Addendum

The video released by Hamas, and explored in my previous post, comes only two days after Israel permitted the daughter of Hamas' top security official in Gaza to pass though Israel on her way to seek urgent medical treatment in Jordan.  The daughter of Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hamad left Gaza on Friday for an Israeli hospital, where she was airlifted to Jordan.  Hamad once headed the armed wing of Hamas that released the Shalit video. He now oversees all of Hamas' security forces.  How is that for bitter irony!  And as my friend and colleague, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, points out in his blog, Israel has tried to negotiate for Shalit's release, offering nearly 1,000 prisoners in exchange, but Hamas changes its request over and over again, making it impossible to reach any compromise.

New Hamas Cartoon

Hamas released a cartoon depicting an aging Noam Shalit walking Israel's empty streets still waiting for Gilad, who was kidnapped by Hamas in June 2006.  The father dreams of his son returning in a flag draped coffin as happened with Goldwasser and Regev in July 2008.  The cartoon concludes with the statement "There is still hope..."  If Israel were to release thousands of prisoners and stop responding to rocket attacks then Shalit will be returned.  This appears to be the implication and intent of the sophisticated cartoon, as well as the suggestion that Israel's streets will be empty in the future.  You can watch the video here:



Let's be honest and forthright.  These are Israel's enemies.  They are people who prey on a father's feelings.  Israel by contrast always tries to minimize civilian casualties and despite Goldstone's biased report, adhere to the highest ethical standards in waging war.  Israel is engaged in what is called asymmetrical warfare (where the opposing forces hide in schools and mosques).  This involves greater civilian losses.  Golda Meir famously said, "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children.  We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children."  Israel never intentionally targets civilians.  Hamas's strategy is based on targeting civilians (both their own and Israel's), in the past organizing homicide bombings against those drinking coffee in cafes or riding buses or shopping in malls.  Let us be thankful that Israel's forces have been successful in preventing terrorist attacks in recent years.  Here they are targeting the feelings of a young soldier's parents and family, as well as that of the entire Israeli populace.  The choices Israel faces are wrenching.  If it trades captured terrorists for Shalit will it be encouraging more terrorist acts and more kidnappings?  If it refuses to make such a deal then is it abandoning its soldiers and their families?  I remain skeptical that there can be peace with such enemies.  Despite this I will not let go of my prayers.  They are always filled with hope for peace.  Shalom is our greatest hope.  For now I will be content with sheket, quiet, although Israel's streets will never be emptied and quiet.

Captive Audience

Captive Audience
Now you can say that you read about this upcoming TV series here.

Aharei Mot-Kedoshim

This week’s Torah portion is a double portion, Aharei Mot-Kedoshim, Leviticus 16-20.  Occasionally we have to double up on portions in order to finish the reading cycle by Simhat Torah and so this week we are blessed with a reading that is filled with many different ideas.

This being Leviticus there is of course instructions about a sacrifice.  It is not any ordinary sacrifice described here but the Yom Kippur scapegoat offering.  We are also given detailed instructions about sexual mores.  Rather than saying a husband should only have sex with his wife and a wife only with her husband, Leviticus 18 provides a detailed listing enumerating with whom you should not have sex.  “Don’t have sex with your sister…  Don’t have sex with animals…”  (Thank God that was clarified!)  “Don’t have sex with your neighbor’s wife…”  In biblical parlance the chapter reads, “Do not uncover the nakedness of your sister…  Do not lie with your neighbor’s wife…”  It is in this chapter that homosexual sex is also explicitly forbidden by the Torah.  It should be noted that in all these cases Judaism legislates against actions not feelings.  (If you are interested in learning more about these sexual laws and my interpretation of them, listen to this week’s podcast.)

What is most intriguing is that the entire chapter is introduced by the phrase, “You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, or of the land of Canaan to which I am taking you; nor shall you follow their laws.  My rules alone shall you observe…”  There is a clear and unmistakable sense in these chapters that the Jewish people must be set apart by their observance and in particular their behavior.  It is in this context that chapter 19 is introduced.  This chapter contains a fabulous collection of ethical laws.  “Love your neighbor as yourself!”  (Lest one become confused this is of course a different kind of love.  Sex and love are not the same.  They only become one within the holiness of marriage.)  There is also the command, “Love the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

And of pressing note vis-à-vis this week’s news, “You shall not falsify measures of length, weight, or capacity.  You shall have an honest balance, honest weights…”  (Leviticus 19:35-36)    This brings me to my question for tomorrow evening’s Shabbat service.  The work week began with reports of the SEC filing charges against Goldman Sachs.  Did Goldman knowingly falsify measures?  Were their complicated financial instruments rigged to benefit those who were shorting the mortgage markets?  Did Paulson’s firm play too active a role in creating these instruments?

