Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur Sermons
"Things You Can See From Here"
by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein
I'm sure many of you have heard this joke. Humor me and listen.
So a guy in Paris sees a pit bull attacking a toddler kills the pit bull and saves the child's life. Reporters swarm the fellow. "Tell us! What's your name' All Paris will love you! Tomorrow's headline will be: "Parisian Hero Saves Girl from Vicious Dog!"
The guy says, "I'm not from Paris." The reporters say: "That's OK. Then the whole of France will love you and tomorrow's headline will read: 'French Hero Saves Girl from Vicious Dog!'" The guy says, "I'm not from France, either." The reporters answer: "That's OK too. All Europe will love you. Tomorrow's headlines will shout: 'European Hero Saves Girl from Vicious Dog!'" The guy says, "I'm not from Europe, either.
"Finally the reporters ask: "So, where ARE you from' The guy says, "I'm from Israel.
"Oh, OK. Then tomorrow's headlines will proclaim to the world: 'Vicious Israeli Kills Girl's Dog!'
I tell you, if I don't laugh I'm gonna cry. As many of you know, I am living this year in Jerusalem. So coming home to find out that Tel Aviv'a city built in 1909, before the establishment of Jewish Israel, a city built by Jews on top of uninhabited sand dunes, is 'contested ground' according to actors who must know something about world politics because they are, after all, actors'this was something of a culture shock. Tel Aviv, awarded legally to Israel more than six decades ago in the 1947 United Nations plan is now akin to an illegal Jewish settlement, pronounced as such by influential actors and writers who cannot be bothered to read the fine print on the public, full page declarations they signed. Jane Fonda now wonders if maybe she has been overly sloganistic, and that perhaps, she should have chosen her words more carefully. They worry after the deed that they may have been oversimplified. Tel Aviv. And here we have it. Tel Aviv is the most tolerant, gay-friendly, feminist identified, LEFT-LEANING city in the entire Middle East. And now, it is 'contested' by leftists who are feminists and gay, who would find a city totally aligned to their values, if they bothered to see out of more than one lens covered by ideological blinders.
In one of her most well known songs, Israeli singer Yehudit Ravitz has the following line: Devarim shero'im misham, lo ro'im mi-kan: things you see from there, you don't see from here...
That is what I am learning during this precious year that I am actually living, day-to-day, in Israel. Devarim shero'im misham, lo ro'im mi-kan: things you see from there, you don't see from here.
From there, I see an interfaith iftar, breaking of the Ramadan fast, with over 100 Jewish and Moslem students'including my son' coming together to eat and study texts on teshuva, or repentance, from both the Torah and the Koran. From here, I see Jewish students feeling intimidated and literally barricaded into the Hillel office during 'anti-Israeli Apartheid' week at York. From there, I see Sderot, struggling to re-energize itself, to re-settle itself both economically and spiritually, after a year of running to bomb shelters, kids with serious cases of post-traumatic stress disorder, and 2 katuysha rockets lobbed over the wall again just last week. But from here I see a Passover 'don't buy Israeli wine' campaign. From there, I see a rally of 20,000 Israelis'with Israeli Arabs among them, gay and straight folks, secular and religious, and the President of the country, speaking out against any form of intolerance to gays after a tragic murderous rampage at a Tel Aviv LGBT youth centre. From here I see Queers Against Israeli Apartheid politicize and polarize the Gay Pride Parade. Here we have people who are totally confined to their ideology at the exclusion of any extraneous knowledge whether by experience, perception or truth.
From there, I sign up with Encounter, a group that takes Rabbis and Jewish leaders who go willingly and with open hearts to the West Bank, to meet and speak with Palestinians and understand, hear and acknowledge their point of view. But from here, I don't see any real Moslem-Jewish dialogue on any issue, while Palestine House sponsors, funds, and encourages as much anti-Israel activity in Toronto as possible.
From there, I see nascent, newly emerging Muslim women's groups working toward finally denouncing the 'honour killings' common in that part of the world; those murders'let's call them what they are'of female family members suspected of doing something, or more likely having something done to them, which threatens their male clan leaders. But from here I read feminist author Naomi Wolf explaining that the burqa- a full veiling of a woman with only a slit to see out of- is a kind of 'feminist' statement. She herself found it kind of 'liberating' to be fully covered in black in Morocco, and how sexy it is, she tells us, when you take off that veil and reveal yourself to your husband, for whom you have saved yourself.
