The following link leads to a statement made by Rabbi Josh Weinberg, President of Israel, on behalf of the American Reform Movement  concerning the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

<http://cirrus.mail-list.com/ravkav/88839342.html>

Heather Heyer – z’l

Note: I print with permission a commentary by my colleague, Rabbi Joel Schwartzman, on the tragic events of a year ago in Charlottesville, Va. when Heather Heyer, a protester of the white supremacy rally in that city, was mowed down deliberately a Neo-Nazi thug thus murdering her. See Heather’s obituary in the New York Times from a year ago.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/13/us/heather-heyer-charlottesville-victim.html

Rabbi Schwartzman, a retired chaplain in the United States Armed Forces, comments on a column published in Friday’s Union for Reform Judaism’s Ten Minutes of Torah by Dahlia Lithwick. She wrote:

“One continues to hope that Charlottesville – with its grieving town, its brave citizens, and its bone-deep efforts to contend with racism and rage – will never happen again, anywhere. But I continue to believe that what Charlottesville revealed, what it refracted and allowed, plays out daily under the surface of American life, and that it no longer shocks us as it ought to.”

Rabbi Schwartzman responds:

“These words that Dahlia has written quantify and characterize what Charlottesville has come to mean for me as well as the nation. I who have a working knowledge of the origins and outcomes of the Holocaust see and hear echoes of that unspeakable, unfathomable epoch in Jewish history. This is not the case for the generations of Americans and American Jews that have followed mine. They aren’t haunted by visions of death camps and crematoria. I who live part of each year in Charlottesville walk its streets, know where and what happened on which avenue and at which park, and know that the spirit of what tormented and murdered European Jewry is alive and well in America. It has the tacit approval of the leader of this country. This anniversary weekend, it will raise its ugly, bigoted and all too potentially violent head once again, although, one hopes, not necessarily in Charlottesville itself.

The name of Charlottesville has taken on an instant and symbolic meaning which is so terribly unfair and tragic because the people who live there were stigmatized and terrorized by an invasion of thugs for whom they didn’t bargain and for which violent chaos they were unprepared. Now they wear a national label, a label that associates this bucolic town with the worst that humanity has to offer.

The populace, which includes students and faculty at the University of Virginia, the townspeople themselves, and the town’s government have all committed to “taking back their town.” If there is anything positive which has arisen from the past year’s experience, it is this unifying commitment, in the face of what the name “Charlottesville” nationally and internationally has come to signify. It is, at least, to purify and sanctify what was besmirched in the city’s streets last year at this time.”

On this first anniversary of Heather’s death, we say zichrona livracha – May she be remembered for a blessing.

The following are selections from Jewish literature about תשובה – Teshuvah (lit. return, turning, response, and repentance), the primary occupation of the Jew in the month of Elul through to Yom Kippur (though teshuvah ought to be what one does throughout the year). Elul is the Hebrew month preceding the High Holidays and the month of Tishri and the High Holydays. There are 40 days from Elul 1 to Tishri 10 (Yom Kippur) the same amount of time that Moses spent on Mount Sinai receiving Torah.

“Teshuvah is a manifestation of the divine in each human being… Teshuvah means “turning about,” “turning to,” “response” [based on the Hebrew root – שוב – shin-vav-bet], “return” to God, to Judaism, to community, to family, to “self”… Teshuvah reaches beyond personal configurations – it is possible for someone to return who “was never there” – with no memories of a Jewish way of life…Judaism isn’t personal but a historical heritage… Teshuvah is a return to one’s own paradigm, to the prototype of the Jewish person…The act of teshuvah is a severance of the chain of cause and effect in which one wrong follows inevitably upon another…The thrust of teshuvah is to break through the ordinary limits of the self…The significance of the past can only be changed at a higher level of teshuvah – called תיקון (tikun) – תיקון הנפש (tikun hanefesh) – תיקון עולם (tikun olam)…The highest level of teshuvah is reached when the change and correction penetrate the very essence of the sins once committed and create the condition in which a person’s transgressions become his/her merits.” (Gleaned from “Repentance” by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz)

“Repentance must be preceded by the recognition of seven things: (1) The penitent must clearly recognize the heinousness of what one has done… (2) The penitent must be aware that one’s specific act was legally evil and ignominious… (3) The penitent must realize that retribution for one’s misdeed is inevitable… (4) The penitent must realize that one’s sin is noted and recorded in the book of a person’s iniquities… (5) The penitent must be fully convinced that repentance is the remedy for sickness and the road to recovery from evil deeds… (6) The penitent must conscientiously reflect upon the bounties the Creator had already bestowed, and how the penitent had rebelled against God instead of being grateful to the Eternal… (7) The penitent must strenuously persevere in keeping away from the evil to which s/he had been addicted and firmly resolve in her/his heart and mind to renounce it.” (Bachya ibn Pakuda, Duties of the Heart 7:3)