Some might be saying to themselves, “I can’t believe he is taking on every controversial issue in one missive!”  But such is the nature of Torah.  If the Torah is going to speak to our times, we have to allow it to tackle our most pressing problems and dilemmas.  Part of the mystery of Torah is the coincidence of its portions with contemporary events.  Let Torah speak to today’s issues!

Others might be saying that when it comes to Wall Street and the economy I am simplifying matters.  Yet for all the times my friends have tried to explain to me the idea of shorting a stock I still fail to grasp it.  I don’t understand how you can bet against anyone.  The nature of my work is to always bet for everyone, never against.  I always bet on people succeeding, and more importantly doing right.

In these verses about honest weights the Torah seems to be speaking about someone who placed their finger on the scales weighing it in his favor or about somehow who used a weight that was purposely mislabeled.  It was not speaking about complicated financial instruments.  Or was it?  Can the Torah’s laws about honest weights and measures be applied to today’s problems?  As Jews should we be guided by a higher law than the laws of the land in which we live?  Perhaps what is legal is not always ethical.

I am a simple man when it comes to matters of right and wrong.  When it comes to matters of the heart, I am, like everyone else, more complicated.  In Hebrew “honest” is rendered from tzedek which can also be translated as “just.”  And so when does “complicated” become deceitful, and unjust?

At Shabbat Services we will explore these questions further.  There, for at least that brief hour, all of the world’s controversies will be solved.  On Shabbat we taste perfection.  Shabbat Shalom!

Happy Yom Haatzmaut

Today is the celebration of 62 years of Israel's independence.  There will be plenty of time to write about the struggles and challenges, threats and worries Israel faces, but for now I wish only to focus on the positive.  For thousands of years we dreamed of a state, we prayed over and over again for our return to the land of Israel.  Our generation can touch this dream.  It is real.  Israel lives.  Israel thrives.  Our ancient prayers find modern life in the State of Israel.  What a remarkable achievement!  What an unparalleled blessing!
Today, Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered the following message to the diaspora communities:

Israel's Independence Day celebrates a double miracle in the life of the Jewish people.
The first miracle is the restoration of Jewish sovereignty. There is no other example that I know of in the history of nations in which a scattered people, practically left for dead, has been able to re-assert its national life.
The second miracle is what we've done since the establishment of the Jewish state. Israel is in fact becoming a regional economic power and one of the world's leading technological powers.
All the powers of creativity and genius in the Jewish people are bursting forth in every area: in science; in technology; in medicine; in the arts. This incredible burst of creativity promises a great future for the Jewish people and for all mankind.
This double miracle is a testament to the life-force of the Jewish people. It's a testament to the deep wells of hope we carry inside us and to the deep connection that we have both to our past and to our future. The two miracles that have already occurred are only the beginning.
If we stand together, if we remain committed to our common destiny, there's nothing we cannot achieve.
Chag Sameach!
Sincerely,
Benjamin Netanyahu
Jerusalem, Israel

What a privilege it is to live in our time!  "To be a free people in our own land."

Yom HaZikaron

Today is Yom HaZikaron, Israel's Memorial Day.  Unlike here in the United States it is not observed with family get-togethers and barbeques.  It is the most solemn of days.  Nearly everyone in Israel knows a soldier who fell in one of the country's many wars and battles.  Since the founding of the State 22,682 soldiers gave their lives in defense of the country.  To sum up Israel's pain Haaretz published a piece about Miriam Peretz who last year lost her younger son, Eliraz, in Gaza.  Now she is facing the impossible choice of having to decide by which grave to stand: the fresh grave of her younger son or that of his elder brother Uriel's, killed in Lebanon in 1998.  She says, "I am indeed not an angel. I can feel pain only in one place, to be comforted only in one place. Eliraz always came to be with me on Memorial Day, except when he was in military action."  Miriam said that after the death of her first son, she made a "deal with God" that He just not take another child from her. She remarks, "I should have made that promise to myself..."  Nationwide the day is marked by a two minute siren at 11 am.  All of Israel falls silent for these moments.  Here is a video clip of this observance.  The great Israeli poet Yehudah Amichai often wrote about war and conflict.  In Israel even poets went into battle.  Each generation goes to war thinking that the war it fights will be the last.  He writes:

My father fought their war four years or so,
and did not hate or love his enemies.
Already he was forming me, I know,
daily, out of his tranquilities;
tranquilities, so few, which he had gleaned
between the bombs and smoke, for his son's sake,
and put into his ragged knapsack with
the leftovers of my mother's hardening cake.
He gathered with his eyes the nameless dead,
the many dead for my sake unforsaken,
so that I should not die like them in dread,
but love them, seeing them as once he saw.
He filled his eyes with them; he was mistaken.
Like them, I must go out to meet my war.

