Shabbat Parasha Toldot

A Tale of Two Cities

It happened in Jerusalem this week, in a religious neighborhood called Har Nof. It could easily have happened here – but did not.

What happened at Har Nof, of course, was the murder of four Jews in the midst of their morning prayers and one Druze policeman who tried to stop the attack. The two terrorists, armed with axes and pistols, were killed at the scene. The attackers were Palestinians with Israeli identity cards who lived in Jerusalem. One of them worked at a grocery store down the street from the synagogue.  

What did not happen, but what could have, occurred at Congregation Etz Chaim in Lombard. On October 21 we ourselves were quite shaken by our own local expression of hatred towards the Jewish people. That evening police arrived at the scene after their custodian reported a disturbance on the synagogue grounds. A man had broken seven windows at the synagogue and scrawled anti-Semitic graffiti on the front door. When police arrived they found him driving recklessly over the synagogue’s grounds, destroying the grass and uprooting bushes. He had left a hatchet, a machete, a knife and an ax at the synagogue’s front door.  When police searched his home they found thousands of rounds of ammunition, a rifle, shotgun and four handguns.

The attack in Jerusalem succeeded in taking five lives. Thankfully, nobody was injured or killed in the Etz Chaim attack. This is an important difference. Both were terror attacks nonetheless born by hatred and bigotry. Another difference between these attacks was the public reaction to the attack by neighbors. The Arab press basically applauded the Jerusalem attack, justified it, and blamed Israel for it. In applauding the attack, one Qatari newspaper columnist cited the killing of the Palestinian boy by Jewish vigilantes following the murder of the three Jewish teens by Hamas operatives last July. “Terror can only be fought by terror,” he writes. An article in the Jordanian government daily likened the Netanyahu government to the Nazis and saw it as a legitimate act of vengeance. A Saudi newspaper called the Israel Defense Forces a neo-Nazi organization and accused Jews of fabricating our ties to our homeland in these words:  "[Calling Al-Aqsa] the 'Temple Mount' is a despicable innovation, a legend or a lie. There are no archeological remains [of this temple anywhere] in our land, and the Jewish [ancient] prophets and kings are just like this temple: they exist only in fairytales written in order to steal a homeland from its owners...”  And these are three examples from the so-called “moderate” Arab camp.

The reaction of our neighbors in DuPage County could not have been more different. Calls and emails of support and outrage came pouring into Etz Chaim as soon as the news of the attack emerged. Hundreds of people from forty different faith communities came together on Saturday night, November 8, to express solidarity with the Jewish community. Reverend Jay Moses of the First Presbyterian Church of Wheaton, Shoaib Khadri of the Islamic Center of Naperville, Dr. Jill Baumgaetner, the Dean of Wheaton College, Reverend Jim Honig of the Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church, Reverend H. Scott, Matheney, the Chaplain of Elmhurst College, Father Jim Dvorschak of the Roman Catholic Church and Rabbi Michael Balinsky of the Chicago Board of Rabbis all offered inspirational messages from the pulpit that buoyed our spirits and re-assured us that we do not stand alone when hatred is expressed against Jews. The fact that this solidarity meeting came on the anniversary of Kristalnacht was lost on nobody. Perhaps the most poignant moment came at the conclusion of the service. Rabbi Bob invited all clergy to stand together on the bima. He told a story. A couple of years ago he saw a picture in the Chicago Tribune of a Reform rabbi pointing to a swastika that had been sprayed on the side of his synagogue in Chicago. Rabbi Bob called his colleague. “What you should have done,” Rabbi Bob advised, “was to have a picture of clergy from different religions pointing at the swastika on your building.” “We don’t know anybody,” his colleague replied. Then, pointing to the fifty or sixty assembled clergy that filled the bima, Rabbi Bob said, “Well, we do.”

The Talmud and other rabbinic sources teach that there are two different kinds of evil that are committed in this world. The first kind is called le-tey-a-von. In Hebrew, “Beh-tay-ah-von” means “Bon Appétit”. This type of violence is called “le-tay-a-von” because it emerges when a person cannot control their appetite.  It includes the kind of evil that occurs when someone hurts another person because he is drunk.  I believe that this is the kind of evil that was perpetrated at Congregation Etz Chaim. This person acted, in part, because of a mental illness.  Our tradition states that there is hope for the person who acts “le-tay-a-von”, because he may come to regret what he has done. There is room for repentance afterward. The second kind of evil is called le-ha-khis. It is related to the word, kah-ahs – anger. The person who acts le-hakhis acts out of a spirit of defiance.  He acts deliberately and wantonly. He is motivated by pure anger and spite. This was the motivation of the killers in Jerusalem. For them, there is no redemption.

What can be done about this violence? Is it true, as the Qatari newspaper columnist claimed, that “terror can only be fought by terror”? This is a chilling thought, and can only lead to an unending cycle of violence. That question – how do we stop terror – was asked of Moshe Yaalon, currently Israel’s Defense Minister and a man known for his hawkish views.   How do you think Moshe Yaalon, a general, a military man, responded to this question? I will tell you what he did not say. He did not say that terror can be fought with terror. He did not say that terror needs to be fought with guns, or tanks or better intelligence. He responded that terror can only be combated with education. It will only stop when people teach their children not to hate.

The reason so many Christians clergy stood in solidarity with Jews against the anti-Semitic attack against the synagogue in Lombard is because for the past fifty years the Church has stopped demonizing Jews. They have educated their clergy; they have educated their parishioners and congregants that their past practice of teaching hatred toward the Jewish people was wrong.  This has led to their being receptive when we Jews reach out and seek to join in solidarity. This has led to them reaching out when the Jewish community has been attacked.  As we know, thousands of years of anti-Jewish teaching in the Church contributed mightily to the Holocaust. Likewise, there will not be true peace until Arabs teach their children the truth about Jewish history. There will not be true peace until the Arab people stop denying the facts about our historical ties to the Land of Israel.  There will not be true peace until our Arab neighbors teach their children not to hate.

I conclude by sharing with you a poem read by Dr. Jill Baumgaetner of Wheaton College at the Etz Chaim Solidarity Rally. It was written by Wislawa Szymbor-ska, a Polish poet.

HATRED  

See how efficient it still is,
how it keeps itself in shape—
our century’s hatred.
How easily it vaults the tallest obstacles.
How rapidly it pounces, tracks us down.

It’s not like other feelings.
At once both older and younger.
It gives birth itself to the reasons
that give it life.
When it sleeps, it’s never eternal rest.
And sleeplessness won’t sap its strength; it feeds it.

One religion or another -
whatever gets it ready, in position.
One fatherland or another -
whatever helps it get a running start.
Justice also works well at the outset
until hate gets its own momentum going.
Hatred. Hatred.
Its face twisted in a grimace
of erotic ecstasy.

Oh these other feelings,
listless weaklings.
Since when does brotherhood
draw crowds?
Has compassion
ever finished first?
Does doubt ever really rouse the rabble?
Only hatred has just what it takes.

Gifted, diligent, hard-working.
Need we mention all the songs it has composed?
All the pages it has added to our history books?
All the human carpets it has spread
over countless city squares and football fields?

Let’s face it:
it knows how to make beauty.
The splendid fire-glow in midnight skies.
Magnificent bursting bombs in rosy dawns.
You can’t deny the inspiring pathos of ruins
and a certain bawdy humor to be found
in the sturdy column jutting from their midst……

It’s always ready for new challenges.
If it has to wait awhile, it will.
They say it’s blind. Blind?
It has a sniper’s keen sight
and gazes unflinchingly at the future
as only it can.