A second grade teacher collected a group of well known proverbs. She gave the first part of each one to a child in her class and asked them to complete it. Here are some of the results:
Better to be safe than (sorry)….to punch a fifth grader.
Strike while the (iron is hot)….bug is close.
It’s always darkest before (the dawn)….Daylight Savings time.
Don’t bite the hand that (feeds you)….looks dirty.
You can’t teach an old dog (new tricks)….math.
A penny saved is (a penny earned)….not much.
Two’s company, three’s (a crowd)….the Musketeers.
Children should be seen and not (heard)….spanked.
If at first you don’t succeed (try, try again)….get new batteries.
A journey of a thousand miles begins (with a single step)….by getting in your car.
Are the children’s endings to the proverbs wrong? Although they are different than the versions we grew up hearing, we can see the logic in each one, based on the perspective of that child. Because these are children’s perspectives, we chuckle, but add theirs to ours. That is what rabbinic tradition urges us to do. I have often cited this quote from the Talmud, eilu v’eilu d’varim Adonai, “these and these are the words of the living God.” God’s voice announces this in the middle of an argument between the disciples of Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai. One of the lessons I draw from this is the necessity for us to open our minds and accept different perspectives on issues. We do NOT have to agree with a perspective different from ours, just understand it has legitimacy, or at least the person having that perspective has a legitimate reason for believing it. Further, rabbinic tradition is clear that our arguments can be done fiercely. They can be strong and energetic. We just have to end themwith respect for the other side, even in disagreement.
Here is a current example. Liberals often condemn capitalism as a means of extortion from the working class and the poor. What they often fail to acknowledge is that free enterprise in business is the best way to uplift an economy, to create jobs, to bring financial energy to more people. It encourages ordinary people to enter the business world, and our country is filled with stories of people coming from poverty and building great success. On the other hand, conservatives see the policies of liberals as undermining business, and classify them as socialist. Current rhetoric from the right claims if we institute Medicare for all, increase state corporate taxes, and raise the minimum wage, we will downgrade our country into Venezuela. They claim liberals want everything to be free for all. They misrepresent what socialism truly is – a system by which the government promotes community ownership of all land and businesses instead of individual ownership. These progressive policies are not intended to replace individual business ownership. Typically, neither side’s minds are open to understanding the true purpose of the other side’s position. Neither side wants to acknowledge that we need the other’s perspective to properly balance policies.
I am a liberal who used to own a manufacturing business. I have seen the benefits of free enterprise, how my business’s growth created jobs. From 1977 to 1983 we went from employing 12 people to 50. We provided good salaries, with our base well above minimum wage. We provided health insurance for our employees’ families. Our success was never affected by the taxes we had to pay in Pennsylvania, which were much more than any business has to pay in Florida. I embrace the current proposals of raising the minimum wage, giving all people the option of Medicare, and raising the state (not federal) corporate taxes to help fund things like raising teachers’ salaries. I can see a bigger picture of how these policies can help people who are struggling, as well as improve some aspects for businesses. I bet the typical right wing conservative has no understanding of my perspective at all. Both political sides need to open their minds.
The sadness existing in our Jewish world is how this same close mindedness, the refusal to understand the perspectives of the person who thinks differently than you, exists today largely through an issue that used to unite the overwhelming bulk of the Jewish people – support for the state of Israel. The dominant perspectives on Israel now are the two most extreme. One is blind support of anything Israel does, to the point of accusing a fellow Jew who is critical of Israel as being a “self hating” Jew. The other is represented by the BDS movement, which claims to use boycotts, divestments and sanctions to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. BDS supporters will classify those who do not support it as racist, or xenophobic. If you are a non-criticizing acolyte supporter of anything Israel does, you are failing to face many of the realities of the Netanyahu government. If you are a BDS supporter, you do not realize many of the movement’s leaders oppose the legitimacy of Israel’s existence. Both sides are failing to acknowledge the complications and nuances of the history of Israel.
Consider the earliest Jewish settlers from Europe, who began immigration in the late 1880’s, and expanding in the first years of the 20thcentury, when the Zionist movement formally came into being. It was common for European Jews moving to Palestine to have false impressions. The famous Jewish essayist, Ahad Ha’Am, after visiting Palestine in 1891 for 3 months, wrote, “We abroad are used to believing that Eretz Yisrael is now almost totally desolate, a desert that is not sowed…But in truth this is not the case. Throughout the country it is difficult to find fields that are not sowed.” Indeed, when the first waves of Jewish settlers arrived, there were around 500,000 Arabs living in Palestine. But it was not an independent country. It was territory controlled by the Ottoman Empire.
