INVOCATION
Invocation by Rabbi Joshua Rabin of the Astoria Center of Israel
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171 sec
Rabbi Joshua Rabin delivered an invocation drawing on Jewish tradition. He shared a Midrash about drawing water from a well as a metaphor for sharing wisdom. The rabbi emphasized the importance of not viewing others as enemies and prayed for leaders to become models of sharing wisdom abundantly with all, regardless of their backgrounds or beliefs.
UNKNOWN
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Speaker Adams, majority leader, council member, beloved community, with your permission, let us pray.
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In Jewish tradition, there is a Midrash, a rabbinic legend, that compares the wisdom of our sages to drawing water from a well.
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It states, Rabbi Hanina taught, Torah is like a deep well full of water whose waters were cold, sweet, and delicious, but no one was able to drink from it.
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Then a certain person came along, tied one cord to another, one rope to another, and drew water out of the well to drink.
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Then everyone else began to draw water and drink from it.
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What strikes me most about this story is the choice made by this mysterious individual.
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In this legend, water represents the wisdom of Torah, a spiritual life force for each Jew.
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And yet after this person labored tirelessly to access the well's water, they shared it freely with others instead of keeping it for themselves.
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Confronted with the decision to view wisdom as either a scarce or abundant resource, They chose abundance.
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My friends, those entrusted with our city's leadership, no one enters this world as an enemy to another.
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So how do so many of us become enemies?
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Perhaps it is because we failed to embrace the subtle message of this legend.
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The world is not inherently zero sum.
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It does not have to be unless we make it that way.
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This year, as you begin your session, I pray for all of us to stop seeing each other as enemies.
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Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, Christians, Muslims, Tibetans, Jews, and atheists, native board citizens and immigrants, the 9,000 New Yorkers waiting for a life saving organ transplant, the over 350,000 homeless people in our city, the 91 Israeli hostages still in Gaza and the millions of Palestinians suffering in Gaza, the almost 3,000,000 transgender Americans, the over a 120,000,000 people worldwide displaced last year due to climate change, Yankees fans and Mets fans.
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The list goes on.
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None of these people are my enemies, and none of them need to be anyone's enemies.
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So let's not treat any of them that way.
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This year, I pray for you, our leaders, that you will become models of what it means to draw wisdom from the well and share it abundantly with all.
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I offer this prayer in the name of my god and to whomever you may pray, And let us say, amen.