From there, I see a women's film festival, an Arab film festival, a spirituality film festival, and a Jerusalem Film Festival all showcasing sensitive and soul-searching films about national identity, about ethnicity, about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Self-reflective and self-critical films made by films-makers unafraid to analyze deeply and honestly and use their films to start difficult dialogues. From here, I get an orchestrated protest/boycott/call-it-what-you-want at the Toronto International Film Festival of films which 'support the propaganda machine of Israel.' I'm waiting for Naomi Klein to blast a program devoted to films about New York, saying the filmmakers failed to address how Native Americans were cast out of Manhattan and how it 'support the propaganda machine' of white Americans. As Jonathan Kay wrote in the National Post, 'Thankfully, the protesters are not objecting to the new TIFF Bell Lightbox, the festival's future home, being built on destroyed First Nations villages... TIFF, they imply, is in the pocket of the Jews... Their open letter conspicuously highlights the names of Sidney Greenberg of Astral Media, David Asper of Canwest Global Communications and Joel Reitman of MIJO Corporation...Cue dark clouds of conspiracy.' Glad to know that since we own the banks and the press already, we now also own the TIFF.
Devarim shero'im misham, lo ro'im mi-kan: things you see from there, you cannot see from here..." What I see from there is a complexity, a depth, an acknowledgement of a totality of history, struggle, and self-consciousness of two peoples inexorably linked to each other. From there I see the blood, the toil and the relationship that has existed for thousands of years with our cousins. From there I see the complexity of a family torn apart by division, misgivings, jealousy and rage. From there I see the fire in Sara's eyes as she casts Hagar out and tosses her with her son' the son of Avraham' into the desert, not caring one iota that they would parish. From there I have seen the fear in the eyes of Ishmael as he feels death awaiting, parched in the desert sand. But from there I have witnessed the compassion that G-d must have felt as water was given and Ishmael was promised that he, too, would become a nation unto his people. From there, I have imagined the secret devotion and the fear that Yitzchak and Ishmael felt when they met without the knowledge of their family. From there I weep when I imagine the bitter-sweet reunion they had after the death of Sara, the final obstacle in their path, when they welcomed one another as brothers. From here I weep over people confined to their ideologies without any experience, perception, or seeking for truth.
Devarim shero'im misham, lo ro'im mi-kan: things you see from there, you don't see from here..." It reads like a laundry list. Rambam hospital in Haifa, the hospital which treats the highest number of Arab patients including those hit by Arab terrorists, first hospital to hire a female Arab doctor to treat Jewish patients and a Arab-speaking Jewish medical clown to entertain Arab kids. HaBayit Hapatuach, Jerusalem's Open House for LGBT youth, at its monthly socials where Palestinian gay kids feel welcome and safe and freely socialize with Israeli gay kids. Isha L'isha, the rape crisis center in 'disputed' Tel Aviv where Arab women from Jaffa are routinely given shelter along with their abused Jewish compatriot sisters. It reads like a laundry list except, it's not laundry -- it's human beings.
Devarim shero'im misham, lo ro'im mi-kan: things you see from there, you cannot see from here..." There I see a deep willingness, sometimes almost a desperation to dialogue, even when we totally disagree. I don't see demons and devils on either side, except those on the fringes, in the extremes both Arab and Israeli, who are willing to kill each other.
From there, I see honest, hard-working middle-class folks on both sides. I see poor beggars on both sides. I see dishonest politicians on both sides. I see schoolchildren being taught to hate on both sides. I see youth groups trying to bridge the gaps on both sides. I see women in headscarves of one sort or another from both sides giggling at the freedom of learning to drive a car. I see segregated buses in B'nai Brak where women are sent to the back of the bus. I see women in black burqas tripping over their garments in the heat of August. I see Moslem families having Sabbath picnics at Liberty Bell Park on Fridays and Jewish families on Saturdays and secular kids from both sides hanging out in the same park on Saturday night. I see people trying to make ends meet on both sides. I see fear and misunderstanding on both sides. I see anger on both sides, loss and pain on both sides, stubbornness and closed-mindedness on both sides. What I see is multifaceted; it is not facile. What I see there was the sliver, the ray, the tiny longing for and holding out for hope on both sides, the slim and distant possibility that both Rosh Hashana and Eid are here and this might be the year. What I see here is sloganering, with no recognition, no acknowledgement that there is that longing on both sides. What I see there is so layered; it is not the lazy caricature of slogans that emanate from the mouths of those confined to ideology'on either side.
