The ancient rabbis believed that whenever something bad happened, there was always a reason for it, always something to be learned. When the greatest of calamities befell our people—the destruction of the Temple and exile from Jerusalem—the reason was obvious: we weren’t following the mitzvot! And we did t’shuvah and cleaned up our act, and got to come home. But then, 500 years later, the 2nd Temple was destroyed, and we were once again facing exile. The rabbis believed that we could not have repeated the same mistakes; our second exile was for a different reason: sinat chinam, senseless hatred. Though we were following through on our commitments to God, we were being cruel, brutish, and nasty to each other. And for this, we were once again kicked out of our promised land.
Fast forward to the present— this summer, the day after Tisha B’av, the day when we remember the great calamities and tragedies of our people’s history. Opening up my inbox, I was shocked to see a headline from the Times of Israel that said that a boulder from the Western wall, weighing about 220 pounds, had broken off and crashed down onto the egalitarian prayer platform, which—thank God—was empty at the time. This incident was in reality due to two thousands years of exposure to elements and plant growth through the cracks. I can’t help but think, however, of the spiritual and historical implications, given the tumultuous times in which we’re living and the sheer volume of sinat chinam present wherever we look.
Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch is quoted as saying,
“This is an unusual and most rare incident that has not occurred for decades. The fact that this powerful incident happened a day after the 9th of Av fast, in which we mourned the destruction of our temples, raises doubts and questions which the human soul is too small to contain, and requires soul-searching.”[1]
It’s rare that I’ll be quoting the Western Wall Rabbi in agreement, but this symbolic moment, at this crucial time in history, is just too striking. Something is very much off, and history—namely, the destruction of Israel as we know it—may very well be repeating itself.
Though I probably do not speak enough of it, I have a deep love and sense of attachment to the State of Israel. I carry a sense of connection near the core of my being, and long to return, for a day, for a week, for a year. I cannot wait to take my children there for the first time, and if the circumstances were right, I would make Aliyah. It is our people’s safe haven, a scientific light unto the nations, our spiritual and cultural center, home to family and to the Jewish people. It is our axis mundi—the center to our prayers, the great Jewish unifier, and the place where I believe the Jewish people can reach their highest collective potential. But the circumstances are most definitely not right. Much is wrong. And as a Zionist and lover of Israel, the current state of affairs in the Jewish homeland is leaving me seriously distressed and deeply concerned. As a Reform Jew and a Jew living in the Diaspora, I am having an especially hard time seeing what Israel is becoming. I am finding myself disappointed by, angered at, and alienated from the words and actions of Israel’s elected government, which has taken that the same extreme nationalist and nativist turn that we’re seeing throughout the Western world.
I am frustrated by what seems to be a rejection of any two-state peace plan and consequently an indefinite continuation of the military occupation of the West Bank. I am disappointed at the repeated excuses of security concerns for expansion of settlements and the refusal to acknowledge the Palestinian right to self-determination and national aspiration, one that is not so dissimilar to Jewish self-determination and national aspiration. To be clear, many atrocities and efforts against peace have come from the Palestinians, and Israel has very legitimate security concerns. But, this does not mean that Israel has no culpability nor any obligation to try to fix the situation. Just as we are obligated by Torah to hunt down those who pursue us, we are also obligated to seek peace with every ounce of our being. And in turning against Palestinians and towards leaders with troubling records towards democracy and justice, including Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey, President Duterte of the Philippines, and President Morawiecki of Poland, among others, Netanyahu and his government is most certainly not seeking peace.
I am concerned by the Israeli government’s rejection of equal treatment for its Christian, Muslim, and Druze minorities under the recent passing of the Nation-State law, something that goes directly against Israel’s founding principles. This Nation-State law has declared that it is only the Jewish people in the state of Israel who have a right to national aspiration, and it has made clear that Israel’s democratic and prophetic leanings towards liberty, justice, and peace, have been downgraded in importance. It has knocked off Arabic as one of the country’s two national languages. In voting on this law, the government has broken for the first time in its history the precarious balance Israel’s founders sought to have between all Israel’s inhabitants. This legal change not only denigrates citizens of Arab and Palestinian identities; it rejects the Druze, who participate in military service, putting their lives on the line for the Jewish state. It rejects Christians, Armenians, anyone who lives in Israel who does not identify as Jewish. This nation-state law, something that could have been uncontroversial and simply affirmed the Jewish character of a democratic state, instead became an all out attack on democracy and pluralism.
