Blogging the Rabbi Convention -CCAR

Blogging the CCAR convention

I arrived today in Boston to attend the annual Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR). The first aspect of the convention that brings me so much joy is being with colleagues. There are about 500 colleagues and spouses attending. We span the age spectrum and we are mostly congregational rabbis. We all went to the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion even though we may have studied and received ordination at the HUC-JIR campuses of Cincinnati, New York or Los Angeles. Besides the collegial benefit of going to these kinds of conventions there is the all important networking and discussing issues that we encounter in our rabbinic work as well as learning new ideas or programs that represent best practices in the Reform Movement.

It is great to connect with old friends and classmates. The generation of my colleagues has all grown in different ways. Our children are now in college. We have carved out our niche in the rabbinate.
The congregations we serve know us well enough for our strengths and our areas of growth. We have had our tough times and our glorious moments of knowing that we have made a difference in the lives of our people. We still love to learn and teach.

This afternoon I attended the opening program which was a panel discussion on the future of the American Jewish community. Professor Johnathan Sarna of Brandeis University (formerly of Hebrew Union College and my teacher) is the leading historian of American Jewish history today. Barry Shragge, the director of the Boston Jewish federation is known as the most innovative and progressive visionary for sustaining and growing Jewish communities. Both sat down and discussed how Boston became one of the best examples of how Jewish communities can grow and work together transcending rivalries.

One lesson that spoke to me was talking about strategic planning.  Shragge spoke about the idea that communities and congregations needed to take the attitude that the entire fate of Judaism depends upon what that community does for its future.  That idea of planning as if world Jewry depends on what we do in Hilton Head is exactly what we need to imagine when we are imagining Beth Yam for the future. We are starting a new strategic planning process and it should inspire us to take the approach that what we will be doing is really setting the pathway for the entire Jewish community in the low country. That’s some imagination!

The two panelists talked about the longstanding challenges of trying to deal with financial support for congregations and Jewish communal institutions. Based upon Dr. Sarna’s history lesson he made an observation about the perennial issue of paying to pray on the High Holy Days. There are always complainers who say temple leaders should never charge unaffiliated folks to pray on the High Holy Days. And his response was, “This is the price we pay for the separation of church and state in America.” If the government paid for our services and our clergy then we would not have to charge anyone anything. But we would have to sacrifice some very important values in our country. So this is one of the consequences that we bear upon ourselves and fellow Jews for freedom of religion in our country.
Each community is ultimately responsible for its own survival.

Mr. Shragge was critical of the Reform Movements’ decision to close down so much of its infrastructure in its recent restructuring. One of the consequences was pulling away resources from Reform’s Outreach Movement. In fact the future is Outreach (Shragge is a modern Orthodox Jew). If we can reach out to the interfaith families and get them to affiliate and send their kids to camp they will raise Jewish children.

There was a lot more that the panelists discussed but  it is time to go now. Have a great day everyone.

Being Masters of our Fate: the consequences of bombing Iran

The story of the Golden Calf is a moment when the Israelites made their first decision proving that they were in charge of their fate and also recognizing the consequences of being masters of their destiny. In fact that double edged sword revealed that in spite of all the miracles from God they did not get off to a good start as masters of their destiny. If it had not been for Moses who intervened and ultimately challenged God to stay the course of his ancient promise to the Patriarchs, the Israelites might have faced the most absolute existential threat-the wrath of the Almighty. The ancient Israelites had the freedom to make their own decisions. The sad part was that they fell prey to their own insecurities and exploited that new found power. The result was Golden Calf.

Then a millennium later the Jewish people were still struggling to be masters of their fate. Whether we are speaking about the intrigue of trying to take the Promised Land from the indigenous clans in Canaan or even after becoming a regional power in the United Kingdom of David and Solomon, the Israelites needed to walk a tightrope. Biblical history teaches us that Israelites or Jews, depending on what period of Jewish history, were in a constant state of struggle to maintain Jewish independence and autonomy. Our ancestors fought against the Assyrians in the 8^th century, the Babylonians in the 6^th century, the Selucid Greeks in the 2^nd century and then the Romans and the 2000 year exile that followed their occupation. Finally the Nazis sealed our commitment to becoming the masters of our fate which inscribed the 11^th commandment,” Never Again.”  We have learned that being in control of our fate is a bedrock concept of Jewish history and a fundamental principle underlining modern Zionism and thereby the foreign policy of Israel and ultimately world Jewry.