Devarim shero'im misham, lo ro'im mi-kan: things you see from there, you cannot see from here..." What I see here in Toronto, sadly, sadly, is an attempt--a calculated one-- to divide Jews from Jews across artificial lines. Jews like me who support Israel even with critique and discomfort, from Jews who don't support it at all, as if to say, 'Oh I'm Jewish too, but I'm oh-so-much-more-moral than those Jews, I'm not like those Jews, those Zionist, racist, fascist, right-wing, non-thinking autonomotans who blindly sing Hatikva and therefore obviously feel no pain at the suffering of others.' This attempt separates Jews like me who support and work for a two-state solution from Jews who would allow Israel to exist but not as a Jewish State. It separates Jews who want to visit Israel from Jews who feel intimidated to admit to their non-Jewish co-workers and friends that they want to go. It separates non-Jews who want to go just because it's a great vacation spot from religious Christians who go out of conviction, and often find themselves politically 'in bed' with the right-wing of Israel. Most painfully for me, it separates Jews who critique from love from Jews who critique out of sheer anger; so that those of us who do publically call Israel to account fear to do so now out of being associated with the Naomi Klein crowd. While I have never suggested, in all my years of speaking about Israel on these holy days that all Jews must love and support Israel uncritically, unequivocably, without regard for problematic and unethical or dangerous policies or governments; while I have never suggested for one moment that change must not come and I say it must come with great haste, it is this sloganeering from the left which may do great damage to us, because those Jews here who align with progressive Israelis there are powerfully silenced and kowtowed into the party line for fear of being misidentified with a relatively new but vocal group of Jewish anti-Zionists. The movement which calls itself 'The International Jewish anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)' has an active branch right here in Toronto, organizing 'disruptions of Zionist activities' like the Gay Pride parade and the ROM exhibit of Dead Sea Scrolls. Here is their vision, 'The International Jewish anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) is a growing network of Jews whose identities are not based on Zionism but on long histories of Jewish participation in liberation struggles from Eastern Europe and Iraq to Brooklyn.' Working closely with Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV), The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA), and Women In Solidarity With Palestine they launched a weekly picket of the ROM on hmmm...Friday nights.
Now there were, and are, Hasidic rabbis opposed to the creation of a Jewish state. The leader of the Satmar Hasidic sect, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum expounded and defines this Orthodox position on Zionism. Citing the Talmud in Ketubot 111a Teitelbaum states that God and the Jewish people exchanged oaths at the time of the Jews' exile from ancient Israel, forbidding the Jewish people from massively immigrating to the Land of Israel, and from rebelling against the nations of the world. And early Reform Judaism opposed the creation of a Jewish state, based on fears of being branded as disloyal to America and hoping to achieve a more thorough assimilation into Americanism. But today's new morality police ' the ones in the know that are lost in their slogans, those that condemn without even once questioning how they can feel one way about freedom except when it comes to Jews in Israel, those who trivialize the pain and suffering of a people that have never wanted anything more than peace in a small corner of the world in their ancestral homeland' these zealots are confined to a rendition of morality with total disregard for those of us on the left who seek real change while clinging to the 2,000 year old hope of a nation for the Jewish nation.
No, we are not all good and we are not all right. And in Israel, most Jews know that change not only must come, but that it is critical to peace, that it is indeed critical to the continuity of the State and even more so, to the essence of our neshamas. And so, on this morning of a New Year, on this day in which Rosh Hashana and Eid combine, on this day in which both Jews and Moslms engage in a process of fasting, worship, contemplation, and seeking atonement, we must not let our own tikkun olam get hijacked. We must not lose hope that there is hope. We must reach out to other Jews in truth and in dialogue. We must not fear being labelled or misidentified or thrown together with strange bedfellows and therefore stop working for the kind of just peace we know is possible.
It is time to do what Sara and Hagar didn't achieve. We must not let the Naomi Kleins of 'Israeli apartheid' sloganeering stand in the way of our hope, our longing, our vision, our commitment to dialogue, our proactive work for peace and our experience of the true depth and possibility of Israel. We must not be intimidated into believing that the evil is so large and so one-sided and so onerously ours alone. Devarim shero'im misham, lo ro'im mi-kan: things you see from there, you cannot see from here..." We must see clearly the things from there which can be reflected here, and let their light shine through the darkness that Toronto has experienced this year.
Shana Tova.