Indeed!  May the deaths we mark on this day grant us peace and tranquility.  May we not know endless war and bloodshed.  Amen.

The TNR EXCHANGE: Trust Fall | The New Republic

The TNR EXCHANGE: Trust Fall | The New Republic
This is an important and insightful exchange between Yossi Klein Halevi and James Risen. I of course lean more towards Halevi's analysis, but nonetheless the debate offers insight into the current tension between the Netanyahu government and Obama administration.
I offer here one quote from Halevi.  "Israelis aren’t astonished at the president for being serious about the peace process...but because his efforts seem dangerously naïve. In demanding a cessation of building in long-standing Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, Obama created a precondition for negotiations which even the Palestinian leadership hadn’t previously insisted on. The absurd result was that Palestinian leaders refused to sit with the first Israeli government that had actually suspended building in the West Bank...  Israelis aren’t looking for unconditional support from Washington, but they do expect friendship. There was widespread acceptance here of Obama’s demand for a West Bank settlement freeze, as a way of testing the administration’s premise that such a move might result in gestures of normalization from Arab countries. But even after building was suspended, no reciprocal gestures came. Where is the administration’s anger against Arab intransigence? Frankly, Israelis are wondering whether America under Obama can be trusted any more as an ally... [I]f the administration persists in one-sided blame against Israel, its Middle East policy will implode. Israelis will not be bullied, even by friends."
And Risen responds: "While you weren't looking, the rest of the world has changed. What troubles Americans today is that Israelis don't seem to get the fact that the United States has fought two wars and fundamentally altered the dynamics of the Middle East. Yet when it comes to Israel, it might as well still be 1980, not 2010.  And so increasingly, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict looks to American eyes like Northern Ireland, an endless conflict fought over land and ethnicity and religion and half-forgotten blood feuds, with a strange immunity to influences from the outside world."
The debate continues...

Yom Haatzmaut

Why is tragedy compelling?  Why is fear motivating?  Why is mourning viewed as a greater obligation than celebrating?  These are the questions that occupy my thoughts as we approach Yom Haatzmaut, Israel Independence Day and the celebration of 62 years of Jewish sovereignty.
To garner our support for the State of Israel we are inundated with images of Hezbollah missiles, Iran’s potential nuclear weapons, suicide bombings, divestment campaigns and in the estimation of many, dwindling support from the Obama administration.  These are great worries to be sure.  Israel does indeed face numerous threats.  Some very real and some imagined.  My question on this Yom Haatzmaut is not about the dangers Israel faces, but instead about our personal connection to the Jewish state.
Why do we rally in far greater numbers when Israel is threatened rather than dance for joy each and every day that Israel continues to thrive?  We live in an unparalleled generation of Jews.   In our own day we find ourselves in a vibrant and successful diaspora community alongside a successful and vibrant Jewish state.  Never before have these two co-existed.  Either there was a thriving diaspora community as in Babylonia in the fifth century or a successful Jewish community in Israel as when King David ruled three thousand years ago.  And so we lack historic parallels.  How do we live and thrive side by side?
Of course we rise up when Israel needs us.  Each of us knows how to stand by friends when they are in mourning.  But why don’t we feel just as a great an obligation to celebrate?  We should stand by Israel and sing and dance—each and every day.  For two thousand years a Jewish state was only a dream.  We live in a time when the dream is a reality.  In a mere twelve hours (ok that is only the plane flight) you could be in Israel touching the very stones generations of Jews only dreamed of touching. 
In Jerusalem in particular the air is thick with prayers.  At first one thinks it is thick with the prayers of the thousands and thousands and thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews running to pray.  That is one’s first impression.  A lot of people do a lot of praying in Jerusalem.  I think instead that it is thick with the prayers of generations.  My great grandparents prayed that one day their people would return to the land of their ancestors.  A hundred years later their great grandson visits there regularly.  What a privilege it is to live in our generation!
In our own day our prayers have become reality.  When we celebrate Yom Haatzmaut I plan to sing (and maybe even dance—watch out party enhancers!).  On this day especially I don’t want my support for Israel to be motivated by fear, or tragedy.  I want it only to be out how fortunate we are to live during these times.  How blessed is our generation that we live alongside a vibrant and thriving State of Israel!  Chag Samayach!