We heard this concept intoned by Prime Minister Netanyahu at the recent AIPAC convention. The Prime Minister did an effective job of communicating that concept and it resonated on many levels with the American leadership as well as with the Jewish people. What is the tension that we Jews face with regard to being masters of our own fate? The tension is facing the consequences of being in charge of one’s destiny and using our new found powers wisely. What does this idea of being in control of our fate say to us about Jewish identity in the world today? It is up to all of us to be personally involved in the fate of our people if we are to follow Israel’s lead to be the masters of their fate. We too must speak out for this faith and its people at these critical moments.

I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu is a man who has a deep respect for Jewish history. His father is a respected historian and he was raised with Jewish history in the house and it obviously had a profound impact upon his vision of Israel. He articulates that narrative, not just a political narrative, but it is a spiritual one which is that we will never again put ourselves in position of being dependent upon greater powers who will determine the fate of the Jewish people.

It is also spiritual message because every Jew has some sense of understanding that history has proven that when we lived as guests in the larger non-Jewish society we gave up our autonomy. Our Diaspora history is about Jews being forced to relinquish control of our fate. It did not mean that we did not have alternative resources to influence events to preserve our community and survive the unpredictable outcomes of religious persecution  or nationalist rampages or pogroms.  It meant always living in the shadows of our vulnerabilities but internally fighting to preserve Judaism and the way of life we cherish.

The tension is that when we actually wait for 2000 years to get to the point where we can be masters of our own fate that we face the consequences of what comes with that responsibility. With regard to Iran and its rhetoric to wipe Israel off the map do we not recall the same bravado of the Arab armies preparing to cast us into the sea right before the Six Day War in 1967? Our faith in God and in the mitzvoth, Judaism teaches us, will protect us. At the same time we have learned from the sages “Pray as if everything depended on God and act as if everything depended upon you.”  And Israel’s unforgettable preemptive strike against the Egyptian air Force led to its miraculous victory now revered in the annals of Jewish history.

Prime Minister Netanyahu knows as does the Israeli and American political and military establishments understand that a preemptive attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities will trigger consequences that might very well cause loss of Israeli and American lives in Israel and around the world. The tension is readily apparent because what people forget is that Israel abhors having to wage war. Its superior military readiness is a reminder that Jews have learned their lessons from history and that we will never return to the dependency role we assumed for millennium as subjects to authorities who would be the masters of our lives. But do not forget that Israel always seeks peace first and foremost. The tension I refer to is a spiritual one that plays itself out in the real politick. It is that Israel must be the military power not because Israel relishes being a regional military power but because if they do not assume that role Israel would be dust in the wind. It is a necessary precondition for Jewish continuity but not one that we or the founders of Zionism had hoped Israel would have to contend with in relations with their Arab and Muslim neighbors in the Middle East.  It is a tension that tempts Israel to become as violent as our adversaries and Israel does its best to resist that urge to respond with restraint against its adversaries. The tension is to resist being like our adversaries even though we must use that power for the right reasons.

No doubt Prime Minister Netanyahu feels the same way worrying about what could go wrong in a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities as well as the unintended consequences that might follow. Should we not be careful as we think about this preemptive strike idea against Iran? We have come a long way since the Purim story when we had to depend on the strategic thinking of Esther who requested her uncle Mordecai and the Jewish community of Persia to fast the day before she would ultimately launch her effort to violate Persian Law to see the King without being summoned by the king to reveal Haman’s plot against the people.  Jewish life hung in the balance of whether she would break the rules to speak to the king or not.  The fact that the positive results led the Jews to take out 75,000 Persians in another preemptive strike which foiled Haman’s plan showed even then that we had to do what was necessary to preserve our existence.