“One of the foundations of penitence, in human thought, is a person’s recognition of responsibility for one’s actions, which derives from a belief in humankind’s free will. This is also the substance of the confession that is part of the commandment of penitence, in which the person acknowledges that no other cause is to be blamed for one’s misdeed and its consequences but s/he the person alone.” (Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook)

“For transgressions between one person and another, such as injury, cursing, stealing, and similar offenses, a person is never forgiven until that person gives the other what is owed, and pacifies him/her.” (Maimonides, Mishnah Torah, Laws of Repentance 2:2)

“What is complete teshuvah? When one comes upon a situation in which one once transgressed, and it is possible to do so again, but the person refrains and doesn’t transgress on account of one’s repentance.” (Maimonides, Ibid 2:1)

“Rabbi Eliezer said, “Repent one day before your death.” His disciples asked him, “Does then one know on what day s/he will die?” “All the more reason s/he should repent today, lest s/he die tomorrow.” (Talmud, Shabbat 53a)

“One’s perspective is enlarged through penitence…All that seemed deficient, all that seemed ugly in the past, turns out to be full of majesty and grandeur as a phase of the greatness achieved through the progress of penitence… Moreover, it is necessary to identity the good that is embodied in the depth of evil and to strengthen it – with the very force wherewith one recoils from evil. Thus will penitence served as a force for good that literally transforms all the wrongdoings into virtues.” (Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook)

“Rabbi Abbahu said, “In the place where penitents stand, even the wholly righteous cannot stand.” (Talmud, B’rachot 34b)

[Note: The following is printed as an op-ed in this week’s edition of the Los Angeles Jewish Journal.]

The new “Nation-State” basic law is neither overtly racist nor suggesting of apartheid. Yet, it is a bad and unnecessary law and ought to be repealed. Israel already has the Declaration of Independence that sets the principles of the State of Israel as the Jewish and democratic nation-state of the Jewish people.

There is much in the bill that is operative making it redundant. The principal language of Israel is Hebrew. The Israeli flag and national anthem are Israel’s national symbols. Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Holocaust Remembrance Day are recognized holidays. Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people.

The bill is worrisome for several reasons. It formally demotes the Arabic language from an official language to one with “special status,” a slap in the face to the 20% minority of Arab-Israeli citizens and the Israeli-Druze community. The message of the bill to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is that the State of Israel is the exclusive homeland of the Jewish people despite Palestinian claims for a nation-state of their own alongside Israel. The message to Palestinian Israeli citizens is that they are second class citizens.

In 1992, a Basic Law was passed that emphasized fundamental human rights and equality under the law for all Israeli citizens. The nation-state law fails to mention equality thus posing a veiled assault on Israel’s democratic tradition and the 1992 law. Future courts and legislatures can use this new bill to deemphasize Israeli democratic traditions.

The bill originally sought to preserve the bond of unity between world Jewry and Israel, but at the last minute ultra-Orthodox parties rejected the unity principle as it applies in Israel. The Israeli Conservative and Reform movements objected strenuously because they regard the bill as an attempt by the ultra-Orthodox parties to solidify their hegemony over religious affairs in Israel rejecting religious pluralism.

One wonders why this bill was brought forward now. Is it a political attempt by PM Netanyahu, who advocated strongly for its adoption, to shore up his right-wing political base before the next election?

There is a bill currently making its way through the Knesset that would raise the number of orthodox yeshiva students required to serve in the army, a move bitterly opposed by the ultra-Orthodox parties that threatened to quit the coalition and force new elections should it become law. Netanyahu needs them in his coalition. Current polls show that Netanyahu’s Likud would gain no more seats should an election be held today.

The bill has driven a deeper wedge between Israel and Diaspora Jewry. Tensions exist between the Prime Minister and the Reform and Conservative movements in North America due to Netanyahu’s reneging on his own Kotel Agreement, allowing his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners to introduce a conversion law in the Knesset excluding non-Orthodox conversions, and his alliance with Trump and American Christian evangelical extremists.

Many from Netanyahu’s own party oppose this law including the President of the State, Reuven Rivlin, Benny Begin, Moshe Arens, and Dan Meridor.