Annie Bleiberg

Yesterday Annie Bleiberg, a member of our congregation, shared her remarkable story of surviving the Holocaust with our sixth graders.  I have heard her tell this story many times over the course of my ten years here at the synagogue.  I still remain in awe of Annie.  She survived against all odds.  Her entire story is amazing but here is one remarkable episode.  When her father discovered that the train the Nazis had packed her family in was headed to the death camp Belzec her father used the tools he had smuggled in to pry open the train car's small window.  He jumped off the moving train.  Annie was to be the first girl to jump, but a young boy became scared and she jumped in his place before him.  The Nazi soldiers saw him jump and shot him dead.  She survived the fall from the train and made her way back to the ghetto to find her father.  False papers were made for her so she could work as a Polish nanny in Germany.  She was quickly discovered.  A former classmate turned her in and she was taken to the police station where she was severely beaten.  She was then deported to Auschwitz where she survived for a year and a half.  In Auschwitz she would use some of her meager tea rations to add color to her face so she would appear healthier and not be sent to the gas chambers. Despite all of this the most frequent word to pass from her lips is "lucky."  Over and over again she said that she was lucky because she survived.  I would have understood if she said that she was angry or always mourning, but instead she is filled with thankfulness and hope.  She concluded her talk to our students by reminding them that you must always keep hope alive.  It is one thing when I say that you must be hopeful.  It is another thing entirely when Annie says, "Hope!  Without hope you can't survive.  You, students, can make the world a better place."  Amen Annie.  Thank you.  You can watch a brief clip of her talk here.

Yom HaShoah Remarks

What follows are my remarks from our congregation's annual Yom HaShoah observance.

This week’s Torah portion describes the death of Nadav and Avihu, Aaron’s sons.  According to the Torah they were engulfed in a heavenly fire because they offered an eish zara, an alien fire, a strange fire.  This story is part of a long list of Torah stories that I struggle to comprehend.  What was so alien about their offering that merited their deaths?  Why would God punish them for offering a sacrifice?  All explanations are inadequate.  All commentators merely scratch the surface.

So too on this day we struggle with the death by strange fire of six million of our fellow Jews.  How could God allow the death of so many millions?  How could a German culture that produced such great artists and thinkers also produce such unimaginable death and destruction?  How can rational and intelligent people be led to become horrific murderers?  All explanations are inadequate.  All commentators merely scratch the surface.

And the Torah states that Aaron could not speak after his sons’ death, “Vayidom Aharon—Aaron fell silent.”  For one year following the Holocaust Elie Wiesel, the great writer, took a vow of silence.  For ten years he refused to speak or write about his experiences in the Holocaust.  I once heard him remark that it took him that long to find any words.  He would later say that words can never truly capture or describe the Shoah.  This is perhaps why most survivors married other survivors.  There was then an unspoken truth between survivors that therefore need not be verbalized.

So how do we come to terms with the horror and loss?  How can we voice what can not be put to words but what must be remembered?  How can we fathom the magnitude of the loss?  How comprehend six million lives that are no more.  How can we understand 1.5 million children murdered before they even had a chance to grow to adulthood. 

The loss can never be adequately expressed.  Each and every time I sit down to write a eulogy I am overwhelmed by the inadequacy of words.  How is it just, how is it fair to reduce a life to mere sentences and pages?  How can any life be summarized?  That of course is the essence of a eulogy.  The hesped adds the flesh of words to the memories family members long to hold.  The eulogy gives life to their memories.  Yet it still feels inadequate and often unjust.  85 years reduced to pages.  92 years summarized in sentences.  44 years etched in a few words.   

If one life is this challenging to summarize how much more so six million lives?  How do we remember if even the remember-ers were murdered?  If you recall Elie Wiesel’s Night (first written by the way in his native Yiddish in 1955) this is part of the young boy’s struggle.  The young Wiesel’s father dies by his side and he does not mourn.  Instead he feels shamefully relieved that his father’s life will no longer be a burden to him, that his father will no longer threaten his life.  He writes:  “His last word was my name. A summons, to which I did not respond.   I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep. But I had no more tears. And, in the depths of my being, in the recesses of my weakened conscience, could I have searched for it, I might perhaps have found something like—free at last!”

So wrenching were Wiesel’s experiences (and every survivor’s experiences) that even a son could not mourn for a father.   Humanity had been stripped from the souls of the victims.  They were no longer sons or fathers, or mothers and daughters, or brothers and sisters, or husbands and wives.  They were during those years only numbers.  This is why Primo Levi’s book is better translated from the Italian to “Is this a Man?” rather than the English rendition “Survival in Auschwitz.”