In many ways Prime Minister Netanyahu holds our fate in his hands too. We wait. Whether it is our own President or the Israeli Prime Minister we are now at the table with the ruling authorities staring face to face at each other. We are not victims anymore, yet, neither can we feel that the Jewish people worldwide let alone in Israel will avoid the consequences of a preemptive attack against Iran. Being in control of our own fate, as Prime Minister Netanyahu says, is not a time to release ourselves from prayer and deep introspection about preparing ourselves for the outcome of an eventual attack. We are released from the bondage of victimhood. We are not released from the responsibility of our humanity to experience fear or resist the temptation of relishing the act of committing a justifiable act of violence against another. No doubt that if Israel acts, proving once again it is the master of its own fate, it will bring down condemnation from many corners of the world as well as silent affirmation and appreciation. It will be up to us and the rest of world Jewry to speak out for Israel  before our  friends and neighbors from other faiths.  We are all playing a role, as did Moses so many times, as defenders of the faith and its people.

Torah thoughts: Synagogue music defines our times and our souls

I know a day will come when I will be sitting with a bunch of people my own age, probably in an assisted living home, when I am past the time of working and listening to the music of my generation. That music hovered between the generation of Woodstock rock and pop music that followed in those tumultuous years. I can envision the humorous moment when my imaginary grandchildren sit beside me and tease me about the music I listen to calling it old fashioned. Yet how can I explain to them what that music meant to me? How can I help them imagine how that music defined the generation that pushed the boundaries of so many social conventions in American culture and fought back against a clearly unjust war we were fighting in South-East Asia? They probably will not grasp it as I might not grasp the music of their times.

The music does define us in terms of memory and in relation to our sense of community.  So it is with the ancient Israelites. What music did the children of Israel sing when they dedicated the Tabernacle? The Torah portion Tzaveh describes the accoutrements that God commands the Israelites to construct in the first house of worship. As a matter of fact the Talmud speaks to the issue of musical instruments. ‘In the Holy Temple of Jerusalem and from the days of Moses, the rabbis teach that there was a flute and a cymbal made of bronze’ (B. Ar. 10b).  We have a sense of the priestly ritual and the musical instruments they used for communal worship inside the Tabernacle. But we do not know the actual music that put the words to song. What were their favorite melodies? What were the melodies they learned over 400 years in Egypt? Surely they must have borrowed many aspects of their way of life from Egyptian culture.  And, spiritual speaking, it should not surprise us if they adapted melodies they heard in the market or the sacred places of the Egyptian religion into their own new religion.

Maybe they did not borrow from Egypt. The point is that the music of a time and place gives us a sense of belongingness to something that is eternal. Is that what it is all about? Is there not a balance between the need to identify with our past and the knowledge that each generation sculpts its own vision of its culture?  Synagogue music is one example of the kind of topic that is challenging because we all represent different ages and geographical backgrounds as well as diverse religious orientations. Judaism has such a broad spectrum of religious practices originating from countries and civilizations from all over the world. As a matter of fact one of our greatest strengths has been our ability to adapt to changing circumstances inside the larger culture. Synagogue music traditions have adapted to the mainstream cultures where Jewish communities developed.

We have seen over the last century how Reform Judaism has adapted its music heritage to American culture and embraced a broad selection of choices of Jewish music. Just as the demography of the Reform movement changed, especially after World War Two, so too did the music. We grew in size and built hundred of temples. Our music started out sounding not altogether too different from our Christian counterparts in the liberal branches of Christianity. As secular culture in America grew in influence, it too inspired synagogue music. 

The last three decades of the 20^th century has certainly transformed Reform Jewish music. The advent of women cantors and song leaders contributed to a much more diverse selection of music for our liturgy. As Reform Judaism embraced so many different constituencies based upon gender, sexual orientation, and  other branches of Judaism, can we expect anything but innovation in the music of the Temple or synagogue?

