A small boy was unhappily practicing his piano lesson. A salesman approached the house and called through the screen door, "Son is your mother home?" "What do you think?" answered the boy. ["2,000 Quips, Quotes, and Anecdotes," Seven worlds Corp., Knoxville, Tenn.]

	"Be good and for your birthday I'll buy you a motorcycle!"
	"How on earth can you see the TV sitting so far back?"
	"Don't bother wearing a jacket--it's quite warm out."
	"Let me smell that shirt--yeah, it's good for another week."
	"I think a cluttered bedroom is a sign of creativity."
	"Yeah, I used to skip school, too."
	"Just leave all the lights on...it makes the house more cheery."
	"Could you turn the music up louder so I can enjoy it, too?"
	"Run and bring me the scissors! Hurry!"
	"Aw, just turn these undies inside out. No one will ever know."
	"I don't have a tissue with me--just use your sleeve."
	"Well, if Timmy's Mom says it's okay, that's good enough for me."
	"Of course you should walk to school and back. What's the big deal about having to cross a few main streets?" [Jewish Humor List]

Some people want the voices of parental authority to guide them even as adults:

	In the Marine Corps, a public affairs officer was assisting the recruiting effort in North Carolina. He asked a young Marine who was re-enlisting why he was returning to the Corps.
	"There's no one in charge on the outside," he explained. [LectionAid, July/Aug/Sept 1997.]

In other words, there was no one in the civilian world constantly telling him what do. So he retreated into the "safety" of the military where he no longer had to think for himself. How very sad that he was willing to give up so much of his humanity and become a mindless robot, and a killing machine at that. Such people are dangerous, wherever they are from.

There are others who achieve the same state of mindlessness by reading and applying sacred texts totally literally, ignoring and trampling on the responsibility of each person to personally engage in the great amount of interpretive effort needed for their guidance to really work. One such person is Dr. Laura, the radio personality who teaches that God and the Bible are eternal, unchanging. Supposedly based on their authority, she condemns homosexuals and homosexuality and a whole lot more. Here is how one listener responded to her literal approach:

	Dear Dr. Laura,
	Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's law. I have learned a great deal from you, and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind him that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to best follow them.
	When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. How should I deal with this?
	I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as it suggests in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
	Lev. 25:44 states that I may buy slaves from the nations that are around us. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans but not Canadians. Can you clarify?
	I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?
	A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Lev. 10:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?
	Lev. 20:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?
	I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

People like Dr. Laura are also dangerous, yet there are those who are even more dangerous. As we've just seen so tragically, there are those who apply sacred texts in the cause of hatred, bigotry, tyranny, and murder. Their enemy is freedom of thought, action, speech. Where is the freedom in the life of a person taught from birth that their duty is to commit suicide for their God and take as many "unbelievers" as possible with them? Where is the freedom to choose right from wrong for those who are indoctrinated to blindly obey the whims of their leaders?

I believe it is time to recognize freedom as a core human necessity, and for those of who live in freedom to insist, by force if necessary, that the murderous totalitarianism of "unfreedom" once and for all be banished from the face of the earth. It is not a mater of intruding upon other people's "beliefs." If murder is universally to be prohibited, so must we prohibit ideologies that teach and promote murder. Let us say to all God's children: Worship as you wish, believe as you wish, speak as you wish - as long as you tolerate and respect everyone's right to do the same. Everything that interferes with that right must be thrown onto the dung heap of all that is worst in human culture.

We Reform Jews take freedom to be just such a core value. This Shabbat Shuvah, this Sabbath of Repentance, recognizes our ability to make moral and ethical decisions from within, rather than having them imposed from without. In our understanding, even the very complicated and extensive system of traditional Jewish ritual, halacha, works the same way. No amount of kosher food or daily prayers or punctilious attention to the minutiae of ritual observance matters unless there is corresponding internal intent. The external forms our tradition calls kevah, that which is fixed. The motivation that comes from within we call kavanah, intention or purpose.

The purpose of much of our practice is to teach us a wider morality that transcends two sets of dishes or a perfect etrog for Sukkot. The mitzvot are supposed to be performed in a context of holiness, not of tyranny. According to our tradition, they were revealed to Moses and the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai. They are a token of God's love and esteem for humankind.

We Reform Jews especially have come to understand that if the rules are pounded in, if discipline is imposed from the outside, the person's ability to function as an autonomous human being, to make good moral decisions on one's own, is severely compromised or even crippled. We get people like the re-enlisting Marine or the prisoners I worked with in a maximum security prison, people who can't function in a world filled with choices, or we get, God forbid, the Osama bin Ladin's of the world..

We are living in a strange time. There are malevolent threats we need to face and overcome before we can get back to what should be our real task: to create self-directed, free human beings. In order to create people with kavanah and not just kevah, the tools of choice need to be love, trust, and faith, not discipline. One of the worst effects of the recent terrorism is that they have interrupted our work on accomplishing this sacred task. Here is a piece of a memoir written as an adult by one of those "wayward" children who was taught with the tools of love and respect:

	I spent most of my high-school days in the principal's office being disciplined for creating problems in class. My family life was a mess and I worked out my frustrations in the classroom. I got a reputation as a troublemaker.
	As punishment for some of my anti-social behavior, I was given work detail after school. The school janitor, Ernie, was a short, stocky man who spoke English with a heavy accent. He worked quickly and demanded that I do the same -- all the time peppering me with questions about my interests and ambitions.
	At the end of my forced week's work, Ernie asked me if I was interested in a part-time job. I couldn't believe anyone was willing to hire me, but quickly said yes.
	Under Ernie's direction, I worked after school every day for two hours. He talked to me as a friend and complimented each task I completed. Gradually I began to like myself better and trips to the discipline office grew less frequent.
	I graduated at 18 and enlisted in the service. Ernie came down to the bus station to give me my final pay and a bear hug for good luck.
	I loved Ernie, but it wasn't until many years later that I learned just how special he really was. My part-time job had been Ernie's invention and my pay had come out of his meager earnings. No School Board had budgeted extra money. Ernie had. The stocky man with the big heart paid to save a troubled kid--and it worked. [The Preacher's Illustration Service, Voicings Publications Volume 10 , Number 6, Nov/Dec 1997. ]

Sometimes we get lost. Sometimes we forget all the wonderful people who have loved us enough to help us become who we are. Sometimes we take a wrong path. Turning, turning in a positive direction is the message of this Shabbat Shuvah. Let us turn our backs on the boot camps and on those who think this is a valid way to treat human beings. Let us vanquish without question those who teach and practice the ideology of tyranny and fanaticism, whether buttressed by religious teachings or secular ones. Let us instead turn towards love and faith and respect and tolerance, for our children and ourselves.