The Nazis had reduced all to mere numbers.  And so in the end tabulating our losses, counting one after another, until six months later we reach six million, will never give more meaning to our loss.  The numbers are unfathomable and if you believe as I do and as the Talmud counsels, that each life is an entire world, then it is impossible to quantify our losses. 

I am left only with this command, the command that their sacrifice calls to me.  Yes I must remember.  Yes we must remember.  I must remember—always and with all my being.  But our remembrances must be mingled with an eternal vigilance to never treat others as mere objects, to never count another human being.  We must never behave as if a life can be quantified and tabulated in numbers.  Each life has a name.  Each life is a world.

Each and every life is sacred.  Each and every human being is created in the divine image.  If the fires of the Holocaust are going to summon us to something greater it must be this.  Like Aaron I fall silent before the enormity of our loss.  But I must not fall silent before injustice and evil.  I will have the courage to make our people’s enormous sacrifice mean something, to make it point to something greater and more meaningful.  Every human life is sacred!

We stand silent before the enormity of our loss.  But out of this silence a command emerges.  Every human life is sacred.  May we hear this command each and every day!

Yom HaShoah

Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) is the day in which we recall the Nazi genocide and the murder of six million Jewish souls.  This is the day when we remember six million of our people, 1.5 million of whom were children.  Even after years of studying this tragic and horrific event I am still struggling to come to terms with the enormity of the loss.  If I were to spend every minute of every day reading the names of those who were murdered (at a pace of 20 names per minute) it would take me more than six months to read all six million names.  If I were to read six stories of those who perished, one for each million, each and every year, and if God is good enough to grant me a full lifetime of 120 years, I would still only learn some 600 stories in the span of my adult years.  By 1944 at the height of the Nazi final solution 6,000 people were murdered in a day at Auschwitz-Birkenau.  Our nation is currently transfixed by the tragic loss of some 25 miners in West Virginia, and we hope and pray the rescue of four trapped miners. Six million is roughly equivalent to that of the Jewish population of the United States and equal to the entire Jewish population of the State of Israel.  Perhaps I cannot ever come to terms with these staggering numbers.  And so I am left unable to quantify and count and must instead remember one by one, collecting individual stories.  To that end I would like to begin collecting such stories from our congregation.  If someone in your extended family perished in the Holocaust please email me these names, and their stories, if they are known.  If someone in your family survived the Shoah please email me these stories as well.  Take a few minutes and read some individual stories on Yad VaShem’s website.  Every year Yad VaShem highlights six stories for Israel’s Yom HaShoah ceremony on Sunday evening.  One story, and one candle, for each of the million.  Watch some of the videos on this remarkable website.  If you watch only one video watch the following three minute story about a family from Amsterdam.  This particular story can be more easily accessed on YouTube. Every time I sit at my computer to write a eulogy I am reminded that each and every life is precious.  I always find it an overwhelmingly sacred task to give voice to memories, to grant renewed life to a person’s story.  For millions during the Holocaust, even those who would remember were murdered, even those who would gather to recite kaddish were lost.  This is one of the reasons why Yad VaShem’s collection of nearly all six million names is so remarkable. We cannot adequately remember or even fathom the loss of six million.  We can however tell individual stories.  Please join me in this effort.  Share stories with me and thereby with your congregation.  Perhaps in this way our congregation will take on a sacred task, for the most part lost to history, and begin remembering those who might otherwise be forgotten.