What were the attitudes of Jewish settlers and the native Arabs? They were diverse and complicated. Some Jewish settlements trained their folks to speak Arabic wanting to establish good relationships with the local Arabs. Others saw the native Arabs as many Europeans saw the native residents of other areas colonized by European countries – as inferior savages who needed to be modernized. Some saw the Moslem Arabs in particular as aggressive, and others were just shocked to find them living there at all, confirming the observation of Ahad Ha’Am. Some Jewish settlements set up just councils, that took in complaints by Arabs, judging them at the same level as complaints by Jews. Others treated the local Arabs as a threat.
How did the Arabs see the Jewish settlers? The response was as diverse, but we must acknowledge an added component. Islam created an atmosphere that did not like Jews and forbade land controlled by Islam to be handed over to any foreign group. In addition, the Turkish rulers and the local Arabs often had a xenophobic view of foreigners, and saw their presence as a threat. Some of this inborn dislike of foreigners was exacerbated by certain groups of Jewish immigrants. Those coming from Russia were often socialists, anarchists and atheists – revolutionaries in a way that annoyed the local Arab population. After a number of years some of the Jewish immigrants began to behave like lords and masters over the Arabs, again creating a bad atmosphere. A significant amount of the land occupied by European Jews had been bought from absentee Arab landowners. In some cases there were no problems. In others the new settlers pushed out the Arabs who had been farming the land for the absentee owners. Who would those Arabs blame, the absentee owners or the local Jews who took over the land?
There is plenty of documentation for all of this, but here is the bottom line. If you are a blind supporter of Israel, you will ignore the difficulties caused by many of the early settlers for the native Arab population. You will ignore the attitude of colonialism, not typical of Jews, but Europeans. If you are a supporter of the BDS movement, you will ignore the reality of anti-Semitism and xenophobia that already pre-existed in the Arab population. You will ignore the attempts by many Jewish settlers to establish an existence of fairness for all. Here is another reality, while a population of a bit more than a half million in 1900 seems like a lot, today we are talking about a segment of land that houses 10 million people. Why would it be wrong for some of the Jews of that era to move to Palestine?
These issues continued during the years Israel gained independence. During the 1948 war, it is a fact that some Arabs were forced from their homes by armed Israelis, sometimes the Irgun, Jewish terrorists, sometimes the official military. It is also a fact that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was a serious anti-Semite, who cooperated with Hitler during WW II. He broadcast that Arabs should leave their homes while the war was on, so the Arab armies could come in and destroy the Jews. We also know that many Arabs fled their homes simply because they could not stand living in the middle of a violent war. I must ask, could you?
We see a continuation of all these issues today. From 1977 onward, beginning with the Begin government, the building of settlements on the West Bank, to the dismay of Palestinians living there, increased tremendously. Many of the settlements were built by Orthodox Jewish extremists, who claimed that the West Bank rightfully belonged to Israel, based on their interpretation of ancient Biblical boundaries that increase, the size of the Jewish state. There are other Biblical boundaries that decrease that size. In recent years the Netanyahu government has made the establishing of Jewish outposts legal, even ones that have taken over Palestinian property. It is morally wrong to legalize stealing land from Palestinians. Supporters of the Netanyahu government refuse to see that as wrong.
Those who support the BDS movement often try to justify Hamas’s terrorist actions. Their advocacy for Palestinian rights blinds them to Hamas’s hatred of Jews. They refuse to acknowledge that in the 2014 Gaza war, Hamas used little children to help dig tunnels for terrorists to enter Israel. They refuse to acknowledge that just this past spring, the protests that happened at the Gaza border, were not just by peaceful Palestinians, but included violent members of Hamas who actually drove the whole series of incidents. Hamas admitted this. Most of all, there is little admission that large hatred of Jews exists in the Arab world in general, let alone the Palestinian world.
Yet, and here is the saddest, both sides fail to acknowledge that most Palestinians, just want to have normal family lives. They fail to acknowledge that among Israelis there are many who do oppose the Netanyahu government. While I was on a river cruise in France in June of 2017, we became friends with a couple from Israel, owners of an extremely successful business, who are so upset with the current government they voted for the Arab party in the last Knesset election.