I am angered by the Israeli government’s move against the LGBTQ community. Though in the past Prime Minister Netanyahu has expressed support for a bill that allows state-sponsored surrogacy to single men and gay couples, thus enabling them to have their own children, this summer Netanyahu, buckling to Ultra-Orthodox pressure, reneged and voted against it. Israel may be among the most tolerant nations towards LGBTQ rights, but Netanyahu, in siding with the increasingly powerful Haredi parties, has taken the state in a different direction, and I am concerned about what comes next.
I feel rejected by Israel’s disregard for Diaspora Jewry and disrespect for Liberal Judaism. The Israeli government has shown defiance and outright rejection of egalitarianism and Conservative and Reform Judaism, expressions of Judaism followed by the vast majority of Diaspora Jewry. This is most recently evident in the government’s delaying the building of a permanent egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall, in their permitting of segregated prayer in the temporary egalitarian prayer space, in their failure to protect the Women of the Wall and the arrests of some of these women for bringing their own Torah scrolls, and in the arrest of Rabbi Dov Haiyun, a Conservative rabbi, on the charges of performing non-Orthodox Jewish weddings.
Lastly, I am deeply concerned by the government attack on their own Supreme Court and with it the rule of law. The majority coalition, early this summer, issued an Override bill that would allow the Knesset the ability to override a supreme court veto of any proposed legislation. In other words, the Israeli government just approved the means to operate above the law.
Last month, Ron Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress, wrote the following in a New York Times op-ed:
When Israel was founded, it immediately became the first and only democracy in the Middle East. Its Declaration of Independence guarantees “complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex,” as well as a guarantee of freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture. Theodor Herzl, Chaim Weizmann, Zeev Jabotinsky, David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir always emphasized the need to combine Jewish nationalism with universal humanism. . . .
This [current state of Israel] is not who we are, and this is not who we wish to be. This is not the face we want to show our children, grandchildren and the family of nations. Let us work together to change course and ensure that Israel will continue to be the Jewish democratic state it is meant to be.[2]
Israel is once again on a path towards destruction of that which is holy, and it moves farther and farther along with every act of sinat chinam—of senseless hatred—made against those who are not part of its Jewish ultra-right majority—against the very principles of justice, tolerance, and democracy.
order cheap viagra In that way Dorn Spinal Therapy has been successfully and safely administered in women. Here are a few reasons why you should have sex with your partner india online viagra every day. It has positive effects on the sex drive and allows you to produce penile erections which are firm enough. viagra 100mg is best for removing impotence out of a man s life. The drug, Buy Kamagra has been very popular and made Generic Lipitor as the best selling brand all over the penile muscles along with the other area thus leading to relaxation of the muscles causing proper management viagra online sample and transmission of the stimulated signals from the brain to the penile nerve. I understand that many in our communities are ready to throw up their hands and say, I’m done with Israel. I have a safe home here in America where I am accepted in my Judaism, and I have no need for a state that acts against everything I believe in. And I don’t blame them. But I don’t agree. Because Israel belongs to the whole of the Jewish people. It is our homeland and our birthright, and it is worth fighting for, for all that I said before, and more. The Israel we believe in, that Yerushalayim shel Ma’alah, still exists in idea, it still exists in hope, and it definitely still exists in the 49% opposition in the K’nesset and the vast number of Israelis involved in Israel’s powerful non-profit sector. Which means that rather than disengaging, we need to double down, and devote ourselves even more, towards ensuring a Jewish state of which we can be proud.
Doubling down does not mean ignoring Israel’s flaws, or remaining silent. Tonight, this erev Yom Kippur, we are reminded that the only way through is by acknowledging our flaws, our errors, the ways that we have missed the mark. T’shuvah is precisely based on coming to terms with our mistakes, so that we can fix them, and come out stronger. We’re taught that we have God’s support, and God’s love, and that should we enter this process of honesty and self-reflection, God will meet us and help to pull us through. So let us begin the work and not settle for white-washing and ignoring Israel’s flaws. Let us fight for Israel’s present, and Israel’s future. Let us fight for our people, and for our homeland.