For the Sake of Heaven

In the spirit of machloket l'shem shamayim (argument for the sake of heaven) I share here the views of my good friend and colleague, Rabbi Sam Gordon of Congregation Sukkat Shalom in Chicago, about the current crisis between the United States and Israel.
I believe that President Obama wants what is best for Israel and the Middle East. He is fully in favor of the “Two State Solution” for the Israelis and the Palestinians, two states for two people. The Two State Solution should not be seen as a gift to the Palestinians or some kind of surrender by Israel. It is rather the best solution for Israel itself. Israel cannot remain both democratic and Jewish unless the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have a state of their own. The Zionist dream of a democratic Jewish state is impossible to achieve as long as Israel controls another people within its borders who are denied the basic political rights of self determination, while Israelis, living in that same area, are granted full citizenship....  When building permits for 1,600 houses were approved for a section of East Jerusalem, I believe it was an intentional insult to Vice President Biden and the United States government. Prime Minister Netanyahu apologized for the timing of the announcement but not the substance. Then other apologists claimed that this was, in fact, a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem that would never be returned under any peace agreement. The arguments are disingenuous at best. Just this week a settlement was approved in the Shepherd’s Hotel complex in Arab East Jerusalem in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. This has always been considered an Arab neighborhood, but the Jewish settlers are supported by the right wing American bingo czar, Irving Moskowitz [no relation to my good friend, Rabbi Steve Moskowitz]. The group, Ateret Cohanim, is committed to taking over land and housing in specifically Arab areas. The Netanyahu government has approved this move, knowing full well that both the United States and Britain strongly oppose that action. For those of you who have been in Jerusalem, this area is near the American Colony Hotel and near Salahadin Street, the very heart of Arab East Jerusalem. Netanyahu has chosen to build a coalition with Avigdor Lieberman as his Foreign Minister and various other right wing parties that have absolutely no desire to create a viable democratic Israel living side by side with a democratic Palestine. They demand that there be only a Jewish state between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, and democracy is of little or no concern to them. Prime Minister Netanyahu has chosen to ally himself with that ideological position, consistent with his position throughout his life. I believe he also thinks that Israel can “manage” the Palestinian problem, and that the status quo can continue forever. I believe he is profoundly wrong.  The United States government has never accepted the right of Israel to occupy all of the West Bank and Gaza, while at the same time denying some of that land’s residents the basic rights of self-determination. President Obama is acting in full consistency with past American policy. I believe this policy is in Israel’s own best interest. President Obama is attempting to move Israel towards a peaceful and secure state living in peace with her neighbors. It is what the majority of Israelis desire as well. Ad hominem attacks on the President and his aides will not change the fact that Israel is pursuing a policy that is, at its heart, inimical to the basic values of the Zionist dream.

Washington Diarist: Mean Streets | The New Republic

Washington Diarist: Mean Streets | The New Republic
Leon Wieseltier's article is an important read, albeit disturbing, and troubling...

On Jerusalem

This week Netanyahu spoke before the AIPAC Convention and declared, "Jerusalem is not a settlement.  It is our capital.  The connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel cannot be denied.  The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today."  Amen.  This is the point that Obama does not seem to understand or appreciate.  Judging by his words in Cairo last year, Obama's view of Israel is more along the lines of Herzl's vision of the Jewish state.  Israel is a response to antisemitism.  Israel is recompense for the suffering in the Holocaust.  This of course is partially true, but it fails to address the historical connection to the land of Israel.  And this point is at the heart of the issue today. Even today's Times called Jerusalem holy to Muslims, but failed to use the same adjective when describing Jewish claims.  The continued failure of the Palestinian leadership (and the world) to recognize and affirm this Jewish connection is fundamental to the perpetuation of the crisis.  Where Obama is correct however is the failure in particular of Netanyahu to recognize that the suffering of the Palestinians also perpetuates the simmering of tensions.  Having historical legitimacy never justifies adding to others' suffering.  Israel of course has every right to defend itself against attack, even those and perhaps especially those that are only in the planning phases. The state must protect its citizens.  That is part and parcel to the function of any state.  Where we transgress is when we allow historical legitimacy and our own past sufferings to excuse causing harm to others.  There are a few examples of this occurring even in the city that is closest to my heart.  Then again I don't think everyone is treated equally in Chicago.  That of course is no excuse, only an observation.  But Ramat Shlomo is not the heart of the issue.  There are two recognitions  required to move forward.  Palestinians must say the Jewish people have deep and abiding historical ties to this land and this city.  Israelis must say Palestinians have suffered.  We are partly responsible for their suffering. If Obama wants to twist arms, I wish he would twist both of our arms to say this. I wish he would not fixate on this neighborhood or that.  I wish he would be even-handed in his pressure for both sides to address the heart of the matter.

Passover

At services tomorrow evening I will discuss the upcoming holiday of Passover, which begins on Monday evening, March 29.  For most, Passover is first and foremost about family and food.  The Seder is of course about more.  It is a meal filled with rituals and symbols.  All of these are intended to remind us of the joy, privilege, blessing and responsibility of being free.  One of my favorite symbols is haroset.  This apple, walnut, cinnamon and wine mixture is intended to be a remembrance of the harshness of slavery.  Unlike many of the other Seder foods this mixture’s symbolism is all about looking like something, like mortar.  It can be a mixture of just about anything.  At my family’s seder we have at least three different haroset recipes and have a haroset tasting.  For some of Claudia Roden’s haroset recipes follow this link.  My son Ari has been adding his own haroset recipe to our seder since his early years.  It has always had the perfect look, although not always the perfect taste.  We just leave him in the kitchen with a Cuisinart, apples, bananas, dates, Manischewitz, and whatever else he might find in the spice rack or refrigerator so that he can create the perfect looking haroset.  I am thankful that as he has aged, the taste of his haroset has become even more delicious.  Another familiar custom is the four cups of wine.  You might be surprised to discover that the ancient rabbis argued over the number of cups of wine. Each cup is supposed to represent one of the Torah’s verses about God’s redemption.  Some said there were four verses.  Others five.   Rather than sit at different Seder tables the rabbis compromised and left the disagreement unresolved.  They said, “teiku,” a Talmudic acronym meaning, when Elijah comes and heralds the messianic age this disagreement will be resolved.  For now, they said, let’s just enjoy each other’s company.  Later this unresolved debate was transformed into Elijah’s cup.  Long ago, the rabbis decided community was most often more important than being right.  I have been thinking about “teiku” lately.  Only this week we watched as our House of Representatives decided a major issue along party lines.  Whatever one might believe about health care reform, it is disheartening that it was only Democrats, and no Republicans, voting in favor of this bill.  It is upsetting that Democrats and Republicans were unable to compromise and resolve some of their differences.  As a result our American community feels divided and fractured.  I longed for “teiku” this week.  And so this is my question for tomorrow evening.  What disagreements do you long for Elijah to solve?  About what would you like to say, “Teiku”—let’s just enjoy our meal together; Elijah will one day resolve our dispute?”  You are welcome to email me your responses.  Shabbat Shalom and happy Passover!