As a general rule for even liturgy and music the only constant rule here is that change is constant. There is a legitimate case to be made that we should cherish the melodies of the past. The issue is whose past? The songs I grew up with would not meet my spiritual needs today. Yet the music that defined me as a young adult is nowhere to be found today either. 

People say, “Rabbi I want the music I heard in the temple.” The problem is that such music is probably not the same music that many others in the same temple identify with as their music. So how much energy will we put into debating which authentic melodies that everyone supposedly loved when we face the reality that our assumptions are not accurate? Would it surprise anyone that this question of what are the authentic melodies will continue to be debated for the next generation and those after them?

Some of us identify with guitar music genre and others with a sound that is more complex in its musicality. Then we talk about chanting over singing and then comes the issue of participation of the congregation in the singing versus listening to the voice of a cantor or soloist to inspire us. We will be embarking upon a more proactive role towards reinvigorating our choir in the course of the upcoming months. Will that enrich our participation and will it establish new traditions for our congregation?

We understand that our congregants have different tastes about music and liturgy. Finding the right music is about selecting music that fits the tone of the prayer as well as fits the musical culture of the congregation. It is a religious chemistry test of mixing the right components that makes for an inclusive and inspiring service. It is not an easy matter.

So this is the reason why we decided tonight to confine our music to the Gates of Song. It was the book we used here at Congregation Bet Yam since the early nineties. We selected some of the beautiful music in that book even though not all might agree that these specific tunes are the exact ones we used to sing here. But it is from this collection of liturgical music that the clergy and volunteers used. We hope it is has given us comfort and warmth for the soul.

In some of the psalms on the Sabbath we sing “Shir Ladonai Shir Chadash” Sing unto the Eternal a New Song.” What does the phrase “sing a new song” mean for us today? Does it mean new instrumentality or music that reflects the times and culture in which Jewish communities live? Or does the effort that we produce from inside ourselves matter most of all?  The soul must sing if we are to have uplifting prayer. We have a responsibility to put out our best effort to summon from inside ourselves the fresh new approach to communal worship. Working for a meaningful worship experience is a challenge for us as individuals as well as for us as a community. It takes stretching of our heart and souls regardless what we are singing to share and compromise our expectations with others who have the same hopes and desires to hear the melodies of their past.

In 1978, I drove out to the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College to participate in a colloquium for potential Rabbinical students. Seated inside the majestic Plum Street Temple, the fifty or so participants met with the famous composer in residence at the College whose name is Bonia Shur. With his burly eye lashes and Latvian accent, he enchanted us with the spirituality of his music. He taught us the music he wrote, Yom Zeh L’Yisrael, which we sang as the processional tonight. I will never forget that music because when we sang it I gazed over to one of the participants who was a lovely young lady with blonde hair…Well I think we all know the rest of that story.

I always say that in the synagogue everything is personal. How much the more so when it comes to music.  

Shabbat Shalom

legislation to prohibit Shariah law and all foreign religious law in American courts

http://www.islandpacket.com/2012/02/27/1979891/sharia-law-is-not-form-of-religious.html#storylink=misearch


Hi folks,
Here is a perspective I have and wrote in my newspaper column for the island packet   about the flurry of states trying to enact legislation banning foreign law or shariah law in the court systems.
Take a look and tell me what you think.
Shalom
Brad

Torah Thoughts: Immigration and Jewish values-Parashat Mishpatim

Parashat Mishpatim

On this Shabbat we embark upon an experimental idea to enhance our congregation’s Shabbat Morning experience. Tomorrow morning we inaugurate the Hot Topics Shabbat. Besides the fellowship of a little nosh and an abbreviated worship service, we intend to engage our congregants in a different kind of study and discussion. Rather than diving into the sea of commentaries, we will use the Torah portion as a jumping off point to discuss provocative and challenging issues in the public domain.  Can Torah values enlighten our understanding about controversial topics today?  Do contemporary politics determine our religious values or do our religious values inform our view of society’s most vexing problems?

