Two Gun Cohen and the Power of Relationship

Transcript

A Hobby Called Jewish Gangsters

SPEAKER_00 0:21

I was in a conversation with somebody, I think it was last week or the week before, and we were talking about one of my many hobbies. And I'm gonna share it with you tonight. Many what? Hobbies. My hobbies.

unknown 0:37

You're a hobby.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

I am. And one of my hobbies is Jewish gangsters. Okay. So I want to tell you a story about a man that you have probably never heard. And his name was Morris Cohen. Do you know his name? You know it? Okay. Don't spoil it. Here's a bit of his story. Moisha Avraham Cohen was born in London's East End in 1887. And his parents were Polish immigrants, of course, Orthodox. He was known as Fat

Morris Cohen’s Rough Beginning

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Moisha. He was a bad youngster. He was a pickpocket. He was a street kid who ended up in a reformatory. But even after the reformatory, he stuck to his criminal ways. Moisha was such an embarrassment to his family that he was shipped off to a relative in of all places, Saskatchewan, Canada, in the hope that being out in the prairie would do him right.

unknown 2:02

Saskatoon?

SPEAKER_00 2:03

I don't, it was, I think it was Regina. Saskatoon. In Saskatchewan. So it was not, it was not a uh it was not a good experience. In fact, he became a peddler and a gambler and a violent gun-toting crook. Now, at the beginning of the 20th century, little Canadian history, thousands upon thousands of poor Chinese immigrants came to Canada to work on the railway and to seek out a better life. They suffered a lot of discrimination and misfortune. And Morris, as he was now known, having lived a similar experience in as a Jew in London, felt a sympathy and a close cultural bond with these people, and he became something of a protector to them. One day, according to legend, he protected a Chinese laborer from some thugs in a bar in Saskatchewan, and he immediately became a celebrity in the Chinese community. Now, fast forward a dozen years or so to 1908, when a man named Dr. Sun Yat-sen, he was a charismatic Chinese revolutionary leader who was striving for independence from a corrupt

Sun Yat-sen Finds A Bodyguard

SPEAKER_00 3:41

imperial system in China. And he came to Canada to enlist the support of the Canadian Chinese community. Somebody told him about Morris Cohen and found in him a trusted ally and a personal bodyguard. Now, a little side story about Morris Cohen. In 1912, the Chinese imperial government had been toppled. And a few years after World War I, which by the way, Cohen fought for the Canadian Army, in 1922, Sun Yat-sen persuaded him to come to China, where he was made into his aide de camp, his bodyguard, his arms buyer, and friend. And he promoted him to the rank of colonel. Now, this is where it gets good. After grazing his arm in a battle, Cohen realized that he had to become adept at shooting with both hands, and thereafter toted an automatic in his shoulder holster and a Smith and Weston on his

Becoming Two Gun Cohen

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Smith and Wesson on his hip. And from that moment on he was known as Two Gun Cohen. The Chinese, however, had come to regard him with immense respect, and they referred to him as Ma Kun, which means in Chinese, General Ma. Now, during this period, two Gun Cohen played an instrumental role in advancing the economy, the political status, and the intelligence arm of the Chinese Republic. Remember, this is before Mao Zetong. Now, this is where history takes a little bit of a twist. As the Zionist dream became crystallized, Tugun sought Chinese support towards the creation of the State of Israel. So much so that Sun Yat-sen wrote, I express my sympathy to the movement,

The UN Vote And Israel’s Moment

SPEAKER_00 5:59

which is one of the greatest movements, offering support to restore your wonderful and historical nation, which has contributed so much to the civilization of the world and which rightly deserves an honorable place in the family of nations. Tugun's life was filled with Indiana Jones adventures. But the most interesting part happened during the vote by the five-member Security Council on whether the motion for the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, should be put before the General Assembly. One veto would scuttle the debate. And while the U.S., the Soviet Union, and France were for it, and there was no veto from Britain, the entire Arab world would be trying to secure a veto from the fifth member, the Republic of China. The outcome was by no means certain, with intense lobbying on both sides. Tugun Cohen was called in to meet with a general Wu, who led the Chinese delegation to the UN. Tugun smiled knowingly because it was because it was he who had appointed Wu as a general. Cohen met with Wu the following morning, and the rest is history. China did not vote against partition, but again, but instead abstained, and that contributed to the passage of the motion. Bizarre story, I know, but true. So why am I sharing this little tidbit of Jewish and Chinese history? Because we see it reflected in this week's Torah portion. One person's private choice radiates into the public square in ways that we can never anticipate.

Ra’e And Lifneichem In One Line

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Let's look at the text. Now look at the Hebrew grammar for one second, because it's doing something very sly. The first word in the Torah portion is Ra'e, see. That's singular. Moses is looking each of us in the eye one at a time. But the next word, leaf nechem, before you is plural, before all of you. Singular seeing, plural consequence, the individual eye, the collective fate. Torah tucked a whole sermon into two words of grammar. And let's see what it's trying to tell us. Why would the Torah address the single U, Re, singular, and then immediately widen the lens to all of you, Leafnechem in the plural? As I have said from this Bhima before, the Torah understands something about human nature that sometimes we forget. We like to think that our choices are private. What we say in the car, what we click on the phone, what we let slide when nobody is watching. Surely that stays mine, tucked away, harmless. But it never does, not really. The rabbis of the Talmud have a phrase for this. They say a person should see themselves and the whole world as perfectly balanced on a scale. And one act, one single act, can tip it either towards the chut, merit, or towards chov, a debt, for the whole world, not just for you, for the whole world. This sounds dramatic until you remember that gossip becomes culture. One vote becomes policy. One kindness, quietly done, becomes the story someone else tells for the rest of their life. There really is no truly private choice. There is only a choice that hasn't reached the town square yet. That's the grammar of consequence. Ra'e, singular. Lifnechem, plural. C, a singular soul. It lands, plural world. And here's the turn. Because Torah doesn't leave blessing and curse as some kind of abstract idea floating in the air. A few chapters later, Moses gives it a body. Half of the tribes are standing on Mount Gerizim, half the tribes are standing on Mount Avol. Together, and together they recite the blessing

Mount Gerizim And Mount Ebal

SPEAKER_00 11:10

and the curses out loud, not privately, not silently in their own hearts, out loud, as one voice standing on a mountain, choosing together what kind of people they are going to be. That's the real lesson behind the grammar. The blessing was never handed to individuals to sort out alone in their tents. It was a mountaintop ceremony, a communal yes. So when you and I make our small, quiet, unglamorous choices this week, the email we send or don't send, the neighbor we check in on or don't, the argument we let go of or don't, we are in miniature standing on that mountain together. Every single day is a new Mount Garizine or a new Mount Evolve. And none of us stands there alone. I'm not suggesting that each of us runs off to Saskatchewan and becomes as dramatic as two gun cohen. I think those kinds of daring do are long over. What I am suggesting is to keep in mind that what we say may ultimately change the world, sometimes for good, sometimes not so much. So let's do that right now, together as a congregation. Think about a blessing that you will actually practice this week, not as individuals scattered to our separate corners, but as a community. Out loud, the way they did it on Mount Gerizim. Let's commit each of us to one act of chesed

A Shared Commitment To Chesed

SPEAKER_00 12:52

of kindness towards someone in this room or beyond it before we gather again next week. As Moses said, don't think about it, choose it together, because this blessing set before us today was never meant to be seen alone. Ra'e, see it. Leaf Nechem, all of us together. Shabbat shalom.