Idol Worship

Idol Worship
This is a wonderful short story by Israeli author, Etgar Keret, in the online journal, Tablet.

Vayikra

Today I inaugurated a new weekly email.  It is not about upcoming programs.  It is instead about Torah.  I hope you find it meaningful.  During good times and bad we should draw from the wellspring of Torah.  Interestingly this week’s Torah portion is Vayikra.  It is all about sacrifices.  It is all about stuff we no longer do.  It is about killing animals and sprinkling blood on the altar.  Pretty gross if you asked me.  Pretty foreign if you asked just about anyone.  But we believe there has to be something for us to learn even in a portion all about stuff we no longer do.  Otherwise why keep reading the Torah.  The Hebrew word for sacrifice is korban.  It comes from karov, meaning to draw near.  The ancients believed animal sacrifices were therefore about how you get closer to God.  That desire is still part of our discussion and it is my question for this Shabbat.  How do we draw closer to God?  You are welcome to email me your thoughts about this question and I will have more to say about this question at Shabbat services tomorrow evening.  Here is an initial thought.  When you offered an animal for sacrifice it could not just be any animal it had to be the best animal, without blemish.  You had to give up something that was valued and prized.  Perhaps that is how we can draw closer to God.  We must give up something that we really like.  Granted you can take this idea to an extreme.  And that is exactly what ascetics do.  They give up everything to get closer to God.  Giving up everything is decidedly un-Jewish, but giving up something, sacrificing something, can bring us closer to God and those we love. The question remains what must we give up, what must we sacrifice in order to draw closer to God and to others?  For a different take on the Torah portion listen to my weekly podcast through iTunes.  I hope to see you at Shabbat Services tomorrow evening at 6:30 pm.  Shabbat Shalom!

On Settlements

While the world appears to treat every Jewish neighborhood outside the 1967 green line as a settlement, settlements are not in fact a unified term.  The Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo that is now in question is not a settlement.  I don't know any Israeli who considers it as such.  It is part of the Jerusalem municipality.  There are large settlement blocs (Maale Adumim, Gush Etzion and Ariel) that all agree will have to become part of Israel proper in any deal with the Palestinians.  There are just far too many people who live there to withdraw.  The pain (and continued price) of the Gaza withdrawal is not some distant memory.  As I have stated before, the issue, at least from the Israeli side, is not Ramat Shlomo or Maale Adumim but those settlements that are geographically and ideologically isolated.  These should be withdrawn for Israel's sake.  The practical costs of supporting them are too much for Israel to bear.  Even more important are the ideological issues.  Many of these settlers represent dangerous anti-democratic leanings, where for example their rabbi holds more authority than their commanding officer.  For Israel to continue as a Jewish and democratic state it must divorce itself from this growing ideology where the land (and even religion) has become more holy than people.  I love the land of Israel and I love my Judaism but in a modern state these are not more important than democratic principles.  It is in these isolated places, to borrow Tom Friedman's analogy, where we have become intoxicated, in particular with the land of Israel and the biblical vision of it.  These isolated settlements have become ideological islands.  Surrounded only by those who share the same ideas, these settlers are no longer nurtured by the democratic foundations of modern Israel.  These settlers need to return to the cities and towns of modern Israel, and live with those with whom they fundamentally disagree, in order to help create a pluralism that Israel so desperately needs.  For the sake of our souls we must let go of even those places that hold power over our Jewish hearts.  For more reading on the week's events see Barry Rubin's op-ed in the Jerusalem Post, as well as Dan Raviv's column on CBSNews.com.  And for a daily synopsis of the news see the DailyAlert prepared by the Conference of Presidents.