The vast majority of Israelis don’t want a medieval model imposed on their modern country. The most pressing question for Israelis besides security is the relationship between democracy and Judaism. As long as Jews remain in the majority by significant percentages (i.e. 70-80%), the conflict between democracy and Judaism appears manageable.

Section #7 of the bill enshrines the settlements as an important goal of the country, at the top of the right-wing agenda for decades. To most objective observers, Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state will be assured only by containing settlements to the large settlement blocks that will remain in Israel in an eventual peace agreement and stopping the spread of settlements beyond the security fence that would make partition impossible. Only a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can preserve a strong Jewish majority thereby preserving democracy and the Jewish character of the state.

This bill serves a world view that’s damaging to Israel, a move towards ethnic religious nationalism dominating Israeli political affairs and the separation of Israel from millions of its supporters in the Diaspora. That is not what the nation’s founders envisioned for Israel.

The Nation-State Law that passed through the Knesset raises important questions about Israeli democracy and the march by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Netanyahu to redefine Israel and change essential elements in Israel’s Declaration of Independence. The founding document of the State of Israel promotes equality, a democratic form of government, and establishes Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

This law was unnecessary and, I believe, a political effort by the Prime Minister to shore up his religious right before calling for new elections.

Benard Avishai has written an important piece in the New Yorker (July 20) that is worth reading.

see – https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/israel-passes-a-law-stating-whats-jewish-about-a-jewish-and-democratic-state

My friend Rabbi Eric Yoffie hit the nail on the head with this piece on the state of Israeli-Diaspora relations. I print here with appreciation for the boldness and rightness of Eric’s words.

