From Rabbi Black
From Rabbi Black
Three Mountains
August 5, 2006 - Shabbat Nachamu
Rabbi Joseph R. Black - Congregation Albert
Albuquerque, NM
I had originally hoped that this sermon would be an opportunity to talk about an amazing experience that I shared with 75 other people - all but a handful who were members of our congregation.
I could easily do this the Shabbat - because the trip was very successful. By all accounts, our group had a powerful and fun experience - for many, it was life-changing. The experience of traveling in a multi-generational setting made it all the more wonderful.
But, of course, that is not all that I must speak about on this Shabbat because the world changed during the course of our visit. As I said two weeks ago at the Rally @ the JCC - we came as tourists - we left as Witnesses.
Many people have shared their relief that we all came home safely from the trip. I know I can't speak for all of us who were there - but many share my feelings: those sentiments, while truly appreciated, are somewhat surreal. The truth is, that, most of the time, we felt very safe during our journeys together. As I wrote in my e-mails - while war was raging in the Northern parts of Israel - in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and the south, we were not directly affected.
I feel somewhat selfish in saying that - truly.... We knew that we would be going home to the States. We knew that we were not in any real danger - other than an abstract threat.
For those of us who stayed a few days longer in Israel -we saw the hotels filling up in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv with Israelis fro the north. We heard about the cancelled trips. For me - I saw the worry on the faces of my friends and family as they contemplated the meaning of this war - and the impact it was having on their families in the line of fire - their children in the Army and the fact that the reserves would surely be mobilized within a few days or weeks.
But I cannot only speak about our trip: war weighs heavily on all of our souls. As your Rabbi, I feel an obligation to talk to you this morning about the impact and meaning of this war - at least as I see it.
My friend, Rabbi Steven Kaye, talks about how the rabbinate has changed. There was a time, he says, when the role of the Rabbi was to interpret the NY Times for his congregation. No longer. You don't need me to report on or interpret current events. Most of us have access to the same materials that arrive on our computer and Television screens and on our doorposts with the morning paper. I am not a political or a military commentator.
What I hope to do is to help all of us try to place our fears, hopes and prayers into a spiritual - a Jewish context - as we contemplate the events of the past 4 weeks - and incorporate them into the entirety of our relationship with the State and the people of Israel.
The torah portion for this Shabbat, Vaethchanan, contains the passage as Moses recalls a conversation he had
with God:
Deuteronomy 3
25. I beg you, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that goodly mountain region, and Lebanon.
26. But God was angry with me for your sakes, and would not hear me; and God said to me, Let it suffice you; speak no more to me of this matter.
27. Get up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with your eyes; for you shall not go over this Jordan.
God tells Moses, in effect: "I know you're upset with the fact that you're not going into in the Land. Get over it - you've got more important things to do. Climb this mountain and gaze out over the land...."
God is basically telling Moses - get up to a high place so that you can have some perspective on what is really happening around you.
As I was thinking about how to encapsulate all of the various emotions and experiences we experienced during our 11 days together, I thought about 3 moments when we all stood together at the top of a high place and gazed out over the land of Israel. Those three defining moments for me were:
Masada
The Golan Heights
Yad Vashem
As I think about these three experiences on this Shabbat - Shabbat Nachamu - I put them into the context of the past, the present and the Future.
Masada represents the past to me. Standing on the top of that mountain fortress we relived the story of rebellion, flight, defiance and death that took place there. Masada is a troubling place for many Israelis. In the infancy of the Jewish State, Masada was a place of pilgrimage. The early Zionist youth groups and paramilitary organizations would climb to the top of Masada as if to say - the days of defeat are over. Masada will never fall again! The elite army units used to have their induction ceremonies on the top of Masada.
(There are troubling aspects of Masada as well. For in addition to a place of bravery, Masada is also a symbol of extremism. The Zealots who went to Masada were not merely fighting against Rome - they also fought against other Jews who did not share their extremist beliefs. While they were willing to die rather than to submit to defeat - they also killed their brothers and sisters.)
