Esau and Jacob, twins, come into the world wrestling with each other, striving in Rebecca's womb. Esau emerges first. Jacob comes in a close second, grasping Esau's heel.
When the boys are grown, Esau trades his birthright for a bowl of stew prepared by his crafty brother Jacob.
Time passes and the rift between brothers only widens. As their father lies on his deathbed, Jacob approaches in the guise of his brother to receive the dying Patriarch's final benediction. Calling himself Isaac's firstborn, Jacob wrests the blessing from his brother. Now stoked into a murderous rage, Esau declares: "Let the days of mourning for my father come, and then I will kill my brother Jacob" (Gen. 27:41).
Toldot means "a family story." Sadly, too little has changed from the Bible's family stories to the "family story" of the Jewish people today. We speak often of K'lal Yisrael, the unity of the Jewish people; the principle is one of WRT's five pillars, core values of our Reform Jewish congregation here in Scarsdale. But too often the Jewish People acts in a manner that bespeaks all that divides us against ourselves.
I was there when they shot Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin fifteen years ago today, November 4th, 1995.
It was my first year of rabbinical school and I was living in Jerusalem not even three blocks from the Prime Minister's residence. Some of my classmates in fact attended the peace rally where last he spoke in Kikar Malchei Yisrael, since renamed Kikar Rabin, "Rabin Square."
The hours that followed plunged the little nation into anguish and turmoil. Eager to implicate the Palestinians, we learned within a day the lone assassin’s name—Yigal Amir. A Jew. A religious extremist, to be sure, but a brother nonetheless. We saw in the horror of our realization Esau and Jacob intertwined once more in their unending, murderous dance.
The image that haunts me most comes from the day after the assassination. A young man sat silently cross-legged in the most crowded square in Jerusalem. Around his neck he wore a sign, and on the sign a single Hebrew word in blood-red paint: BUSHAH. "SHAME."
The next day the man was gone, the sign with him. But fifteen years later you can still find the same extremist yeshivas—indeed, with more students—the same extremist rabbis like the kind who encouraged Amir, many of them further entrenched in West Bank settlements surrounded by millions of Palestinians, proclaiming that their version of Jewish law takes precedence over the democratic law of Medinat Yisrael. In moments of strife, Jews continue to call other Jews “Nazis," as the Gaza pullout illustrated a few years ago; they scream the word, just like they did about Rabin at a rally I had watched from my apartment terrace one week before his murder.
"Let the days of mourning for my father come, and then I will kill my brother Jacob" (Gen. 27:41).
How little has changed.
Your comments go here.
Rabbi Jonathan Blake
Rabbi - you want, on the one hand, that Jews be united. It hurts you to see some berate others who call fellow Jews with ugly epithets. But you do the very same thing by your use of the word "extremist" in reference to yeshivas.
ReplyDeleteWhat's radical to you may be perfectly correct in the eyes of another. You do not define your term "extremist" - you just use it, thereby immediately disqualifying so many Jews, quite subtly mind you because, like I said, you get away with it by nonchalantly glossing over your derogatory moniker, as if it should be taken for granted.
If Jews are to be one, they must follow the dictates of Torah and Talmud, or at least appreciate what these holy sources instruct us. One of the transgressions they warn us against is "Lashon Hara"; And branding another large segment of Jews with the word "extremist" falls into that category. You denigrate those Jews, even as they cannot respond to your ugly label.
We are one people, stemming from 12 tribes, and it behooves us to behave towards each other as a loving family. Name-calling will not do it.
If you call attention to just ONE Jew and disqualify him, it is as if you call attention to one letter in Torah that is invalid and you invalidate the whole Torah. Every Jew is special; Every Jew is holy - no matter who he is. It may be hard to navigate your abstract theses between such halachic legislation, thus hindering you from expressing your thoughts, but that, nevertheless, doesn't given you the right to besmirch anybody in the process.
Dear Mr. Friedman:
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, there are parts of the Jewish world -- some yeshivot included -- that utilized Halakhic reasoning to justify the assassination of a Prime Minister of Israel, and that continue to laud Yigal Amir's vile deed.
If that is not an "extremist" and dangerous view, I don't know what is.
Love of the Jewish people and desire for its unity is not served by dancing on eggshells when it comes to telling hard truths.
Yours with appreciation for your readership and interest -
Jonathan
You saw someone or perhaps two people personally who lauded the murder, is that it - and therefore the whole Yeshiva is thereby implicated. Such is your argument. Better you should dance on eggshells.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr. Friedman:
ReplyDeleteYou have no idea what I saw, so please don't rush to judgment about me. Whether you wish to believe it or not, there are entire segments of the Ultra-Orthodox population who either explicitly or tacitly approve(d) of Rabin's murder, and much evidence to support the view that Amir was given halakhic permission to commit murder by his rabbi(s), utilizing the argument of the "rodef." I'm happy to explain the concept to you if you are not familiar with it.