Follow Up

Yesterday's papers presented a number of articles about the ongoing political crisis in Israel and between the Obama administration and Netanyahu government regarding Biden's visit. Tom Friedman in the Times compared settlement construction with driving drunk. "...Israel needs a wake-up call. Continuing to build settlements in the West Bank, and even housing in disputed East Jerusalem, is sheer madness. Yasir Arafat accepted that Jewish suburbs there would be under Israeli sovereignty in any peace deal that would also make Arab parts of East Jerusalem the Palestinian capital. Israel’s planned housing expansion now raises questions about whether Israel will ever be willing to concede a Palestinian capital in Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem — a big problem." Again I would suggest that the crucial issue is the acceptance of Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem and the land of Israel not so much housing. The Washington Post explored the perceived growing divide between Israel and America in an article that featured a range of commentators. Personally I start worrying when a top ranking US official like David Axelrod characterizes last week's events with the words, "What happened there was an affront. It was an insult." The Israeli press has been scathing in its treatment of Netanyahu. It should be noted that the Israeli press is almost always critical. Yediot Aharonot editorializes: "Netanyahu can become inebriated as much as he likes from the support of the Jewish Right, he cannot alter the political reality: Obama will sit in the White House for at least three more years, surrounded by a group of liberals, some of whom are Jewish. The vociferous ovations that will precede Netanyahu at the AIPAC conference will not help him in his future contacts with the White House." Israel will certainly have to make great compromises. I hope and pray that the compromises of the future will not bring a third intifada as Oslo brought the second. For more insights about the situation watch today's news report from Israel's channel 2 TV news, in English.
Addendum. And for good measure today's editorial in the Journal blames the Obama administration for the current breakdown in relations between Israel and the US, commenting: "Then again, this episode does fit Mr. Obama's foreign policy pattern to date: Our enemies get courted; our friends get the squeeze."

Donniel Hartman Article

My teacher, Donniel Hartman, wrote a worthwhile article about the place of Israel advocacy in the Jewish pantheon. In light of last week's imbroglio and the upcoming AIPAC conference in Washington, it makes for interesting reading. Click on the post's title for the complete article. What follows are a few excerpts.
Since Operation Cast Lead and the subsequent Goldstone Report, there has been an increasing sense that anti-Israeli opinion has moved beyond criticism of some of Israel's actions and policies to the delegitimization of the Zionist project as a whole. We Israelis and Jews must have no problem with constructive criticism. Our tradition has taught us that criticism is first and foremost an act of love and loyalty. We welcome it as a necessary check-and-balance in ensuring moral behavior. In fact, we have always been our own greatest critics. When we define all criticism of Israel's policies as anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic, we are neither accurate nor serving Israel's interests. However, undermining the essential legitimacy of the State of Israel as a Jewish State or as the homeland of the Jewish people is not criticism but rather a danger which we must confront and combat... It is time for us to recognize that the Jewish community in general and Israel in particular have failed to develop a new Jewish narrative for the Jewish people around the world on which to base their relationship with Israel. Jewish organizations and Israel have held steadfast to the three arguments above [Israel is necessary as a safe haven in the event of a new Holocaust; the survival of the State of Israel is in danger; and Israel is a central ally in the West's war against the Axis of Evil] for they were successful in creating a crisis-centered relationship with Israel which was effective in raising money. These actions, however, have mortgaged our future on the altar of immediate and short-term institutional needs. Repayment is now due, and the resources are lacking. The Jewish community is not in need of an Israel advocacy campaign of facts and figures alone, but also of a new Jewish narrative based on Jewish ideas and values for engaging Israel in a way that will help integrate Israel into a modern Jewish identity. Jews today need to be able to address crucial questions for which they currently do not know the answer. For example: What is the role of "peoplehood" in modern Jewish identity? What is the meaning and purpose of Jewish sovereignty connected to territory rooted in the land of Israel to modern Jewish life? What are the requirements of morality of war, and how can Israel use its power in a way that is consistent with the highest standards of Jewish morality and values? How does Israel balance its legitimate right of self defense with the rights of others? Can a Jewish state be reconciled with the values of Jewish pluralism and freedom? Does the aspiration for a Jewish state automatically define Israel as a racist, apartheid state? These are just some of the questions that need to be addressed and answered by this new Jewish narrative of Israel and Zionism. If one cannot answer them, there is neither a foundation for connecting to Israel nor the ability to sustain a viable and meaningful relationship. We need to educate and empower the Jewish community to engage Israel in a meaningful way before we can even think about asking them to advocate on its behalf....