I have been on the top of Masada many times. This time was different. Perhaps it was because for the first time in many years I declined the opportunity to ride the cable car - a 3 minute skip to the top - and joined the 52 other members of our group who climbed to the top via the snake path - (not an easy task - but we all made it without serious injury.)
As we stood on the top of Masada and caught our collective breaths, we realized that the fight for Masada and all that it stood for raged on in the North and the Gaza Strip. This war was not something that emerged out of the ether. It was continuation of a series of wars that began prior to the establishment of the State of Israel and continued through the Wars of Independence, the Sinai Campaign the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the Two Intefadas and all of the other conflicts that have taken place in between. As I stated two weeks ago at the JCC:
Both Hezbollah and Hamas are justifying their actions on Israel's ongoing "Occupation". But what occupation might that be? Last year, Israel vacated the entire Gaza strip. Instead of working to create a stable government in Israel's absence, the Palestinian people immediately began raining Kassam rockets on Israeli towns.
Israel left Lebanon in 2000. There IS NO occupation in Lebanon. There is no occupation in Gaza. Until recent weeks, Ehud Olmert's Government was working to implement plans for further disengagement from the West Bank - the political platform upon which it was elected.
We need to understand - and this is vital — that when the enemies of Israel speak of "Occupation" - they are not referring to disputed territories that were conquered in 1967 - following the successes of the 6 Day War - they are referring to the borders that were established in 1947 by the United Nations.
The only territorial concessions that Hezbollah, Hamas and the rest of the extremist elements in the Arab and Palestinian world desire is the eradication of the Jewish State. Nothing more. Nothing Less.
Masada, then, served as a reminder that the State of Israel, is fighting for her very existence. Things have not changed much since the beginning of the Zionist dream.
The second high point that speaks to me this Shabbat was the Golan
Heights. This represented the present for me.
When we ascended the Golan - we had fun. We rode in Jeeps - I happened to be in a Jeep filled with 12 year old boys who had the time of their lives when our driver decided to show them just how fast a jeep could travel over rough terrain...., it was a wild ride!
We arrived at the top of the Golan Heights (more or less in 1 piece) and looked down at the plains of the Galilee spread before us. WE realized what a vitally important strategic asset this territory is. Whoever controls the Golan - controls access into Northern Israel. Earlier in the Day, we stood at an Israeli bunker that overlooked Syria and Lebanon. WE heard from Kibbutzniks who told us what it was like to live prior to 1967 when the Syrians bombed the settlements in the Galilee at their whim and pleasure. They told us how life had radically changed since that time - that they were living in peace and that this was a "quiet and secure border."
One day later, everything changed. Everything. Once again, Israel was being shelled - not directly by Syrian troops - but by an enemy who knew exactly how to inflict the most damage and pain on the Israeli public. Hezbollah will not win this war - but they struck a powerful blow by stating to the State of Israel - and, indeed to the entire world - that no one can live in comfort anymore. Theirs is an agenda that rewrites all of the rules.
This is the enemy that Israel is fighting - and the important thing for us to realize is that then entire western world is fighting as well:
Hezbollah was formed shortly after Israel's war in Lebanon in 1982. They have been directly or indirectly linked to hundreds of terrorist attacks since that time including:
Over the last 6 years - ever since Israel's withdrawal from Southern Lebanon, Hezbollah has ruled that area with an Iron first - despite UN resolution 1559 calling for the disbanding of all militias in Southern Lebanon. They have compiled a massive stockpile of weaponry including Ketusha rockets and other, more powerful and dangerous missiles provided by Iran with logistical and financial support from Syria. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are driven by a fundamentalist Islamic ideology that sees the world in terms of Black and White. They see Israel as an agent of Satan and, as such, are justified in any actions they take that will rid the world of this curse of Zionism.
