If you had asked me earlier
in the week to tell you what I would be talking about this Shabbat, I guarantee
that it would not have been what I am going to talk about.
I would not have awoken one
morning to see the picture of a smiling dentist next to the dead beloved
endangered and protected which was lured out a nature preserve so that he could
shoot it and claim it legal. He paid $55,000 for the opportunity to kill Cecil,
Africa’s most famous lion and a national symbol of the people of Zimbabwe.
I would not have seen
pictures and video of the Israel Defense Forces who were evacuating a
settlement deemed illegal by the Israeli Supreme Court be accused of aiding the
Nazis.
I would not have seen
postings about stabbings by a religious zealot at the Gay Pride Parade in
Jerusalem, thought they were talking about events of a decade ago, and then
realized that not only did it happen again, but that the same hate filled
religious zealot had done it again after being released from prison three weeks
earlier.
I would not regularly be
hearing accusations that people who advocate for the Iran Deal, which attempts
to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon which it could use to threaten
genocide against Israel, are in fact working to hasten that result by so
trying.
I would not have conversed
with Reform Rabbi colleagues of mine made so uncomfortable by the nature of the
advocacy in support of the Iran Deal that they find themselves believing, as
unfortunately do I, that antisemitism is now fair to use as long as you don’t
use the words, “Israel, Jewish national organizations, Lobbying, Money, Lies
and War” together in one sentence, but using them over and over in connected
sentences seems to be fine even for our national leaders in press conferences
with Jewish advocates!
I would not have had a
conversation with an African American childhood friend who was vigorously arguing
that I shouldn’t call the Holocaust “the greatest evil” because he felt it
important that I recognize that American slavery was. The Holocaust was my
people’s evil.
And I would not have awoken
this morning to the news that Jewish religious terrorists set two Palestinian
homes on fire, killed an 18 month old boy, Ali Dawabsha, and severely injured
his four year old brother who may yet succumb to his injuries.
I should not be entering this
Shabbat with its Deuteronomic Torah portion containing the second rendition of
the Ten Commandments along with the Shema and V’ahavtah, instead thinking about
the exhortation to do violence against sacrilege in Chapter 7 and how that may
have motivated despicable actions this week.
Thou shall not murder.
Thou shall not covet, much
less steal.
Thou shall not create or
worship false idols.
Thou shall not make false accusations
against the innocent.
Thou shall not take God’s
name in vain.
What has happened in our
world when those respected by society and the most pious neglect even these
commandments?
I am disheartened by the
events this week. I am crushed by the events over night in Israel.
I am made more hopeful by
some of the responses to these awful things. Yair Lapid, leader of the “There
is a Future” party, Yesh Atid, and a Member of the Israeli Knesset did a
wonderful job of summing up much of how I feel about recent events in Israel in
response to the terror attack overnight. He said:
We’re at war: for the future,
for Zionism, for our existence…and we can’t afford to lose.
And our enemy is ourselves.
We cannot afford to lose
sight of our goals, nor how important it is to stand up for our beliefs.
I am merely a rabbi. I do not
claim to have prophetic visions and I certainly have not been visited by God
upon a mountain as the Torah tells us that Moses was. But, I think, I have a
few commandments to offer that might do us some good.
- Thou shall remember that we are all created in the image of God, that all of us bleed red blood when we are injured, and that all of us cry, fear, laugh and hope.
- Thou shall not dehumanize so as to consider murder something other and lesser.
- Thou shall not act as if political advocacy entitles us to demonize our opponents.
- Thou shall not allow hatred to rule over us.
- Thou shall not forget that once people we certain that the world was flat.
- Thou shall remember that we were strangers.
- Thou shall remember that we were persecuted.
- Thou shall remember to try to understand each other and overcome self-centeredness.
- Thou shall remember to be compassionate.
- Thou shall surely remember that “there but for the grace of God” could go any one of us.
May the coming week be a week
that sees Shalom return to our world and be a greater part of our lives.
May it
be a week during which we see stories that make us hopeful and remind us of
what is good in our world and of the best that people can be.
Kein yehi ratzon!
May it be God’s will!
