Sermon on Devarim and Health Care Access

This week we begin reading the last book of the Torah, Devarim. The book presents the discourses that Moses addressed to the children of Israel just outside the land of Cana'an. Like the other books, it takes its Hebrew name from one of its first words - d'varim, which means "words." It also means "things." And the connection between words and things is nowhere more clearly shown than in Bereishit, where God speaks the world into existence. Words spoken by humans are also important. I'm reading a book these days called Words that Hurt, Words that Heal, by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. Words are powerful things; let's be careful how we use them.

The portion D'varim outlines the journey of the Israelites through the wilderness, mentioning various battles that took place during those forty years. It makes the point that a battle will go well for the children of Israel if God has commanded it and will fight with them, and that the people will be defeated if they choose to fight a battle that God has not commanded. Rebelling against God's command not to fight a battle is as sinful as disobeying a command to fight a battle. Neither response is a good idea.

The Haftarah for this week is the first chapter of Isaiah. It talks about the sorry state of Israelites who have forsaken God. All manner of misfortune comes to them, including the fact that there is no one to provide treatment for their illnesses: "Every head is ailing, and every heart is sick. From head to foot no spot is sound: all bruises, and welts, and festering sores--not pressed out, not bound up, not softened with oil."

Tonight I want to speak with you about the work of the San Francisco Organizing Project. SFOP is a faith-based group of congregations, schools, and community centers representing 40,000 families throughout San Francisco. The staff of SFOP works with these congregations to teach them how to organize to improve their communities. With their help, a year and a half ago, we at Sha’ar Zahav interviewed members of our community and discovered that the lack of affordable healthcare was a major concern. Congregants formed a local organizing committee with a mentor from SFOP. Last June we had a community meeting at Sha’ar Zahav that included members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. They heard our concerns and the next month, the supervisors unanimously approved groundbreaking legislation for universal, accessible healthcare in San Francisco, a program now called Healthy San Francisco. The program will provide actual health care, not insurance, through city clinics and other providers, and will be paid for through a combination of sliding scale fees, employer payments, and governmental funding. Three weeks ago, Healthy SF began at two clinics in Chinatown, and it is scheduled to be in full operation by the end of next year. We at Sha'ar Zahav helped make that happen; we made our voices heard, and the legislators listened.

But that was just the beginning. One of the goals of the congregation was to work for expanded health care access at the state and national levels. And now there is momentum in the country to work for better health care. The movie Sicko is eloquently making the points that the US healthcare system works primarily to create profits for the insurance companies, and that people in countries with free universal healthcare are healthier and live longer than Americans. Californians are starting to take action. The governor and several Democratic legislators have proposed bills for statewide healthcare programs. Now we have another opportunity to make our voices heard.

Sha'ar Zahav will be hosting a Town Hall Meeting for all the SFOP congregations on Wednesday, August First, at 6:30 P.M. In attendance will be State Assemblyman Mark Leno, State Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, State Senators Carol Migden and Leland Yee, State Senator Pro Tem Don Perata, and a representative from the office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. We will let them know our concerns and priorities, and they will let us know what they are doing to fulfill them. Imagine their thoughts if only 40 people are in the audience. There is power in numbers. We need you to be there.

The Haftarah continues with a call for the people to engage in tikkun olam, to work towards healing this broken world. "Devote yourselves to justice; aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; defend the cause of the widow." Since Isaiah has noted that untreated illness is not a good thing, I think he would agree that working for universal, accessible healthcare would be one way to uphold the rights and defend the cause of those who need help. Fighting for justice and health, we can be sure that God is fighting with us.