This is the enemy that, over the course of the past 4 weeks days has lobbed over 3,000 missiles into Northern Israel - missiles that are aimed, not at strategic military targets, but at innocent civilians in Kiryat Shmoneh, Tsfat, Naharia, Haifa, and many small kibbutzim in that lie within the killing range. This is the enemy that claims to have even more sophisticated weaponry that could reach Tel Aviv.
This is an enemy that uses civilians as human shields - that wants to maximize bloodshed - of its own people as well as its enemies. That deliberately places itself in civilian areas and rejoices at the death of innocents - so that it can use their tragedy to further their own agenda.
Let there be no mistake about it, my friends, Israel is fighting a battle that is not limited to their small state. Iran and Syria are using Israel as a testing ground. They are watching to see what the world will do. Will they stand up to terror? Or will try to appease Evil - burying their heads in the sand like they did in 1938 during Hitler's Anshluss. Today, Israel does not have the luxury to do nothing in the face of Evil. The tragedy of innocent deaths haunts us all. The image of Israel as aggressor is an easy sell in the marketplace of a world that ignores history and lives in the present. Israel hates Hezbollah - not only because of the fact that Hezbollah has killed and kidnapped her citizens - but because Hezbollah is forcing her to do a job that no one else is willing to do - to take drastic steps to once and for all eradicate a cancer that has afflicted our world and is financed and supported by oil-rich nation-states.
The Last High Point that speaks to me on this Shabbat is Yad Vashem and the brilliant new facility designed
by Moshe Safde. This helps me to look ahead - to the future.
As I wrote in one of my e-mails, the new Yad Vashem is striking on many fronts. It tells the story of the Shoah in vivid and painful detail. The building is designed like a prism that both reflects and sharply brings history into focus. The building is designed in such as way that one is unable to walk in a straight line. Its twists and turns show us how life, how beauty, how evil can be twisted to turn everything on its head. You emerge from the experienced exhausted, crying and angry at the potential for evil that lurks within the human soul.
And then...... You emerge from the building and immediately are presented with a vista of the Jerusalem hills that is breathtakingly beautiful. The message is clear: the future of our people is inexorably linked with this land - with this city - with the hope and the promise of the future. The horror of the Shoah is contrasted with the hope of Jerusalem - and idealized Jerusalem - yeruishalyim shel maaleh - the Heavenly Jerusalem - that symbolizes the very best that humanity can offer.
Like Moses on the Pisgah - we, too, are given an opportunity to gaze out on a beautiful and complicated land.
Safde understood that his task, in designing this museum, was to help us to see the future by remembering the past, and reshaping it - twisting and turning both fate and fatalism into a statement of defiance and hope.
This Shabbat is Shabbat Nachamu - the Shabbat where we are told to take comfort
- even in the face of our
deepest tragedy. Last night, I spoke briefly about the fact that, while the situation in Israel is grave, I do have confidence
that, in the end, Israel will prevail. Part of this is based on faith. Part of this is based on the fact that we have no choice.
As A.B. Yeshua wrote: We do not have the luxury of being pessimists.
Let us recognize that much of what the world is hearing today is filtered through the lens of Hezbollah and Hamas Propaganda. There is much that has not emerged and that will emerge in the weeks to come.
And yet, we have a great deal of work yet to do - as Americans, as lovers of Israel
My Friends, on this Shabbat Nachamu we, like Moses stand on the top of not one, but three mountains: Masada, The Golan Heights, and Yad Vashem. As we look back to out past we remember that our battle for the Jewish State did not begin last month, or last year, or 1967. This has been an ongoing battle that began with the first longings in our hearts to return to our homeland where Jews could be a nation like any other. As we consider the present - we realize that the enemy we are fighting is not only the enemy of the State of Israel - but all humanity who believe that people have a right to live in peace according to their own beliefs and principles - in their own homes - be they Jew, Christian, Muslim or any other tradition. As we look ahead to the future, we realize that ours is a fight that, while painful, gives meaning and purpose to our lives and the world that God created. I have hope. I have faith. While we have work to do - I am confident that we will prevail.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
AMEN
