I always knew I would have to write this piece one day. For some of you, most of you, this may not be a popular response to recent events. You may think I am wrong. That’s OK. We’re Jews. We argue.
I thought about not writing. Not speaking. Maybe silence is better.
To my friends who are so sure. I am not. I think that this week requires a great deal of nuance. It is not black and white. This is an attempt to provide nuance, context and history. Let me be perfectly clear. Israel has a right to exist and needs to exist. But does Israel need to shoot children? And does Hamas need to use children as cannon fodder?
I am just a small town rabbi. A student of Israel politics for 40 years but I am no expert. If I thought I could solve peace in the Middle East I would go to Fletcher or the Kennedy School. But alas…
My relationship with Israel is complicated. I grew up believing in the hope of Israel. The David and Goliath version. Israel needed to exist so that no matter where Jews were persecuted they had a home to return to. Israel was home.
Like 16 of my Confirmation classmates, I journeyed to Israel in 1977 as part of a NFTY study tour. I fell in love. In 1981 I returned to Israel and learned about more the complexities. I lived there for a year. In Jerusalem. I was the victim of a violent crime and had to testify in Hebrew. I dated an Israeli soldier who was killed in 1983. We were supposed to get married. Every trip to Israel is marked with an intensity that no other travel contains. Every rock. Every trail. Every sidewalk café contains a memory. A story. These staccato sentences, my life experience, color my understanding of Israel.
When I returned I wrote an op-ed piece for a Brandeis publication justifying the “Incursion into Lebanon,” by Jewish law. It was before the internet so I doubt a simple google search will find it. Probably there is a hard copy somewhere in my basement. It does not represent my feeling any more.
Part of my rabbinic thesis was written on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I concluded that cycles of violence cannot be quelled until people feel safe. Not in generations of domestic violence, not in German Jewish relationships after the Holocaust, not in Israel. We are now three and four generations into this conflict. Israelis don’t feel safe. Neither do Arabs.
Yesterday saw the United States open its long-promised embassy in Jerusalem. I can remember standing in front of the former embassy in Tel Aviv and wondering why it wasn’t in Jerusalem. Yesterday saw (continuing) riots in Gaza, by last count 55 people killed and over 2000 wounded, some of them children.
Those are facts. I believe they were predictable. Hamas has a proven history of using children as human shields. Israel has a history of practicing restraint. Yesterday, there was no restraint. Could there be restraint? Should there have been? Do we hold Israel to a higher standard? Should we?
For 70 years Jews have celebrated the return to having a Jewish state. It is a source of pride. Israel is technologically advanced. Has made the desert bloom. And they have created a haven for Jews from around the world. They are the first to show up at any natural disaster around the world with their excellent medical and rescue expertise. I celebrate, too.
When you arrive at Ben Gurion airport and head to Jerusalem, you go up, you make aliyah, you ascend the mountain road on the way up to Jerusalem. It is a spiritual ascension as well as a hard climb. For thousands of years, Jews have prayed to not forget Jerusalem. For thousands of years, Jews have prayed, “Next year in Jerusalem,” at the end of the Passover seder.
But in the middle of the Passover seder, we spill out some of our wine during the recitation of the plagues. Why? Because, as G-d reminds us in the midrash, we are not allowed to rejoice at the killing of G-d’s creatures. No matter what your politics, the Palestinians in Gaza or on the West Bank are people too, created b’tzelem elohim, in the image of G-d. They have hopes and dreams for their children and their grandchildren. Many of them, most of them want to live in peace.
We have to keep that dream alive. The dream of the story I told this week of where the Temple was built, on a hill where two brothers with different life stories, came together and shared wheat. Where Hiney Ma Tov was penned, “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together.”
Can those brothers dwell together? Can there be a path to peace? That is what I pray for every day. That is what I work for when I support organizations like New Israel Fund (NIF), Rabbis for Human Rights, T’ruah, Hadassah, IRAC. And Parent’s Circle—Families Forum, whose homepage says, “We are the only association in the world that does not wish to welcome any new members into its fold. We work towards stopping violence.”
This week, there will be new members of the Parent’s Circle.
Herzl said it, “If you will it, it is no dream.” It is echoed in the National Anthem of Israel, in HaTikvah, The Hope, “To be a free people in our land.” I share that dream. I cannot give up on that dream.
It is why we will celebrate Israel at 70 again this Friday night with a MishMosh musical Kabbalat Shabbat service featuring mostly Israeli music…some of that music that I learned bouncing on a bus in 1977. Oseh Shalom and Jerusalem of Gold will have even more meaning. They are the aspirations of what we hope for, what we pray for.
It is why we are beginning to plan a congregational trip to Israel that will feature plenty of opportunities for a first hand look and deep listening so that we have a better understanding.
I am just a small town rabbi. I don’t have the answers. But I know this. The violence must stop. On all sides.
On a day where many Jews wanted to celebrate, I feel only deep sadness.
In order to understand Israel I recommend the following books and articles:
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-moral-challenge-of-gaza/
The Case for Israel, Alan Dershowitz
Lemon Tree, Sandy Tolan
My Promised Land, Ari Shavit
Not in G-d’s Name, Jonathan Sacks
Walking Israel, Martin Fletcher
And a brand-new one just out this week.
Letters to my Palestinian Neighbors, Yossi Klein Halevi, already loaded on my Kindle
Toda Rabah
Another well-written and heartfelt ‘letter’.
I especially like how much of your private, personal life you share.
and thank you for the links.
Yes, it’s been a hard week of news to follow.
Rabbi, I can’t stand Trump and I’m scared for many of the platforms he’s pushing.
But, as one who has always believed that the ‘capital’ is Jerusalem, I’m happy to have embassies there. Trust the French to act French. Grr