Next: Foxy News
Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | May 19, 2010 3:15 PM
Report Offensive Comment
Mr. Burton,
I wouldn't concern myself with Yeal9's postings. He is a sock puppet poster, actually, CCNL (concerned christian now liberated --LoL), who was banned from this blog and signed on again using a fake moniker.
Everyone is complaining, and I have little doubt he will be banned again. David Waters has been innundated with complaints. But for some reason, getting his clutter off these boards is, again, taking a long time.
HIs values differ from yours. He supports Vatican Bank which is currently under investigation for laundering 200,000,000 mafia dollars. That would be the MAFIA, the VATICAN is SUPPORTING (again), the mafia which funds murder, world-wide drug and gun running, child prostitution, etc.
He supports the VATICAN with its nazi priests, who tortured and murdered 700,000 Serbian Orthodox, Jews, Roma to death and stole whatever they had, depositing it in Vatican Bank, which uses it to continuing its laundering activity.
He supports pedophilia, a favorite activity of the Vatican, along with shielding Pedophiles.
AND the assets of Vatican Nation? TOP SECRET--UNPUBLISHED anywhere. We do know that it has paid off in excess of 1.5 BILLION in damages for raping children. We do know it has real estate worldwide, oil and other investments, etc., profits from the mafia (undeclared, since laundered).
He supports the dual status of his catholicism as religion (tax exempt) and foreign nation. Add unregistered foreign lobbyist for a third status.
In short, he has naught to do with you, your organization, yours truly, and the rest of the decent folk on earth.
His days on this blog are assuredly numbered, else OnFaith would lose its credibility. He has been BANNED here.
God bless you for the work you do, sir. Trolls abound here in earth. Yeal9 is one.
Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | May 19, 2010 2:56 PM
Report Offensive Comment
Ironically, if that poor man had lived in Arizona, the police would have been on him like white on rice. And possibly he would have survived.
What a hideous commentary on our society -- that we ignore a homeless Hispanic man or arrest and deport him, but we won't engage with him anywhere else on the human continuum.
Posted by: haveaheart | May 19, 2010 1:32 PM
Report Offensive Comment
Added information about the problems of the Vatican Bank can be found at
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Works_of_Religion
Added information about the Catholic sex abuse cases can be found at
http://www.answers.com/topic/roman-catholic-sex-abuse-cases?method=26&initiator=CANS
Added information about others who apparently have been unfair to Holocaust victims:
"Steven Erlanger
International Herald Tribune
01-20-2005
Israeli banks holding assets from European Jews killed in the Holocaust failed to make a determined effort to return the holdings to their heirs, and when they were returned, they were not returned at their proper value, according to a report by an Israeli parliamentary committee. The government of Israel, as custodian for a large part of the assets, also failed to make a serious effort to maintain their value or to return them to survivors or heirs, the report said."
The assets of Israeli banks are posted at:
http://duns100.dundb.co.il/ts.cgi?tsscript=/2009e/e30a4
The top two banks in Israel have over $600 billion in assets.
Might it be time to investigate Israel and her banks and their unique powers they hold in Israel to include possible lobbying interests in the USA?
Posted by: YEAL9 | May 19, 2010 12:48 PM
Report Offensive Comment
From :http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments//2008/521/332/2008-521332694-048cceab-9.pdf
Some background financing with respect to the "non-profit" group, the Jewish Funds for Justice. The group has over $5 million dollars invested in stocks and bonds (non-profits pay no taxes on dividends, interest and capital gains). Mr. Burton's salary is $110,000/yr. Nine other managers are paid between $200,000-$100,000/yr.
And some questions:
Is this another group being used as an investment company fronting as a non-profit group so the managers/directors can escape paying federal and state taxes on their investment/donation returns?
Maybe said managers missed a few of mythical Moses' Ten Commandments??
Posted by: YEAL9 | May 19, 2010 12:34 AM
Report Offensive Comment
A moving and beautiful essay. Thank you.
Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | May 18, 2010 9:12 PM
Report Offensive Comment
Thank you for a wonderful essay - it will give us all something to consider over the holiday period.
Posted by: dtlevineesq | May 18, 2010 5:19 PM
Report Offensive Comment
The comments to this entry are closed.
Mr. Burton,
Although we were not raised in a particularly observant family--I was the sole member, who, as a child, went through a religious phase--my brother did became observant as an adult.
He joined a tiny synagogue, whose rabbi has attracted many other returnees, a very diverse group--ethnically, professionally, financially, generationally, etc.
It is a synagogue with very little money. Still, every week, without fail, the rabbi and some of the congregation, visit the homes of poor Jews, ring their bells, leave groceries outside, and wait in their cars to see that someone has opened the door to take the food.
The helpers make themselves scarce because they do not want to cause embarrassment.
Last year, a returnee in his early forties, seemingly prosperous, joined the synagogue. He donated a lot of money specifically to provide direct help for poor Jews. From the beginning, he has accompanied the others every week to make food deliveries.
One day, as they drove past a decrepit apartment building, he told my brother that only a year ago, the helpers had delivered two bags of groceries to a family that lived inside. He was the father of that family. He did not want my brother to mention this to other congregants. He did not want them to see him as exemplary.
A good man, it would seem, and a smart one, in the Jewish sense.