Tomorrow morning we shall address the immigration issue in light of the Torah’s views on the stranger. “You shall not wrong the stranger or oppress him for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:20).Given that God commands us to be kind to the stranger for we were once strangers in the land of Egypt, how do we reconcile that moral imperative with our response to both legal and illegal immigration issues that have received so much attention? The Torah teaches us to be kind to the stranger regardless o f the legal status. It creates a bedrock value for Jews over history to welcome the stranger. This value also impacts Israel today with the influx of illegal immigrants from Asia, Africa and China.

We Jews understand the importance of immigration to our spiritual heritage. Quite a few within our own congregation are immigrants arriving here during the period of Nazism.  Other congregants come from Israel and the Former Soviet Union. The experience of being an immigrant is part and parcel of our spiritual DNA as any value can be embedded into our consciousness. Yet, since most of us are second and third generation Americans is our perspective towards non-Jewish and illegal new arrivals different than how we view Jewish immigration? My own belief is that before we make a decision on people who are poor and who are illegal immigrants we should familiarize ourselves with Jewish history and ethos regarding our own values towards treating the stranger in our midst.

We have witnessed a movement in our country to modify and restrict illegal immigration in states like Arizona, Alabama and South Carolina. We have witnessed the President and the Congress over the last two administrations attempt and fail at enacting comprehensive Immigration Reform. Lots of debate and accusations all the way around with regard to the legislation and the debate as to how best to protect our borders and differentiate between legal and illegal immigration. Certainly we have seen the depth of bad will that spreads when these issues are stoked by pending state legislation as well as by the intended and unintended consequences of an unstable and volatile economy. These factors pull apart the social fabric of our country.

Of course we are not the only nation that struggles with these kinds of issues. It is even more ironic to watch Israel, which like America, is a nation of immigrants. The idea of settling new Jewish immigrants is part and parcel of Israel’s mission and its strength for the future. But the Israelis have problems with non-Jews who come from far flung nations such as the Philippines, Somalia, China and other nations. These people who yearn for a livelihood come to Israel’s prosperous economy. Here Israel must face its own Jewish past when we were illegal immigrants to Israel in light of the British mandate let alone to so many other countries during the period leading up to World War Two. Now Israel struggles with what policy to adopt that is consistent with Jewish values of respecting the stranger in our midst and at the same time does not threaten the economy or Israel’s ongoing security issues and the Jewish character of Israel.

How do we react to the millions of illegal immigrants who have crossed our borders? They use our social services which we pay for and their children born in this country become citizens. Should we support state government efforts to close our borders and severely restrict potential illegal immigration? They are our landscapers and our dish washers and our agricultural labor and our apartment maintenance people etc. In an economy of so many unemployed can we really count upon the idea, as some presidential candidates have intoned, of self deportation? There are so many citizens who need a job. Must we act to rid our country of illegal immigrants so that we can return these manual labor jobs to the unemployed in our midst? Is that policy realistic? Is it right?

The Hebrew word for stranger is ger which derives from the root to sojourn or dwell. It refers to a person who has come to dwell in our nation who is not a member of that nation. In the ancient land the stranger would come to the nation because of famine or many other political or economic hardships. The Torah narrates the stories of Abraham and Isaac who both left Canaan to Egypt because of famine. Of course Jacob and his clan went down to Egypt under Joseph’s protection. In that situation we came in as legal immigrants but were then declared illegal and cast into a 400 year slavery.

The Bible tells us that the stranger must be accepted into our community. In fact they too were expected to observe the Sabbath as the Israelites. By reading the books of Chronicles which details much of Israelite history, we see how the Israelite kings used foreign immigrants for public work projects.

“David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the Land of Israel, and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God. Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the Land of Israel, numbering them were found a hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred.”

 Israeli Supreme Court Justice Haim Cohen wrote, “These strangers, migrant workers, were of vital importance. It was they who did the heavy manual labor, and it would appear that already then the Israelites themselves avoided such work.” Justice Cohen goes on to argue that Judaism has embedded in its spiritual reservoir the utmost respect for non-Israelite residents. And this fact of history and theology supports why we have been overwhelmingly sensitive and empathetic to the immigrants who have come after us to America.