New Post by Eric Yoffie, Published in Haaretz This Is a Grim Time for Diaspora Lovers of Israel Jul 30, 2018 10:31 am Whenever I think that Israel-Diaspora relations cannot possibly get any worse, I am proven wrong. The last 4-6 weeks have been, arguably, the worst period ever in the history of relations between Israel and world Jewry. (Credit: Meged Gozani) Israel’s current government occasionally gets something right. It has done a good job, for example, in handling the difficult situation with Syria and Russia on Israel’s northern border. But when it comes to managing ties with Diaspora Jews, it abandons good sense and trades it in for either outright stupidity or moral obtuseness. American Jews in particular are bewildered by actions that they view as openly hostile to American Jewish values, interests, and sensibilities. There is, of course, something deeply ironic about the fumbling and stumbling of Mr. Netanyahu. On the one hand, he talks incessantly about Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. But on the other hand, he appears to care little if at all about what the Jewish people think of Israel’s – and his – actions. Let’s review just a few of the recent actions of Netanyahu and the government of Israel as they relate to the question of Israel-Diaspora ties. First: The abject surrender of the government of Israel to the ultra-Orthodox parties on issue after issue, alienating not only American Jews but civilized people everywhere. We all remember, of course, Netanyahu’s shameful decision to renounce the compromise on the Western Wall that he himself had fashioned. We must now add to that failure two more, each a reflection of cowardice in the face of ultra-Orthodox blackmail. Especially shocking is his backtracking on surrogacy rights for gay male couples after specifically endorsing those rights. Originally, Netanyahu simply did the right thing.  Beyond that, acceptance of gay rights has become an identifying characteristic of the civilized, developed, western world, where Israel proudly places itself.  Furthermore, Israel has for years given special emphasis to its progressive position on LGBTQ rights as a means of differentiating itself from its hostile, backward neighbors. But now, with barely a thought, Israel has jettisoned its long-held principles, damaged its diplomatic standing, and made common cause with fundamentalists in the region. And why? To meet the never-ending demands of ultra-Orthodox Jews who are entitled to their views but who never seem to care about anything or anyone but themselves. To this collapse must be added another: The nation-state bill contained what should have been an utterly uncontroversial section affirming the commitment of the State of Israel to protect Jews around the world and preserve the cultural and religious heritage of the Jewish people. Who could disagree with that? And yet, because the ultra-Orthodox parties feared that such a clause might encourage Israel’s government and courts to support Reform and Conservative Judaism in Israel, the wording was changed. The final text of the law contains an awkward formulation saying that Israel would act to strengthen Jewish culture and religion in the Diaspora – but only in the Diaspora, without any reference to Jewish life in Israel. This wording, of course, is nonsensical: What does it mean for Israel to promote Judaism in Melbourne and Paris but not in Tel Aviv and Haifa?  The result: Diaspora Jews were infuriated. They rightly saw what should have been an embrace as a slap in the face, intended to ensure denial of support for their brand of Judaism in the Jewish state. It is common for the ultra-Orthodox religious monopoly in Israel to be seen as an unfortunate but insignificant fact of political life. With time, the argument goes, technology and modernity will break down the walls of Bnei Brak and Mea Shearim, and the ultra-Orthodox will lose their political clout and rejoin mainstream Israel. But what recent events have shown is that Israel cannot wait another generation to escape the ultra-Orthodox chokehold on religious life in the Jewish state. The price to be paid is simply too high. The time has come for Benjamin Netanyahu, together with parties across the political spectrum, to rein in ultra-Orthodox blackmail and political hooliganism and to restore Israel’s good name as a civilized nation. Second: The willingness of the government of Israel to distort the history of the Holocaust and downplay the role of its collaborators in order to strengthen alliances with right-wing European states. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrived in Israel two weeks ago and received an enthusiastic welcome from his good friend Benjamin Netanyahu. Orban is a contemptible, authoritarian politician who is dismantling democracy in Hungary and hovers on the edges of outright anti-Semitism in his political campaigns. Orban has expressed lavish praise for Milos Horthy, Hungary’s Nazi-supporting leader during World War II. And in Orban’s recent reelection campaign, he used ugly anti-Semitic terminology to describe George Soros, the Hungarian Jewish philanthropist and champion of European democracy. Was any of this a problem for Benjamin Netanyahu?  Apparently not.  Bibi referred to Orban as a “true friend of Israel,” offering him a diplomatic bear hug that conferred on Orban the political legitimacy that he craves. But Bibi did more than that. In response to a proposed Polish law to effectively criminalize research on the Holocaust, Bibi had already signed a joint statement with the Polish Prime Minister minimizing the role of Polish authorities and individuals in supporting the Nazi extermination efforts during World War II. This was a giant step too far, a crushing blow to Jewish collective memory. It was also a profound affront to every Jew – myself included – who lost large segments of their family on Polish soil during the Holocaust. Poland is awash in Jewish blood. Yes, the Poles were not the Nazis, and not all Poles were implicated. But the masses of Jew-haters who colluded in the slaughter must not be forgotten or forgiven or pushed from our consciousness. And who gave Bibi the right to fiddle with the facts of history on this exceedingly painful subject? Netanyahu heads the “national camp” in Israeli politics, which for more than 30 years was led by Menachem Begin. When David Ben-Gurion proposed that Israel accept reparations payments from the German government in 1952, Begin – backed by the left-wing Mapam party – responded with outrage, demonstrations, and even violence. It was unthinkable to Begin that the government of Israel should extend even a modicum of forgiveness or “understanding” to those implicated in the exterminations at Auschwitz and elsewhere. Ben-Gurion’s actions were probably justified because Israel was broke, desperate, utterly alone, and without resources to support the masses of immigrants then arriving at its shores. Still, that was a time when the “national camp” had a moral backbone, and Begin’s moral righteousness resonated with many in Israel. Netanyahu’s declaration, on the other hand, was not motivated by compelling need; it was merely an act of political convenience. Yad Vashem, the U.S. Holocaust Museum, and prominent Holocaust historians protested the Prime Minister’s statement.  For a variety of reasons, their protest did not receive the publicity it should have. Nonetheless, Diaspora leadership took careful note of this gratuitous blow to the holiness of our Holocaust memories. There is much else that could be discussed here about Israel-Diaspora relations: the conversion crisis, the detention of a Conservative rabbi for carrying out his religious duties, Israel’s retreat from minority rights not only for Reform Jews but for all minorities, and the prime minister’s failure to share with world Jewry any coherent vision of Israeli-Palestinian peace. This is a grim time for Diaspora lovers of Israel, and many feel discouraged and abandoned. There is no point in glossing over the harsh realities of the moment. Still, those of us in the Zionist camp in the Diaspora refuse to despair. The devotion of the Jewish people to Israel is strong and the case for Zionism remains compelling. The problem is not Israel. The problem is the weak, cowardly, unprincipled, self-serving politicians of the current government. Caught up in their petty, internal quarrels, they have inflicted on the Jewish people the problems enumerated above and forgotten the importance of an inclusivist Jewish vision. Israel needs leaders who speak the language of a single Jewish people and who reach out to Jews everywhere that are moved by its vision and summoned by its call. Jewish life cannot be sustained without Israel at its core, and Israel cannot be sustained without the Jewish people at its side. Sometime soon, we hope and pray, Israel will have leaders who understand that.

Nationalism is the belief that your nation should dominate others. It “is inseparable from the desire for power.” A nationalist “thinks solely, or mainly, in terms of competitive prestige … his thoughts always turn on victories, defeats, triumphs and humiliations.” Patriotism involves “devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one … has no wish to force on other people.”