We do so by continuing to build relationships with as many people in Israel as we can, by staying knowledgeable, by building as much influence, as Diaspora Jews, as we can, and by supporting the organizations on the ground in Israel that represent our values and work to achieve the Israel that we believe in.
Our teenagers in Chai school will be working on the first part, building relationships, as we are twinning our chai school with an Israeli high school. They’ll be spending time throughout this entire year getting to know Israeli counterparts, learning about life over there while teaching Israeli teens about our own lives and values. Some Temple Emanu-El adults will be connecting and relationship-building this year as the fly to Israel next month on a Federation trip.
All of us can work on exerting influence and supporting the right organizations. We can call diplomats and politicians, Israeli and American, and let them know exactly what we think and hope for. We can stay knowledgable by joining the broad spectrum of Israel lobbying groups like AIPAC, J Street, and the ZOA, and by subscribing to Israeli newspapers from the center, right, and left, like the Times of Israel, the Jerusalem Post, and Ha’aretz.
Most importantly, each one of us in this room can support the organizations that best reflect our Reform values in Israel by being members of ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America. If you’re not yet a member, you can and should join directly through their website. ARZA works in several ways to build the Israel that we Reform Jews believe in. It represents American Reform Jewish interests at the World Zionist Congress, which ultimately determines where the massive amount of global funding will be allocated. ARZA works to strengthen the Reform movement in Israel, and it supports the Israel Religious Action Center, the reform movement’s legal arm, which fights in Israel’s courts to ensure human equality, social justice, and religious tolerance; in other words, to ensure that the Jewish state is one that embodies Jewish morals and values. ARZA is that one stop shop for Jews in America fighting for a better Israel.
These days, it can be really challenging being a Zionist. I want to share with you some writing that I found to be expressive of my conflicting feelings. They’re from Bambi Sheleg, zichrona livrakha, an Israeli journalist and influential public thinker. In her article about Jerusalem, “A Royal City,” Sheleg wrote,
When I was a little girl, my grandmother used to talk to me about Jerusalem with deep love. She told me in German that Jerusalem is a royal city. True, I want to tell her, Jerusalem is a royal city… but I do not go to the Western Wall anymore, not by my own will…The Western Wall, the Hurva Synagogue, the Old City were once in Zionist hands, and are now dominated by those who despise the Zionist Movement. On the other hand, my heart goes out to the people who struggle for Jerusalem, act in her best interest, and cling to her despite all difficulties. … Jerusalem has a potential which makes her the most exciting city in the world. That is why all pilgrims come to her, looking for salvation. This enigmatic potential has something to do with our ability to reshape our national identity and answer the biggest question of all: what do we want to be? Furthermore, what do we want to be in Jerusalem?[3]
What is the Jerusalem, the Israel, of which we dream? What is the Israel we seek for ourselves, as our own birthright, and which we seek for the world, as a light to the nations? Let us not despair in Israel’s current chosen path. Let us be not among those who don’t show up or those who throw up their hands, but among those who know that T’shuvah is always possible, that the sun is rising from the east just beyond the horizon, and that we, Israel, the people who routinely struggle with God, will also struggle for that which is ours, that which we believe in, that which is at the core of our Jewish being. May we hear that call of the shofar and spring to action, ensuring that this holy nation that carries our name and claims to represent each one of us, actually acts by our values, and seeks holiness, justice, and peace. May we all work so that one day soon we will have an Israel worthy of our name.
May we and all of our people be sealed in, and aspire to, the Book of Life.
Gamar Chatima Tovah.
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1. https:// www.timesofisrael.com/ancientboulderdislodges-fromwestern-wallcrashes-ontoegalitarianplaza/? utm_source=The +Times+of+Israel +Daily+Edition& utm_campaign=8 174782213EMAIL_CAMPA IGN_2018_07_2 3_09_36&utm_m edium=email&ut m_term=0_adb46 cec92-817478221 3-55221437, July 23 2018
2. Lauder, Ron S. “Israel, this is not who we are.” New York Times. Aug 13 2018.
3. Eretz Acheret, 2011.
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