One final piece of evidence comes from medieval Spain. The commentator Moses Ibn Ezra commented on the verse not to oppress the stranger.   He writes, “As a resident alien, he has no family roots in the land, so it would be easy for the citizens to wrong him whether regards to money or to housing, and even to oppress him by means of false testimony.  You must not wrong a stranger either, merely because you have more power than he.  Remember that you were once strangers like him.”

Does this not bear relevancy for today?  True we must make difficult decisions. Will we support efforts to purge or cleanse our country of these people? Will we come to grips with America’s ideal and its promise?  True, we must be honest about our feelings about Hispanics and other minority groups in general as we decide our position on illegal immigration. Is the best or proper solution for illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship? Or do we as a society continue a national policy of perpetual indecision?

The Torah tells us, “Have one law for the stranger and the citizen alike”(Lev.24:22). Putting both laws together is a political and spiritual challenge to keep this nation strong.

Torah Thoughts: Parashat Yitro. Environmental and Spiritual Sustainability

Parashat Yitro 2012

In the presidential heat of an election year, we listen to the debates. Two particular controversial ideas, for example, are the debt crisis and the unemployment rate. Regarding the debt crisis candidates challenges us to consider what we shall leave behind to our grandchildren with regard to the out of control debt that our country incurs each day. The same idea of what we leave behind to our future resonates when we hear about preserving the environment at the cost of sacrificing old and new jobs. The debate over the recent pipeline proposal from Canada to Texas that the Administration put a hold on is a classic example of pitting jobs against preserving the environment.

This idea of being aware of what we owe our progeny resonates for us in Judaism. In particular this week we observed the holiday of Tu B’shevat which is the 15^th of the month of Shevat. It is a holiday that is growing in Jewish consciousness because it was established long ago to celebrate the trees and the benefit they provide us. Needless to say this little known holiday gives us a new perspective on the environment. We are all especially sensitive to global warming, air pollution and spoiling of the nation’s waterways. Again this holiday reminds us of the moral imperative that Jews should embrace as part of our stewardship to the planet to work for repairing the physical world –tikkun olam.

What is the key term today in the culture that responds to these issues? It is sustainability. Moral sustainability and economic sustainability and spiritual sustainability are all interconnected to the political and cultural climate of our country and to the world. Congregation Beth Yam can contribute to environmental sustainability by doing what we can inside our house of worship as well as for the community at large to contribute to preserving our pristine Hilton Head and Bluffton area.  On a broader scale Jews we have worked to support the Jewish National Fund which grows trees in Israel. Trees still need to be planted in Israel and the environment is still at risk in Israel with regard to water issues and particularly the drying up of the Dead Sea. Our children and grandchildren are growing up with the responsibility that environmental sustainability is essential for our future.

The underlying point is that we and our progeny will have to accept that in order to achieve sustainability for our economy, our environment and our spirituality that we will impose limitations on our desires to pursue our pleasures, conveniences and our way of life. That is the challenge we face as humans when we are also supposed to be caretakers of the world that God gave us. We have to do more with less is the ethos of our age.

I want to share with you a Talmudic story (BTa’anit 23a) about a man who lived in the first century of the Common Era. His name was Honi and he was a respected sage. Rabbi Yohanan asked whether it was possible for a man to doze off and dream continuously for 70 years. One day, as he was walking on the road, he saw a man planting a carob tree.  He asked him, “How long will it take this tree to bear fruit?”  The man replied, “Seventy years.”  He asked, “Are you quite sure you will live another seventy years to eat its fruit?  The man replied, “I myself found fully grown carob trees in the world; as my forebears planted for me, so I am planting for my children.

Are there not a lot of things that we do and work for in our life that is not for us alone but is for those who come after us? How many of us, for example, have addressed with experts the importance of proper estate planning? We all want our assets to go to our descendents and we want to know that our wishes and our values will be respected so that the assets are channeled to our loved ones. Our work, the product of our labor, is not just about us. The benefit is for those who we care about besides us alone. That is partly what sustainability is all about. We need to plant a future, like Honi, for our progeny that our economic, spiritual and physical environment will be fruitful for them as it was for us.