Finally, we have the current policies of the Netanyahu government that is deepening divisions in the Jewish world, not just between Israeli Jews and American Jews, but among all Jews in the diaspora. Here is one example. After making an agreement with non-Orthodox Jews to create an area at the Western Wall where non-Orthodox men and women can worship together, he revoked that agreement in order to preserve his political alliance with orthodox political parties. It is also clear that Netanyahu is now focused on an alliance with Christian evangelicals who give unquestioning support to his policies, while dismissing the bulk of the American Jewish community that has, through the years, helped to finance so much of Israel’s development. If you are a supporter of Netanyahu, you fail to acknowledge he is under constant investigations for corruption, as well as his dismissing of the majority of American Jews. If you are a critique of Netanyahu, too often you judge all Israelis based on his actions, instead of continuing to embrace the legitimacy of Israel’s existence. And you fail to acknowledge that Israelis do many things to help others, providing relief services to countries suffering a disaster, or initiatives by Israeli Jews to help Palestinians and Israeli Arabs.
In the early 2,000s I gave a sermon on how too many Jews made Israel the focus of their Jewish identity, as well as too many Jews made remembering the Shoah as the focus of their Jewish identity. I said while both of these were important, the focus of Jews should be on strengthening our Jewish communities, by strengthening our knowledge of Jewish tradition, theology, values and strengthening our commitment to each other. It says in Pirkei Avot, kol Yisra’el aravim zeh l’zeh, meaning all the Jewish people are responsible for each other. I said that we need to find the proper balance between particularism and universalism. I think all of that is still true. What is so sad for our people is how, in today’s world in particular, the disagreements over our relationship with Israel, are tearing us apart.
Why is this? Because the Jewish world, is mirroring the state of American society. Like everyone else in America, we are reinforcing our political and religious divides by refusing to acknowledge factual truth, especially about history. We reject factual nuance. We are refusing to even listen to a narrative that contradicts our ideological bubble. As a result, most of us understand nothing about the true feelings, intentions, and actions of other Jews who think differently from us. Instead we condemn them. We fail to open our minds.
The Torah portion we read this morning begins with these words, Atem nitzavim hayom kulchem lifnei Adonai elohaichem, rosheichem shivteichem, v’zikneichem v’sotreichem col ish Yisra’el, tapchem n’sheichem v’gercha asher b’kerev machanecha, meichoteiv eitzecha ad sho’eiv meimecha.“You stand this day, all of you, before Adonai your God, your tribal leaders, your elders and your officials, all the men of Israel. Your children, your wives, even the alien within your camp, from the wood chopper to the water carrier.” All of the people of Israel are standing there to begin our covenant with God. Notice, this includes everyone, from leadership to children, from actual Israelites to aliens working at the lowest level jobs. Do you think all of the people standing there had the same thoughts, the same beliefs? Do you think they all approached life the same way?
Of course not. Our people have always been filled with multiple opinions, arguments and thoughts. As the joke goes, the only thing two Jews can ever agree on is what their friend should donate to the synagogue. What unites us, is our covenant with God, our understanding that we should be a “light to the nations,” a model of how to live, how to manage our diversity of thought. It is time to cry, because we are failing. How incredibly sad that Israel, the land representing our covenant with God, and the fulfillment of so many modern Jewish dreams; now represents the issues breaking our people apart.
Today, Yom Kippur, is the final day we are supposed to examine ourselves, to finish our repentance and ask God for atonement, forgiveness. But God will only forgive each of us if we have made peace, shalom, with each other. Do it! Reach out to those who think the opposite of you. Listen to their narratives, their thoughts, their emotions. You do not have to agree. You can even argue fiercely. Nevertheless you must embrace them as a fellow Jew, a fellow human. You must open your mind.
The second word of the Torah portion is one of the reasons we read this today, nitzavim, to stand. We should stand together. That verb is connected to this noun, matzeivah, which can be translated to mean either a tombstone or a pillar. A tombstone memorizes that which is dead. A pillar gives support to the living. If we insist on degrading the fellow Jew who holds a different perspective than us, we will just be tombstones of a Jewish memory. If we work to understand each other, to listen to each Jewish narrative, we will be pillars supporting the life of the Jewish people. May all of us choose to be pillars, to support the life and well being of our people. If we are pillars for the Jewish people, including Israel, then we will making the Jewish people a pillar for the world. Kein yehi ratzon, may that be God’s will