– George Orwell – cited in an article by Peter Beinart “Donald Trump is no Patriot”, July 19, 2018, The Atlantic

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/the-unpatriotic-nationalism-of-donald-trump/565607/

The Jewish Forward July 26, 2018

Like Peter Beinart, I revere Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and have read all his books and wait for the next one. However, as Peter has noted in this important article in detail, Rabbi Sacks has become a victim to his base’s most vocal right-wing critics. His inconsistencies in entering into politics when it serves his orthodox base and condemning rabbinic commentary on contemporary issues when such commentary is politically and contrary to his base, is disheartening.

Though it pains me to read the commentary that Peter made of his own rabbinic model, such commentary is very important in an age in which morality and politics are clearly linked.

See: https://forward.com/opinion/406716/rabbi-jonathan-sacks-has-abdicated-his-moral-responsibility-in-the-age-of/

[My photo in Carpentaria, California overlooking the Pacific – morning]

This summer Barbara and I rented a house for a week in Carpentaria, California. The house was at the top of the mountain over-looking the Pacific. I was moved not only by the glorious view but by the solitude of the site. There were no homes nearby and no traffic. Avocado and orange tree groves spread out in every direction. The serene stillness of the silence was punctuated only occasionally by the horns and bells of a train as it moved through the town that connected Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.

I’ve always had sensitive ears. I cringe at loud cacophony. My tastes in music are the classics and jazz. I prefer the mellifluous to the abrasive.

Sitting outside each morning before others awoke, I listened to the sound of my breathing, reassuring myself about who I am, from whence I’ve come, and Who is my Creator.

I thank my late colleague, Rabbi Levi Meir, for sharing with me many years ago his translation of an essay by Dr. Adolf Altmann, the late Chief Rabbi of the town of Trier, Germany in 1928, on the significance of the sense of hearing.

Rabbi Altmann concluded that the command “Sh’ma Yisrael – Listen, O Israel” which appears in this week’s Torah portion Va-etchanan, is more than a call for attention.  He explained that something deeper occurs when we proclaim the supreme watchword of Jewish faith.

Rabbi Altmann noted that the command “Sh’ma!” is an appeal to one of the senses, that the keenest perception of all embraces thought and the sensory experience of hearing. He said that hearing is the only sense through which God revealed It’s divinity to the Israelites directly.

Why hearing? Why not touch, sight, taste, or smell? Altmann wrote that among the five senses the tonal stands nearest to the purely spiritual reflecting tradition’s understanding of hearing as the best medium of sensory revelation, the most easily amplified into the infinite. Mozart understood as well that hearing is the means through which sense and spirit touch and the corporeal and incorporeal are joined.

Jewish mystics speak of the religious seeker’s goal of hitbodedut (communion with God), of reaching outward and inward to that moment of meeting when God hears the stirring of the soul reaching out and we hear God’s voice as if, per Heschel, reaching out to us. The prophet Elijah experienced the divine voice as a kol d’mama daka, a soft murmuring sound (1 Kings 19:12), like a baby’s breath, or like air passing quietly through the lips. In that moment of God-hearing, Israel is aware of divine unity.

Judaism understands that each mitzvah (commandment) is a living transference of God’s voice that once sounded to Israel at Sinai. Every word and letter in Torah is the encasing vessel of God’s holy sparks, flashes of light rediscovered as they are heard in the ears of every generation.

Rabbi Leo Baeck taught that in encountering the God of Israel, the Jew discovers the mystery and the commandment. Thus, the mitzvot are the spiritual and ethical links when the metaphysical and the moral join.

Rabbi Altmann wrote:

“Through the silent walls of hard prison cells hear the sighs, Israel; out of the lonely huts of deserted widows and orphans, from the bed of pain of the sick and suffering, from the quietly restrained anguish of the rejected and disenfranchised; from the mute looks of the timid and sorrow-laden, from the pale lips of the starving and needy, you, Jew, shall hear the cries of pain, without their having to be emitted. The cry of the suffering is the cry of God, which emanates from them to you. As the Psalmist lets God speak: ‘With the oppressed, I am one in suffering.’ (Psalm 91:15)”

We say the Sh’ma and understand its spiritual power and ethical obligation to become witnesses to God in the world. It isn’t an accident that the two enlarged letters of the Sh’ma (the ayin and daled) spell “witness.”

The silence I experienced on a Carpentaria mountain; the murmuring sound  in every life-breath; the God-filled words of Torah; the screams of human suffering – all command our attention as if we are standing with our people at Mount Sinai.

Shabbat Shalom.