In this week’s parasha Yitro, God gives us the Ten Commandments. There is no mention per se about the physical environment in the Ten Commandments.  But idolatry and creating idols reminds us that when we think we can do whatever we want with our world and with our environment that we are subtly turning ourselves into an idol. In other words when human desires and human needs have no check upon them then we have built a Tower of Babel, an idol to ourselves.

When forget to respect the Shabbat then, for example, we have lost touch to let the land remain fallow and regain its resources to grow crops in the future. We have threatened our spiritual heritage of the Sabbath and our economic interests to preserve sustainability for the earth. 

When we forget to adhere to not coveting our neighbors’ possessions do we not risk unleashing unrestrained desires to acquire anything and to use any resources from our land for anything so long as it satisfies our consumption desires? Is that not coveting our neighbor’s possessions? When that happens have we sacrificed sustainability for unbridled consumption and, therefore, the future that Honi wanted for his forbears.

What is so important to realize in the connection between the Ten Commandments and the environmental sustainability issues is that our survival and our ethical standing requires us to impose limitations upon our wishes and desires.  The Ten Commandments are about God saying to us that we must accept boundaries upon our behavior. We are not totally free to live the way we want. For a society to sustain itself it must create and identify moral and immoral behaviors. That is what the Ten Commandments are about and what the rest of the mitzvoth demand from us. They teach us what God wants from us and they teach us how we can live as a community in a way that honors humankind and God who created us.

How do we defeat hatred? Parashat B'shallach

Parashat B’shalach

(A nuclear armed Iran: How do we defeat hatred?)

It is chilling and frightening to digest continuing news reports as Israel contemplates when and if to launch a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. I say this not just because of the repercussions, both intended and unintended, for Israel let alone for the United States.  I say this because following the course of this scenario gives rise to an unknown and unpredictable apocalyptic chain of events.  For those events to unfold Israel will determine that it will have no choice, as though it was backed up against the wall with no place else to go, except to strike out against Iran. The potential of a nuclear Holocaust arises from the ideological triumphalism that stokes the hatred of the religious and political leadership of Iran.  On the other hand, can Israelis definitively know whether such a justifiable and legitimate preemptive attack, despite their enormous military arsenal, will serve Israel’s security interests and its diplomatic reputation in the world?

Rest assured Israeli society and its policy makers, military brass and its political leaders are grappling with this question.  Yet the Torah portion, B’shallach, reminds us from the annals of ancient history, in vastly different circumstances, of a situation when we felt our backs were up against the wall. The last 70 years were full of threats from the Arabs that they would drive us into the sea. In this week’s parasha we see the origin of that horrific thought when Israel began their trek out of Egypt. Bolstered by the devastation of the plagues, they stood at the shore by the Sea of Reeds. Pharaoh, violating his promise to let them leave Egypt, pursues the people with his armed forces to the Sea. Here our story could have ended and the Israelites would have not even been a footnote in history.  But the Torah narrates the drama of Israel’s faith and its fears to take the leap into the sea.. Even Moses is not sure how his people could  avoid the wrath of Pharaoh’s triumphalism and hatred. Once again it is an existential moment of life or death for the Jewish people.

The point in the story I want to highlight in the Torah mirrors what we are experiencing today with Iran. We see the power of unrestrained hatred in the hardened heart of Pharaoh. It was ugly and destructive for us and for Egypt as well. In chapter 14 of Exodus, all we have to do is to imagine the rhetoric then and apply it to today’s Iranian leaders as they set their sights to annihilate Israel.

“He (meaning Pharaoh) made ready his chariot and took his people with him. He took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over all of them.” The Egyptians were headed to the Sea and thirsting to wipe the children of Israel off the face of the earth. The drama intensifies as the Israelites debate what to do. Some cried out to God for salvation. Others demanded that Moses lead them back to Egypt to resume their place as slaves.  Moses himself is not entirely sure what to do and how to navigate through this crisis. God even becomes vexed at Moses and scolds him.

