A Yizkor Thought and Prayer

In second chapter of the Second Book of Samuel. We are told there that, after the death of King Saul, the people of Israel divided into two factions. One group followed King David, and general, Joab; the other group followed King Ish Boshet, and general, Abner.

The two armies came together at a place called the Pool of Gideon. Joab had with him that day his two younger brothers, Avishai and Asael.

The battle began, and Joab and his army quickly took the offensive, and Abner and his army began to retreat. Asael, the youngest brother of Joab, pursued after Abner with a sword in his hand. Asael was a very fast runner. And he ran after Abner, as fast as he could. 

Abner looked back and said:” Is that you? Asael?” “Yes it Is”, Asael called back. Abner said to him: “I ask you to turn to the right or to the left, and to pursue someone else instead of me.  Seize one of my men, or kill him and bring back a trophy from his body, if you wish. But don’t come after me, for I do not want to have to kill you.”

But Asael would not turn aside. Abner begged Asael again. He said: “Stop pursuing me, or I will have to strike you down. And if I do, how will I ever be able to face your brother, Joab?”

But Asael would not stop, and so Abner finally, reluctantly, had to strike him in the stomach with the back end of his spear. But the spear went through him and came out the other side. And Asael fell, and died there.

And now comes the part of the story that I find most interesting.  When the battle was over, Joab, as is the custom of generals after every battle, ordered that a body count be made, in order to determine how many of the enemy‘s soldiers had fallen, and how many of his own men had fallen. That is the way that generals determine which side has won. However, this time they counted differently. They reported back to him that of Abner’s army, three hundred and sixty soldiers had fallen and that of his army “nineteen men were dead - and Asael.”

They did not say that twenty men had fallen. They said that nineteen men had fallen…and Asael. They said it this way because Asael was not a number. Asael was Joab’s youngest brother. He was a person whom he loved, and so his death had to be listed separately.

This is the tragedy of war: that generals and politicians and reporters get caught up in numbers. They measure victory or defeat by statistics, and they forget that to the mother of one soldier who has fallen, the battle is a catastrophe. They think that if the other side has lost three hundred and sixty soldiers and their side has only lost twenty, then their side has won - when actually both sides have lost, and what they have lost is not numbers, but human beings. 

War will never end until we learn to stop thinking only in terms of numbers. War will never end until we realize that each person who dies in battle has a name as well as a number, until we learn as Joab learned that day that he had not lost twenty men. He had lost nineteen men - and his brother.

My first suggestion is that, in every police station in this country that we should put up a memorial sign - a sign that contains the names of those who have been shot in the back while running away from a policeman, and the names of those who have been killed with guns, when they could have been tranquilized by Tasers instead. Let these names be inscribed on a wall near the entrance of every police station so that whenever a policeman enters the building to begin his duty every day he may see these names, and he may realize how careful he must be, and how sacred his responsibility is.

At the same time, I propose that in every black church in America that there should be put up a memorial sign - in which are inscribed the names of those policemen who have been killed in the line of duty, so that each person who enters these buildings may realize and know that they are protected by people who risk their lives - and who sometimes give their lives - for our protection.

Let them see and let them say these names - in BOTH places, so that both of these groups may not forget that these were human beings, and not just numbers.

And let us remember their names today when we recite Yizkor, so that we may know - and not forget - that in these last few months, we have lost - not numbers - but human beings….we have not lost twenty men…we have lost nineteen men and Asael. Amen.

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THESE ARE THE NAMES

Officer Brain Moore

Officer  Wenjian Lu and Officer Rafael Ramos

Detective Terence Avery Green

Police Officer Robert Wilson III

Deputy Marshal Josie Wells

Police Officer Alex Yazzie

Police Officer Michael Johnson

Trooper Trevor Casper

Sergeant Gregory Moore

Police Office Liquori Tate

Police Officer Benjamin Deen

AND THESE ARE THE NAMES

Michael Brown

Tamir Rice

Cameron Tillman 

Von Derrit Myers, Jr, 

Laquan McDonald

Qusean Whitten

Diana Showman

Freddie Gray

The first list contains the names of some policemen who were shot and killed while they were sitting in their cars, or standing at a traffic stop. It contains the names of whites and blacks and a Chinese policeman as well who have been killed in the line of duty in the last few months. They deserve to be remembered in the black community.

The second list contains the name of 12-year-old boy killed because he was brandishing BB gun, and police thought it was a real gun.  This list contains the name of a boy shot in the back, even though he was holding his hands up.  It contains the name of a boy killed by a police reservist who says that he pulled out his gun by mistake, and he meant to shoot him with his Taser. These teenagers deserve to be remembered by the police.

And then, let us say this prayer after we have recited our prayers for those whom we love:

Author of life,

Grant perfect rest

To those whom we have named today,

And to all those whose lives have been shortened by violence.

Let those who loved them remember them

With joy and with tears.

Put an end to anger, hatred and fear

And bring us to a time

When no one will suffer needless violence at the hands of another.

May the souls of all those  whom we have named today

Be bound up in the bond of life.      Amen.                                                                      Alden Solovy, Jewish Prayers of Hope and Healing.