I commend to you the meticulously researched book "Murder in the Name of God" by respected Israeli journalist Michael Karpin, co-authored by Ina Friedman.
Once you've read the book, please feel free to get back to me and I'd be happy to continue the conversation at that time.
Until then--or until you can provide evidence for your view that Rabin's murder was basically unsupported by Ultra-Orthodox institutions--I'll consider this conversation closed.
Yours with shalom,
Jonathan
I have read that among some haredi, Yigal Amir, as well as the man who opened fire on Muslims in a mosque, are viewed as folk heros to be emulated. That is extreme under any definition. Having said that, the internecine relations between Jews is far less toxic than in other groups, such as different branches of Islam.
ReplyDelete"So-called" Palestinians? Derrick, these people, many of whom DO want peace and already have good relations with Jews, were in the lands for centuries. They were certainly there when the IDF swept into the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. If you have problems with Jews who support Israel AND want a just solution for the Palestinians in the form of their own state to live in peace with Israel, well, I guess you have problems with me.
ReplyDeleteBut as the Rabbi's commentary to this week's Parasha poignantly indicates, these internecine problems should not deteriorate into the kind of rage and hatred that breeds violence.
Your take, Rabbi Blake, on the Rabin murder puts the blame on religious elements, because they were happy to see his reign of failure end - but not not his murder. To say they were happy with his murder is disgraceful. It's like people blaming Obama-rejectors as wanting to see the United States fail.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Rabin murder, it is far from clear as to who did it. This is a source of much controversy. There is a faction blaming Peres. There is a faction blaming those who wanted his policies to continue but when Rabin began to seriously reconsider his policy, those in power, who wanted his original policy to stay its course, got rid of him. The story is far from clear but you have already made your mind up who is at fault, who is to blame, and even who instigated the murder.
To blame the "ultra" religious people for the murder is - in itself - extremist in my view. Will I therefore blame the entire reformist sector? A big No. Do I agree with the latter's take on Judaism? A big NO.
But your take of the murder reveals that under the surface you like to come out and take swipes at the religious crowd, particularly the "ultra" "haredi" types, whatever that means to you. Ultra, by the way, to me means nothing extremist. It means people who enjoy upholding the values of our sages, the principles of Maimonides, without compromise, without the need to "reform". And, in case you didn't know, against murder.
Poorly substantiated conspiracy theories notwithstanding, Yigal Amir was the one tried, convicted, and sentenced with due process under the Israeli justice system. He is unabashed in his own "halakhic" defense of his murder and there is transparency about the influence of his religious education on his motives and deed. Further, he continues to garner support among certain (and certainly not all) Haredi elements in Israeli society. I am not saying anything that is not known by most of the world and which is commonly accepted within Israeli society.
ReplyDeleteWhile I appreciate that most of the Orthodox (and even Haredi) Jews in Israel abhor the assassination of Rabin, there nevertheless exists a "lunatic fringe" that lauds the deed.
More to the point: do you really think that Judaism is immune to extremism? How do you interpret, for instance, the existence of "fringe groups" like Neturei Karta who wish to collaborate with people like Ahmadinejad in denying the very legitimacy of the State of Israel?
No -- ALL religions have their dangerous extremists. It is sad but true that we are not immune to fundamentalism. The best response is for the voices of moderation within Judaism -- from across the denominational spectrum -- to speak out against extremism and thereby prevail.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jonathan
Rabbi - I enjoy reading your take on issues. Yours is one of very few Reform sites that allow for open debate. And because my preference is the traditional view (which you like to call "ultra-orthodox" for undefined reasons), I'll feel free to comment and, if possible, mend fences.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your exchange with Mr. Beck, you're right - that extremists are to be found everywhere. That's the way G-d created us. No two people look the same, nor think alike. It's true for snowflakes, for fingerprints, and how much more so for Jews. No doubt about that.
But your use of the term "extremist yeshivas" is uncalled for. I believe the generality of this phrase more reflects a bias against this orthodox institution than it points to the few among them who may well be extremists in viewpoint - to the extent that they were pleased by the murder.
After all, murder, (which comes from the terms "Mered Or" (as in Iyov 24, 13), which translates to a rebellion against G-d's wishes) is ingrained in every Torah-student since childhood, from learning the 10 commandments, from standing up twice a year in shul and listening to its prohibition read aloud, etc. cannot be condoned by very many, any more than can gather under Neturei Karta's coddling up to antisemites like Iran's little dictator. They are a miserable few - for which you cannot attribute the thoughts to many.