“The Lord said unto Moses:  “Why cry to Me?

Tell the children of Israel to march forward.

As for you lift up your rod,

Stretch your hand over the sea and divide it

And the children of Israel shall go into the midst of the sea on dry ground.” (vs15-16)

Yes there was a miracle coming from God but there was also another message which was that Moses and the people had to own their own survival too. They had to take decisive action along with divine intervention if they wanted to survive Pharaoh’s onslaught.

We have witnessed this scenario play itself out before in Israel’s modern history. In 1948, for example, King Abdullah of Jordan rode in front of his army to the banks of the Jordan River and fired the first shots against Israel near Kibbutz Degania and then returned home. Egypt’s Gamal Abdul Nasser in 1967 and Sadat in 73 also threatened to cast Israel into the sea.   Now President Ahmenijhad has stoked fear into the hearts of Jews world –wide. History teaches that the names change but the goal is always the same.

Once again Israel stands at the shore of the sea deciding what action to take when a modern day Pharaoh seeks our destruction. Once again we witness the internal struggle that only Israel can wage with itself to make its decision as the threshold for stopping or delaying the Iranian momentum to wage nuclear war narrows. Time is running out, the experts say, before Iran is immune to Israeli military intervention. Some  Israelis say we will have to learn to live with this reality in the Middle East. Still others, especially past American leaders, have recently been quoted as saying caustically, that Israel should not worry so much since Iran has only one bomb and Israel has 300. I still cannot fathom the moral underpinnings behind that sentiment.

Who can fathom the deep seated hatred against the Jews that circulates through the heart of the Iranian political leadership? There are ways to counter a military force. There are weapons and military strategy and luck. But how does Israel defeat hatred? Divine intervention freed us but we will never know if Pharaoh ceased to hate the Israelites.  The only answer is to never given in to hatred.

 In fact the sages of the Torah addressed this obsession to hate. In the Midrash the sages observed that Pharaoh himself made ready his own chariot to destroy the Israelites. From that they inferred a principle that hate disrupts protocol. In other words he uncharacteristically saddled his horse and chariot from the uncontrollable hatred. Kings usually stand by, while servants prepare their chariot and harness.  Drunk with hatred for Moses and the Israelites, Pharaoh prepared and harnessed his own chariot. As soon as his courtiers saw what he was doing they followed him.

Trickle down hatred is an old syndrome which appears in the soul of the so-called Supreme Leader of Iran. Hatred infected his courtiers, the revolutionary guards and  Ahmenijhad the Iranian president. Nothing has changed today when it comes to the intoxicant of hatred and how it can corrupt and become self destructive in any human being let alone people in political power.

We cannot forget that symbolically speaking world Jewry is standing at the shores of the Sea with our people in Israel. We will support them and advocate that our America be there with and for Israel at this hour. The real lingering question that remains, the thorniest one of all, is how to counter the hatred not only of Iran but in the Arab world? In other words, how do we beat back hatred of us? Alas this has plagued us for far too long. But it is our burden to bear. This time Israel can defend itself with its military prowess. But the long term battle of defeating hatred and winning over enemies as friends may be the most complex and frustrating strategic effort that Israel and world Jewry must battle against for years to come. We will need more than military might to defeat the advocates of hatred.

 The only way you can defeat hatred is by not giving into it. We will need to retain our own faith in God not because we expect God will split the sea again. We need God to enable us to check our own emotions and spirit to not let the bitterness of someone else’s aggression and hatred dampen the Jewish spirit to win the peace. We cannot let our adversaries see us descend into cynicism or hatred. We cannot give up the Tikvah the hope of our place as a light to the nations or that we would return to the fleshpots of Egypt. In other words we too have a dream that Isaiah spoke of when he said that “nation shall not lift up sword against nation nor will they study war anymore.”  That vision belongs to the Jewish ‘We have a dream speech.’